The Sun.
London, England, 1852-04-13 00:00:00

EVENINt;

T ti,S` AV.

ST. JAMES'S THEATRE.
The performances at this house were resumed last
evening, and, despite the populist.: festivities of the
day, were attended by a numerous and fashionable
audience. Two pieces were acted, both new, we be-
received, particularly the second, entitled Have, in this country, and both were most favourably
Mademoi-
selle de la Siegliere, something between a domestic
drama and a genteel comedy, which for some time
has bad a great run at the Theatre Francais in Paris.
The incidents and the story generally being altoge-
ther French may,. in some respects, be deemed less
natural than we might wish it, hut the acting is so
good, the audience seemed so determined to enter
fully into the spirit of the scene, that the whole
went off with great éclat, and the actors, some of
whom are old favourites, the others new to the
British public, all shared and shared alike in the
general applause, and may pride themselves upon
having won the genuine sympathy of all present;
but a few words of details may be acceptable to our
readers, and currente calamo we will try to Five a rude
sketch of our first impressions of Le Cachemire Vert.
A gallant naval officer is on his return from the
West Indies, and meets as a fellow-passenger,
a lady, who at once wins his good opinion
and his heart. He, having improved his opportunity,
on landing, informs against this very lady, and hhe
loser, in consequence, a valuable Cashmere shawl;
great is her anger, of course. They go to the same
hotel end meet; a good deal of sprightly wrangling
ensues—the gentleman admits his crime, and coolly
declares that by so acting he has succeeded in turning
away suspicions from himself, and saved a goodly
number of shawls, intended as presents to his
lady friends. Then follows a declaration of his
sentiments; then the lady gets into trouble
because she lost her passport; then the gentleman
discovers that his own contains the name of his future
wife (who has in the meantime become another's),
and the curtain falls upon a happy couple, but not so
Madame Roger Solis,
as to screen from applause Monsieur St. Maria,
and our old friend Tourillon,
who makes a capital thing of the gendarme. Or the
the second piece, Mademoiselle de la Siegliere,
the ' plot may be thus briefly stated
During the French Revolution the Marquis de la
Seigliere has emigrated. His property has been
sold to one of his old farmers, who has by dint of in-
dustry and labour
come • a rich much improved it, and, in fact, be-
agriculturist. The Marquis has
a daughter, the framer a son. Mdlle. de la Seigliare
returns to France at the restoration, with her family;
the farmer's son, who has
joined the army under Na-
pol-on, is supposed to have died in Russia. The
termer, believing his son to be deed, is induced at the
point of death, to make a donation of his estate to the
former owner, the MarquiF, who believes the money
is merely restored to him. The sou re-
turns to chilim his father's estate, under
French law encounters Mdlle.de la Seighere, and falls
under the cbarm—he had come an opponent, an
nineersosity takes place between certain
a friend, a benefactor (unknown).
Ae n eonoloyfl,
iehte
obfecgoe
of the parties, g f craft
and deep design between others ;
a certain lawyer does,
partly out of ambition, partly
for the sake of revenge , a great deal of good
once more, at the critical moment, we congratulate a
happy couple upon the termination of their troubles,
and ourselves upon a delightful evening. Monsieur
Regnier, who
played the Marquis, is a first-rate
to an ungrateful
actor, and acted the light-hearted, stubborn old noble
to the life. Bernard, the farmer's son, was ably de-
lineated bY Lana, and Monsieur Roger, imparted
Baroness part—that of the lawyer.
was acted by Mdlle. Devin, who
looked and dressed the part admirably. Bat the
whole interest centred at last upon Mdlle. Marquet,
who elicited much sympathy and applause in the
Tgrheeatcrsapfitryit
character of Mdlle. de la Seigliare. At the fall of
the curtain the actors were all called for, when a little
incident occurred which added, if possible, to the in-
terest already
forward excited by the performance. Monsieur
leafont came , thenked the audience for their
kind atronage, and in a few Words, feelingly spoken,
intimapted the anxiety felt by himself and brother
per
formers that the audience
should
know that he talented Mon-
sieur Regnier, delineator of the Marquis
de la Si
was air one of the joint authors of the
piece. Of course cr_iea, many, loud and imperative,
forced Monsieur
of
"L'auteur"
Regnier to re-appear,
more acknowledged
and he once the gratifying plau-
dits of the audience.

