FRENCH PLAYS.
GARRICK between Tragedy and Comedy, as pictured by REYDOLDS, is a type of the present position of John Bull between the two great French performers : on the one hand, Mademoiselle RACHEL awes him with her commanding grace and stedfast gaze ; while on the other, Mon- sieur BOUFFE fascinates him with his versatile powers and mirth-excit- ing arts. The rival speculators so contrive it that one cannot see RACHEL without turning his back on BOLTFA ; and each Monday and Friday the playgoing public finds itself oscillating between the Italian Operahouse and the St. James's Theatre. The distance at which the Tragic divinity keeps her votaries, the large fees the janitors demand for entering her temple, and the uninviting character of her mysteries, combine to lessen the number of her worshipers ; while the haunts of the Comic Muse are thronged with votaries celebrating her laughing rites with great delight. Mademoiselle RACHEL has established her claim to original genius by manifesting new and increased powers : it is universally admitted that she is not merely the same actress that she appeared last season. Some say she seems taller, others that she looks better : we think her style is more free and genial than before, and that she has extended the range of her talent. Certainly in her new character, Ariane, she excites a deeper sympathy than she did formerly in any other part : yet the tragedy of Thomas CosNFILI.r is more destitute of interest and beauty than any of those in which she before appeared. The well-known classic fable of Ariadne deserted by Theseus, which forms the subject of the drama, is scarcely recognizable : we have only a poor girl basely deserted by a worthless fellow whose life she had saved, and for whom she had abandoned her father and her country ; and betrayed by her hypocritical sister, who runs off with the contemptible scoundrel. Ariane is an object of pity for her sufferings ; but the personages of French tragedy are such mere abstractions that one only responds to the eloquent utterance and passionate emotion of the actress : the assumed character is nought—indeed there is nought of individuality to assume. It is, therefore, hardly fair towards Mademoiselle RACHEL to deny her the power of personation, seeing that it has never been called forth by the requirements of the drama she has studied, with the exception, hardly worthy to be noted, of Marie Stuart. We should like to see her in Lady Macbeth : it would be worth enduring a French version of SHAKSPERE, and a Monsieur Macbeth to boot, to see RACHEL dismiss the guests at the banquet and enact the sleep-walking scene. The rigid, compressed style of acting, and the detonating explosions of her bursts of passion, that we noticed last season, are not so conspicuous now—at least in her performance of Ariane : yet there is no diminution of power in her expression of scorn, contempt, or indignation ; while she depicts the anguish of a broken heart with a plaintive tenderness that is affect- ing in the extreme. The two situations where she produced her most powerful effects were precisely those in which the agonies of the he- roine are most poignant,—namely, in the third act, where Ariane learns the infidelity of Tiles& ; and in the last, when her wretchedness is con- summated by hearing that her sister is her rival. It is impossible by any description to convey an idea of the intensity of suffering which RACHEL expressed in her utterance, looks, and gestures, at these cul- minating-points of Ariane's misfortunes. The climax of her misery and desolation seemed reached when—the pitiful Thesee having sneaked away unable to endure the reproaches, tender even in their bitterness, with which Ariane overwhelms him—on missing him she gently ex- claimed, " II sort 1 Helasl" The tone in which these simple words were breathed, and the look, and the sigh that accompanied their utter- ance, were heartrending. In the scene where she discovers her sister's treachery, the exclamation " Ah! Nerinel" was no less touching. But here her agitation became more violent ; the storm of passion rose to a fearful height : to the pangs of the lovelorn heart were added the tor- ments of jealousy ; rage, indignation, the thirst for vengeance, and the despair on finding the objects of her hate were beyond the reach of her vindictive fury, successively contended for mastery ; until nature, over- powered by the strife, sank under the violence of these transports. To quote the bald, prosaic phrases into which the actress infused soul- thrilling eloquence, would discredit our eulogy : the withering scorn with which she reiterated the odious name of Thesee seemed to sink the recreant into the very depths of infamy. The crowning merit of this wonderful display of art is that nothing was in excess ; "in the very torrent and whirlwind of passion" no effort was apparent, save only those ineffectual ones to repress the emotions so terribly, so pathe- tically expressed.
Of the other performers, as we can say nothing favourable, no men- tion need be made : they are adjuncts which one overlooks when Rienzi. is on the stage, and -heeds not when she is absent. The performance of Tartiee, that followed, emptied the house before it terminated. BOUFFE was to have repeated Michel Perrin on Monday, but Hre Turlututu was substituted " by special desire." His personation of the hale, lively, garrulous centenarian, whose tongue and feet are as restless as his tremulous hands, is no less delightful for its bouhommie than ad- mirable for the representation of senility. That a face so furrowed with wrinkles—not mere painted ones, we aver—and a form so bent and angular with age, should presently reappear in the plumpness and smoothness of youth, as the conscript Trim in Les Enfans de Troupe, is one of those marvellous transformations with which BOUFFE delights and astonishes. This last piece affords little scope for the display of his powers ; but whenever he appears attention is riveted to his every look and movement', for all have significance either as traits of character or touches of emotion. The acting of M. LIENARD as the Garde Chant- pare, in the former piece, and of Al. GAHARD as the Tambour-Major in the latter, was clever and diverting : Madame CROSET was natural in both ; and Mademoiselle FORGEOT and M. OCDINOT, as the Colonel and his daughter, in the last, were admirable.
Previous page
