Punch (72.1877)

June 9, 1877.] PUNCH, OK THE LONDON CHARIVARI. 257

ever done. Those who have seen his bye-play in Richard the Third
while listening to Margaret's curse, can form some idea of how
this artist would develop his part in such a situation as this, where,
innocent of crime, he is accused by his own father of murder and of
attempted parricide, and, finally, is upbraided by him as a coward,
because he refuses to commit suicide, in order to save the family
name from the ignominy of the scaffold.

The change from Lesurques to Dubosc is startling. Me. Ibving's
Dubosc might bear a little toning down—a slight graduating where
the outlines of Dubosc and Lesurques touch, so that there should be
more blending of the physique of the two characters. Sharp little boy
Joliquet, at the Inn, would, probably, have distinguished between the
amiable, smiling traveller and the rough, gruff, scowling brute who
addresses him within two minutes after the first has left. True
that the wife, Jeannette, has been deceived by the close resem-
blance of Lesurques to Dubosc, but then she alludes to what she
supposes to be his disguise in "fine clothes" at his house on the
Boulevard Montmartre. Joliquet, the boy, has not had time, or
opportunity, to consider this, and I think a point has certainly been
lost by Me. Irving in not making in this scene, at all events, some
more marked, but purely accidental, resemblance in dress and in
arrangement of hair, between Dubosc and Lesurques; such, I mean,
as would naturally induce not only Joliquei's mistake, but also
that of Jerome, Lesurques' father.

Miss Isabel Batemax has never been seen to greater advantage
than as Jeannette, the wife of Dubosc ; and as for Miss Vibgixia,
she was a perfect picture of the fashion under the Directory.

I cannot dismiss this without recurring to an admirably studied
point in Mb. Ibving's Dubosc. In his dealings with the gang the
Actor never loses sight of his being " the Captain." He arranges
the plan of the robbery of the mail, he disposes his forces with as
much decision as Richard showed on the eve of Bosworth. Then
on the spot Dubosc is cool and collected. His enormous draughts of
brandy have had no effect on his head or his hand. He takes up
his vantage-ground as if it were a quiet corner in a battue, and
quietly has a pot-shot at the guard and driver. As he has arranged
it, so he carries it out. The other robbers fumble and fuss. He
becomes_ impatient with their mode of doing business ; his idea
clearly is that, after all, collaboration in such a crime is almost
useless, and that, if you really want a thing well done, you had
better by far do it yourself. The only accomplice at all necessary
to him is Durochat, the traveller in the mail, played by a gentle-
man appropriately named Mb. Helps—and this Mister helps con-
siderably^ _ In the last Act, where it is all Dubosc—Dubosc drunk,
mad, delirious with savage joy at the prospect of seeing the
innocent suffer for the guilty, fiendish as Quilp, brutal as Macaire
to Jacques Strop (who finds a parallel in Fouinard, carefully played
by Mb. J. Aecheb), and, finally, Dubosc, like some wild animal at
bay, desperately struggling for existence—Mb. Ibving gives such a
picture as will never be effaced from the spectator's memory. The
brutality of this scene is so appalling that I do not wonder at the
hearty cheer which arose from the house at the re-appearance of
Mb. Ibving as the noble, honest, gentle Lesurques, to replace the
wretch whom they had seen, but a few seconds before, hide behind
the door, prepared to sell his life dearly. That The Lyons Mail is a
real success goes without saying.

Across the road to the Gaiety is but a step. Here the French
company was, last week, playing L'Ami Fritz, and, though the
artistes, headed by M. Fbederic Febvbe and Mlle. Alice Lody,
come from the Comedie Francaise, from the Ambigu, the Porte St.
Martin, the Chatelet, the Grymnase , the Odeon, and the Gaite,
the ensemble of the performance was as perfect as if they had been
all playing together for the last fifty nights. That L'Ami Fritz
lacks incident and action, everyone interested in the French Stage
knows by this time. But, though to my mind there is too much
harping on one string, it is a refreshing piece, with an air of the coun-
try breathing about it, and its success in Paris afforded pleasant and
not needless proof that thoroughly good acting, an intelligent choice
and unvulgar treatment of even small and unexciting incidents,
and natural dialogue, will carry a simple and pure story to a trium-
phant issue. The speeches are perhaps occasionally too lengthy,
but then these occur invariably in the Rabbi's part, who is profes-
sionally a preacher. Mlle. Alice Lodt, as sweet Suzel, like too
many French ingenues, is just a thought too ingenuous; she has a
way of " primming " up her lips, a little too suggestive of " prunes "
and " prism." The thought will intrude that she is not altogether
too innocent to have conceived the idea of trapping Friend Fritz,
and the thought naturally follows, how long will it be before he
repents of his matrimonial plunge, and justifies the ridicule of his
old bachelor chums ?

