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

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 beneath 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 sp,ken of in 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 at first.
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 grind 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.

OCTOBER 29, 1853.

THE poet and dramatist, Professor Henri Hertz,
has announced a new edition of his drams.:, in twelve
volumes. It will include nine which have never
before been published.
M. LAwurrisE is again unwell, owing to the seve-
rity of his literary labours. M. Michelet, the pro-
fessor and historian, who had retur ied to Paris after
a year's residence in Brittany, is recommended to
pass the winter at Nice, on account of the state of his
health.