be struck by a conviction of the great inferiority of delineation by private actors of those characters upon which the principal comedians of the capital have set the seal of their talents. Besides, as the dramatic pieces played in drawing-rooms are only intended, like other games of society, to fill up the pauses of conversation, a piece in five acts is vastly too long. Three pieces of one act each should be always preferred; as in the interval between the pieces conversation is resumed, and rendered more lively and interesting by remarks upon what has been played. Leisure then, and a comparative indifference to the intrigues of the court, gave rise to private theatricals; soon after, the incommodious length of five-act comedies, and the disadvantageous comparisons they suggested between the private actors and Molé, and other great comedians who flourished towards the end of the reign of Louis XV. and the beginning of that of Louis XVI. brought into vogue little pieces in one act. Collé was the great master spirit in this species of composition, but as the opinion entertained of decency towards the close of the reign of Louis XV. is different from that which prevails at present, La Vérité dans le Vin, Ce que Dieu garde est bien gardé, and other chefs d'œuvre of this lively writer, would now be considered too licentious for representation.

These pieces are called proverbs, because that the audience may be made to take as much as possible an active part in what is played, they are called upon to divine the proverb meant to be developed by the little piece. Thus after witnessing the chef d'œuvre of Collé, the spectators exclaim in vino veritas, for in this little comedy a tipsy lover takes the husband of his mistress for the confidant of his passion. As the votaries of Bacchus are generally very tender and softhearted, under his influence, the lover, who is also the friend of the husband, feels remorse at having dishonoured him, and with tears in his eyes makes him the most moving excuses. Fortunately the husband is also somewhat more than half seas over; so that when they both become sobered, it is not a difficult matter to persuade him the pretended confidence was nothing more than a jest. Most of the Proverbes written by Collé were played by noblemen of the court, at the palace of the Duke of Orleans, the father of Egalité, and the same who is so calumniated by Madame de Genlis in her Memoirs, though he married her aunt, Madame de Montesson. This lady took from obscurity and misery this same Madame de Genlis (then Mademoiselle Ducret), who was at that time in the habit of hiring herself out to play the harp, at four louis an evening. Being now a countess and a devotee, she forgets this act of kindness, and holds up to public ridicule the author of it. Several interesting details upon these Proverbes may be found in the curious memoirs of his own life, written by Collé. With the exception of an ill-placed jealousy of Voltaire pervading them, these memoirs are very amusing, and may rank amongst some of the pleasantest books for light summer-reading. The successor of Collé as a writer of proverbs was Carmontelle, who

was possessed of less wit and gaiety, but had more truth of colouring, and a finer tact in the observation of manners. Carmontelle published six volumes of Proverbes, and since his death, two more volumes appeared in 1810. Each of these little pieces has been played an infinite number of times. It would be doing injustice to the merit of Carmontelle were his works to be read, like an ordinary book, regularly through. No more than one, at the most two, of these proverbs should be read continuously. The plots of these little comedies are extremely slender—truth of detail, and light, but graceful comic touches, form their chief merit; they call to mind the elegant and decent comic humour of Terence. The broad vis comica would be misplaced in this species of composition. Strong comic situations require in their representation a degree of energy in the actors rarely to be met with in private players. The greater number of Carmontelle's proverbs would be unintelligible in England. But those which are founded upon the passions which, with slight modifications, are every where the same, must please even foreigners. Le Voyage de Rome, and Les Amans Chiens, for instance, must excite laughter in any corner of the civilized world. La Maison du Boulevard offers an excellent sketch of the character of a young giddy widow, who takes advantage of the foolish indulgence which an old and immensely rich uncle has for her. Another merit of these compositions is, that they exhibit a perfectly accurate picture of French society, such as it was towards the year 1778. As an extreme frivolity was the chief characteristic of that period, the principal productions of French literature at that time could have been but little relished out of France. The revolution suspended, but not put an end to, by the despotism of Napoleon, and the theocracy of the Bourbons, has rendered the French character more serious, and brought it nearer to that of the English, the Germans, and other civilized people. I have, therefore, no doubt but that the proverbs of M. Theodore Leclercq, will be better understood, and consequently better liked than those of Carmontelle, or even than the chefs d'œuvre of Collé.

