The Sun.
London, England, 1861-02-21 00:00:00

Dr.ATH OF M. _EUGENE SCRIBE.

The death of this celebrated French dramatist
is announced. The following sketch of his career
is taken from Knight's Cyclopedia :
" Augustin-Eugene Scribe, one of the most fer-
tile and successful of the French dramatic writers,
was born in Paris, on December 24, 1791, the
son of a merchant, who on his death left him a
considerable fortune. His first studies were
directed to the law, but his dramatic talent was
indicated so early that his guardian, the
advocate Bonnet, recommended him to abandon
the bar for the stage. His first drama was
produced in conjunction with his school-
fellow, Germain Delavigne. It was entitled
The Dervise,' and was performed in 1811 with
great applause. His course has been uninterrupted
ever since, and the number of his productions
almost innumerable. Ho has not only supplied
the French stage, but through translations, adap-
tations, and suggestions, the stages of the greater
part of Europe, and especially that of England.
Scribe's productions are of a peculiar character.
He is by no means a dramatic poet though
he possesses facility of invention it is shown
more in the clever development of his plots
than in the imagining of the higher and nobler
description of character. Where he has
attempted this he has failed. His distin-
guishing merits are a remarkable ingenuity and
inexhaustible variety in the construction of his
plots, a
,lightness and ease in their development,
the conversational fluency and point of his dialogue,
and a correct conception and vigorous delineation
of character in what may be called the outside
, circles of civilised—or rather, Parisian—life. In
his operas, for many of which he has produced
librettos, he has well adapted his language to
the music, but, as we have said of his other
writings, he
tdhoeesponeotitcal. reachH—isprobably
has
se
been
not ani
not less than his industry, and he is said
to have received immense sums for many
of his pieces, and to have realised considerable
wealth. It would not be easy to enumerate all
his pieces, as many of them, vaudevilles especially,
were originally issued under assumed names ; but
among those by which he will be known to Eng-
lish readers we may mention Le Comte Ory,'
Le plus beau Jour de la Vie,' ;La Muette de
Portici,' Fra Diavolo,' Robert le Diable," Les
Diamants de la Couronne,' Bertrand et ItatoL,'
o' Lu
sa V e
others,r re d 'Ehaauv, 'e
all
beenof which,
reproduced as well
a tas numer-
theatres. A selection from his works wEasngpluisbh-
lished in 1843 in seven volumes ; and a romance of
his has been translated and published in England,
called The Victim of the Jesuits.'"

TILE ROLL OF THE LORDS.—The roll of the Lords,
spiritual and temporal, has just been printed. There are
30 spiritual lords and 427 temporal, reckoning Lord Auck-
land among the former as Bishop of Bath and Wellc. The
spiritual lords are 26 English prelates and four Irish, the
Irish prelates on the roll this session being the Archbishop
of Dublin and the Bishops of Down, Ossory, and Cork. Of
the temporal lords three are of the blood royal—the Prince
of Wales, the Duke of Cumberland (King of Hanover), and
the Duke of Cambridge. There follow 20 dukes, 22 mar-
quises, 131 earls, 28 viscounts, and 223 barons. This, how-
ever, is reckoning them technically, aceerding to the titles
by which they sit in the House. For instance, the Duke of
Buccleuch is placed among the earls because he sits, not by
his Scotch title, but as Earl of Doncaster in the English
peerage, and the Duke of Argyll is reckoned only among
the barons (Baron Smadridge) ; the Earl of Roden is Lord
Clanbrassill ; the Marquis of Clanricardo, Lord Sornerhill ;
Lord Panmure also remains among the barons, his newly
inherited Scotch title of Earl of Dalhousie having no seat
in the House annexed to it. Assigning all such peers to
the rink and title by which they arc commonly known, and
speaking popularly, the tculpiral lords are--a prince, a
king, 27 dukes, 37 marquises, 170 earls, 31 viscounts, and
162 barons. The whole number in the House, therefore,
i5:457; a generation ago it was not 400.