M. Fbedebic Febvbe as Friend Fritz was inimitable ; while
Madame Maes, as the old housekeeper Catherine, and Madame
Godin, in Lisbet the maid, small as the parts may be, are the
very persons represented, and help out the completeness of the per-
formance most materially.

M. Febvbe's Marcel—in the piece which we have had Englished in

at least two forms—is a wonderfully pathetic and powerful pre-
sentment of a mind shattered by a great sorrow, and the acting
throughout was in startling _ contrast with what we have seen in the
English adaptations of the little drama.

Me. Hollingshead gives us a long list of French plays in pro-
spect, with first-rate artistes to act in them.

Before this letter appears, Thebesa will have made her bow to
the audience on the 4th of June (the great Etonian holiday), and is
to remain with us till the 18th, when comes ever-welcome Chaumont
with things new and old.

At Covent Garden, Path's Zerlina, in Don Giovanni, was, as
usual, a triumph. On the Tannhauser night, Richabd Wagneb
and Madame Matebna were in the house, but Richaed (who seemed
quite himself again) left after the Second Act. Albani was charm-
ing, Of course we are all longing to hear that Mlle. Titiens is
out of danger. It was but the other evening I saw her in excellent
health and spirits, apparently, at the Albert Hall listening to the
Music of the Future. Signob Gayabbe has got rid of his accent—I
mean the accent that was placed on his " E "—and looks and sings
as well as ever, at least, this is the opinion, quantum valeat, of

Youb Repbesentatiye.

FOUND AT EPSOM.

A Letter of Thanks in Turkish, signed " Abdul," and "addressed
" To the sweet singing Bulbul of the House of Lords."

A Pig-tail standing on end, apparently cut from its roots while
the wearer was in a state of bewilderment; also a willow-pattern
plate, the bottom of which has evidently been used as an extem-
porised note-book, being covered with hastily written remarks in
the Chinese character on the English ditto. {Mr. Punch's own
sergeant has served in the East, and understands the language of the
Flowery Land.)

A Total Abstainer's Pledge unsigned, bound up, with a pocket
edition of Joe Miller, in a handsome case, inscribed "from Sib W.
L. to Majoe O'G., M.P." and the quotation—

■--" Si quid novisti rectius istis

Candidus imperti; si non, his utere mecum."

A Large Bag full of grotesque masks and false noses, with a paper
pinned to the bag, "I have collected these articles which I have
but too much reason to believe are sold, bought and worn at Epsom
Races by Jesuits, for purposes of disguise," signed " G. H. W.,
Peterborough."

A Box containing a set of house-breaking apparatus and several
works of devotion, in a neat case, with the initials "A. T., Sacer-
dos," and the inscription, " for use at St. James's, Hatcham ; " the
books bear the Papal imprimatur, and are printed at Rome.

A Packet of General Orders signed " Geobge," with marginal
notes of objections to them, apparently raised by their author.
Internal evidence would suggest that the owner is a high official at
the Horse Guards.

A much thumbed copy of The Young Navigator's Manual, deal-
ing with nautical matters in an elementary manner, with inscription
on the fly-leaf " First L.'s room, Ad. Office, Whitehall." _ !

Proof-sheets of a pamphlet upon Horse Racing from the Earliest j
Times, with some account of the latest Epsom Atrocities, initialed :
" W. E. G."

A MS., with the title Notes on Shakspeare : No. 18. On the cha-
racter of Juliet's Nurse's husband—showing that his merriment was
but the mask of a deep seriousness. And another, marked No. 19,
Inquiries into the Altitude of a Chopme. (See Hamlet's speech to
the Players.) Addressed to the Editor of the Nineteenth Century.