Reading of Phedre.

A large audience assembled yesterday afternoon in the lecture room of the Fogg Art Museum to listen to Professor de Sumichrast's reading of Phedre from his own English translation of the tragedy.

Before beginning to read, he spoke for some time about the character of Phedre, saying that it was more difficult to act than any other character of French tragedy, but that, nevertheless, Mme. Bernhardt acted the part to perfection.

The story which revolves around Phedre is an ancient one. Like many of the greatest masterpieces of the dramatic art, Racine's tragedy is founded upon the heroic fable. Racine had for prototypes the plays of Euripides, in Greek, and of Seneca, in Latin. He differs widely from Euripides, who has a different hero, but he is very similar to Seneca, both in treatment of plot and character. Profiting by the experience of his two classical models, Racine has given us the finest profane tragedy of the French drama.