The Press.
London, England, 1856-05-10 00:00:00

THE PRESS,

to make common cause with the allies in the war,
may prove the overthrow of the last refuge of free
government in Italy.

Ce que c'est qu'une Actrice I Par le Baron Frederic)

de Reiffenberg fils. Paris : Levy FrAres.
WHAT is an actress? To judge from the seventy
pages offered us by the Baron Frederic de Reiffen-
berg fils as a solution of this enigma, the question
must be as difficult as Sir Robert Peel's famous
inquiry, " What is a pound ?" Is an actress really
what she seems to be—a fairy being ascending
through a trap-door to right the injuries of innocence,
and to consign the guilty tyrant to endless misery ?
Is she a Pen, with a mind as spotless and pure as
her floating drapery? A more decided negative than
that contained in the volume before us could hardly
be pronounced. M. de Reiffenberg shows us the
actress courted by every one during the spring-time
of her life, smiling on bankers, and confessing
naively that she likes their profession ; dispensing
her favours to the rich, but also courting the drama-
tists that she may get good parts, and dramatic
critics that they may praise her acting in their feuille-
tons ; worshipping " Monsieur le Directeur ;" with a
duenna whom she appoints herself, who takes the
nams and duties of a mother at a salary; married
sometimes to a man who is

Doctus spectare lacunar,
Doctus et ad calicem vigdiutti stertere uaso;
finally, all her beauty gone, prematurely old, standing
outside the doors of the theatre selling playbills.
Such is an actress; such is, we fear, only too faithful
a picture of a life so much envied by the uninitiated,
so much regretted by those who have exhausted its
fleeting pleasures.
We need scarcely wonder, after reading the record
of such a life, that a celebrated actress on quitting
the stage said that the reprobation of the Church,
the absurdity of being French without enjoying the
rights of citizenship, the silence of the laws as to the
slavery and oppression of actors, made her feel the
weight, the danger, and the degradation of her chains
so heavily that she could not consent to bear them
any longer. Mlle. Mars, "a queen on whom every
" one smiled for sixty years," earnestly counselled a
friend not to let her daughter go on tire stage while
she was rich enough to make her an honest
.woman
by marrying her to an honest man. A vaudeville
lately produced in Paris represents Sophie Arnould
vainly seeking a companion to share her New Year's-
day dinner among her numerous admirers, and
draws thence a moral the truth of which the greatest
actresses have been compelled to acknowledge.
Having shown us what an actress is, M. de Reif-
fenberg sketches "Monsieur le Directeur," whom lie
calls the sultan of the theatre, an autocrat only
second in power to the Czar of Russia. See how
the performers bow down before him, how prodigal
the actresses are of their smiles ! Talma called this
worship sacrificing to Baal. Then the director's
favorite actress, what powers she exercises ! Every
play that has a part for her is sure of acceptance.
Every author makes her the heroine of his piece ;
so that Clytemnestra, as represented by her, is no
more a Greek queen, but a French actress.

We have gathered, rather than quoted, these facts
from M. de Reiffenberg's pages, because he is unne-
cessarily verbose, and writes in that elliptical style
that defies translation. To cut up every thought
into half a dozen short paragraphs is the chief cha-
racteristic of this style, which seems to some French
authors the highest and most perfect species of fine
writing. We quote the following passage as an exem-
plification of our meaning :

Puisque vous me deinaudez ce que c'est qu'une ac•
trice, je n'eutrerai pas dans les subdivisions, et ie ne
me deciderai pas it individualiser, car it y en a trop
d'especes . _

Llactrice de hon ton, et l'actrice de mauvaise compagnie ;
L'actrice qui jure, et cello qui pule la bouche en
cceur:

L'actrice qui se vend, et cello qui achete ;
L'actrice qui rit, et l'actrice qui pleura ;
L'actrice qui dense, et l'actrice qui chante ;
Et ccetera, passez.

THE NEW 'RUSSIAN BOUNDARY.—A very useful map,
lately published by Mr. Wyld, shows on one side the
whole extent of the Russian empire, with the acqui-
sitions it has made from its neighbours for more
than a century past ; and on the other side is a map
of the Danubian provinces, with Bessarabia, and the
new line of boundary as determined by the treaty of
peace. This map is also useful for its notes on the trea-
ties by which Russia has secured her amazing increase
of territory. Another map, of smaller size, pub-
lished by Stanford, shows very clearly the new
boundary as settled by treaty, and the exact extent
of territory Russia will give up. The line set-
tled is much more favorable to Russia than the
one proposed, as she will have to yield less than half
the territory originally contemplated, and will retain
the eastern bank of the Truth, from the point where
it enters the Austrian territory down to Kotimore—a
distance of more than a hundred miles.