New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1860-08-31
RECENT FRENCH LITERATURE.
yy.u Our Own Correspondent


I'D and brought out again at the Vaudeville. 1t
xd not plea.e the authorities of State nor the
c,;ses Thanks to the coil they have male about
il, everybody 10 going to zee its performance. All
hast week it served as diversion from those great
absorbing topics Of Partisan thought and ta'k'
SYRIA. Italy, and Rigolboche. Suct ia my excuse
Cor enlargng upon it.
Ce oai plat aaI Femmes is WI ten hyM. Ponsard'
artbor of those successful didactic comedies,
L,Honneur Ct rargent and La Bonrse two drama
TIED prize essays in verse against our times W0r-
ship Of Mammon which have added some thlfy Ut
forty thousand dollars to the capital fupds Oh M
PoDssrd He has written many Other pieces, INC
FIRST of which was tragedy composed On lhe nou-
els Of Corneie that gained him SO great repG'atoh
10 lS43, that in the famous literary war vi uioso
;sts as their opponents in the camp OF romantlclsm
mere STYLED from their greater chief Hugolaters.
He is however, no narrow minded partisan, ana II
IN his inaugural address on entering the Academy,
he took inapt occasion to say hard things Oh the
dramati. irregularities of Shakespeare (whom he
would call Williams, he also made IN II the occasion
for generous eulOgy on Hugo and Lamartlne But
No has ALWAYS hitherto preached for and practiced
the classic FORMS He has natural talent for YER
si6cation which he has studiOusly cultivated ac-
eording TO the most approved French proc
esses he has not poetic genius nor dramatic
genius Had he been born In England
a hundred years ago, he would have contributed
admirable moral and satrical essays in prose and
yerse to the wealth of English literature i'll that
Kind. and probably have had quite correct tragedy
mr. two reputaby damned at COvent Garden, and
now 1eprinted not TO be read i'll the frequent edi
tons OF bis complete works. His compositions for
the stage lack life and movement and sustained
yigor OF style; they are constructed more than In
spired made rather than born, didactic rather
than dramatic; but hitherto they have been unex-
eeptonably correct, strictly g according to the
sules' and self-cOnsstent
Ce Qui plat auI FemmeS is piece really three
pieces defiant of the rules and of NJ. Ponsard s
fcrmer self, strung loosely together by slight
thread of plot The first act is in prose, and pro-
yokes uniavorable comparison with Octave feuh-
let's fashionable comedies. There ls young
widow countess beautiful, rich, bas6e, tired almost
10 death with herself and nothing to do, and nu-
merous suitors. Her cousin GOutard proposes
that she give each of them day to amuse
her-to the one who succeeds best she SHAH
give her hand. The scheme Is approved 10y
all parties Cousin GOutard will make his
trial last. The others " devise devices " of
which we have the programmes only lnot very
ereditabe to their ingenuity sense OF rehnement)
except that OF NJ. de Nertas, who will get up
theatrical entertainment at his chateau for the
sole entertainment of the ennuyee Countess. lhs
entertainment fills the second act 1t Is fairy
play that instantly prOyOkes comparison with MID
summer Nights Dream. The scenery is beautiful,
and so are the young actresses and dancers, with
highly ornamental and succlnct robes, who are To
the wildwood heges of Titania as the prettily-
dressed PRETTY hammered children in the Tuileries
10 the unadOrned laughing girls of Typee. The
polished verses that the academcian puts into their
mouths, tasteful, graceful, moral and saurcai, are
as foreign TO the diOms of fairyland warbled in ma
tive wild notes through Shakespeare's fantasy, as
the pretty shallow stream that takes Its rice IN the
ChsillOt pump and pursues its disciplined course
through the Bos BoulOgne to the trout brook IN the
Black Forest.
Into Vaudeville elf-land comes no Bottom, but
well. young French gentleman named Olivier
seeking love in general, with whom the Queen OF
the Fairies is in love particularly. Evidently more
to crafty NJ. POnsard's tastes for mOralizing and
satire than to suit her purposes she offers her
self to NJ Olivier, under different shapes, in ale
porical way as the love of gold the love of power
&c declaming in excellent verses against the false
seductiOns of her own chaTms-the most didactic Of
fairies whose favOrite authors must be BOileau and
La Bruyere, Pope and Samuel johnson. Let alone
the mouth piece. and the Z" remarks are admirable
And although the satire is general all Paris instant
" made particular application TO the persons and
policy of the present regime of M. POnsard's Wig
Orous lii AIDES against the demoralzing influence of
the love of gold and the love of power. The
third act brings Us back TO prose, and Paris and
the play proper, which Mile. MaTquet's verses,
and the beautiful scenery and q bewltching
ballet had quite driven out of our minds. Cousin
Goutard now makes bis trial Of what best
pleases women. He takes the rich, cOurted, hap
py, bored death lady of high society up six
pair of stairs into garret-rOOm where sits shver-
ing in her last unpawned cotton gown young girl
stitching herself to death in desperate effort to pay
the overdue rent of this bare den. The pOrteress,
hardly richer than herself has given her human pity
and such poor help as she could, barely sufficient
thus far to keep her from topping off the brink OF
starvation into death or a worse abyss. Friends IN
pettcoats the unofficial but well appointed prOcur-
ing attorneys of the present social state have visited
her in her destitute condition. as the devil did st.
Anthony provoking her 10 sell herself out of such
misery with brilliantly prospectuses oi
the luxurious lives which RigOlbOche and company
drive through n publicly admired open caleches.
The poor girls noble spirit has risen strong above
the frai wasting body, and with the unbrOken force
of virtue cowed down the shamed tempters. and
20 she is working AID starving when the unhappy,
Enamused quite miserable fortunate dame du monde
h led to her. The Countess sees questions, Estens
learns the existence of suferngs she had never sus
pected the scales fall from her eyes, the hard
shell of emOtiOnless indifference from her heart
which beats again quick and warm with thrObs of
human sympathy; she is ashamed of her past self;
the holy fire of charity kindles new feeling, new
kfe. Happy now in wOman's truest sphere, the
doing of good works, she with true wOmanly gener-
DUTY awards to Cousin GOutatd the successful dis
coyorer Of &c gui plat aur temnnS, her hand and
wOmans heart. The third act of the play is IN
prose, as / said, and provokes comparison-nO
dramas Of the BOuevards. To pass from the litera-
10 ha alvia, NJ tho MI