SHAKSPERE IN FRANCE.

WVrHIN the last few years, Shakspere's fame has received its " consecration "—it has been acknowledged by the lawgivers of "le bon goftt "—it has received the sanction of France ! Shak- spere is no longer the " drunken savage "—the " inspired idiot." He is acknowledged to be a grand, impassioned, untrammelled, 't romantic" poet ; sublime as Chaos 1 And this grand, " inco- herent," " terrific " poet, has made " furore" in Paris. He occu- pies almost as exalted a position in Parisian chronicles as "le sport " ; and the feuilletonistes are divided between his plays and "lea gentlemen-riders." There is not a critic or novelist, however ignprant, who cannot quote "le vieux. William" ; who has not al- ways at hand the interminable, " Voila in question, comme dit Hamlet." There is not an idle lounger who cannot grow eloquent upon "the great Williams" ! (as Sue called him) ; nor a woman, fit to enter a salon, who cannot respond to that eloquence. The production, therefore, of Shakspere's Hamlet—not the Hamlet of Duds, but the veritable Hamlet of the " romantic " poet, translated by two other romantic poets—is naturally a subject of engrossing interest at this moment in Paris.

Alexandre Dumas conceived the luminous idea of instituting a small theatre out of Paris (at St. Germain-en-Laye) on which to try the effect of pieces previously to their production at his own theatre on the Boulevart. The first experiment was Hamlet, translated by M. Paul Meurice (who helped to mangle the Anti- gone of Sophocles) and "le grand Alexandre" himself. The success was prodigious. The audience was enraptured. The critics were in ecstasies. Jules Janin and Theophile Gautier exhausted their copious vocabulary of epithets in lauding both Shakspere and Dumas. For it must not be supposed that the author of Antony and the Tour de Nesle confined himself to the humble part of translator : what Frenchman ever did? No ; the national vanity which will not permit Sophocles or Gothe to appear in French until they have been cut down to the French standard, has inter- fered even in this so-called literal translation of Shakspere.

• Dumas has undertaken to make Shakspere "more effective " : he has cut out some passages, lengthened others, and added a denouement of his own. Theophile Gautier, comparing these alterations with the alterations made by the timid "classical" poets, says, if Dumas has modified Shakspere, he has done so with a view of increasing, not of diminishing the effect. Is it not sur- prising how a Frenchman always understands a work of art so much better than the artist—how he invariably sees where it Might be "improved"? Even Shakspere, great dramatist as they believe him to be, was not able to conclude his Hamlet logi-

cally and effectively ; but a great Dumas, rising from the manu- facture of one of five-and-thirty yearly volumes, takes up the play, and in a few hours of that " travail rapide et foudroyant," of which he alone is said to possess the secret, enriches the poem with a denouement, at once grand and poetic, logical and effec-

tive. • Hamlet is considered by English and German critics to be a work of art, every detail of which has due significance ; and the manifest care exhibited in Shakspere's own alterations of the second edition of the play confirms these critics in their. opinion. The denouement of such a work is not, therefore, likely to be weak and illogical; at least, not if the poet really be the great drama-, List his admirers proclaim him. But, whatever critics may think, the author of the Tour de Nesle of course knows what most will strike a French pit audience ; and for them he has written this denouement. Hamlet, instead of killing. Laertes and the King, calls upon the Ghost to appear, and the piece closes thus— Hamlet. L'ombre I rombre

Viens voir tes meurtriers mourir, fantfime sombre!

Le Roi. (Sous la main d'Hamlet.) A raide!

Hamlet. (Aux courtisans sir un sign de VOmbre.) Laissez-nous.

(Hesitation des courtisans.) Qa'un de vons fasse on pas,

Il n'en ferait pas deux! Je Buis mi, n'est-ce pas?

Rd de votre existence et de votre agonie ?

II sied qu' entre nous cinq Is piece soit fide. Sates tons ! (Taus intsmides sortent lentement.)

A present, vows trois, is voyez-vons?

Laerte. Dien puissant! le roi mort!

Le Roi. • Mon frere !

Gertrude. Mon epoux ! Lark. Grace !

L'Ombre. Oni, ton sang trop prompt t'entraina vers rabime, Laerte, et is Seigneur t'a pum pour ton crime;

Mais to le trouveras, car it sonde les °tears,

Moths severe 11-haut. Laerte, prie et moors ! (Laerte meurt.) Gertrude. Pitie ! pitie 1 L'Ombre. Ta faute etsit ton amour meme,

Pauvre femme et Jesus vows aime quand on aime. Va, ton ccenr a lave to honte avec tea pleura;

Femme ici, refine an del, Gertrude, espere et meurs ! (Gertrude meurt.) Le Roi. Pardon!

L'Ombre. Pas de pardon! va, meurtrier infame Va; • pour ton crime affreux, dans lours cercles de damme,

Satan et les enfers 'font pea imp de douleurs;

Va, traitre, incestnenx, va, desespere et menrs 1 (Le Roi meurt.) Hamlet. Et moi, vais-je rester, triate orphelin Bur term,

A respirer cot air impregne de misere? Tragedien choisi par le courronx de Dien, Si fin mel pris mon rale at mal said mon jen;

Si, tremblant de mon oeuvre, et lasso sans combattre,

Pour on quo to voulais j'en ai fait mourir quatre, Oh! park est-ce que Dien ne pardonnera pas, Pere, et quel chatiment m'attend done? ...

L'Ombre. Tn vivras Is not this exquisitely French P Cannot the reader understand the admiration such a 'logical" coup-de-theitre would produce ? As Englishmen we might perhaps rebel against the miserable triviality and feebleness of the verses1 and against that morality-- so popular in the works of Sue, Soulie, Balzac, and Dumas—which makes love excuse everything; but modern Frenchmen, no doubt, will believe that Gertrude 's passion sanctified her crime, as they certainly believe that Shakspere's play has been made more poetical by the improvements of Dumas. Our objection to this denouement is not simply that it is vulgar and melodramatic, but that it is so grievously "illogical.' If the Ghost has this avenging power in his hands—if at his awful bidding, Laertes, the King, and Gertrude die, as if stricken by a; thunderbolt, what is the meaning of the former appearances of the Ghost, urging upon Hamlet the fearful act of vengeance ? If the.- Ghost was condemned to C0 wander nightly" till his murder was avenged, why did he not wander at once to the palace of the King and breathe away his guilty soul? This would have finished the piece in the first act, it is true, but it would at least have been "logical." At present, the Ghost is powerless till the last act ; and then, like the dumb men in melodramas who recover their speech in time to impeach a villain, he suddenly appears armed with all the terrors of the ghostly world, and becomes his own avenger. A little blue light, and a descent into the infernal re- gions, would have rendered the new denouement perfect. We, suggest this to M. Dumas.