The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-02-23

ga Victim OF CIrcHmstancesp at I


success OF brilliant new play at the Arch last
eVening. The audience was large, and the
manifestations of pleasure were unexceptlon.
SDiy cordial. 1t has been q long time since so
sprlghtly and entertaining o comedy as Pio.
ttm Of Circumstances has been produced on the
Fniadelphia STAGE and II In a hypercriLoal
spirit IL might be objected that 1t is somewhat
superficial and not altogether novel, 1t at
least fulfls the conditions OF good acting
play, and If our native dramatists would pro-
ouce works equalling 1t In excellence. there
would be but little occasion TO complain Of
the deGeneracy of the drama in these modern
days.
a Victim Of circumstances is an adaptation
nom the French, by A. w. Young and 1t is
essentially French In form and substance, but
without any of the Objectionable features that
cause some OF the best efforts OF the modern
Parlslan drametists to give offense to the more
prudish Anglo-Saxon taste. The plot is slight
and runs as follows:-
IN. Bonnefoi." O gentleman in easy circum-
stances, ia sflii ioted with q mother-in law, the
widow OF q lawyer, who Is booked up in all
the intricactes of the civil code. During one of
her daily contentious with his wife and her
mother. he receives q visit from IN. Della
roche" friend of his bachelor days. Com
triving to get rid OF the females, he enters into
confidential conversation with his gay friend
who states that he is as good as O bachelor
having separated from his wife on account of
1ncompRtibility of temper, the lady being of
rather gushing nature. which did not suit his
more practical ideas. He therefore returned
her dowry, and gave her handsome allowance
which he paid regularly once a quarter In
person, and for the rest of the year saw nothing
Of her, allowing her to take her pleasure in her
own way, so long as she did not molest him
"M Bonnefoi" offers his congratulations at
such an escape. and then relates how he has got
himself into terrible scrape. During brief
absence of his wife 1t was his illluck to meet a
particularly bewitching young lady at a restau.
rant. when. after eating her lunch. she found
that she had left her purse at home. He gal
lantlY offers to pay the debt-twenty oentime s
and the lady gratefully accepts the service
Subsequently meeting her, he Is induced TO
take drive in the Bois de Boulogne,
and on gentle hint from her.
mentions supper. Under the influence OF
few glasses too much of champagne he pro-
fesses the most devoted love- and assures her
that he is q single msn. All he remembers after
Ghat is that he found himself at home in bed
with raging headache. The lady, however
follows him up with letters to the extent OF ten
or twenty o day, each signed Twenty Gem
times" and he Is now in an agony Of fear
lest his mother-in-law should discover the
affair. Before IN. Delsroche' can offer any
advice the ladies return. and the mother-in-
law being too much for the friend, he takes his
leave. While the ladies are removing their bon.
nets the fair unknown makes her appearance,
and refuses to leave the house until m. Boane-
fol" promises to sup with her that evening.
He keeps his appointment, and the very
gushing style of the lady tmpresses him
strongly with the idea that she is insane.
While he is endeavoring to explain matters,
the bell riggs, and che suddenly recollects that
1t is the day for her husbands quarterly visit,
ha hqa
been paying attention to his friends wife. She
thrusts him into an adjoining room, and IN.
Delaroche' enters, pays her the allowance,
inspects her bill of expenses, and offers to
depart. She tries various expedients to win
back his affections, and as last resort, with
the hope of exciting his jealousy, tells him that
there is man in the next room. He laughs at
this as trap and bows himself out. IN.
Bonnefoi" then makes his appearance, and
when the lady proposes to will marry him and
take O trip to Italy he declares that he Is
already q married man, and the lady rushes
trom the room and pretends to throw herself
out of the window, while he makes his escape
by another door, in an agony lest the affair
should get into the newspapers and his name
be mentioned In connection with 1t.
I'M. Bonnefoi" is next seen at his chateau,
where he is endeavoring to keep on as good
terms as possible with his wife and mother-in-
whom he had thought dead, walks in, an ex-
PLANTATION takes place which is satisfactory to
both parties, and the lady is about to depart
when the mother.in-law Is seen approaching,
and the visitor is obliged to hide In an adjoining
apartment. Her various attempts to escape are
frustrated. and IN Delaroche" at last comes
TO the assistance of his friend, and appeases the
wrath of the mother in-law by acknowledging
that the lady is his wife. He opens the door,
leads her out, and is in turn astonished to find
that the lady OF the twenty centimes, who had
given IN. Bonnefoi" so much trouble, Is really
his wife. Mutual explanations occur, and a
rather weak finale leaves us In some doubt as to
what the mother-in-law's behavior in the future
will be, now that "M. Bonnefoi's" Indiscretions
are discovered.
The dialogue is vivaciOus and sparkling from
beginning to end; every scene is full of telling
points that excite uproarious laughter; and the
whole of the second act is ludicrous in the ex.
treme The success of the play last evening
was as much due to the very superior acting as
10 Its intrinsic merits. The part of "VirginIe
de MerIot" is exactly suited to Mrs. Drew and
she gave a very elegant and very amusing per-
sonation of the fair unknown who was the
cause of all 'M Bonnefofs'" woes. Mr.. Hill
WAS capital as I'M. Bonneioi," character
by the way, somewhat out of his
usual line; and Mr. James has scarcely
ever appeared TO better advantage than a.
"M, Delaroche;" Mrs. Thayer, the most delight
fuI of "old women" was very vixen as
MADAME Truq uet," the mother.tn-law' and
Mrs Creese gave an acceptable personatlon o.
"Madame Bonnefoi." We repeat that A Vtct"
nj Circumstances is O capital comedy of society