Part 51 (1/2)
ST. FAL, DUPONT, DAMAS, and ARMAND.
One might a.s.semble what is best in these four actors, without making one perfect _lover_. I have already spoken of the first three, who, in comedy, have nearly the same defects as in tragedy. As for the fourth, he is young; but unfortunately for him, he has no other recommendation.
_Characters of_ Grims, _or_ Roles a manteau.[2]
GRANDMeNIL and CAUMONT.
GRANDMeNIL. This performer is, perhaps, the only one who has preserved what the French critics call _la tradition_, that is, a traditionary knowledge of the old school, or of the style in which players formerly acted, and especially in the time of MOLIeRE. This would be an advantage for him, but for a defect which it is not in his power to remedy; for what avails justness of diction when a speaker can no longer make himself heard? And this is the case with GRANDMeNIL. However, I would advise you to see him in the character of the _Avare_ (in MOLIeRE'S comedy of that name) which suits him perfectly. By placing yourself near the stage, you might lose nothing of the truth and variety of his delivery, as well as of the play of his countenance, which is facilitated by his excessive meagreness, and to which his sharp black eyes give much vivacity.
GRANDMeNIL is member of the National Inst.i.tute.
CAUMONT. He possesses that in which his princ.i.p.al in this cast of parts is deficient, and little more. One continually sees the efforts he makes to be comic, which sufficiently announces that he is not naturally so. However, he has a sort of art, which consists in straining his acting a little without overcharging it.
_Parts of Valets_.
DUGAZON, DAZINCOURT, and LAROCh.e.l.lE.
DUGAZON. One may say much good and much ill of this actor, and yet be perfectly correct. He has no small share of warmth and comic humour.
He plays sometimes as if by inspiration; but more frequently too he charges his parts immoderately. PReVILLE, who is no common authority, said of DUGAZON: ”How well he can play, if he is in the humour!” He is but seldom in the humour, and when he is requested not to overcharge his parts, 'tis then that he charges them most. Not that he is a spoiled child of the public; for they even treat him sometimes with severity. True it is that he is reproached for his conduct during the storms of the revolution. Although advanced in years, he became Aide-de-camp to SANTERRE.----SANTERRE! An execrable name, and almost generally execrated! Is then a mixture of horror and ridicule one of the characteristics of the revolution? And must a painful remembrance come to interrupt a recital which ought to recall cheerful ideas only? In his quality of Aide-de-camp to the Commandant of the national guard of Paris, DUGAZON was directed to superintend the interment of the unfortunate Lewis XVI, and in order to consume in an instant the body of that prince, whose pensioner he had been, he caused it to be placed in a bed of quick lime. No doubt, DUGAZON did no more than execute the orders he received; but he was to blame in putting himself in a situation to receive them.
Not to return too abruptly to the tone which suits an article wherein I am speaking of actors playing comic parts, I shall relate a circ.u.mstance which had well nigh become tragic, in regard to DUGAZON, and which paints the temper of the time when it took place. Being an author as well as an actor, DUGAZON had written a little comedy, ent.i.tled _Le Modere_. It was his intention to depress the quality indicated by the t.i.tle. However, he was thought to have treated his subject ill, and, after all, to have made his _modere_ an honest man.
In consequence of this opinion, at the very moment when he was coming off the stage, after having personated that character in his piece, he was apprehended and taken to prison.
DAZINCOURT. In no respect can the same reproaches be addressed to him as to DUGAZON; but as to what concerns the art, it may be said that if DUGAZON goes beyond the mark, DAZINCOURT falls short of it.
PReVILLE said of the latter as a comedian: ”Leaving pleasantry out of the question, DAZINCOURT is well enough.” Nothing can be added to the opinion of that great master.
LAROCh.e.l.lE. He has warmth, truth, and much comic humour; but is sometimes a little inclined to charge his parts. He has a good stage face. It appears that he can only perform parts not overlong, as his voice easily becomes hoa.r.s.e. This is a misfortune both for himself and the public; for he really might make a good comedian.
There are a few secondary actors in the comic line, such as BAPTISTE the younger, who performs in much too silly a manner his parts of simpletons, and one DUBLIN, who is the ostensible courier; not to speak of some others, whose parts are of little importance.
_January 22, in continuation,_
_Princ.i.p.al female Characters, in Comedy._
Mesdemoiselles CONTAT, and MeZERAY.--Madame TALMA.
Mademoiselle CONTAT. This actress has really brought about a revolution in the theatre. Before her time, the essential requisites for the parts which she performs, were sensibility, decorum, n.o.bleness, and dignity, even in diction, as well as in gestures, and deportment. Those qualities are not incompatible with the grace, the elegance of manners, and the playfulness also required by those characters, the princ.i.p.al object of which is to interest and please, which ought only to touch lightly on comic humour, and not be a.s.similated to that of chambermaids, as is done by Mademoiselle CONTAT. A great coquette, for instance, like _Celimene_ in the _Misanthrope_, ought not to be represented as a girl of the town, nor _Madame de Clainville_, in the pretty little comedy of _La Gageure_, as a shopkeeper's wife.
The innovation made by Mademoiselle CONTAT was not pa.s.sed over without remonstrance. Those strict judges, those conservators of rules, those arbiters of taste, in short, who had been long in the habit of frequenting the theatre, protested loudly against this new manner of playing the princ.i.p.al characters. ”That is not becoming!”
exclaimed they incessantly: which signified ”that is not the truth!”
But what could the feeble remonstrances of the old against the warm applause of the young?
Mademoiselle CONTAT had a charming person, of which you may still be convinced. She was not then, as she is now, overloaded with _embonpoint_, and, though rather inclined to stoop, could avail herself of the advantages of an elevated stature. None of the resources of the toilet were neglected by her, and for a long time the most elegant women in Paris took the _ton_ for dress from Mademoiselle CONTAT. Besides, she always had a delicacy of discrimination in her delivery, and a varied sprightliness in the _minutiae_ of her acting. Her voice, though sometimes rather shrill, is not deficient in agreeableness, but is easily modulated, except when it is necessary for her to express feeling. The inferiority of Mademoiselle CONTAT on this head is particularly remarkable when she plays with MOLe. In a very indifferent comedy, called _Le Jaloux sans amour_, at the conclusion of which the husband entreats his wife to pardon his faults, MOLe contrives to find accents so tender, so affecting; he envelops his voice, as it were, with sounds so soft, so mellow, and at the same time so delicate, that the audience, fearing to lose the most trifling intonation, dare not draw their breath.