The Express.
London, England, 1863-04-28 00:00:00

EXPRESS FROM PARIS.

SHERIDAN ON THE FRENCH STAGE.

(PION 001 owl

PARA llosoLySvisma.

The Paris says that the news given by another
journal of Prince Gortchakoff's answer to M.
Drouyn de Lhuys's despatch having arrived in
Paris is not true.

Considerable uneaainess is felt on the subject-- I
more particularly because, though Consols remain
firm, there are reports of lower prices on the
Bourses of Vienna, Berlin, and Brussels. Rente
here fell 15c., and Mobilier 12fr. 50c.
A young and hitherto almost unknown dramatist,
M. Aylic Langl43, appears to have made one of the
most decided hits that has been seen on the French '
boards for a very long time. I have not seen the
play myself, but all the leading critics are in rap-
tures about it, and exhaust the vocabulary of
epithets in its praise. It is called Us Honest de
Hien, and the subject is the early life and adven-
tures of the author of the School for Scandal, ,
which, as you will see from the following outline of
the plot, are treated in a highly imaginative and
thoroughly French point of view :—The scene of
the first act is laid in the garden of a tavern at
Richmond. Some races are coming off on the
banks of the Thames, and a crowd of fashionable
company is waiting to see them. Lord Spencer,
the Duchess of Cardwell, the Marchioness of Port-
land, Commodore Dunbar, the Marquis de Cham-
prosiS, a French emigrant, and Dr. Marxists, a Ger-
man physician who is always taking out his pocket-
book to make notes of British eccentricities, are
promenading in the garden. Around them are
specimens of racing low life. An Irishman is
offering fighting cocks for sale. Susannah O'Donnor,
a young and pretty Irish girl, has a basket of lace
cuffs. Lord Spencer wants to buy a pair, but
demands a kiss into the bargain. Lady Deborah
Cardwell, a cousin of the duchess, but a Quakertes,
is favourably impressed with the appearance of
Susannah, and feels disposed to give her something,
but ultimately refrains, thinking it wicked to
encourage an Irishwoman and a papist. Presently
a handsome young man, in the costume of a
student, reels into the tavern garden and calls
loudly for gin. Susannah, the lace girl, seeing
that he is not an ordinary drunkard, takes com-
passion upon him, worms herself into his confi-
dence, and reads him an edifying sermon on the
evils of "blue ruin." Richard Brinsley Sheridan,
for that is the student's name, tells the girl that
after having carried off all possible honours at the
University he finds himself starving in the streets of
London ; that be has written plays which managers
will not accept, because he is unknown ; and news-
paper articles which editors refuse because they are
too long and too seditious ; and that be desires to
I drown his despair in strong drink. Susannah, who
had probably kissed the Blarney stone, has an idea.
She points oat to her protege a stone bench called
; the " waiting seat," because jockeys on the look-
out for an engagement are in the habit of sitting
there, tells him to take his place on that seat, and
warrants that some good luck will happen to him.
Sheridan takes her advice. It a few minutes he

overhears a conversation between Commodore
Dunbar and the Marquis de Champrowl. They are
boasting of their skill as marksmen. The marquis
swears that he can bring down with a single bullet
not merely a swallow, but a Maybug. The commo-
dore rejoins that he once broke a pipe between the
teeth of a Polynesian chief, who afterwards became
his servant, and was in the habit of holding a pipe in
his mouth for him to practise at. The marquis ex-
presses himself incredulous about this feat, where-
upon the commodore replies that he has unfortu-
' nately lost his Polynesian, but will bet 401. that
he will do the trick if any man can be found to stand
up as a target Here is the occasion which Susannah
has predicted for Sheridan. He springs forward,
crying, " Where is the pipe 1--I'm your man !"
When the commodore gives him one, he contemptu-
ously breaks off the bowl, as making the object to be
fired at unreasonably long. The commodore hits the
pipe within an inch of Sheridan's lips, he never mov-
ing a muscle, and the 401., to the great credit of
the " waiting stone," is handed over then and
there. The next incident is that the commodore's
jockey being not forthcoming, the all-accom-
plished Sheridan mounts hie horse, and, of course,
wins the race. A valuable diamond pin is
the guerdon of his achievement At this crisis,
and while young Sheridan is receiving the congra-
tulations of a group of new born admirers, the
Duchess of Cardwell tears her sleeve ins thorn
bush, and asks whether anybody has got a pin.
Sheridan, forgetting his poverty, gallantly presents
the rich jewel which he has just won. The duchess
rather scornfully refuses to receive from him a
thing of intrinsic value, whereupon he wrenches
out the diamond and throws it into the river. The
duchess smilingly accepts the now simple pin, and
at this moment George, Prince of Wales, steps out
of the tavern, taps Sheridan on the shoulder, and
pays him a handsome compliment. The h.ro of
the piece finishes the day in high glee, but inas-
much as he gives 21. of his 401. to the Irish cock-
fighter, and the remaining 381. to the clerk of the
course, he is no richer than before, and for want
of a bed be passes the night on the "waiting stone."
The second act finds Sheridan at the height of his
dramatic and literary reputation. He is protected by
the duchess, who presents him to the Prince of
Wales. His financial position is, however, little
improved, and the duchess, knowing this, sends
him • present of 2,0001. •` from an unknown
friend." Sheridan divines the source of the gift,
which he magnanimously refuses, and a sensation
some occurs, in which the Duchess throws the
2,0001. into the fire, saying, " Yon threw your
diamond into the Thames ; now we are quits." As
the plot goes on we find that the Quaker cousin of
the duchess, notwithstanding her horror of popery,
takes the virtuous Susanuah for her lady's maid,
while Sheridan makes a body servant of Paddy, the
cock-fighter. The duchess having arranged •
grand soir6e, at which she has promised to pre-
sent Sheridan to the Prince of Wales, Lord Spelt-
car, out of jealousy, bribes a tailor to let him have
a court dress which Sheridan had ordered, hoping
thereby to prevent him from going to the party.
But Sheridan discovers the plot, and contrives to
produce Paddy the footman at the duchess's noire
in the very same uniform as Lord Spencer, thereby
covering the latter with ridicule, and gaining great
reputation for himself. After a good many inci-
dents, which, I apprehend, the most diligent stu-
dent of the life and times of Sheridan will fail to
recognise, Lis rival, Lord Spencer, the villain of
the piece, is killed in a duel for Sheridan's sake by
the gallant Commodore Dunbar ; and when the
curtain falls Sheridan is prime minister, •nl mar-