The Sun. — 1849-02-06 (London, England)

OLYMPIC THEATRE. Emile Angier has written no (more graceful little drama than that which has been translated, or rather paraphrased, into English by John Oxenford. Last evening the new version of the Cigue was produced with brilliant success at the Olympic Theatre, the principal characters being inimitably pourtrayed by Mrs. Stirling and Mr. Leigh Murray. Those who bear in recollection the beginning of Mr. Mitchell's season of 1848, in St. James's, will not have forgotten the agreeable freshness of the little piece here revived in another language—the classical elegance of what may be called the drapery of the drama—the sparkling witticisms scattered through the dial igue—or the peculiar combination of languor and excitement diffused over the incidents. With little claim to excellence in regard to dramatic completeness, the Cigue had nevertheless an indescribable charm in the circumstance of its originality both in its conception and in its treatment. The moral is literally an antidote to suicide. Clinias, an Athenian youth, (one of the E 9721501) is the hero. He is first revealed in the condition of a satiated voluptary— " used up" in regard to all his emotions—blase to very exhaustion—ennuyee beyond endurance by the cloying sweetness and pomps of his profligacy—absolutely wearied of life, and resolved at last to rid himself of the barthen of existence by quaffing a draught of hemlock. Before committing self-destruction, however, he detew mines to amuse himself with one more sensation. To this end ho proposes to bequeath his possessions to one or other of his two parasites Cleon or Paris. The game in which they are rendered competitors for his property is nothing less than that of courtship. 'They are required to gain the affections of $ beautiful Greek slave just purchased: by Clinias; and whoever proves the successful suitor is to inherit the fortunes of the debauchee. Nothing, however, will induce the Grecian to listen to the advances of the rival sycophants, and disgusted in the end with their hollow and selfish flatteries she flies for protection to her lord. In the rapture of hearkening to the acknowledgment of her love for himself, Clinias hurls the bowl of hemlock from him, and compensates the slave for the trials to which she has been subjected by espousing her, and abandoning altogether his parasites, his profligacy, and his thoughts of drinking poison. In the original the drama is not only rhythmical but rhymed. Mr. Oxenford has transformed the couplets into blank verse, and, in doing so, has displayed the capacity and skill which he has obtained by practice as a translator. Mr. Leigh Murray as Clinias was peculiarly felicitous both in the delineation of a soured and cynical voluptuary, ' and in the revelation of love and ecstacy inspired by the purity of the Greek maiden. The slave found its Mrs. Stirling a graceful and impassioned impersonator. Both of the principal artistes were called before the curtain on the conclusion of the play, and rewarded with the heartiest applause. Of the scenic effects we must likewise speak in terms of eulogium. In particular the spectacle produced by the banquet in the polychromatic triclinium—where the guests reposed upon cushions habited in the gorgeous kitons of Attica, and crowned with the violet garlands of the Acropolis—was singularly beautiful. Pauvre Jacques was subsequently represented by Mr. Benjamin Barnett, hitherto a stranger to a London audience. With a recollection of the inimitable acting of Mr. Morris Barnett in the same parts it must; be confessed that the debutant had great difficulties to overcome. His triumph, nevertheless, in the expression of the old Frenchman's decrepitude, whimsicality, and pathos, was complete. He was ,rewarded with acclamations.