The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1879-10-19
ADJUSTMENTS.
"w1vEs" AT DAYS THEATRE.

sswIvEs" At DALY's THEATRE.
arpolpue MARQUIS Of Fontenoy. also known
Monsieur La souehe'-.-'..--. M ThareS fishe
Scansreiie IA aa7s Mr. Genre Morton
Chrisaide. Mr. 1ohn Prev
Captain sya. Fisromonte OF the Kings Muskereers,
Dorival ...............M Mr. Hart CONWAY
Aain Mr. Charlie. lie cereq
S Ssst ssander .......M Mr. Edmunds
the cemmissary NJ Mr. s s,nrg
Agnes Catherine Lewis
isoS"r s dc Mis-, Margaret Lannsr
Gs"rseite Miss sydney Nelson
Mr. Bronson Towards dramatic compilation in
five acts entitled .sWives." drawn from Moliere's
"Ecole des FeInmes" and 'Ecole DIES Maris," was
brought out at Days Theatre last evening, ana
achieved popular The hit of the perform
ance was in the second act. whore Miss Catherine
Lewis as Agnes. the innocent. secured marked favor
and helped by Mr.. Fisher rs Arnolpbe. caused rip.
pies of merrment that soon became waves of langh-
ter to run over the house. From that moment its
fortune was secured.
Certainly Mr.. Howard does not lack audacity IN
his INVASION of the temple of classic French comedy
He we'll knows that he is not the first in the plum
der of Molere. and he has had such warrant as ex-
ample gives in making his loot a wholesale matter
He is none of your eighteenth century English
'.sneak thieves" who stole character here and
scene there from Moiere and changed the names and
places as when Arnolphe became Pipchwife. and the
harmless intrigue of the master became nastness
unspeakable. Not at all. Mr.. Howard rode boldly
up to the temple of Moare. took two whole come
dies crammed them into one bag where he had some
remnants of opera boufe. and shook them out on
Mr.. Days handsome stage. We are assured there
Is nothing morally wrong in all this. Mr.. Bouci-
raut says there is not and that settles it, we
suppose He has taken two or three French plays,
in his time and squeezed them into one English
play PdrJiea the comedies that were enjoyment
enough for an audience when gwen one ut tiine,
two centuries ago. cannot be expected to go as far in
these intellectually gluttonous days. And then
Moliere himself was not particular. He could
string scraps of Terence and Boccaccio together
with the marvellous flaments Of his own
genius, and had the audacity to call them
new comedies May not Howard then pose to some
purpose the avenger OF those rifed anciens? And
II Moliere, why not Shakespeare? Where is the man
ready to cram Henry w." Henry "" and the
bag and call them the "novel and picturesque
comedy of 'FastaffY' Give us the man bold
he had been born. low down Will
he appear in the predatory scale. Mark Lemon once
attempted it in small way. Courage, then.
brave adapters! Give situations" and lots Of
them clip the dialogue far the length OF your
shears viii let you. Make the untutored laugh and
you need not care u continental how you make the
judicous roam bowling their grief along the lob
bes for the latter are very few and the former are
the multitude. vspe Ia bagateiiei
plished his endsh purpose. owe it to the public
to say that it done neatly enough. There were,
the introduction Of the opera boufe business
of the fourth act. which Jared strangely
on the comedy that had gone before.
The third act too. rather weak. 1t may be
easily strengthened by recurrence to Moliere for
some OF his tickling lines. We think it weakness.
too that even in intrigues which cannot fail to be
transparent to the audience. it is thought neces-
sary always to explain them beforehand.
In few places Mr.. Howard. where venturing
li,xAa nf h ada fha da,,ar win
Molere not hard to be borne. but there were
many where regretted that Moliere was not alive
to do his condensation. The two intriyues
chosen for Interviewing have certain likeness to
each other. In each conceited, over confident old
fool has taken repressivc methods to mt maiden
for being model wife. We venture this
explanation in ali humility. hoping the millions Of
American readers of Mo!iere in the original French
will pardon for appearing to inform them of
what they already must know. Sganarelle and
Arnophe are. of course. exquisitely differentiated
by Moliere. but in Isabelle the acute and
Agnes the innocent-the repressed young ladies'
the contrast is marked. The two lovers VALERIE and
Horace. have in Molierc a family resemblance. and
Towards when he found both of them his
hands. to give the former the marplot attributes
Of IN wiS his OF valet as
deus mactina In the first act Mr.. How
ard fairly lays the foundation OF the two
intrigues. In the second and fourth he
develops the intrigue of Arnolphe and in the third
and fifth that OF Sganarclle. and concluding both.
As we have indicated. the success Of the
Lewis. demure little puss. with just
such pretty nascete and dpiomb as Moliere
conceived she to the letter. and the hearty
call she given on her exit in the second act
fully deserved Let us suggest that when again
called in the same scene she should come down the
steps and repeat the curtsey to the audience which
she had before given to her guardians
friends. This merely because 1t would be
in keeping with the play. Mr. Fisher showed that his
part unusual line for him, but the signs
abundant that when he tones 1t down and rounds 1t
little he make il much stronger than last
ing. MIR. Davidge. too. seemed cropping q little.
easy for actors trained in modern comedy to do
cellently all at once courtcrs and high born
of the world in the times OF the Grand Monarch.
but Mr.. Harry Lacy Horace easy,
graceful and tuned up to the proper point of DASH
MIR Parkes not at in his part OF Fieremone
(the Vaerc of Molierc), but emitted few semi-Dun-
droaryisms with comic effect, and. the whole.
had the favor of the audience. Mr.. Lecercq did
well in the small charac er part of Alain.
Miss Rehan fair Isabella. We cannot go
through the whole cast, but may say that the play
went without q hitch. due. doubt. to full
hearsas. The scene. including three sets
one. very handsome Louis Quatorze interior,
deserves praises The costumes rich and APP
propriate, and the waits short. Miss Lewis
song to a modern bouffe air encored, bat the
chorus of the night watch was failure. The other
bouf1e feature, the march of the Kings Guard
young ladiesD was applauded. Wives IL likely
a