The Press. — London, England, 1853-10-29 00:00:00

PARIS THEATRICALS. (From a correspondent) PARIS, at the emptiest and dullest time, is still ono of the gayest and liveliest of cities; and, in like manner, Parisian theatres, at the flattest season, when the hest actors are starring in the provinces, and playwrights hoard their powder for the winter campaign, still manage to attract crowds and occupy public attention. For Englishmen, a majority of whom pass months, and even years, without bestow. ing an hour's conversation or consideration on theatrical matters, there is something diverting in the frequent and animated recurrence to the topic amongst all classes of society in Paris. Within forty eight hours after the appearance of a new piece, even though its success Khania not have been remarkable, everybody knows all about it—will tell you who tilled in it—its principal points—how it was received—its chances of retaining public favour. And pieces that are upon the stocks, by writers of mark land point larity, are frequently dismissed beforehanal, on the strength of hints from the author, the gossip of the green-room and foyer, and the revelations of read ing committees. The chief theatrical topic during the last few days has been the double drama written by Alex andre Dumas for the Comedie Francais. Some of Dumas' historical dramas have been extremely sue • cewsful, anal are still popular anal frequently played : as, for instance, Lea bentobudies de St. eyr, which has been acted repeatedly this year, although no novelty. To make up, in some degree, for the loss of attraction the theatre sustains by Rachel's (Water ton t o the R uss ian, M. Dimas was applied to for a new drama. Ile wrote one, entitled The Youth td . Louis; Nlr., which was read to, anal approved lay, the com mittee of the theatre. It was not one of his happiest efforts, anal its length was exorbitant (it would have taken nearly five hours to act), but it was not to be rehised in these days of dramatic dearth, when pro ceeding from a writer who, notwithstanding hi s eccentricities and extravagances, has lumpiest' lily a strong hold upon the French play going public. Su Idenly, however, a report spread that the eentoirs had forbidden the play's performance, became it contained allusions to the Emperor's marriage. From what 1 learn, 1&a n o t behesc there ever was any actual and positive prohibition. but that N. Artene Houssaye, the director of the a!oinklie Fran yak, took fright—perhaps et some intimation or inquiry from the authorities—and so the piece was shelved. Its subject—the atlaclmlelsl of L ou is X I V., when a young man, to the charming Maria di niece of Cardinal Mazarioe—would cer• taint y lend itself admirably to so yeast ns and initendoes referring to the stran4 a anal romantie union or N apo- I 441 111. with a young Spanish et ; hal Ilismas has too much sense and tact to indulge in allusions which would be fatal to his play. Neither sulky n ar discouraged by a he Call hardly hay.' nnlioipalcd, he dextrously seized the (ippon ti pity to play off one of those practical pull's stud brag gadocio airs for which he is laillow4, and ti r w hi c h we final an example in I tr. Veron's reoently-pnblishod so fume of m o N. Apropos of nothing in the world :—;ierhaps to distract the reader's attention from the int .llhe eg,4olslll aif his has ik —I let or gi ve s, a t th e II I of his first chapter, let tris from several literary men, addressed to himself, itt the time that he was editor of the Constantionnet. Amongst them is one from Dumas, which, being Neu) . short, I will here quote - - - - " Nly dear Vi•ron.—This is how men of talent work. I send sou 1111 pages of white impel. Vim will Inter them stamped in one owner by your clerk. Yon will send them me back on Thursday morning by the that train. Yon will Mid tone eol begun when pin dine with me on Thiers.hiv, the I Ith, and I will take it to you. finished. when I dine with you on 'Thursday, the —Yours, " A. DumAs." The note which this MO expeditious genius wrote to the direetor of the Francais, on learning that his play must not be played, w 115 as brief anti ill its fan fan in a tone as the one above quoted. I t was •I'ue!=day, be said, and he was about to commence another tive act drama. which should be ready for reading on the. following Nlonday monliug. It should lie called T e he Youth of Louis Xl'. Of course, added he, I need not soy that there will not be a single scene or situa tion in it that is to be found in The Youth of Louis Xll'. Two or three days within the stipulated time the work was done, and its completeness was notified to M. lloussaye by another laconic epistle from its author. These brief billets usually go the mutual of t :e newspapers, making everybody laugh, agreeably t ckling M. Dumas' insatiable vanity, and—which is p Aatbly of some importance to him in his capacity of a fettilletonist—keeping his name green in the public memory. The tive acts that had been got through in the astoni.thittglY short "Voce of four days have since been read to the Committee of So cianires, which decides the fate of all pieces offered for performance on the classie