The Theatre Francaise Author:Henry James Whence, it may be asked, does the society derive it's light and it's inspiration? From the past, from precedent, from tradition---from the great unwritten body of laws which no one has in his keeping, but many in their memory, and all in their respect. The principles on which the Théâtre Français rests are a good deal like the common law of Engl... more »and---a vaguely and inconveniently registered mass of regulations which time and occasion have welded together, and from which the recurring occasion can usually manage to extract the rightful precedent.« less