Northern Weekly Gazette. — 1906-08-11 (Stockton-on-Tees, Cleveland, England)

HEARTLESS CYNIC.  Turning to the more modern French stage, te "Le Roi s' Imuse " of Victor Hugo, we find ha Triboulet, jester to the profligate Francis L, heartless cynic, deformed in body and mind. He is no wit, being chiefly employed by the king in the capacity of a pander; the king is but a puppet in his hands, to ruin the lives of those on whom he sets him. He urges the king to carry off the wife of M. de Cossee, and whilst so urging him, M. d St. Vallier reproaches the king in bitter terms for the dishonour of Diane de Poitiers. The father, from whom the king has carried off a daughter, is jeered at and insulted by Triboulet. St Vallier thereupon curses Triboulet, who, Ince Achilles, has one weak spot, his fatherly love for his daughter Blanche. Triboulet intends, with the aid of certain courtier, to carry off Madame de Cossee for the king, but by an utterly impossible device, is trieked by the courtiers into carrying off his own dearly loved daughter. The malediction of Diane's father is thus fulfilled on the father of Blanche. To the courtiers barring his access to the king, who in a neighbouring chamber has Blanche at his mercy, Triboulet thus on bended knees adi• dresses himself: "Even at your feet my lords, I sue for grace, I'm sick at heart; alas, be mercifull Some other day I'll bear your humours better; For many a year your poor mis-shaped buffoon, Has made your sport. Aye, when his heart would break, Fcrgive your Triboulet, nor vent your spleen On one so helpless; give me back my child." Speaking of Saltabadil, the assassin, whom he employs to murder the king in revenge for his daughter's dishonour, he says: "how much alike his cruel trade to mine, His sword is sharp, but with a tongue more keen, I stab the heart. Aye, deeper far then he." The character of man presents strange pans(lone.; Triboulet, as represented by Victor Hugo, is a- example. Let us hope, for the sake of human nature, that fiction in this case is stranger than fact. It is certainly a blot on the play, that Triboulet, monster as he is, should be pitilessly punished through the only virtue that he possesses, and that virtue, a noble and a natural instinct, the deep love of a parent for his child. Better for Triboulet had he been a perfect monster, for Saltabadil, instead of murdering the king, murders Blanche' and having received the promised reward, delivers to Triboulet her body in a sack. One turns in horror from such a drama. The aspect of a buffoon making sport with a broken heart, an instance of which we have quoted above, is naturally one to attract the attention of the dramatist. How differently is the subject treated by Mr Gilbert in his "Yeomen of the Guard." it is the theme which runs throughout the length of that pearl among English light operas. Jack Point gives utterance to words of comedy, but the comedy is tempered with pathos, when we think of the plot, arid know the end of the play. The words are: "Though your wife ran away with a soldier that day, And took with her your trifle of money; Bless your heart they don't mind—they're exceedingly kind, They don't blame you—so long as you're funny!' A