boards of the Fran cais. The pivot of the plot is, if I do not itrentiv en'. really historieal: and I think the idea has already tut% mailed iu some Ereuch tale er reuumce. THE PRESS. The young, newly .married king, Louis XV., is so old. fashioned as to be in love with his pretty wife, whom he prefers to the innumerable high-born syrens that lay snares for his head, but whose blandishments he disregards. His polite and profligate courtiers are horror-stricken at the monarch's conjugal affec tion, and strive in turn to !ix his attention on different female relatives of their own. Those were not very moral days, and the roues of the Regency were little particular as to the purity of the paths leading to royal favour. The King, who at first resists seduc tion, is at last importuned into accepting a rendez vous with a young lady, who, being herself in love with another man, is still worse pleased than the King at being forced into an intrigue. The Queen discovers the scheme, is indignant, scolds the lady, learns that she is acting on compulsion, and takes her place at the meeting with the King. The scene between the royal pair is effective enough. The first act., too, has point and grace, and is pleasing ; and probably 31. Dumas had it already digested and arranged in his mind. But the other four, with the exception of the ono scene, are really quite below the mark, and would wearisomely drag were they not extraordinarily short—some of them having but three or four scenes, or thereabouts. The play is accepted, and will be performed, and people will inn to see it because its rapid writing was a sort of feat, and because Dumas is the author. lint such tricks of legerdemain are more worthy of a eonjuror or a quack than of a man of real ability capable of writing such charming plays as Mademoiselle de &Heide, and who ought to aspire, and might attain, to enlo giums better worth having than those of the shallow critics who cam be dazzled by a tour de force Pending the productiim Of Dumas' drama, a three act. comedy in verse, by M. (.angle, has been brought out at the Francais. It is entitled Marino, and com mences with a somewhat extravagant scene, in which the great painter presents himself beneat h a lady's balcony, and requests her to give him a rope to hang himself; a request which the cruel fair one complies with, by throwing him her girdle. The piece at tracts notice by the introduction of a ballad, corn posed for it by Meyerbeer, a strange wild sort of Mahometan-mounding ditty, which Brintlean, who is really getting too stout to perform in that class of diameter, sings with very little voice hut with consi deralde dramatic effect. The play (whose original title Was A Rope to Hong Himself) is hardly worthy of production upon MO classic and elegant a stage as that, of the Francais. Some of the verses have merit, and indicate that the poet may hereafter do better things. Meanwhile his age (which is said not to exceed twenty years) excuses the imperfect• of the piece, without justifying its acceptance at a theatre intended essentially for the display of ma ture talent, and not as a trial-ground for rising merit. --- After much discussion and many iloubts,it is at last positive that Paris will have an Italian Opera this winter. The programme published does not inspire pivot confidence in the results of the enterprise. Nlitrio and Altioni are the only great names it con tains, with the exception, I should perhaps say, of Frezzolini. Taraburini is also on the list, but unfor tunately his greatness must now be s p,ken o f i n the past tense, and it is to he regretted that he does not retire upon his well-won laurels, instead of persisting in a Career for which the inevitable etleets of time have incapacitated him. There is much in knowing when to leave oft*: Itubini understood this, and acted upon it ; his contemporary, if he understands it, acts in spite of it. Although the whole composition of the Italian company is daily landed to the skies by the Paris papers, the fact is that, with the exception of the singers I have mentioned, it comprises nothing worth the naming. Macaferri is a poor and almost an unknown mine to stand next on the list of tenors to that of Mario; and Perez (the third and last tenor), a Spaniard, who sang in Ciebra's lamentable Spanish opera of 1.0 31ararilla, performed once, and once only (for excellent reasons), at the \'entadonr Theatre, is of a class of singers that have rarely pre sumed to show themselves on the bony& of a t fir s t. class opera-house. tiardoni, who is at present re siding in the neig,hbourhood of Paris, would be a great acquisition. but he has sung, in London, seve ral of Miuio's parts: and hence difficulties arise. Of the bassi, besides Taniburini, Napoleons Rossi is the only one worth naming. Amongst possible engage ments, Sophie ('ruvelli is spoken of, but nothing is yet fixed with respect to that very rising artist,whose tine voice and impassioned acting make one regret that she does not, by careful study, qualify herself to take one of the foremost—perhaps the foremost — places amongst the female singers of the day. This sketch of the prominent features of current theatricals in Paris is incomplete without seine ac count of Adolphe Adam's pretty comic opera, Le nou indiseret ; and of the abut, in its principal character. of a sweet singer and clever actress, Mine. Cabe!, at the Theitre Lyilque, a sort ot' supplemen tary clititl,Wituvot to the Opra Comigne. But both SATURDAY, the opera and the prima donna deserve Letter than to be cursorily glanced at, and must await longer no tice in a future communication. FAcTIoNNAIRE. fort* Xittraturt, RENTLSION IN MEDICAL. SCIENCE.