The Sun.
London, England, 1845-01-14 00:00:00

PRINCESS'S THEATRE.

A new drama from the French, which is now at-
,racting all Paris, was produced here last evening,
under the title of Monseigneur, or Paris in 1730,
with James Wallack as Monseigneur, the hero.
Monseigneur is a chevalier d'industrie comme it y en a
pea—gay, generous, light-hearted, and quasi honour-
able and honest. A gentleman in the strictest sense of
the term ; a civilised Robin Hood, who robs from the
rich to give to the poor; an advocate of moral in oppo-
sition to physical force ; an aristocratic thief who bath
a dignified contempt for bankers, merchants, and
tradesmen, who rob according to law; the Lord Chan-
cellor, who redresses by equity the wrongs committed
by law—the Deus, albeit a black one, of the
piece, and who is proud of being so
considered, for when one of the characters says to
him, " You must be the Devil," he almost pleads
guilty to the soft impeachment, and opening his gold
snuff-box with an air, and taking therefrom a pinch
between his kid-gloved finger and thumb, replies, in
the softest accents, " You flatter me." In the first
scene we are introduced to the gang of Monseigneur,
who are assembled in the market-place of the Inno-
cents (admirable locality, although somewhat of an
anachronism). The different members place the
produce of their industry in the hands of Bernard
(Mr. Walton), a French Peachum, for realisation. As
Peachum found fault with Macheath for neglecting
his duties for his pleasure, so does Bernard find fault
with Monseigneur, and hints that it would be ad-
visable to choose another chief, who would be more
attentive to his duties. A sedan crosses the stage.
It is stopped with the old challenge, " Your money
or your life." Monseigneur emerges from the chair,
upbrails them for their vulgarity in attempting to
rob by force, and to prove the superiority of moral
over physical force, engages to put them in possession
of 150,000 crowns in five minutes. They retire.
Germaine, a jeweller's apprentice, enters ; Mon-
seigneur runs against him, begs his pardon, enters
into conversation with him, gets from him the de-
scription of 150,000 crowns' worth of jewellery
which he is taking to the Regent, remonstrates with
him on his imprudence in venturing abroad unarmed
with such valuable property in his possession, lends
him a pistol to defend himself, and shouts lustily
for the police, and on their entering, declares that
Germaine has robbed him of the jewels, which he
describes accurately, and which are handed to him by
the police, while poor Germaine is taken off to prison.
Monseigneur, amidst the cheers of the band, gives the
casket to Bernard, and hastens off in his sedan to the
opera. We are then introduced to the saloon of
Labarre, a rich banker. He has applied for a soldier
to be stationed in his house to protect his riches from
the band of Monseigneur. Monseigneur himself enters
as the soldier, and is placed en faction over the pre-
cious deposit. Labarre is informed that Law, whose
Mississippi bends bore in the morning an immense
premium, is bankrupt, but that the bankruptcy will
not be declared for some hours. He goes out to make
some mercantile arrangements, and Germaine, whose
innocence has been recognised, enters. He is the
bearer of a note from Rosaline (Miss E. Stanley),
an opera dancer, for whom he has expressed a
penchant, beseeching him to lend Germaine a sum of
money to rescue him from the ruin which is impend-
ing over him, in consequence of the loss of the jewels.
Monseigneur discovers that poor Germaine is his own
brother, and that Germaine's marriage with Annette
has been put off in consequence of his loss. Without
discovering himself to Germaine, he bids him marry
Annette at once, order a sumptuous wedding dinner at a
guinguette which he names, and promises to meet him
there, pay for the wedding dinner, and restore to him
the lost jewels. Germaine leaves the banker's
to do as he has been ordered, and Labarre
enters, accompanied by Bernard, who has ap-
propriated the jewels to his own use, and offers
them for sale to the banker. The wily banker
declares he has not cash sufficient for the purpose, but
offers Mississippi bonds, which are accepted by Ber-
nard, and the jewels are dispatched by Labarre as a
present to Rosaline. Bernard in the meanwhile has
given information that the soldier at Labarre's is the
redoubted Monseigneur, who is, therefore, locked in
the room, but makes his escape up the chimney. The
next scene takes place in Rosaline's boudoir. She
hates Labarre, but she loves the jewels. She delibe-
rates whether she shall ;not return them, but retires
to adorn herself with them, leaving the casket on the
table. Monseigneur enters through the window,
seizes the casket, but finds it empty. Rosaline comes
in wearing the jewels; in Monseigneur she recognises
the handsome incognito who had won her
affections at the opera. Labarre's voice is
heard without, and to escape from him
she consents to fly, jewels and all, with Monsiegneur.
They arrive at the guinguette where the marriage
party of Germaine are assembled. Monseigneur has
the opera dancer and the jewels, but the puzzle is how
to separate them. Fuming with rage, Labarre
arrives, and loudly calls for the police to restore to
him his jewels. He is followed by Bernard, who
also calls for justice on the swindler who has given
him worthless Mississippi bonds in exchange for his
jewels; and, to the surprise of all, Monseigneur himself,
who is recognised, joins in the cry. "Do you call for the
police to take yourself into custody ?” asks Rosaline.
" No, Madame," replies he, "to take you into cus-
tody ; you stole these jewels from the banker." She
restores them to Labarre. " You swindled them from
Bernard," exclaims Monseigneur ; and the banker,
compelled to disgorge, restores them to the cashier of
the band. " Meanest and most contemptible of
thieves, thou who would'st cheat thy brothers, hide
thy head where they may never find thee," says Mon-
seigneur to Bernard, as snatching the casket from
him he restores it to Germaine, at the same time or-
dering his brother to quit Paris for ever, and go
down and . comfort his old father in Brittany. Mon-
Yeigneur the drama, and Wallack acted Monseig-
neur admirably. Nothing could be finer than the
reckless nonchalance which he threw into the cha-
racter; and the little touches of pathos in the inter-
view with his brother, when he inquires after
his old father, were beautifully given, and
affected many of the audience even to tears. His
Monseigneur is, if possible, superior even to his Don
Caesar de Bazan, and the piece will no doubt have a
long run. Wallack and Miss Stanley were called for

at the fall of the curtain, and the piece was announced
for repetition four times a-week amidst the unanimous
applause of a crowded house.

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