PARISIAN THEATRICALS.
M. Ponsard, the most legitimate of legitimate dramatists, has surprised the Parisian world by a fantastic piece, produced at the Vaudeville, with the title, Ce qui plait aux Femmes. A young gentleman of limited means is anxious to win the love of a haughty female cousin, who, according to old Oriental fashion, will give her hand to the suitor who, for a whole day, will amuse her the best. One of the means of amusement is a fairy spectacle actually shown on the stage, and illustrating the superiority of pure love to dissipation, wealth, and ambition. As a final excitement, the fastidious beauty is conducted into a wretched garret, where she finds a poor but virtuous family struggling with want She proves the good- ness of her heart by relieving the sufferers and marrying her cousin.
Critics of the old school are likewise a little shocked by the production at the Theatre Francais of a piece, which seems much better suited to the atmosphere of the Porte Saint Martin. It is called the L'Africain, and the principal character is an apparent Algerian, critically named Moose, who is really an European, escaped in youth from his creditors, and reported dead. During his absence, his wife has conscientiously married another gentleman, but he is brought from his Algerian retreat by a libertine, who owes the lady a grudge, and delights to place her in a false position between a couple of husbands. The so-called African is gallant enough to kill his wife's persecutor in a duel, but his love for his daughter is a terrible annoyance to the family, as well as to himself, for the young lady, who knows no father but her mother's second husband, is not at all disposed to prefer the stranger parent, who has suddenly ap- peared from the sunny South. To the grand relief of all, Harm leaves the group, resolved to escape from his miseries by a voluntary death. The author of this work is N. Charles Edmond.
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