The Sun.
London, England, 1853-06-16 00:00:00

FRENCH PLAYS.

Mdme. Emile Girardin's last and best comedy, Lady
Tartuffe, which was produced at the St. James's Theatre,
for the first time last night, was so thoroughly successful
in Paris, and yet met with such varied, though on the
whole favourable, criticism, that we can scarce venture
to pronounce a decisive opinion on its merits as a dra-
matic work, from the impressions of a first representa-
tion only. As any one would guess from its title alone,
it has for its subject the intrigues of a female hypocrite,
and though Mdme. Girardin has repudiated any idea of
connecting her play with the great work of Moliere,
except by similarity of name, yet, on comparing the
two, the basis of both is so identical, and the rela-
tions of cause and effect throughout both so com-
pletely the same, that we cannot resist the im-
pression that it was the original Tartuffe which first
inspired Madame Girardin with the idea of this female
counterpart. This same similarity of name excited con-
siderable wrath among some of the Parisian critics, who
charged Madame Girardin with inordinate presumption,
and a rash desire to provoke comparison between her
own and Moliere's comedy. Beaumarchais, they said,
had tried the same experiment—he had called one of his
comedies L'Autre Tartuffe, but not even his sparkling
and witty conception could overcome the almost religious
horror with which the French public contemplated any
invasion of the domain of their illustrious artist ; and
he was obliged to change the title to save the play from
failure. Madame Girardin's experiment was more suc-
cessful, and we can scarce help thinking that the title
did much to help the piece. The plot of the piece, so
far as it can be told on paper, is soon said. Madame de
Blossac, the Lady Tartuffe, having conceived une verita-
ble passion for Hector de Benneville, contrives by a
skillfully sown slander to break Off an intended
marriage between him and his pretendue, Jeanne de
Clairmont. At the same time she has adesign upon
the Marshal d'Estigny, an old retired diplomatist,
and the guardian of Jeanne, whom, by her clever con-
summate hypocrisy, she induces to offer her his hand
and fortune. In both these designs she is assisted by
the Baron des Tourbieres, a witty cynical, yet, withal, a
good-natured vaurien, whom, by means of a debt of
20,000 francs, she has completely in her power. The
Baron, however, is not utterly lost, and having obtained
the means to release himself from her power, he turns
against his former protectress, and, assisted by Hector
de Renneville, he succeeds in turning the tables on her,
establishes Jeanne's innocence, and convicts Lady Tar-
tuffe of a former faux pas. She, being discovered by
the Marshal in Hector's apartment, whither she has
come to declare her passion for him, falls, but falls
bravely, tearing and wounding her persecutors, like the
wolf of Mr. Macauley's lay. Such is the short outline
of the plot, and the machinations of a character on
which Madame Rachel has lavished all the force of her
genius ; and, so far as the success of last night was con-
cerned, we think it was due more to her wondrous powers
than to the sympathy of the audience with the piece itself.
Regnier, too, as des Tourbierds, acted to perfection, and
his burst of triumph when freed from the trammels which
bound him to the hypocrite, called forth more enthusias-
tic applause than any of Mlle. Rachel's more highly
wrought points. We must not forget to mention the
grace and simplicity of Mlle. Palmyre's acting as Te-
hanne, which was everything the part could require.
We shall go more at length into the piece itself on a
future occasion, when our first impressions have been
corrected by a further acquaintance with the play as an
acting comedy.