The Sun.
London, England, 1846-01-03 00:00:00

COURT CIRCULAR.

WINDSOR, FRIDAY.—The Queen and Prince Alb.rt
walked early this Inornmg iu tin• grow,ds around the
Castle. Her Majesty and her Royal Consort again
promenaded in the afternoon.
The Royal Family were taken their usual airings
this forenoon. Their Royal Highnesses Prince Alfred,
the Princess Royal, and the Princess Alice, were again
taken out in the afternoon.
The Countess of Charlemont arrived at the Castle
this afternoon to pay her respects to the Queen, and
will remain to dine and sleep.
Sir Robert and Lady Peel, the Earl of Lincoln, Sir
James and Lady Graham, and the Right Hon. W. E.
Gladstone, left the Castle to-day.
There was no addition to the royal dinner circle at
the Castle this evening.

The Duke of Cambridge visited her Royal Highness
the Duchess of Gloucester yesterday, at Gloucester
House.

Sir Robert and Lady Peel returned to their residence
in Whitehall-gardens yesterday morninv, from a visit
to her Majesty at Windsor Castle. Mr. Gladstone
visited the Right Hon. Baronet. _ _

Sir James and Lady Graham arrived in town yester-
day, from Windsor Castle.
Mr. Wickham, Chairman of the Stamps and Taxes,
had an interview with the Chancellor of the Exchequer
yesterday, at his official residence in Downing-street.
The Right Hon W. E. Gladstone rdturned to town
yesterday, from Windsor Castle.
Lord Granville Somerset and the Right Hon. Sidney
Herbert visited the Earl of Dalhousie yesterday.
Dispatches were sent off yesterday evening from the
Colonial-office for the Governor of Malta.

The Duchess Dowager of Cle%eland, with her usual
kindness and consideration, distributed, on New Year's-
day, clothing, blankets, food, coals, and money, to
seventy poor families, in the neighbourhood of Newton
House.

The Earl of Lincoln returned to his residence in
Whitehall-place yesterday, from Windsor Castle.

FRENCH PLAYS-ST. JAMES'S
THEATRE.

Madame Albert made her debut for the season here
last evening, in the character of Madame Dorsan, in
Desforges' admirable comedy of La Femme Jalouse.
This comedy is a minute dissection. It might have
been aptly entitled " The Physiology of Jealousy."
It works out the passion through every phase—it
follows it through all its ramifications to its re-
motest consequences—beginning with the ridicu-
lous, it en.,s with the sublime. Desforges has
done what Joanna Baillie professed to do—he has
written a play of a passion—La Femme Jalouse is
the character of the piece—the centre of the system
around which all the other characters revolve as sa-
tellites. She has been for sixteen years the wife of
Monsieur Dorsan, and for fifteen years the mother
of an only daughter. She is a woman of strong
passion, who loves her daughter and her husband.
She would fain be a good wife—a good mother—a
kind mistress to her household—a generous bene-
factress to all—but her incurable jealousy spoils
her good intentions, and she is a universal pest.
In the earlier scenes, the nervous fidgitiness,
the tremulous uneasiness, the painful sensitiveness,
which are what logicians would call the essential
modes of a jealous nature—were admirably depicted
by Madame Albert. But an event takes place which
a mind, much less prone to jealousy than hers, might
beget suspicion. She discovers in-her husband's pos-
session a small box ; she cannot open it. There is an
outbreak of unfounded jealousy. He refuses to satisfy
her curiosity as to the contents of the box. She
falsely accuses him of infidelity. Circumstances
prove to her the utter want of foundation of her sus
picions. She restores to him the box, and asks his
forgiveness ; and, in the fulness of his heart, he
opens the box and shows her its contents. The box
contains the portrait of a lovely young girl. Again
does her jealousy revive. He assures her it is a
fancy sketch. Still her suspicions are not lulled, and
she watches him narrowly. Judge of the ungovern-
able fury of her jealousy when she learns that a
lovely young girl has been at her own house, asking
for Mens. Dorsan. M. D'Aranville (Cartigny), the
guardian of Madame Dorsan, under whose advice
Dorsan acts throughout, removes this young
girl to the house of Gervais, an old servant,
of the family. It is in vain that M. Dorsan (Le-
marde) protests his innocence. In her fury the
jealous woman demands a separation, and her hus-
band, who loves her dearly, tired out with the ty-
ranny under which he has suffered for sixteen years
at once consents, leaves her, and with his daughter
Eugenie (Mtelemoisselle St. Marc), and her lover, M.
de }ley (admirably acted by M. Plunkett), who
also suffered severely from her jealous humours,
takes refuge in the house of Gervais, where
he finds D'Aranville and Clemence, the young lady
whose arrival at his house had roused the jealous
fury of Madame Dorsan. Clemence, a lovely girl of
eighteen, had never before seen Dorsan, but she knew
him as her benefactor, who had, from her earliest
years, cared for and caused her to be educated—to
whom she owed everything. She rushes into his
arms. At thin moment Madame Dorsan enters,
and finds locked in her husband's embrace
the original of the portrait. Madame Albert's
acting throughout this trying scene was truly
sublime—it was la haute tragedie, and tragedy
of the very highest order. She retires to
her home. The rest go to D'Aranville's, who, after
much trouble, persuades Dorsan, who loves his wife
tenderly, and fears she may commit suicide, to leave
all to his management. D'Aranville writes to her
to inform her that the deed of separation has been
signed by her husband, who has gone he knows not
where, and whom she will never see mote, and
that she is free. Her love—for without intense
love jealousy cannot exist—ui ges her on the
instant to D'Aranville's. She finds him alone. He
calmly tells her that at length the slave of sixteen
years has broken his fetters, and has sought, with
his two children, that happiness of which for sixteen
years her jealousy has deprived him. Yes, Clemence,
his daughter, burn before he had become ac-
quainted with Madame Dorton ; he know-
ing her jealous di'position, had conc,aled from her
the fact of the existence of Clemence, and had,
out of tenderness to her, foregone the consolation of
seeing his first-born and tenderly-loved; child. She
is melted at once. In agony she calls upon her
husband, who rushes from his place of concealment,
and she sinks into his arms. Nothing could exceed
the impassioned intensity of the acting of Madame
Albert, throughout this trying character. Words cannot
do justice to it; to be appreciated it must be seen. She
was admirably supported by Lemarde as M. Dorsan,
who depicted the struggle between love and the duty
he was under to himself to assert his own dignity,
and free himself from the unbearable annoyance of
her suspicious jealousy, with great pathos. Cartigny,
as the sententious, blunt, common-sense tralear, was
admirable; and Mdelle. St. Marc infused into the
character of Eugenie a mingling coquetry, simpli-
city, and affection, which was most fascinating.
Madame Albert was called for at the fall of the curtain,
and rapturously applauded. This is another of those
revivals of the French classical drama for which the
present season is so favourably distinguished from its
predecessors, and its reception by a crowded house
proves that the taste which dictates them is properly
appreciated. Bravo! M. Mitchell. Vila de la haute
comedic. En avant. The pleasant comedic-vaude-
ville of La 31,uniere de M ,rly followed, in which
:adame Albert again appeared in her favourite cha-
racter of Denise.