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If we did not know from our own personal experience, or the reports of our travelling friends, that a rage for speculation had penetrated far more deeply into the Parisian than into the London character, we might arrive at the same fact by turning over the modern productions of the French stage. We have indeed our great bubble periods and our grand criminals of the Share-market ; we even indulge in the luxury of a special Stock-exchange ; whereas one general Bourse answers all the purposes of Paris. But still, save at abnormal periods, (such as the year 1846, for instance,) there is an enormous mass of the London public, distributable into every variety of class, to whom transactions in shares and stocks, save as means of investment, are wholly without interest. In the society of English ladies especially, a constant reference to the mysteries of "bulls," "bears," and their manifold functions, would be reckoned almost as much a sign of mauvais goilt as a reckless expression of theological heterodoxy. If we turn to Paris, we find that for several years the dramatists have regarded the Bourse and its transactions as a subject available for the endsof their art, and that some of the greatest successes have been achieved by their satires on speculation. It was as far back as 1851 that the late M. de Balzac's celebrated Metre del was first produced at the Gymnase ; within the last two years _La Bourse by K. Ponsard came forward at the Odeon, to be regarded as one of the literary celebrities of its time ; and at the commencement of this present winter, MM. Theodore Barriere and E. Capindu rendered themselves famous by their Faux .8onhanitne$, brought out at the Vaudeville. This last-named piece is certainly directed against that form of hypocrisy for which we find a ready symbol in the bust of Janus ; but still the Bourse lies at the foundation of the plot as the grand origin of evil ; and the hypocrisy of the dramatis personm is but a consequence of their cupidity. The worldly blarney of M. Peponnet, who perpetually changes his mind about the disposal of his daughter's hand, with the nicest sensibility as to his pecuniary interests, has little or nothing in common with the religious hypocrisy of a Tartuffe. Thus, within five years we have no fewer than three important and highly successful pieces all reflecting on the speculative mania. No public is more general than that of a theatre in which the vernacular language is spoken, and a constant tendency on the part of dramatists to treat of one particular phase of social life proves that the phase must be regarded with very general interest. We may truly say, that the suffrages of the Parisian playgoers have been divided between comedies of the money-market and dramas that exhibit the life of brilliant courtesans. The Bourse plays and the Lorette plays might be bound up into two separate volumesof goodly bulk, and stand as types of the Parisian stage as it has existed since the year 1850. He who thinks that the drama reflects the wor1d. may on the basis of two such volumes construct a theory as to whence French money comes and whither it goes. Lea Faux Banhainvies, translated into English and called Doubk-fisee4 People, was produced at the Haymarket last Saturday, with decided success. Though the scene is nominally changed from Paris to London, the tone is still that of the French Bourse; and the adapter has evidently looked to his original without bestowing much thought upon the London Stock Exchange. However, it is a good bustling piece depending less on the interest of a story than on the exhibition of different types of social duplicity, brought into very active collision with each other. No one part predominates greatly over the rest ; but there is a broad demand for characteristic acting, and this is well met by the Haymarket company. A general fight of worldliness is always amusing if sustained with vigour ; and in this piece even the ideal hero affects to be a worshiper of Plutus, in order to be on the same moral level with his antagonists. At Paris Les Faux Bonhommes has been the great piece of the season, ancl its long run is regarded as an important event. We can scarcely expect that the same sort of success will attend the English version, though this is likely to excite mirth for some weeks to come. To the French, Lea Faux Donhommes appears a piquant satire ; to the English, Double-faced People is an entertaining fable. It is impossible to satirize a peculiar phase of conventional society with a work translated from a foreign language, unless every allusion be carefully reconsidered.
While the translated piece at the Haymarket warns us against the flow of speculation, an original farce at the Olympic, written by Mr. Boyle Bernard, shows us the retribution that awaits the cognate am of usury. Had not Mr. Fulgent, the gentleman personated by Mr. Robson, lent another gentleman a large sum of money at 60 per cent, instead of employing it in legitimate business, he would not have been forced to assist his debtor in eloping with a young lady, from whom the means of repayment are to be derived,—thus drawing down upon himself a whole avalanche of domestic calamities. The Splendid Investment, which gives the farce its name, is as fatal to Fulgent as the treasure of the Nibelungen was to its possessors. Nor does the mischief stop there : extending its influence beyond the lamps, it almost kills the audience with— laughter.
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