The reign of laughter has now fairly commenced at the
French Plays ; M. Ravel being the first of the "merry monarchs" in that dynasty of drol- lery .wherein MM. Arnal and Achard are his appointed successors. M. Ravel made his first appearance as Felix in L'Etourneau, (which we should translate the Scatterbrain,) a susceptible stock-broker of the Paris Bourse, whose head is running not on " rentes" and railway shares, but on the charms of the young wife of one of his clients. The ludicrous misadven- tures and contretemps of the piece arise out of his chace after a lost billet- Zona, which he fears will fall into the husband's hands, but which he finds at last snug in his pocket-book. The unhappy Felix, in his plarensy of fear, falls into a succession of blunders; and so hot is his pursuit after the missing missive, that he makes love to a pretty postmistress, and waylays letter-carrier for the purpose of getting possession of it, and does not scruple to Grahamize letters directed to his client. The fun of the joke consists in the horrible fright and perplexity of the hero of this chapter of mischances: and so well does M. Ravel simulate the intense excitement of a man at his wits' end, that one feels inclined to pity him even while bursting with laughter at the dilemmas he is placed in. His grave humour is expressed in such a variety of whimsical ways—by comical looks of alarm, odd twitches of face, and grotesque action—that the quaintness seems natural to the man, not an assumption of the actor; and the intense earnestness of M. Ravel assists this idea. The stage illu- sion is thus made complete by the concealment of the player's art. M. Ravel is evidently a sensitive person; and on the first night he seemed to be in a state of nervous excitement; which, though it fell in with the busi- ness of the piece, showed also in the unmistakeable form of indisposition. Another opportunity of seeing him, therefore, is necessary to estimate his 'peculiar talents and the versatility of his humour. Mademoiselle Plessy is already reengaged; and her elegant performances agreeably vary the entertainments.
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