The Express.
London, England, 1855-08-07 00:00:00

DRAMA.

ST. JAMBS'S THEATRE.
Mad lase Emile d r Ciirardiose play a Lady Tar-
tu/To was praise, d Put night at this the►tre f..r the wpm,
of &Howie? Millie. Rachel to %roost in the chase's of
Voisie de filo,* ac. The admirers of tha great seiner,
who thioight at first that the qualities for which they ad-
mired their favourite—that richness of gesture, that sr
jery is the mantenarep, that expressiveness of feature,
that determination in the voice —*ere fitted only for
tragedy. may cooteht atomises when taun•ed with the
fact of Mettle. Rachel's somas in Lady Tartu& that after
a,l the eitroeter wt ich she p!sys le rat essentially enmir.
Virginia de Blouse belongs just es much to the do-
main of *needy so to that of comedy. With) all
the other cheracten of the piece merely embody the ordi-
nary eestintents, and are tie actors in common incidectsa
which are f.r cuss appearing is modern society, Vaginie
de Blouse is made to act upon deeper motives than the
rest. It requires a substratum of something solid to sup.
port the firm triad of the great actress. Th'a is given her
in Lidy Tartuffe•. It is not our intention at present to
elver into an raantinstion of the merits of the comedy, or
to defend it from the imputation of a tendency towards
the' melooramatie. It is sufficient to say that Malls.
Rachel's personification of the principal character wee one
of the moat subt`c pieces of 'elitist which we have
ever witnessed. The smooth, cat-like facility with
which am blithe over the stage in the first scenes, every
claw with which she is about to rend her victi loped
in a velvet shesth, is the perfectico of art. As she gradually
develops her deepness nature you hesitate whether you
stall admire the beauty or detest the hypocrisy of the
traitress. V u watch beret you would a beautiful snake,
and are only conscious of the death that lies in the forked
tongue when the mischief laden.. Toes upon her as a
fete. That poor Marcella), you lino otbiog hut a
miracle can save him. His niece, the countess, and his

grand-Dime, the cheater's daughter, are the beat persona in
the world ; they adore Monsieur le Merechal, but what can
they do wriest the unctuous voice, the trembling
tones of L .dy Tartu& ? So perfect is the art
with which she meteorite her victim', that one
begins at last to admire the hypocrite. Soo excites sym-
pathy by the very earnestness with which she pursues ber
work. In the last scene she is superb. Overcome by a
sincere passion, she avows her crime, she throws hereeli at
the feet of the men she loves. Her devotion makes her
sublime. She is no more a hypocrite, bat a noble woman,
with a rich but broken heart. Her patron breaks through
all boundarise, a Id sweeps away, with the tome c f a torrent,
all tier clever devices by which she had hitherto sought to
impose upon the emeriti. The object of her passion is himself
almost convinced, although he ha+ proof of her crime*.
He consents, overcome by the wondrous eloqueorte
of her pleading, to shield her. She is about to
be saved, but a woman inacerasible to her Ws steps in sad

prevents bet escape. Reified, but not daunted, she takes
refuge in her old hypocrisy, and dots not leave the stage
without wounding her enemies, sad exercising some of the
usual fascination over those whom she even yet does not
despair of preserving as friends. Lady Tartuffe is one of
the most effective characters in Mdlle Rachel's repertoire.