By a singular coincidence, a play of a distinctly anti-Semitic cast has just been produced at the Gymnase Pheatie, only a Dreyfus case was announced, It is from aw days after the reopening of the the pen of M. Muurice Donuay, one of the cleverest and wittiest of living French dramatists, and is entitled "Lo Retour de Jerusalem." M. Donnay's chief object seems to hive been to illustrate the racial forces which differentiate the Jew and the Christian, He disclaims political motives, but ashe makes his Jews (with one exception) more or less objectionable, and puts his most effective tirades into the mouths of personages who are not merely typical of French Catholic soviet but of Nationalist opinions, it is impossible to take his disclaimer seriously, His hero, Michel Aubier, a middle-aged author with' a wife and the usual family of two children, falls in love with a brilliantly clever young Jewess, Judith, who married a Gvant for the sake of his title and found her husband enrively uncongenial. Michel's wife, Suzanne, as a large supply of what is called proper ride, and when she finds that her husband, in addition to regarding her as unintellectual, has set his affections on another woman, she drives him away. He joins Judith, and from this point we watch the gradual development' of the inevitable causes of dissension between two beings of such opposite ideas "ud hereditary impulses. Michel, a French mau of the old school, aristocratic in mind, respectful towards the patriotic and military institutions of his evuntry, courteous but reserved, finds himself amongst Israelites of the most up-to-date Parisinn type: the woman intelligent but unscrupulous and the young men determined to "arrive" at any price. One of the older specimens, on whom M. Donnay bestows the name of Dr. Lourdau, speaks with a strong German accent and is a grotesque caricature of Dr. Max Nordau (who, by the way, was present at the Gress' rehearsal and had the somewhat mitigate! pleasure of seeing himself held' up to ridicule on the stage). The conversation turns upon patriotism. Michel hears expressions which grate horribly on his life-long habits of thought, and when an insulting reference is made to the army, he orders the offender, one Vowenberg, out of the house. A terrible scene with Judith follows the departure of the guests. She sides with the men of her race who, she says, at least know what they wanb and do their best to get it. the Jewish race in general and Judith's Michel loses his temper and lets fly
friends in particular. "Judith—a distinctly difficult young person to live with—takes revenge by throwing herself at the head of Lazaro Hendelsohn, but he, the only strict and high-toned Israelite in the piece, will have nothing to do with her, because, as he meaningly puts it, she has lived too long among strangers and has thereby lost caste in his yea. In the last act we ud Judith and Michel still together, but ithe old flame of passion has burnt very low, and the last straw—Michel's discovery that Judith has been secretly using her
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.