Benefits have been rather notorious for daring sets of absurdity.
Charles Young, we believe, once took it into his head to exhibit himself as Wadi- ,.ciare in the character of Macheat h ; and Mrs. Glover.is recorded on an oc- casion of the kind to have chosen the part of Paul Pry. The benefit of _Frederic Lemaitre, which took place on Thursday, and was honoured by the presence of Royalty, was, consistently with this.notion, signalized by Its due measure of nonsense; and a drama called Les Mysteres de Paris was the sole coMmodity of the evening. Quite enough too, as far as quan- tity is concerned,—indeed, about a quarter of the original piece was cut out, to bring it into the short dimension of four hours! Such pitiful, dreary, unprofitable trash, we never witnessed on any stage. We ex- pected a bad piece, knowing the undramatic character of the novel; but we thought that an occasional scene now and then might produce a plea- surable effect on account of its association with a book which, with all its faults, has passages of unquestionable power. But the authors have not even attained that sort of interest. They take the personages of the ro- mance and jumble them together, so that we.never rightly can feel " who is who." Fleur de Marie is three ladies rolled into one; being a sort of compound of Fleur de Marie proper, Louise Morel, and Cecily. Jacques Ferand suffers the blindness properly bestowed on the Maitre d'Ecole, while the Maitre d'Ecole keeps his eyes,—and indeed he has need of them, for he performs the offices of half-a-dozen of the original villains. The most extraordinary part of the affair is that M. Eugene Sue's own name stands on the titlepage as one of the authors; proving that he has had a hand in desecrating his own work. This piece was hissed more than any we ever saw produced at this house; and very properly too, for , the audience of St. James's Theatre cannot be supposed to relish dramas -which in English could only go down at the Pavilion.
Madame Clarisse does not play in Les Mysteres; but she has had the field all to therself in a long lachrymose drama called Marie Jeanne. The naturalness and power which she displays as a distressed mother in humble life, give an interest to a piece which in ordinary hands would be in- sufferably dull and tedious. There are certain strong " points " which this lady can snake with greater force than any artist male or female who has been engaged at the St. James's during the present season.
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