Mortadello

vi PREFACE au Champagne by themselves ; they must be led up to subtly and emphatically. The jewel needs a setting. My preliminary studies for this play have consequently cost me a great deal of money, incredible toil and thought, and not a little indignation. I may as well confess it at once ; I tried to dodge the artistic Boyg by drinking Mandarinette ; and I fear that this shameful capitulation has left manifest traces throughout much of the play. But I cannot blame myself too severely ; I made unwearied efforts. At first I tried to obtain the proper degree of perfection on the basis of monotone—I ordered a dinner harmonized from gold to black, ad- mitting no other ingredient. The result was lament- able, a mere Rembrandt. I tried, too, the assemblage of Monticelli colours, framing the obsidian of the truffle in its mirrored pool of brown diamond within Homard Cardinal on the vanguard and Pêches Richeliseu on the rearguard, as is only too evident from nearly the whole of the Second Act. And then in an evil hour, inauspicious in heaven, I took to the Salade Parisienne at the Rat Mort. I have had the strength of mind to destroy the corresponding manuscript.