TILE THEATRES.
COVENT Garden was filled to overflowing on Wednesday, by an audi- ence eager to witness the result of Mr. E. L. BuLwEit's first experi- ment as a writer for the stage ; and its equivocal success created a general feeling of disappointment. That The Duiehess de to Vulliere did not prove an utter fitilure, was mainly owing to the powerful acting of MACREADY, who was the sole prop of the performance, as his cha- racter of Bragelone is the only one that redeems the play. The I)utchess de la Vallidre is well known as one of the mistresses of Louis the Fourteenth ; but her simplicity, and her sincere repentance, distinguish her from the common herd of court demireps. Yet her pre- dilection for the handsome and voluptuous king of a licentious court, with all the allowance that the idolatrous loyalty of the time enables us to make for a weak and romantic girl, has too strong a taint of sensualism to admit of its being regarded in the light of a sentiment ; while it is impossible not to feel that mortified selNove bad no small share in de- termining her final retirement to a cloister. There is on essential un- fitness in such a character for the heroine of an historical drama of almost tragical interest ; even had the scet:es and persons with which she is connected been less unsuitable.
Mr. BEILWER has adhered pretty closely to facts—allowing for the unavoidable violations of "the unity of time." We see the innocent girl leaving her home and appearing at court, where she falls a victim to the royal profligate : she is supplanted in his favour by the fascina- tions of the witty and unscrupulous Madame de Montespan, once her friend, now her successful rival ; and retires to hide ber shame and mot.. tification in a convent. The principal deviation from biographical truth is in the instance of Bragelone. He was the lover of La Val- lidre; and her fall from virtue caused him to die brokenhearted. Mr. BULWER represents him as appearing at court and making a vain effort to save La Vallidre, by placing her in a convent,—from which, too soon, she suffers Louis to remove her : and, instead of dying, a false report of his death is spread ; and he reappears in the disguise of a monk, to denounce the vices of the King and his court, and make a Magdalen of the object of his love. This, though effective in the acting, is not so beautiful as the reality: the character is, nevertheless, well drawn and nicely developed ; and indeed is the only one with which we have any sympathy. We can take no in. terest in all the rest : in fact, it is difficult to listen with patience to the raptures and despair of illicit love, though veiled in courtly phrase. The fulsome adulation of the King that is mixed up. with it, only increases our disgust ; and the frequent introduction of religious allusions adds profanity to the indecency. Mr. BULWER. has adopted the high-flown, mock-sentimental tone of Madame DE GENUS' fictitious biography; which, however much it may be in keeping with the style of the court of Louis the Fourteenth, is repul- sive to the taste and understanding of Englishmen of the present day. We may smile at the maudlin inanities of the French romance-writer, but we cannot pass uncensured the dramatist who calls upon us to sympathize with the woes of a discarded mistress and a disappointed voluptuary. It is the pathos of the stews. The last scene is the climax of this indecent profanity. La Vallidre is about to take the veil, when the solemn ceremony is interrupted by the entrance of th King ; who, in the church, before all the holy men and nuns assembled, calls upon her to
" Fly back, fly back to those delicious hours.
When 1 was but thy lover and thy Louis I"
telling her, as an inducement, that he has dismissed her rival, and swearing to live only for her—his queen being alive all this while. La Vallidre then calls Heaven to witness that she never loved him so well as at that moment, and put; in a claim of merit for giving him up. But we will dwell no longer upon these revolting mockeries of sentiment. That Mr. BULWER was unconscious of the outrage to propriety, as we believe him to have been, will, we fear, be thought an excuse made at the expense of his moral sense. To say the least, it is an extraordinary mistake to attempt to excite emotions of pity and compassion for the sufferings caused by the frustrated desires of a criminal passion, when our virtuous indignation should rather be awakened against the profligacy itself. The spirit of all this is deeper than any mere critical defect ; although Mr. BULWER'S adherence to biography has produced a dramatic fault of the first magnitude, in the absence of unity of action. There are in reality two catastrophes ; the first climax is in the fall of La Vallidre; when the distress is let down, to be wound up again with her retirement ; and upon this prin- ciple the play might have been "stretched out to the crack o' doom," or at least till the natural death of the parties.
Speaking of the character of Bragelone, Mr. BULWER says, in his preface, " it is an episode that introduces the epic into a court poem :" we should say it is that which introduces the moral into an immoral play. To be sure, Lauzun is a frank scoundrel enough, and takes off the mask not only from others, but himself, in a most uncourtier-like fashion : he is at once the vice and the satirist. This character is drawn in the true spirit of comedy ; as the Marquis of Montespan is in that of broad farce.
MACREADVS personation of Bragelone realizes all that the stage cart embody of the spirit of chivalry, whose honour is its lifeblood. It is as perfect a piece of acting as we can expect to see. Miss Fatten' wanted the only redeeming quality of La Valliere's character—simpli- city. FARREN'S attempt to assume the character of the Duke de Lauzun, a finished gentleman of the court of the Grand Monarque, was praiseworthy, though unsuccessful. He spoke the part admirably : he and Mat:et:any, indeed, were the only actors distinctly audible. VANDENII0fP could not have been put into a character more utterly unsuited to him than the elegant and dignified Louis ; he was a carica- ture of the Grand Monarque. We really pitied the poor girl who was thrust forward as Madame de Montespan. WEBSTER, as her husband,. was too disagreeable to be compassionated.
The dresses of the principal persons are splendid and characteristic ; they are all "plumed like ostriches: " but the poor Queen, who is a cipher, and acts only in dumb.show, looks like one of the "harlotry players " in her faded robes of red and yellow. 'The scenery is neither new nor in correct style, notwithstanding the puff's about its splen- dour : the only exception is a landscape-view of the convent, which is beautiful.
The play cannot hold a permanent place on the stage. The disap- probation that burst forth in the third act was not wholly silenced at the conclusion ; and the epilogue was not ventured upon. It was to have been spoken in the character of the Marquis de Montespan ; and commences with the ominous words 44 Damn me ! "
The scenes that dragged most heavily may be curtailed, but the dul- ness arising from want of interest cannot be removed. There are many beauties of thought, felicitous turns of expression, and epigrammatic points of raillery and satire scattered over the dia- logue. The finest passages are put into the mouth of Bragelone, who alone is worthy to give utterance to the poetry : from the other cha- racters, indeed, all sounds false and hollow.
Previous page
