Tragedy and comedy, of their classical pieces; in a word, to the
dramatic performances usually given at the Theatre Francais.
The first piece I saw performed was Manlius;[44] but I was too far off
from the stage to judge of the acting, and could do little more than catch
the sounds. The parterre and the whole house was full. I was in the fourth
tier of boxes, yet I could distinguish at intervals the finest and most
prominent traits, of Talma's acting, particularly in that scene where he
upbraids his friend with having betrayed him. This he gave with uncommon
energy and effect. The plot of this piece is very similar to that of
Venice preserved.[45]
The next piece I saw represented was the Avare of Moliere, which to me
was one of the greatest dramatic treats I had ever witnessed. Every part
was well supported. The next was Athalie of Racine. Here too I was highly
gratified. Mlle Georges performed the part of Athalie and gave me the
perfect ideal of the haughty Queen. Her narration of the dream was given
with the happiest effect, and in her attempt to conceal her uneasiness and
her affected contempt of the dream in these lines:
Un songe, me devrois - je inquieter d'un songe?
she seemed in reality to labour under all the anxiety and fatigue arising
from it. That fine scene between Joad and Joas was well given, and the
little girl who did the part of Joas performed with a good deal of spirit.
The actor who played Joad recited in a most impressive manner the advice to
the young prince terminating in these lines:
Vous souvenant, mon fils, que cache sous ce lin,
Comme eux vous futes pauvre et comme eux orphelin.
The interrogating scene between Athalie and Joad was given spiritedly, but
the rather abrupt and uncourtierlike reply to the Queen's remark, "Ils sont
deux puissans dieux" - "Lui seul est dieu, Madame, et le votre n'est rien" -
excited a laugh and I fancy never fails to do so, every time the piece is
performed.
Racine has several passages in his tragedies which perhaps have rather too
much naivete for the dignity of the cothurnus; for instance in the answer
of Agamemnon to Achille in the tragedy of Iphigenie:
Puisque vous le savez, pourquoi le demander?
A poet of to-day would be quizzed for a line like the above, but who dare
venture to point out any defect in an author of whom Voltaire has said and
with justice too, that the only criticism to be made of him (Racine) would
be to write under every page: "Admirable, harmonieux, sublime!"
The costume and the decorations at the Theatre francais are so strictly
classical and appropriate in every respect, that it is to me a source of
high delight to witness the representation of the favourite pieces of
Racine, Corneille, Moliere and Voltaire, which I have so often read with so
much pleasure in the closet and no small quantity of which I have by heart.
The next piece I saw was the Cinnna of Corneille; and here it was that I
beheld Talma for the second time. I was of course highly pleased, tho' I
was rather far off to hear very distinctly; this was, however, no very
great loss, as I was perfectly well acquainted with the tragedy. Talma's
gestures, his pause's, his natural mode of acting gave a great relief to
the long declamation with which this tragedy abounds. When this tragedy was
given it was during the time that poor Labedoyere's trial was going on, and
the allusions to Augustus' clemency were eagerly seized and applauded. It
was hoped that Louis XVIII would imitate Augustus. Vain hope!
I have seen Phedre; the part of Phedre by that admirable actress Mlle
Duchesnois, who performs the part so naturally and with so much passion
that we entirely forget the extreme plainness of the person. She acts with
far more feeling and pathos than Mlle Georges. I shall never be able to
forget Mlle Duchesnois in Phedre. She gave me a full idea of the
impassioned Queen, nor were it possible to depict with greater fidelity the
"Venus toute entiere a sa proie attachee," as in that beautiful speech of
Phedre to Oenone wherein she reveals her passion for Hippolyte and
pourtrays the terrible struggle between duty and female delicacy on the one
hand, and on the other a flame that could not be overcome, convinced as it
were of the complete inutility of further efforts of resistance and
invoking death as her only refuge. I was moved even to tears. I am so great
an admirer of the whole of this speech beginning "Mon mal vient de plus
lorn" etc., and ending "Un reste de chaleur tout pret a s'exhaler," that I
think in it Racine has not only united the excellencies of Euripides,
Sappho and Theocritus in describing the passion of love, but has far
surpassed them all; that speech is certainly the masterpiece of French
versification and scarcely inferior to it is that beautiful and ingenuous
confession of love by Hippolyte to Aricie. What an admirable pendant to
the love of Phedre! In Hippolyte you behold the innocence, simplicity and
ingenuousness of a first and pure attachment: in Phedre the embrasement,
the ungovernable delirium of a criminal passion.
I have seen Mlle Duchesnois again in the Merope of Voltaire and admire
her more and more. This is an admirable play. The dialogue is so spirited;
the agitation of maternal tenderness, and the occasional bursts of feelings
impossible to be restrained, render this play one of the most interesting
perhaps on the French stage, and Mlle Duchesnois gave with the happiest
effect her part in those two scenes; the first wherein she supposes Egisthe
to be the person who has killed her son; in the other where having
discovered the reality of his person, she is obliged to dissemble the
discovery, but on Egisthe being about to be sacrificed she exclaims
"Barbare, c'est mon fils!" The part of Egisthe was given by a young actor
who made his appearance at this theatre for the first tune, and he executed
his part with complete success (Firmin, I think, was his name). Lafond did
the part of Polyphonte and did it well.
