11 MARCH 1854, Page 12

felr 'natal

After sundry little attempts at originality, our managers find them- selves driven back to their established source of novelty—the theatres of Paris. The trifling splutter about native talent, that occurs now and then, is like a very slight emeute in some very orderly country. The manifestation of original genius is put down quietly or noisily ; and the inhabitants of the theatrical world go on in their old course, blandly acknowledging the hegemony of the French. At the Olympic, we have a version of rn &Trice d Blanchard; a short piece brought out at the Gymnase two years ago, and now endowed with the analogous title To Oblige Benson. The plot is simple, but ingenious. An experienced married lady, of the decidedly French school, is the con- fidential friend of a very simple married lady, also of the decidedly French school—who, having for a husband a very worthy prosaic gen- tleman, again of the decidedly French school, indulges in a mild par- tiality for an interesting young law-student, who is even more decidedly French than the rest of the personages. The experienced lady, to give the inexperienced lady a lesson by showing her the ugly aspect of a husband's wrath, persuades her own husband to feign an excess of jealous rage. Unfortunately, the efforts made by friends to calm the simulated phrensy are of such a nature, that he who has been pretending jealousy becomes jealous in real earnest. This transition is accompanied by many amusing circumstances of comic rage, which are well set forth by Mr. Robson ; whose acting is, however, far less characteristic than it has been on former occasions.

A Charming Widow, as a new piece at the Lyceum is called, is still more French than the Olympic novelty ; being, not an adaptation, but a translation of that ultra-Parisian work flit Caprice, which in 1847 was the delight of the critics over the water. This elegant trifle, in which there is scarcely any plot whatever, but which completely turns on the subdued wit and unimpassioned amourettes of a fashionable drawing- room, would scarcely have been found tolerable by an English audience, if less had been done for it by the manager. But Miss Talbot, a lady of most distinguished appearance and manners, is placed in it, with all the in- terest attaching to a debutante ; Mr. Mathews acts a slightly irregular gentleman in his most finished style of carelessness; and the appoint- ments of the scene arc perfect to a marvellous degree. With all these extensive adornments, the little scintillation of the ingenious M. Alfred

de Musset is found palatable enough. •