12 JULY 1856, Page 12

Last night, - Madame Ristori essayed a comic part, for the

first time in the presence of an English audience. The play selected was La boffin- diera, a comedy by Goldoni • in which she represents a fascinating and virtuous but thoroughly heartless mistress of a hotel, who, finding a pro- found woman-hater among her customers, coaxes him to fall in love with her, by all the appliances of coquetry, and then treats him with the most humiliating indifference. If we consider the statuesque character of her tragic impersonations, the easy and natural manner in which she descends from her ideal pedestal appears most remarkable ; but we must still deem tragedy her forte, till some other part causes us to change or modify our opinion. In comedy she is not above the level that many living English actresses have attained; in her more poetical flights she finds a rival in Mademoiselle Rachel alone. -