—As Germane has been foremost in several other scientific move ments, the long-expected revolution in medicine seems now to be at hand there. It is said that the retirement of the physician in ordinary to the King of Prussia, Dr. Schiinbein, is to be attributed to the anomalous position he finds himself in with regard to the new doctrine. Some go so far as to discard both alloputhy and homeopathy, and to propose several sorts of nature-cures. M NIAC REolclDE.—The celebrated psychological physician, Ur. Damerow, has just published a work on Sereloge, the man who made an attempt on the life of the King of Prussia in 1t449. Dr. Damerow says that Sefeloge is a maniac, anti has been so for a considerable time, notwithstanding he has so much of common judgment left, that he is answer able for his actions, and ought, therefore, to continue to be kept in seclusion. PORTRAITS or THE CzAn.—Professor Kruger, of Berlin, whose historical pictures have excited much interest, is especially favoured by the Czar, and has made many portraits of him, for which a rain of gold and decorations has been showered over the fortu nate artist. The portrait which he considered to be executed with the greatest freedom has been pre sented by the Emperor to the University of Dorpat. A CoMMEAIoRATIVE FESTIVAL has been celebrated for the late M. Beuth, who was the sole founder of two institutions unprecedented at that time in the whole of Europe. We allude to the Association for the Advancement of Industry in Prussia, and the Royal Industrial Institute. The Under Secretary of State. Baron l'ommer-Esche, said in concluding his speech on that. occasion, "What one single man can do for the enconragement and advancement of indus try, our Beuth has done, as no man did at any for mer time." The idea started by M. Beuth to make science and art subservient to the industrial works of man has had its great influence on all the splen did achievements subsequently made in England, the United States, Av. WARRAN6EMENT or THE LnuvnE Cevr.r.r.ny.—After the events of Irt-LS this gallery had to be newly arranged, as Louis Philippe took away the Standish Collection, his private property. To till up this gap a number of pictures were taken from the maga zines, where they had been hitherto kept, by which many a gri n d work of the older school came to light. M. Waagen, in Wirt, regretted that the tine eollee • tien of drawings were not to be seen. Now this splendid collection tills a series of apartments where the most precious specimens (framed and glazed) are to be examined, and viewed at leisure. The de partment of sculpture has been also rearranged, nay, systematised, according to the different epochs of art. That of the Renaissance contains works of Buonarotti and Cellini, Jean de I►onai, anti Pierre de Franelteville. Aside this the antiquities collected by French savants at Ninevelt till two rooms of the collection of the Louvre. ART IN THE PRENciI PROVINCEs.—The splendid Church of St. Paul's at Nismes, built in the Norman style, has been adorned by. M. Flandrin with sym bolised pictures in the old Christian style. The splendid monuments, also, of the architecture of the times of the Roman emperors deserve attention. Tilt: 0 rricEits or• Tim FRENCH NAVY now at Roche fort have determined to have a funeral service cele brated for the repose of the soul of Lieutenant Bellot, who perished in the Arctic regions, and who was a native of Rochefort. The officers of the other branches of the service I►ave been invited to attend. The Minister of Marine, on receiving notice of this intention from the Maritime Prefect, signified his full approval of this pious act. A Conr'rrEc, consisting of eminent scientific and other personages, has been formed for raising a sub scription for the purpose of erecting a monument to the memory of the late Francois Arago. M. Dupor.t (de l'Eurel has been chosen honorary president of it, and M. Combes, President of the Academy of Sciences, president. Amongst its members are Pro!: fessor Airey, of the Greenwich Observatory ; Mr. Bache Franklin, of tl►e United States; M. Gallon Barrot ; Vice-Admiral Moulin, President of the Bureau of Longitudes ; lieranger, the poet ; Sir i►avid Brewster; M. Carnot. ex-Minister of Palle instruction; M. Cousin; . 1 'avid ( &Anger') ; I►r. Faraday; If. Flourens, Perpetual Secretary of the Academy of Sciences ; Baron A. Humboldt ; Manin, ex-President of the Republic of Venice; Professor Melloni, of Naples; M. Mignet ; 111. Michelet ; U. Qttetelet, Director of the Observti tory of Brussels; M. Struve, I►irector of the Di ser•atory of Pulkowa ; Horace Vernet, and M. Uhl main.