The drame of Paillasse, which set all Paris in a
furore in the autumn of 1850, and which contains the last great character written for Lemaitre, has been produced at the St. James's. The plot, with all its details, is already well-known through the English version called Belphegor, which was brought out at the Adelphi at the commencement of last year ; and the interest of course depends on Lemaitre's acting. But what an in- terest is that! and what a fine specimen is the performance of what acting ought to be ! No mere point-making here and there with a blank be- tween,—the artist thoroughly penetrates the nature of the personage he has to represent, and clothes himself so completely with the sensitive- ness of the strange being who combines the profession of a mountebank with the strongest domestic feeling, that you can almost see the working of the nerves. The state of slow mental torture is exhibited to the per- fection of minuteness.
Previous page
