BERNARD, JEAN-JACQUES ), French dram atist, born at Enghien on July 30, 1888. The son of Tristan Ber nard, he was at first strongly influenced by the latter's mocking and sceptical humour. This is noticeable in his two one-act plays Le Voyage a deux and La Joie du Sacrifice, and still more in the collection of stories entitled L'Epicier, which he published in 1913. Probably during the World War J.–J. Bernard became aware of his true personality; his most marked characteristic is a subtle and sympathetic feeling for the secret sufferings of mankind—for pain which not merely shrinks from revealing itself to the out side world, but does not even always succeed in attaining to full consciousness of itself. Le Feu qui reprend mal, the play by which the author made his name, is typical in this respect. It gives a moving representation of the unconfessed retrospective jealousy which smoulders in the heart of a returned prisoner of war. Ber nard's most significant plays are, however, Martine (1922), L'In vitation an voyage (1924) and L'Ame en peine (1926)—three delicate character studies of women, which mark the principal stages in the development of the author's subtle and original talent. In his L'Arne en peine Bernard has perceived the possi bility of an unconscious, inexplicable connection between souls destined never to be aware of one another, but between whom exists a scheme of vibrations leading to hidden interdependencies. He arrives at these conclusions by a profound research into the almost subconscious feelings which crystallize about a purely intel lectual conception, having no tangible reality. His dialogue is remarkable for its restraint and precision, and has justly been compared with that of Marivaux. (G. ML.)