M. Theodore Leclercq has published only three volumes of Proverbes; and, differing from the practice of most authors, he has only given those with which he was least satisfied-who would believe that there was any thing in common between Shakspeare and M. Theodore Leclercq, between the cedar of Lebanon and the hyssop? and yet such is the case. For, like Shakspeare, M. Leclercq, in publishing his Proverbes, loses in some measure his property in them. Being once printed, all the world are free to play them. M. Leclercq is himself an excellent actor in his own Proverbs. As private persons often refuse to play some of the ridiculous characters, lest a little of the rust may stick to them after they have put off their parts, M. Leclercq is generally the representative of this species of character; I have seen him play in the most irresistibly coarse manner the part of Germans speaking broken French, and of mystified lovers. M. Fievée, formerly in the pay of ministers, but who at present makes war upon M. de Villele

and the Jesuits, a bold proceeding undoubtedly, is the author of two excellent novels, the Dot de Suzette, and Frederic. It is thought by many that M. Fievée corrects and retouches the Proverbes of his intimate friend, M. Theodore Leclercq. However this may be, as the censorship mercilessly cuts out of all the comedies allowed to be played in Paris whatever may convey a true idea of the present state of French manners, the Proverbes of M. Leclercq will consequently have an historical importance. Foreigners, who wish to acquire an accurate knowledge of the present social habits of the Parisians, can take no surer or readier way than to read M. Leclercq's three volumes. But I must again repeat, those who wish to find out the merit of this species of composition must not read more than a hundred pages a day. The Proverb, which best paints that mixture of ambition and heedlessness which is perfectly French, is called Le Duel. A Frenchman, whose opinion has been purchased by the treasury, will not tolerate in his presence any piquant sarcasms upon the minister to whom he has sold himself. To do justice, en passant, to M. de Villele, it must be said that it is he who for the last four years has been endeavouring to spread this corruption through all classes of society, from the poor clerk at twelve hundred francs a year to the peer of France, for whose vote on the law for punishing sacrilege he has paid thirty thousand francs. A Frenchman thus bought is under the continual dread of contempt, and, as he is brave, the first stinging pleasantry addressed to him he answers by a challenge. Upon this trait turns the proverb of the Duel. There is also in this same piece the character of a mild honey-mouthed hypocrite, who takes the shortest road to fortune by passing through the village of Mont Rouge (the head quarters of the Jesuits). This personage completes the picture of the existing manners of French society. For the purpose of giving a favourable idea of this species of composition, I was long in doubt whether to translate Le Duel or Le Plus beau Jour de la Vie. However, I have fixed upon the latter. The Duel, it was to be feared, besides being not so comic, would not be well understood by foreigners. The hero of the Plus beau Jour de la Vie (ironically so called) is a young man on his wedding day, whom every one is felicitating, by telling him that it is the happiest day of his life, while at the same time he is exposed to innumerable vexations and contrarieties. Nothing is more ridiculous in French manners than the absurd etiquette observed on these occasions. There are, at least, one hundred little points of punctilio, the neglecting of which subjects the guilty person to reproach, or, what is still worse, to ridicule; as there are manuals for physicians, apothecaries, travellers, &c. it is surprising that there has not been also published a Bridegroom's Manual.

These Proverbs are got up for representation with very little trouble. Two skreens form the side scenes-some vases filled with flowers, and interspersed with tapers serve for foot lights, and to separate the audience from the stage. The fashion is to act the parts without any exaggeration of gesture-it is thus M. Leclercq himself plays them. The bon

ton is to have an air of doing nothing extraordinary-in a word, to be perfectly natural.

N.

