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right whatever in woman ' s virtue , on the contrary is rather inclined to spice his dishes with a little feminine coquetry and falsehood , the result has not been happy . Legouve supplies the Virtue , Scribe the Weakness ; but that pinch of cayenne pepper is too strong , and gives a disagreeable flavour , against which L protest . The real comedy lies elsewhere . It lies-with De Grignon , the Janus Bifrons , half hero , half coward , whose mother was a Lioness , whose father a Gazelle , and who swayed alternately by mother and father , is this moment a rash intrepid hero , the next a
faltering coward ; it lies also with the ruses of the Countess to deceive Montrichard , who has come to arrest the conspirator she conceals in her house . These scenes carry off the comedy in triumph , and make one forgive the morbid anatomy of the love passages . Regnier as De Grignon kept me in a roar of laughter : comedy , genuine comedy , without an exaggerated line , without a grimace of farce represented so perfectly the integrity of De Grignon ' s complex and paradoxical nature , that laughter
was irresistible , and admiration succeeded laughter —which is never the case in farce . Lafont played the difficult part of Henri de Flavigneul—disguised as a footman—with quietness and elegance—he never was the footman . As for Mdlle . Judith . . . no , gallantry turns aside my pen ; after all Mdlle . Judith is a woman , and I have something of Legouve in me ( perhaps copyright interests also ! who knows ?) . Let us have Regnier as often as possible , Mr . Mitchell , and we shall be grateful . Hyacinthe may remove his nose and not be missed .
Besides the French Plays there has been a new and successful debutante at Her Majesty ' s—Mdlle . Alaymo , whose Lucrezia Borgia , I am told , shows dramatic capabilities in a handsome person ; but I will be copious in criticism when I have seen her . At the Royal Italian Opera , the Huguenots and Robert le Diable have been excellently given , though . I cannot join in the chorus of praise which salutes Grisi ' s Alice . My admiration for Giulia Grisi you know ; but it does not extend to her Alice . It is too much to expect Norma to be simple and naive ; grand and queenly she is ; playful and passionate she can be ; but gentle , creduinnocence in
lous , naive , with the freshness of voice , accent , and bearing—it is asking too much to ask it of her . Formes was effective , though coarse , as Bertram . His acting has too much of the obvious German diablerie in it ; clever it certainly is , and thoughtful , but overdone and often coarsely done . His singing was at times magnificent ; at times he emulated a wild bull , forgetting that he was not on the prairie . Castellan sang charmingly—considering her singing merely as vocalization—hut she wanted passion , expression , and abandon in that passionate scena , " Robert , toi que j ' aime . " Tamberlik was the finest Robert I have seen .
All expectations of theatrical prosperity during this season are ominously threatened by the opening nights : never was there such a bad Easter None of the theatres are doing well . The crowds that were to overheat them stolidly remaining away . It is to be hoped this is only the lull before the storm , and that next week the season will really begin . Webster announces Douglas Jerrold ' s comedy , Retired from Business , for this evening : that will draw a bumper if anything will . of and
The Lyceum revives its Day Reckoning ; those who want to see perfect acting should see Charley Mathews and Madame Vestris in this piece . Leigh Murray takes his benefit on Monday next ; he is too great a favourite not to have a crowded audience . Mr . Ranger—long absent from London—reappears on Tuesday as Sir Peter Teazle at DruryLanc : hitherto he has been principally known as a performer of Frenchmen ; he now aspires to high comedy . Vivian .
