Volume I Part 23 (1/2)
Another fellow, apparently of the very lowest cla.s.s, was engaged, during the whole time that the tumult lasted, in haranguing a party that he had collected round him. His arms were bare to the shoulders, and his gesticulation exceedingly violent.
”Nous avons des droits!” he exclaimed with great vehemence.... ”Nous avons des droits!... Qui est-ce qui veut les nier?... Nous ne demandons que la charte.... Qu'ils nous donnent la charte!”...
The uproar lasted about three hours, after which the crowd quietly dispersed; and it is to be hoped that they may all employ themselves honestly in their respective callings, till the next fine evening shall again bring them together in the double capacity of actors and spectators at the ”pet.i.t spectacle.”
The constant repet.i.tion of this idle riot seems now to give little disturbance to any one; and were it not that the fines and imprisonments so constantly, and sometimes not very leniently inflicted, evidently show that they are thought worth some attention, (though, in fact, this system appears to produce no effect whatever towards checking the daring demonstrations of disaffection manifested by the rabble and their newspaper supporters,) one might deem this indifference the result of such sober confidence of strength in the government, as left them no anxiety whatever as to anything which this troublesome faction could achieve.
Such, I believe, is in fact the feeling of King Philippe's government: nevertheless, it would certainly conduce greatly to the well-being of the people of Paris, if such methods were resorted to as would effectually and at once put a stop to such disgraceful scenes.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Drawn & Etched by A. Hervieu.
PORTE ST. MARTIN.
London, Published by Richard Bentley, 1835.]
”LIBERTY AND ORDER” is King Philippe's motto: he could only improve it by adding ”Repose and Quiet;” for never can he reign by any other power than that given by the hope of repose and tranquillity. The hara.s.sed nation looks to him for these blessings; and if it be disappointed, the result must be terrible.
Louis-Philippe is neither Napoleon nor Charles the Tenth. He has neither the inalienable rights of the one, nor the overpowering glory of the other; but should he be happy enough to discover a way of securing to this fine but strife-worn and weary country the tranquil prosperity that it now appears beginning to enjoy, he may well be considered by the French people as greater than either.
Bold, fearless, wise, and strong must be the hand that at the present hour can so wield the sceptre of France; and I think it may reasonably be doubted if any one could so wield it, unless its first act were to wave off to a safe distance some of the reckless spirits who are ready to lay down their lives on the scaffold--or in a gutter--or over a pan of charcoal, rather than ”live peaceably in that state of life unto which it has pleased G.o.d to call them.”
If King Louis-Philippe would undertake a crusade to restore independence to Italy, he might convert every traitor into a hero. Let him address the army raised for the purpose in the same inspiring words that Napoleon used of yore. ”Soldats!... Partons! Retablir le capitole.... Reveiller le peuple romain engourdi par plusieurs siecles d'esclavage.... Tel sera le fruit de vos victoires. Vous rentrerez alors dans vos foyers, et vos concitoyens diront en vous montrant--Il etait de l'armee d'Italie!” And then let him inst.i.tute a new order, ent.i.tled ”L'Ordre Imperial de la Redingote grise,” or ”L'Ordre indomptable des Bras croises,” and accord to every man the right of admission to it, with the honour to boot of having an eagle embroidered on the breast of his coat if he conducted himself gallantly and like a Frenchman in the field of battle, and we should soon find the Porte St. Martin as quiet as the Autocrat's dressing-room at St. Petersburg.
If such an expedient as this were resorted to, there would no longer be any need of that indecent species of safety-valve by which the noxious vapour generated by the ill-disposed part of the community is now permitted to escape. It may be very great, dignified, and high-minded for a king and his ministers to laugh at treasonable caricatures and seditious pleasantries of all sorts,--but I do greatly doubt the wisdom of it. Human respect is necessary for the maintenance and support of human authority; and that respect will be more profitably shown by a decent degree of general external deference, than by the most sublime kindlings of individual admiration that ever warmed the heart of a courtier. This ”_avis au lecteur_” might be listened to with advantage, perhaps, in more countries than one.
