The Express.
London, England, 1846-09-29 00:00:00

Sir Drama.

PRlNcEss'g.—lt was in the year 1718, that " The
History of Miss Clarissa Harlowe " was first published.
Richardson, its author, was the inventor of those romances of
social life which, under the name of novels, have since, and
in all countries of Europe, become the most popular literary
compositions During the present year, M. Jules Janin, the
most sparkling of feuilletonistes has, with the modest a-sii-
ranee, proper to this class of writers, produced " Le Remau
de Clarissa Harlowe," in two volumes. It has not been
our good fortune to read the work last named,
and we cannot therefore undertake to determine the exact
amount of 'MS which Richardson and our ancestors, his con-
temporaries, have sustained from the fact that M. Jules Janis
flourished a hundred years after them. It was our fate,
however, lest night, to witness at this theatre a new drama,
"of powerful interest," said the playbill, "written ex-
pressly for this theatre, now performing and attracting im-
mense overflows at the Thsatre du Gymnase Dramatique,
I'aris, founded on Richardson's celebrate I novel, and entitled
' Clarissa Marlowe ;' " and we are more than ever inclined to
wonder at the nice compensations which are to be detected
in this sublunary state of existence. Our ancestors had not
the romance of itl. Jules Janin ; but then they were spared
the drama of MM. Dumanoir, Clair% ille, and Gaillard, one
devoid alike of a moral and of morals, and teeming from
beginning to end with foul suggestions. The first two acts
disclose, either by actual exhibition or distinct narrative, the at-
tempts of a man ()frank and fashion to seduce a young lady, his
equal in rank and fortune. The means he makes use of are
the bribing servants; the refraining from corrupting a
young peasant girl who, it is assumed, must have yielded to
his desires—this is much insisted on ; artful, lying, forging,
letters ; firing his own house that his victim may he thrown
in disordered attire in his way ; end lastly, administering
opium to her and one of his creatures, whom this excess of
brutality had revolted, and turned into her defender. At
the close of the second act Clarissa lies insensible from
opium in an arm c:iair ; near her, also insensible from opium,
lies Macdonald, the man who has endeavouresl. to protect her;
and, as fle curtain falls, Lovelace signifies that the moment
of his triumph has come. In the third act of the version at
this theatre, not of the orieinal play, it is intended
that she has escaped unsullied from this situation
of extreme peril ; an intention that only adds to the
grossness of the story, just as drapery imnressed by
a coarse hand converts a nude into an indelicate figure.
The heroine dies of a broken heart just as Lorelace has come
to offer her his hand, from what motive does not appear; and
as the curtain falls he and her brother are about to fight a
duel over hertody. A numerous hand of eloqueurs, skilfully
stationed, and pretty well drilled, contrived to overbear the
opposition that was offered to the progress of the piece ; but
at the termination they seemed as mutts ashamed of their
calling as the Macdonald of the drama, and offered but a
feeble resistance to the hisses with which the announcement
that the performance would be repeated was received. This
piece s a succession of situations, always indelicate, because
involsi ig a theme on which even in courts of justice it is
considered bad taste to dwell at length, and sometimes inde-
cent. There is not a single passaac in it that presents a
scintilla of literary merit, and while immoral in its deve-
lopment it is wholly without a moral end. We were pained

to see Mrs. Stirling, who played the heroine, compelled to
exert all her powers; and we must do the other performers
the justice of saying thot they thd not seem to act as if they
approved of the play.