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CJOTTI'lUKl ) KINKKI / H I . KCTUUKS ON TIIK HISTORY OK Till' ; MODI 5 KN DRAMA . Oa Monday evening Professor Kin Is el delivered the first of a . series of twelve lectures on the History of the Modern Drama . ' To the more intelligent and cultivated portion of the London public , these discourse * will allord n no common decree , of interest , coming , as they do , from one who , with the lofty ima K ination uiul inspired eloquence of the poet , combines the erudition of the accomplished scholar , and the Sterling JudB nient oi the louic . al and conscientious critic . The subject of the opening lecturo was— " leniency of the Druina on the People : it « Moral and National Import uncc . " . . Kiiikel began by showing , from tho testimony of history and observation , that the elements of the drama are ( liHcernible wherever there is an approach to organized society . The enjoyment of dramatic representations ; ik no Required taste , but one which hua ita origin in an
innate tendency of man , —imitativeness . The earliest pastimes of the child , who seeks to reduce to the compass of its own little sphere and powers the occupations and amusements in which it sees manhood engaged , served to illustrate his position ; and he then went on to unfold , with great originality , the logical development of the drama , through all the phases of its existence , which have led to its present form . He pointed out the great power and value of the drama as a means of educating the taste of the multitude , and ripening it for an appreciation of the yet more refined pleasures of art ; for not only is the stage the focus to which all the arts converge , and where they are all blended , but there alone art is imbued with the living and breathing warmth able to
interest and impress those classes , who , from morn till night , have to grapple with the most miserable realities of existence , and whose minds and imaginations are too blunted to comprehend the grand and delicate conceptions of the sculptor and painter . The lecturer then turned to the noble and high moral aim of the drama . Not in the punishment of vice and reward of virtue lies the great moral lesson which the drama teaches , but in the philosophical spirit in which it traces men ' s deeds to their fountain source , and follows them to mark their consequences . The dramatic poet invests vice with sufficient
hideousness , that it should inspire us with hatred ; but at the same time he gives his hero so much in common with the rest of humanity , that we pity a deformity to which we are all liable , and tremble lest we be exposed to temptation , and likewise fall . Thus are the three great tragic elements , hatred , pity , and terror , awakened in the spectator s breast . When , on the other hand , the poet depicts the noblest possibilities of human greatness , -we see how the dignity of virtue may be preserved amidst misfortune and opprobrium , and how a pure conviction of a grand truth does not die with the heroic martyr who lays down
his life for it , but is bequeathed by him as a sacred trust to posterity . Such pictures as these cannot fail to animate the multitude to the realization of an elevated moral ideal , and to steel the hearts of the people to renewed and persevering labour in the great cause of freedom and justice . In conclusion Kinkel adverted to the social and political mission of the drama with much warmth . Compelled as in is , he said , for the very sake of variety , which is a condition of its being , eagerly to seize every new idea , opinion , or situation , which may be the bubble of the moment , it cannot lag behind the spirit of the age , and is compelled to march in the ranks of progress . Poetical justice demands that it espouse the cause of the wronged and oppressed , it serves the mass as a medium of giving expression to pent-up and effervescing convictions and passions that dare not find utterance elsewhere , and for these and many other causes it is one of the mightiest social and political levers .
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LETTERS TO CHARTISTS . XL The Two Tenths ok Avuih . That 10 th of April of which tho newspapers love to preserve the memory , presented in 1848 what they ( the newspapers ) call a " Chartist demonstration . " It was much more of a shop-till demonstration . However , the Chartists were at the bottom of it . The 10 th of April just past was another demonstration presenting a gratifying contrast with the former one . Let political purists say what they will , it is the suffering of the people that makes the demagogue . There is no agitation possible save where injustice prevails . The mob have no fancies . It in no way resembles that lady who could not sleep with a rose leaf doubled up under her pillow . The mob can snore on a stone , and dream under a barricade . The iirst 10 th of April was rude enough . It was pieceded by blatant voices . Its threats were ridiculous . Its instruments were chiefly untutored . It commanded 1 only the vulgarcst sympathy , it was so full of brag and violence . How , then , came it to succeed at all ? for succeed it did , alter its kind . It drove the court from town . It poked up the Iron Duke . It precipitated the WhigH into Toryism , making them rush headlong into Unit political infamy for which they seem to have a constitutional predilection . Do we conclude hence that bullying and vaunting are good , imitable pioneers of chunges ?
No . I' ^ qual earnestness and healthy sobriety of speech would have done more good , and have won more credit . Jt was the voice of suffering , it was the revolt of ulaves , it was the 'uncertain murmur of despair , that made authority quiver . The ball act in motion was an enigmatical one , but it w . ih thought that it might roll and gather an it rolled , till it became an avalanche to crush the unjust . . Politically no blunder could be more fatal than that of talking what , if attempted at all , should huve been acted . Hut it succeeded up to a point , because our Government lives on class confidence rather than justice , and this demonstration disturbed confidence , and the ( Government yielded to violence what il denied to reason—it grunted a ni ^ ht for the-discussion of the Charter .
