The Press. — London, England, 1854-10-07 00:00:00

OCTOBER 7, 1854. fittraturr. La Comedie en Espagne ; ou, lea P ronuncia mentos. By Paulin Limayrac. Paris : Librarie Nouvelle. FRENCH literature of late years has not shone with anything like its wonted brilliancy ; and in no one department has the falling-oil been more strongly marked than in that in which the French were, by universal consent, pre eminent and unapproachable—vaudeville and comedy. No one who has had the opportunity of comparing the multitude of new pieces which have been brought out at the Parisian theatres during the last six or eight years with those which were produced in the ten or twenty years preceding—to go no farther back—can have failed to observe that they display infinitely less power of invention, of dramatic tact, of knowledge of character— infinitely less satire, less wit, less of that brilliant, sparkling, mocking esprit which is so peculiarly French that no nation has its like. But, though the acted vaudeville and comedy painfully exhibit this decline, it happens not unfrequently that pieces unacted, or not written to be acted, are published in which are found vigorous satires on the men and manners of the day which Beaumarchais might not have disavowed—and charming tableaux of society equal, not to say superior, to anything of Scribe when he enjoyed all his éclat. Of the latter class we particularly specify the proverbes of Musset and Feuillet, which were never destined for scenic representation ; and in the former we may, by a stretch of indulgence, range the comedy now before us. M. Paulin Limayrac is little known in this country, if known at all. But in Paris he is esteemed as the author of sundry clever papers in the Revue des Deux Mondes, the great French review, and, more highly still, as of late years the literary critic of the Presse newspaper. We read his critical articles with great pleasure, as they are always smartly written, always full of shrewd common sense (rather a rare thing in France), always teeming with esprit—often striking out new views, and letting fall new " notions "—and mostly displaying a laudable desire to scratch and bite—which is quite a refreshing thing to witness in a country where it is the fashion for the author to say all manner of fine things of the critic, and the critic to exalt the author to the skies. But from this commendation we expressly exclude M. Limayrac's tartines (as the newspaper slang of Paris would aptly designate them) on politics and philosophy. Those on politics are too Red for our taste; and those on philosophy seem to us all bosh. Fancy, indeed, a French feuilletoniste writing on philosophy with true feuilleton flippancy ! " Gil Blas" professes to give pictures of "life" in Spain and Madrid, but they are really and truly of " life" in France and Paris ; and this, be it observed, par parenthese, is a strong argument in favour of Lesage being the author of the book, in spite of the vehement asser tions of Spaniards to the contrary. " Gil Blas "—like M. Limayrac—lays the scene of his comedy in Spain, and gives his personages Spanish names ; but the events, the characters, and the tone of the dialogue are French, com pletely, thoroughly, exclusively French. The fact is that the play was written for the French stage with a French title and French•named personages ; and its scene has been removed to Madrid, its title Castillanised, and its persona made dons and senoras solely because the revolution in Spain happened to make the public disposed to pay attention to Spanish things and people. This is hardly, perhaps, dignified in a literary point of view ; but qua voulex voila p These are hard times for French writers, and so they may be excused for trying all honest means of attracting notice and making money. As an acted play we think this comedy would have run the risk of being " damned with " faint praise ;" for its plot is singularly flimsy and uninteresting, and its characters are not drawn with the coarse vigour necessary to strike a miscellaneous auditory. As a literary production, however—and it is as such only that at appears before up—it deserves to be spoken THE PRESS, of favourably. It is from end to end written with great smartness; some of its scenes dis play Ms comica of great power; it is studded with bons-mots and biting sarcasms ; and every here and there it is lighted up with flashes of true wit. But it is as a picture of French society that the play will chiefly interest the English reader. In a scheming and unscru• pulous politician—in an impudent stockjobber who by means of bubble companies swindles the public on a grand scale, but keeps on the safe side of the law—in a wretched newspaper scribe who writes for any party that will pay him—in a popular novel-writer who to fill his purse puts his name to works which he never wrote and never read—in a foolish middle-aged widow who burns to dabble in politics, and to be another Princess Lieven— in each and all of these individuals we rind people that are to be met with in Parisian society every day. Some of these even are drawn so accurately from the life that every one who knows Paris could say, " That is M— !" and " That M— !" . But let us see what these people are. It is thus that the author describes them, or makes them describe themselves : The Stoelrjobber.—" I began without a farthing in the world, and now I have a house in town, and a country seat—everything on credit! 1 keep a dancing•woman too, but not on credit. For example, at this moment I am get ting up a gigantic joint•stock company for fishing up from the ocean the millions and the treasures it has kept for years !" " Take care—you will drown your shareholders !" " What do I care? I shall not be amongst them !" " lint how can you think of ruining so many people—so many fathers of families ?" "Ah! my dear fellow, if you respect the fortune of other people you will never make your own ! 110 as I do. Get rich !" The Politician.—" You are a deputy in the chamber and yet you count for nothing? Do you wish to be anything? If so, follow my counsel! Create a party !" " A party ! With whom, or what ?" " With nobody—put yourself at the head of it. Be a shepherd, 1 tell you—the sheep will come afterwards. First of all take a splendid house—give parties—invite frequently twenty of your colleagues to dinner." " Whom shall I invite?" " The discontented, and the great eaters. You will always find enough of both. Add to these three or four newspaper writers. Tell these people not to repeat what you say—and next day all Madrid will know it. People will talk of your party—and you will be at the head of one ! Then we must get a news paper—two newspapers to be on your side. Whenever you make a speech one newspaper must call you witty, the other profound. Both must constantly designate you that statesman, and you will be a statesman !" The Widow.