PARISLLN THEATRICAIS.
As the modern British imitator of the Elizabethan writers turns to Sadler's Wells as the only place where patronage is likely to be found, so does the " legitimate " French writer of five acts in Alexandrine verse regard the out-of-the-way Odeon as the true harbour for poetic talent. M. Ponsard, the celebrated representative of the Racine school, having achieved a great success at this classic establishment by his play DZIOnneur et l'Argent, which he has acted there upwards of 230 times, has gained new laurels on the same spot by a verse comedy entitled La Bourse, in which the evils of the prevalent rage for speculation are forcibly depicted, in the hopes, good fortune, ruin, and recovery of a young gentleman, acted by M. Laferriere. If we set aside The Patrician's Daughter of Mr. Marston, we have nothing whatever on the English stage corresponding to that " high art " treatment of modern themes which is not uncommon in Paris.
Si j'dtaia Rol, a successful opera by the lamented Adolphe Adam, has been revived at the Theatre Lyrique ; where it was originally produced, in 1852.
The exploits of the notorious robber Mandrin have been converted, by MM. A. Arnault and C. Sudicia, into a drama, now acting at the thine With the title Lea Aventures de Nandi-in. The hero is not new to the Prench stage, having once figured in an older piece produced at the Porte St. Martin, and afterwards brought out in English by Mr. C. Mathews, during his short management of the Adelphi. A broad comedy of the lax sort, in which a vindictive wife, resolved to punish the infidelities of her husband by a glaring enforcement of lax talionia, is the principal female personage, excites roars of laughter at the Palais Royal ; where the tender couple are played by M. Ravel and Mademoiselle Aline Duval. The indefatigable MM. Marc Michel and Labiche are the authors of this piece, which bears the expressive title Si jamais je to pinee !—supposed to be the wife's menace.
According to the official return, the aggregate receipts of the public places of amusement in Paris, during the month of April, amounted to 1,204,473f. 80c. ; being an increase of 7615f. 85c. on the receipts of March, and an increase of 142,478f. 24c. on the receipts of April 1855. The increase in March is to be apportioned between the theatres and miscellaneous " sights," as a decrease is shown in the item of concerts and balls.
M. Antoine Jean Baptiste Simounin, the oldest dramatic writer of Prance, died on the 4th instant. The last of the 214 pieces of which he was author (sole or4oint) was a vaudeville entitled Les Memoires de ma ratite, produced at the Ambigu-Comique in November 1853. He was born in January 1780.
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