evening
hTeOheLtYahuelathEPoarisCttearkesi.:
THEATRE.
p r e
the $ a n t
pan
Brothers;of holiday
f r thefinks
firstor , a
ttthit embielts,ll w lace
si ttih
Mr. Charles Selby,
Last
eallunzitlitortextravagantda?
of amusement were
--s oleo. from the Cor-
sican Brothers; the succ"sful dramatic romance at
the Priocess's Theatre ; but, availing himself of the
privileges of his fraternity, he works out that idea by
means of the most heterogeneous materials. He has
forgotten, however, that even in the 'nest outrageous
Camberwellfroin
burlesques some little connexion of incident is
desirable, and that an audience never so well
appreciates the ludicrous, and comical as when
exhibited in the development of some intelli-
gible plot. Mr. Compton, I°l° is the mainstay
of the piece, ropreeents the twin brothers, Funky.
Franky and Fighting Franks', the sons of Mrs. Save-
' ley Franky, the
renowned proprietess of a milk esta-
blishment in Cow-lane,' Camberwell.: A some what
wide stretch of the imagioatiou is required to recon-
cile the singular unity and
Selby
,t separation, but the
inventive genius of Mr. Selby clears up the, mystery
by a novel device. The two brothers were born like
that almost fabulous species of humanity which we
are told has two distinct bodies united in one ;• but
GUy's llospital;_was,had recourse to to cut them asuo-
del', an operation which hIPPIIY succeeded without
destroyiug ftc LI. of cilcir• Here tile illSEit'ry
commences, and continues without intermission ; for,
to confess the truth, the finale uo more explains mat-

tilde, Ysonde, Yolnde, Odette, Renne, Blanche, end
Methilde.
The fair Melesine, the leading character in the
piece was represented by Miss Carlotta Lec;nee], of
wham we may at once say that no artiste on the
boards could possibly have acted the part better, or
have looked it so well. In addition to her personal
attractions, the brilliant lightness of her dancing,
her expressive pantomime and clear delivery, and
the becoming elegance of her several dresses
reedered Miss Leclercq the most delightful em-
,
bodiment imaginable of an enchanted and enchant-
ing heroine of fairy romance. If anything were
wanting to constitute her an established favourite, it
was lady supplied by her performance of last even-
lug, and we feel much satisfaction in contributing
our gratulations to the triumph achieved by a very
charming and meritorious.
young actress. In Ulf,
the faithful and disinterested foster-brotherp
,
of
are the
Melusine, Allis Robertson displayed not merely a
singularly pretty figure, but a feeling and energy in
her acting which elicited frequent applause. (These
two ladies of whose " nianifet insuffi-
ciency" a certain profound critic writeth!) The
terrible
Mendragore, whom et
righteous Ncinesi3
ultimately consigns to eternal - owlhood, was pour-
trayed with imposing malignity by Mrs. Winstanley.
Miss Marshall (a recent and valuable acquisition to
the establishment) did the part of Wittikind cleverly,
as she does everything, and Miss Murray was the
happy It lug of Avalon, who, if poetical justice were
rigidly carried out, ought to have found less favour
in the eyes of Alelusine than the affectionate and
gentle Ulf. liarley had a part that precisely fitted
this favourite and rejuvenescent comedian; a s sveg-
gering, consequential major-dotno, faithfully holding
discretion to be the better part of
valour, cringing to
the mighty
and bullying the mean; and Meadows's
make-up
„ as the hapless King of larchenland was
admirable. The enchanted owl fell to the lot of
Flexmore, who looked a very grave and reverend
fowl, blinking and hissing with ornithological pro-
priety, but sadly belying the proverbial gravity of
the bird of Pallas by getting y helplessly inebriated at
feeding time, to the great enjoyment, however, of
the spectators. Flermore's genuine talent was
strongly evinced in making a small part so promi-
nent, for in any other hands it would have been all
but lost. A most agreeaLte gm-prise was afforded
(there having been an inadvertent omission in the
bills) by a ballet in the file scene in the second act,
in which Madlle. Auriol executed a pas with a vigour,
grace, precision, and firmness, that brought down
most deservedly cordial plaudits. We have rarely, if
ever, seen this admirable danseuse to greater advan-
tege than in this scene, in which she contributed one
of the brightest gems of the entire entertainment.
The scene-painters: have done themselves infinite cre-
dit, especially in the:final scene, which we hold to be
unequelled for exquisite effect, even with the fear of
Beverley before our eyes ;
and in the flight of
Melusine over the sea, In which Miss Leclercq is the
prominent form of beauty. The innumerable cos-
tumes, on •:which the outlay must have been
enormous, itiv not ' merely rich and varied,
but superlatively tasteful; Miss Marshall's attire
is the perfection of stage dress. The orchestra,
which is considerably increased, was led by Mr.
Robert Stopel, who furnished the music of the piece,
which is generally good. A chorus by Melusine and
in the Seven Princes, in the first act, is a very pleasing
composition, and was unanimously encored. There
may be a little pruning, especial y in the earlier por-
tions of the piece and in the music, but we trust no
paring to the quick.
The re•appeorance of Mr. Charles Kean, after his
recent illness, was greeted with the vehement cor-
diality due on such an occasion to the best 'of managers
and actors. Mr. Kean here .no eraces of indisposition
in his-unrivalled performance of the twins of Corsica,
" within which circle none dare walk but he." The
house was crowded to the ceiling, and the boxes filled
with fashion. The success of the magnificent after-
piece (which by the way is "a fairy tale," not a
" burlesque," and written by Mr. Tom Taylor) was,
it is unnecessary to say, unequivocal.