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At the Adelphi, a farce of a very commonplace kind, called Ici on parle Francais, was brought out on Monday. A foolish fellow wishes to make money by letting the rooms of his house, situate on the sea-coast, as furnished lodgings. His imperfect knowledge of the French language brings him into a ridiculous dilemma when a Parisian gentleman calla upon him, and on the strength of the placard "Ici on park Francais," converses with him in the Gallic tongue. Then the fact that his visitor is accompanied by an English lady, who comes to take an apartment, ex- poses him to the wrath of her jealoua husband, who wrongly supposes that she has eloped. But we need not try to elucidate a plot, where the whole humour turns on the practical jokes that ordinarily ensue, when a low comedian,—here Mr. Toole—is bullied by a fire-eater,---here Mr. Selby. Exactly this sort of pleasantry has excited laughter from a time to which the memory of man cannot reach, and will create laughter to an epoch which the prescience of man cannot compass. Acted with spirit, the trifle has proved successful. We may add that it comes from the other side of the channel, and that the French name it bears here is an equivalent for the English name, Furnished Apartments, which it bore at Paris.
The performances at the St. James's Theatre are not yet of a kind to reestablish a taste for the French drama in London. Le Courrier ds Lyon has been performed, with M. Clement Juste, an actor from the Gate, in the two characters of the robber and the victim of false accusa- tion. The chief interest of the piece depends on the difference of character, which one artist can give to two personages, supposed to be almost identi- cal in appearance. By Mr. Charles Kean, who produced an English ver- sion of the play some years ago, the combination of likeness with dissi- milarity was perfectly effectual. With M. Clement Juste we have the re- semblance only, which, as every man is a striking likeness of himael4 is no wonderful achievement.
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