it has been shown , in preceding L < l . teis , how great a change for the butter wan observable in the demonstration concluded on tin ; lOili of April lust , The entire tone was new . In addition to laetn before recited it may be usefully observed in what additional respects thert > were signs of detail improvement . Mr . Jlurncy has given , on many recent occasions , proofs of a practical disposition , which lie renewed during thib convention . Mr . Kinc / it Jones him been
accustomed to ride a species of political Pegasus , entirely without reins . The remembrance of his speeches in previous Conventions had rendered him utterly hopeless in the eyes of all with whom calculation was a political virtue . A short time ago he created anxiety in the provinces by painting cooperative societies as obstructions to the attainment of political rights , and it was expected that we were to have feinaugerated an agitation which should pompously promise every thing and vigorously do nothing . But , at this Convention , Mr . Jones was found writing with his own hand and defending with his own tongue the proposition , " that a political
change is inefficacious unless accompanied by a social change : that a Chartist movement , unless accompanied with social knowledge , would result in utter failure . " It was in vain that Mr . Holyoake urged that this was an exaggeration , that it was not true , that Chartism would " utterly" fail without social alliance . It would be better with it , but Chartism would not be impossible without Socialism . But Mr . Jones championized the exaggeration on this side as he had championized it on the
other . It is due , however , to him to say , that he was less the man of extremes throughout this Assembly ' s sittings than he had before shown himself . Personally amiable , full of activity , possessed of various kinds of talent and of unquestionable genius , it was very gratifying to witness the unusual coherence and general moderation ( even in the opinion of his opponents ) by which his conduct was distinguished during this Convention ; and those who measure our progress by that of our leaders may reasonably have hope of us . its
Once and only once grand eloquence got upon stilts , and stalked down our programme . If the reader has gone over the peroration of the programme published , he will remember being put out of breath by the following paragraph , which . Bombastes Furioso might himself have written : — "To stand forth as the Uniter of all these isolated , but in fact homogeneous interests , to weld the millions into one compact mass—to evoke the dormant mind of the country , and thus to launch the gathered power in the right direction , be the duty and endeavour of this delegation of the people . " For a body to announce itself as " The Uniter , "
which began by refusing help to any but its own party , was immodest enough ; but it is cast into the shade by the profession of " endeavouring " to " weld the millions , " " evoke a country's dormant mind , " and " launch the gathered power in the right direction" " by a delegation of the people , " which scarcely knew of the delegates' existence . If we are to believe alL this , what giants we Chartists are ! Such language is only to bedescribed by the brief and pertinent phrase of Mr . Thornton Hunt who denominated it " Big
talk . " The defence Mr . Ernest Jones set up was that "big talk" was necessary to their success , the country did not understand propriety . It is this windy " faith which has been hitherto fatal to Chartism . A small globule of sense lias been distended into the size of a Nassau balloon . Hitherto this has been the political art of " swelling the movement . " We can never attain to the success or reputation until we bring this habit into discredit , and this is our justification for having written about it . A Chartist Convention is not without some of the vices
of Parliament . Many things are said and done by it , because it is believed that the public whom the delegates address expect it . If they saw that the people were to be moved in a better way tbey would take it . We must , therefore , take what care we can to indoctrinate the people with the right kind of expectation , and those who give them a sLone now will give them bread then . Having pointed out the respects in which it seemed desirable that the acts of the Convention should have
been different , I shall proceed to its vindication in other respects . The justice of some objections that have here been stated have been partly con firmed by the fact that provincial and metropolitan critics have fastened upon those particular passages here demuued to ; and had not these points existed scarcely a strong argument could huve been raised on the adverse side But these which are but incidental defects—to bo got rid of certainly—do not invalidate all the promise and hopefulness of the new movement ; and Caustic of the Dispatch has signally failed to invalidate the good sense or credit of the Convention by his utterly indefensible strictures . Ion .
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422 SI ) * ? Lrairet \ [ Saturday , ^ — — " ' ' *
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National CiiAinnit Association .- —The Jixeeutive Committee of this body held their usual weekly meeting , as above , on Wednesday evening last .. Joint Milne in tho chair . A large amount < . f correspondence from various localities anil individuals was read . MeHhis . liolton and Clifton attended an u deputation to solicit the UH .-istanci- of the Kx . eeul . ive , in order to resuscitate the movement in the paiish of Si . Pancr . ia , and the hcc . i et . iny having been instructed to act with tins deputation in getting up a public meeting for that purpose , the deputa ion withdrew . . John ftlmw attended from the united Councils of the Tow * r Hamlets to adviht ; tin ; Executive at the present time not to hold open-air meetings in or around tho metropolis to adopt the National Petition , ui . d
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Leader (1850-1860), May 3, 1851, page 422, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1881/page/18/
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