—" J shall be initiated into political secrets, and into affairs of state ! Everybody will talk of my credit, my influence—my name will be in every mouth, and I shall be compared to Madame de Maintenon and Madame des Ursine. And why not after all? Is it so difficult to govern ? To give places to those who please us, and dis miss those who displease us—that is the sum and impor tance of politics, and I am capable of being a minister !" The Newspaper-writer.—" And so you and your news paper pass over, arms and baggage, to the new ministry?" "To he sure ! lam for all ministers ! The ministers are the government, and I am governmental !" " Perhaps there is another motive ?" "Yes ; and I confess it frankly, for I am not a hypocrite. I confess that I can't write gratis-1 can only write well when my hands are full. And besides, the trade as I practise it is very amusing. My pen flatters the ministers, it is true, but I ridicule them in so doing, and they perceive it not !" As to the illustrious romance-writer, ho avows with the coolest impudence that, finding himself in the possession of popularity, he determined to make the most money he could by it; and that accordingly he employed young men of talent to write works for him, which he palmed off on the public as his own, though he never even read what he published. In this personage even the English reader will have no difficulty in recognising an author who has made considerable noise in the world. But the man falls into a scrape : " Since I have •the honour of speaking to you," says a foolish bourgeois, his profound admirer, " tell me how it is that in one of your most interesting works, ' Princes and Convicts,' in the third volume—" " The third ! The deuce! I never read more than the first! " " You make a personage appear who was killed in the second." " Surely that can't be—you mistake !" " Nay, my wife and I read the work with the greatest attention ; and I assure you that the death of the terrible guerillero is detailed in chapter vii. of the second vo lume, and yet he is alive again in the third volume." "It was Felipe who sold me that work. Has he com mitted any blunder? But, my dear air, I recollect now; the guerillero was not dead—only in a lethargy!" " Not at all—his head was cut off!" " So it was ; but, you understand, when one writes so many works, one forgets ! Here, Felipe! " Felipe appears, and an amusing scene ensues. He cannot, for the life of him, explain how it 951 is that the dead man becomes resuscitated, and, after a good deal of shuffling, ends by confessing that he did not write the work, but bought the manuscript from one Zea. Zea is summoned, but he cannot clear up the mys tery, and lie also ends by confessing that he was not the author of the work, but purchased it at a low price from somebody else. Perhaps, as this sort of traffic is not known in England, the scene may not strike the English reader so much as it would a French one ; but in the literary circles of Paris it must be considered one of the richest comedy. The manner iu which the aoi-disant author puts an end to it is also exceedingly good, and perfectly charac teristic of the man : What is most surprising to me in all this is, that the romance appeared more than a year ago, and yet this is the first time 1 received information of this terrible blun der! This proves with what attention people read in the present century ! Such, then, are the persons who are to be met with in Parisian society—such the lan guage that is to be heard from them every day in every salon and every club—such the prin ciples on which they boast of acting. Doubt less Parisian society is not entirely composed of such scamps; but the scamps are unfortu nately so numerous, and the indulgence with which they are tolerated is so great, that they give a tone to the whole community. And this it is which causes the stranger in Paris to proclaim that society is fearfully corrupt. Let us not, however, cast stones at our neighbours, and forget that we live in a glass house. Even in virtuous England we have people who are not one whit better than those in the French comedy. At St. Stephen's we could point to more than one whom the description of the politician would suit to a hair. My Lord Aberdeen will not venture to deny that the old woman's notions of polities may be entertained by a prime minister ; and as to the newspaper writer, is not what he says true of you, 0 editor of the —? The English Prisoners in Russia. A Personal Narrative of Alfred Royer, First Lieutenant of H.M.S. Tiger. London: Chapman and Hall. LIEUTENANT ROYER, who was restored to liberty by the Emperor Nicholas, in an interview ho had with his Majesty, has here given a narra tive of his adventures, from the grounding of the Tiger on the Odessan coast, 12th of May last, to his arrival at Dover on the Oth of July. Thus he was on Russian ground nearly three months, and travelled from Odessa to St. Petersburg, and from thence, via Warsaw and Berlin, home. He was treated handsomely during his short term of imprisonment, and hence is disposed to view his captors kindly. Very likely his reception at St. Petersburg and magnanimous liberation were designed to make an impression on our public ; but no such motive can ho alleged for the uniform kindness manifested, not towards him only, but towards the whole ship's crew, by Russian people of all ranks ; and, at all events, we may safely accept his narrative as a record of facts, and need not too closely scrutinise the intent of acts which were good in themselves and show respect for English opinion. The Tiger grounded in the morning at half past five, and four hours later eight 24-pounders brought from Odessa opened fire ou the ves sel, whose guns had been nearly all thrown overboard, with the hope of lightening her. Stranded as the ship was, she of course offered a capital mark to the enemy's fire . The firing of the Russians, before it obtained the proper range, was chiefly in the rigging, which was much cut up by it. Soon, however, it began to tell upon the hull of the ship with terrible effect, each discharge either lodging the balls in her, or passing clearly through into the sea. If tin vessel had not been already resting upon the ground, she must have sunk by reason of the many shot-holes, which we could not have plugged up fast enough to counteract the effects of the enemy's fire. Red hot shot now began - to be thrown into the hull, and we soon discovered that the vessel was on fire in two place. —in the pinnace, which was in the centre of the ship, ant had not been let down ; also in a very dangerous positive below. The ball that took effect had entered through the starboard or right-hand law of the fillip, and lodged in th store rooms, leaving a cheer round orifice, through whit we could see the laud as through a port-hole. As the store-rooms adjoined the fore part of the powde magazine, it was necessary to make every possible ezertic I 1 1 i