LE PLUS BEAU JOUR DE LA VIE; OU IL N'EST PAS D'ETERNELLES

AMOURS.

THE HAPPIEST DAY OF LIFE.

Persons represented.

MR. VIETOFF.

MRS. VIETOFF.

AGLAE, their daughter.

ERNEST, the intended husband of Aglaé.

JUSTIN, cousin to Aglaé.

FRANCOISE, waiting maid to Aglaé.
MOTHER TOPIE, a flower woman.

Scene-PARIS.

An Apartment, in which is a full-length dressing glass.

Enter ERNEST and JUSTIN.

Ernest. Certainly I shall not forget that this is the happiest day of my life-amongst the twenty persons already assembled in the drawingroom, there was not one who could find any thing else to say to me on my marriage.

Justin. Well, and are you not of their opinion?

Ernest. Oh! certainly; but can they not find something better to say than this commonplace on such an occasion?

Justin. They consider themselves very fortunate in finding phrases ready-made.

Ernest looking at his watch]. Ten o'clock! It is only yet ten o'clock. Heavens! how long this morning has appeared to me. I have already done so many things! I am quite exhausted.

Justin. How! already.

Ernest. I have been on foot since sun-rise.

Justin [laughing]. What impatience!

Ernest. Do not laugh without knowing at what.

Justin. What the devil is the matter with you?

Ernest. I tell you that I am harassed!

Justin. By what?

Ernest. By having run all over Paris.

Justin. For what purpose?

Ernest. In search of notaries. Amongst the bills given me by Aglae's father as a part of her fortune, there are three I have been obliged to have protested; I do not wish to say any thing about it to-day; but it is disagreeable.

Justin. That surprises me-my uncle generally does business only with sure people.

Ernest. Who is sure now-a-days?

Justin. There is some mistake in this. But is that all that troubles you?

Ernest. Oh! No, indeed. After quitting the notary, I was obliged to call upon one of your relations, Madame Duriffey. Yesterday evening I promised your aunt to humble myself properly before Madame Duriffey. She had refused to come to the wedding under pretence of I know not what formalities not having been observed towards her; I had to struggle hard to overcome her objections, without understanding them; and the task had been rendered more difficult by the husband of the lady having just obtained a place, which has increased her consequence amazingly; so that it was scarcely possible for me to descend to a satisfactory pitch of submission. She has against you all a list of grievances that date from the deluge, and the enumeration of which tired me to death. I listened to and approved of every thing she said, so that at length she deigned to offer me her protection, which I very quickly accepted, in order to have done with the matter. We may now hope, that out of consideration for me, she will condescend to show herself for a moment in the ball-room this evening.

Enter MR. Vietoff.

Mr. Vietoff. Here, my son-in-law, is a letter that concerns you—it is from Grignon, and it appears that the ball-room he was to have given you is engaged for a public dinner.

Ernest [reading]. It is not possible.

Mr. Vietoff. You see it is so, however.

Ernest. If I knew that Aglaé was not yet ready

Mr. Vietoff. Oh! even when a woman is ready, there are still so many things to be done to her dress, that you will have full time to go and see about your ball. For, in fact, I do not see how you can dispose of all the company unless you make them dance. My wife's family and mine are like two rivers that have never yet been able to flow in conjunction; your family is altogether unknown to them-so that it is the violins alone that can give any appearance of harmony to all that.

Ernest. I cannot understand this change, the thing was perfectly agreed on. I shall acquaint Aglaé. [He goes to the door of her room]. Aglaé.

[A voice from within]. Who's there?

Ernest. It is I.

Voice. Wait a moment.

Ernest still at the door. I wished to tell you that I am obliged to go out and to ask you

Voice. Very well.

Ernest [coming from the door a little out of temper]. It is, however, disagreeable that she will not listen to me.

Mr. Vietoff. Hush-do not play the husband yet.
Justin. Let me try [he goes to the door]. Cousin.