The Sun.
London, England, 1864-10-24 00:00:00

Tralrt

HER MAJESTY.

BALMORAL, Oct. 21.
The Queen and Royal family were prevented
from going out yesterday morning in consequence
of the unfavourable state of the weather. Her
Majesty went out for a short time in the afternoon,
attended by the Hon. Emma Lascelles.

Out. 22.
The Queen, accompanied by Princess Helena, and
attended by Viscountess Jocelyn, drove yesterday to
the Lynn of Quoieb.

Lyceum Theatre.
•

" THE KING'S BUTTERFLY."
A brilliant audience assembled on Saturday
evening to inaugurate the commencement of the
season at this elegant theatre, and on the occasion
a new drama, entitled " The King's Butterfly," 111
which Mr Fechter sustained the principal part, was
produced. Although perhaps ono of the moat
elegant pieces as far as the mounting is concerned,
the drama is not a new one to the metropolitan
stage, a version of it having been produced at the
Princess's Theatre under the title of " Court and
Camp," with Mr George Vining and Miss Any
Sedg wick as the hero and heroine. The piece was
very well placed upon the stage on the occasion we
have just mentioned, bat to compare it with the
splendid exotic produced at the Lyceum would be
to set a dahlia against a daisy. Everything that
the most lavish expenditure and refined taste could
effect has been done, and that most certainly Will
secure crowded houses for some time; yet as far
as the drama itself is concerned, in a literary point
of view, it is not one that is likely to be looked
upon with much favour. The original piece, written
by M. Paul Meurice, was entitled "Fanfan la
Tulippe,'' and divided into seven acts, but in the
version under notice the seven have been reducsd
to five, and certainly had the five been still further
curtailed, we should have had, to say the least,
a much more compact drama, and one which
might have worked its way into public favour.
The story of " The King's Butterfly', is, like
most French dramas, extremely complicated,
but, in brief, it is to the following effect
A certain Baron d'Alvere has formed, with othere,
a plot for unseating the reigning -minister of
Louis XV., and substituting in his stead
Count
Maurepas. To effect this it is also necessary to
remove the Marchioness de Pompadour, the King's
favourite mistress, and they hope to do this by
placing a young lady, Alice de Rosel, in the way Of
his impressionable Majesty. Plotting still further,
the Baron seeks for some foundling to represent
the heir of a rich relative lately killed in battle,
whose wealth he wishes to secure, and finds one
to answer his purpose in the person of Fanfan•
Fanfan, however, instead of being a passive tool,
turn out to be more than a match for the diplenla-
date. He save Madame de Pompadour from the
fiery of a mob, believing her to be a citirde
daughter, and falls in love with her. His passion
is almost reciprocated. He is summoned to Ver-
sailles, where a marriege has been arranged for him
by the Baron with Alice de Rosel—the Baron's
ward—to make him sure of obtaining her property.
Though Fanfan knows that Alice loves his foster'
brother Gabriel, and is beloved by him in return,
he accedes to the Baron's wishes, but only to out-
plot him, and save her from the Ding'
His conduct lays him open to the cruel suspicions
and insults of all his friends, except Alice
and her attendant, Florette, who believe in him'
the moat violent in their suspicions being Gabriel
and Madame de Pompadour. Fanfan, however,
perseveres. He has the good luck to save the life
of Marshal Saxe at the camp in Flanders, which
gives him a certain amount of power, and this
power he uses to save both Madame de Pompadour
and Alice from imminent peril. The Baron, WllOl3
with the army, has turned traitor, but is exposed
by Fanfan, and the drama concludes viisa the
discovery that Gabriel is the lost heir to the pro
perty coveted by the Baron. Madame de POMP"
lour is left to resume her influence over the
King, after she has expressed a 'el
strong platonic attachment for Fanfan, and Fan"
fan, promoted to a high rank in the turn!'
by Marshal Saxe, is left to marry Florette.
In order to give the above outline of the drama we
have had to omit various small circumstances which
only tend to involve the plot in great compladb,
but we have said enough to convey a correct idea of
the play, which many, we think, will be of opinion'
is not exactly the sort of thing to afford Mr,'
Fechter an opportunity to display his great and
acknowledged abilities. Fanfan, the " King's But'
terfly," is a light-hearted French trooper, with a
great affection for his beautiful charger Minerva'
but, notwithstanding the part abounds in nice little
bits," yet, as a whole, it is not one that seemed
exactly suited to Mr. Fechter. To say that be
acted with grace, force, and taste, would be but
to repeat that which is already universahi
acknowledged; there appeared, however, to be a
something wanting to give a completeness to the
portrait Mr Fechter had placed before the audience.
The great effort was in the fourth act, where Fanfan
listens to the villany of the Baron, and then, to save
the life of his foster brother, he resolves to accePt
his supposed rank, and thus, to all outward appear',
anee, to become a participator in the villany plotted
against his benefactor, and a false friend to his
much loved brother. Here, indeed, was a true out.
burst of genuine feeling, and one which the audience
were not slow in recognising; but the remainder
of the part was only that of the brave soldier who
from boyhood has folloWed the precept of his good
instructor—" to suffer gaily." Mr Ryder assumed
the part of the villanous Baron after the most 6134
proved conventional fashion. Of course he dressed the
character very well, but, to us, there seemed to he
a certain carelessness about his acting, and a ten-
dency to rant that made the part anything but a
performance worthy of very high commendation•
Mr. Widdicombe, as Ramponneau, the comic man
of the play, evoked the usual laughter, but nothipg
more ;:and, with the exception of Mr. F. Charles,
who enacted the part of Gabriel very nicely, the
other male characters call for no further remark.
Miss Carlotta Leclercq, as Madame de Pompadour,
was pretty and coquettish, but at the same time
very stagey. Miss E. Lavenu made a good and
loveable lighthearted village girl, end Miss Henrade
an interesting but somewhat languishing Alice.
Fanfan's mare Minerva, with her shining coat, her
bright fiery eye, looked the very perfection of
horsefl sh, and went through her part in the per
formance with great effect. Thus having noticed
both the male, female, and equine performers,
we come to the "mounting" of the piece, and here,
we begin to feel somewhat unequal to the task 01
adequately conveying a correct idea of the extrenle
beauty of the scenery. Each scene is an elaborate
" set," but the penalty inflicted on the audience in
the shape of tedious waiting—on an average 25
minutes—was, it must be admitted, somewhat
heavy. The opening scene, a Norman village in the
autumn time, with its antiquated water mill cua
rustic bridge, was exceedingly beautiful, The
saloon at Versailles was another wonder of scent()
art. At the rising of the curtain the room is do'
covered in darkness, but presently the servants enter
and unclose the shutters, when a flood of sunlight is
admitted, which produced a most magical effect. The
audience were in raptures at this novel construe'
tion ; but scarcely had they ceased praising the
beauty of the arrangement when the curtain
ascended, at the commencement of the fourth act,
and showed us the exterior of the Palace at Ver'
sallies, with its interminable walks and alleys of
embowering trees, the distance being most charm'
ingly painted, which again called forth tremendous
applause. The came of the fifth act, the
bivouac of the French army in the Low Countrieas
near the Mill of Loefeldt, was a niarvel of plc"
turesquo design. The painter, Mr W. Calcott, of
course was summoned, and, on his appearance, Wa3
greeted with the most rapturous cheering.
As a brilliant spectac:c " King's Butterfly'
will certainly prove attractive ; so, it the literary
part of it does net merit unbcunded spprobatioD.,
the scenic portion will be certain to produce 111114
versa! satisfaction,