Since I last gave you any theatrical news, we have been to see Mademoiselle Mars play the part of Henriette in Moliere's exquisite comedy of ”Les Femmes Savantes;” and I really think it the most surprising exhibition I ever witnessed. Having seen her in ”Tartuffe”
and ”Charlotte Brown” from a box in the first circle, at some distance from the stage, I imagined that the distance had a good deal to do with the effect still produced by the grace of form, movement, and toilet of this extraordinary woman.
To ascertain, therefore, how much was delusion and how much was truth in the beauty I still saw or fancied, I resolved upon the desperate experiment of securing that seat in the balcony which is nearest to the stage. It was from this place that I saw her play Henriette; a character deriving no aid whatever from trick or stage effect of any kind; one, too, whose charm lies wholly in simple, unaffected youthfulness: there are no flashes of wit, no startling hits either of pathos or pleasantry--nothing but youth, gentleness, modesty, and tenderness--nothing but a young girl of sixteen, rather more quiet and retiring than usual. Yet this character, which seems of necessity to require youth and beauty in the performer, though little else, was personated by this miraculous old lady in a manner that not only enchanted me--being, as I am, _rococo_--but actually drew forth from the omnipotent _jeunes gens_ in the _parterre_ such clamorous rapture of applause as must, I think, have completely overset any actress less used to it than herself. Is not this marvellous?
How much it is to be regretted that the art of writing comedy has pa.s.sed away! They have vaudevilles here--charming things in their way; and we have farces at home that certainly cannot be thought of without enjoying the gratification of a broad grin. But for comedy, where the intellect is called upon as well as the muscles, it is dead and gone.
The ”Hunchback” is perhaps the nearest approach to it, whose birth I remember in our country, and ”Bertrand and Raton” here; but in both cases the pleasurable excitement is produced more by the plot than the characters--more by the business of the scene than by the wit and elegance of the dialogue, except perhaps in the pretty wilfulness of Julia in the second act of the ”Hunchback.” But even here I suspect it was more the playful grace of the enchanting actress who first appeared in the part, than anything in the words ”set down for her,”
which so delighted us.
We do now and then get a new tragedy,--witness ”Fazio” and ”Rienzi;”
but Comedy--genuine, easy, graceful, flowing, talking Comedy--is dead: I think she followed Sheridan to the grave and was buried with him!
But never is one so conscious of the loss, or so inclined to mourn it, as after seeing a comedy of Moliere's of the first order,--for his pieces should be divided into cla.s.ses, like diamonds. What a burst of new enjoyment would rush over all England, or all France, if a thing like ”The School for Scandal” or ”Les Femmes Savantes” were to appear before them!
Fancy the delight of sitting to hear wit--wit that one did not know by rote, bright, sparkling, untasted as yet by any--new and fresh from the living fountain!--not coming to one in the shape of coin, already bearing the lawful stamp of ten thousand plaudits to prove it genuine, and to refuse to accept which would be treason; but as native gold, to which the touchstone of your own intellect must be applied to test its worth! Shall we ever experience this?
It is strange that the immense ma.s.s of material for comedy which the pa.s.sing scenes of this singular epoch furnish should not be worked up by some one. Moliere seems not to have suffered a single pa.s.sing folly to escape him. Had he lived in these days, what delicious whigs, radicals, ”penny-rint” kings, from our side of the water,--what tragic poets, republicans, and parvenus from his own, would he have cheered us withal!
Rousseau says, that when a theatre produces pieces which represent the real manners of the people, they must greatly a.s.sist those who are present at them to see and amend what is vicious or absurd in themselves, ”comme on ote devant un miroir les taches de son visage.”
The idea is excellent; and surely there never was a time when it would be so easy or so useful to put it in practice. Would the G.o.ds but send a Sheridan to England and a Moliere to France, we might yet live to see some of our worst misfortunes turned to jest, and, like the man choking in a quinsey, laugh ourselves into health again.
LETTER x.x.xV.
Soiree dansante.--Young Ladies.--Old Ladies.--Anecdote.--The Consolations of Chaperones.--Flirtations.--Discussion upon the variations between young Married Women in France and in England.--Making love by deputy.--Not likely to answer in England.