M. ARSINE HOUSSAYE'S HISTRIONIC REMINISCENCES.*

THIS bulky volume contains an exceedingly picturesque account of what was perhaps the most brilliant episode in the life of its versatile author,—his seven-years' directorship of the Comedic Franeaise. If we are to believe M. Arsene Houssaye—who has an incorrigible talent for levity—he had no qualifications whatever for the post beyond youth, audacity, and an Olympian beard. But Rachel was determined to have him appointed, and succeeded. It was just after the Revolution of 1848—which she is supposed to have precipitated by her historic performance of the Marceillaise—and authors and journalists were in a bad way. M. Houssaye was part-owner of a paper, but it was a veritable white-elephant. He sold his pictures, and gambled on the Bourse. As a last resource, he sought the paternal mansion; but spite of his love of Nature, the stagnation of the country was intolerable to him. He was excited by both political and literary fevers, and speedily returned to what the Germans call the Weltstadt, and straggled manfully to keep himself and his wife afloat by all manner of literary work. Suddenly Rachel loomed on his horizon "like a smiling image of Fate," and after a good deal of preliminary unsettlement, we behold him in charge of the Comedie Francaise. He was met at the outset by an open in- surrection on the part of all the sociitaires, who wished to be allowed to rule themselves, or appoint their own Director. Their representations prevailed for a while, but after a month the appointment was confirmed, and it only remained for M. Houssaye, by mingled tact and firmness, to conquer the recal- citrant comedians. All this is told at great—perhaps at undue length, but with much point and humour. On the morning of his assumption of office, he was served with a legal docu- ment, in which the societaires claimed 100,000 fr. as com- pensation for disturbance. After the lapse of a year, M. Houssaye took a revenge which was at once humorous and generous. The societaires had claimed 100,000 fr. damages from him. He, in turn, peremptorily summoned them to share the same sum, that being the figure to which the profits bad amounted. M. Houssaye makes light of the duties of his office ; but it is obvious that at all times he had a very difficult team to drive. The difficulties of the situation were aggra- vated by a variety of causes. The theatre was heavily in debt, but had to be renovated. From the outset he took a bold coarse, raising instead of lowering the prices, enlarging the orchestra, and encouraging all schools of writers. He realised that "in matters theatrical, in order to reap money one must sow it." He was making enemies, as he remarks, at the rate of one a day, but, on the other hand, he found compensation in the sympathy and gratitude of all the leading spirits of the age. From the very start he was the unflinching champion of the Ronianticists. Victor Hugo, Alfred de Musset, Gautier, George Sand, thanks to him, were able to get a hearing, previously denied them. Gautier's occupation as a wearer of red waistcoats was practically gone. The new Director brought back Rachel to the boards of the first theatre in Paris, and under his management she acted more frequently than ever. Better still, it was at his wish that the great actress for the first time turned her attention to the contemporary drama, starting -with Victor Hugo. His, indeed, were seven memorable years of manage- ment, and if the record of them that is given here occasionally breathes a spirit of conscious merit, M. Houssaye has con- siderable excuse for feeling pleased with his achievements. Rachel, as we have seen, was the good angel of his career ; and the picture which he gives of her here is almost uniformly favourable. As to her alleged inordinate avarice, M. Houssaye declares that she has been libelled by herself as well as by others in this regard. For instance, he heard her appro- priate the epigram made by a fellow-actress at her expense,

• Behind the Scenes of the Contedie Fran case, and other Recollections. By Arsenio Houssaye. Translated and edited, with Notes, by Albert D. Vandam. London: Chapman and Hall.

and say : "lam not a Jewess but a Jew when I discuss money- matters." On this he remarks :— "I am too fond of the truth to shrink from demolishing a generally accepted idea. Mdlle. Rachel was lavish with every- thing,—with her talent, with her health, with her money. She never did anything but give; never did want, however hidden,. appeal in vain to her. She ended by giving her life : she died in harness to give to her children. Had she been a Jew (in the acceptation of Horne. Judith's meaning), she would have left

millions. She only left a comparatively small fortune It is not generally known, nowadays, how much she earned in her halcyon days at the Theitre Francais-36,000 fr. per annum— about as mnch as Patti earns in one evening. Truly, I gave her 500 fr. a night for fires ;' but what was it after all ? Just suffi- cient to give a dinner next day to her theatrical and journalistic cronies, or more often to give away in charity to a poor woman who suffered in secret. I have seen Rachel at work, and much will be forgiven to her, for she gave much."

The author also defends her from the charge of jealousy, and quotes some very handsome things that she said of her fellow- actresses; but still, the fact remains that when Ristori visited Paris for the first time, Rachel avoided meeting her. As to the latter's appearance, M. Houssaye says that she was not

handsome at her debut: it was only by dint of will and genius that she had become so. Later on, he reproduces some

remarks of Rachel herself on the subject of her looks, from which we gather that the change came upon her at the hour of her first visit to the Louvre. She was profoundly impressed with the classic statues. "I thought that it was very beautiful to be beautiful. I came away from there feeling several inches taller, with a kind of fictitious dignity which I managed to gradually transform into natural gracefulness If I have managed to become handsome it is because I studied every hour of my life to be ugly no longer."

The last scenes in Rachel's life are melancholy reading. M. Houssaye gives a very graphic account of the fatal evening in 1855, in which, for the first time after many years of un-

interrupted triumph, she failed to achieve success in Ponsard's play of Rosemonde, "a drama bristling with Alexandrine verse." The sequel had in it something of the grotesque :— " Her nervous excitement was positively appalling to behold. The more one spoke to her, the more one seemed to exasperate her. Instead of undressing, she tore her magnificent costume

to shreds. Then all of a sudden she caught up a pair of scissors, and wanted to stab her bare bosom just where the heart was throbbing." She already felt the hand of death upon her, although she lived about three years longer ; as M. Houssaye puts it, "Rachel, like all those fated to die young, already smelt the funeral perfume of the dank grass of God's acre."

The chief charm of these sprightly Reminiscences is the spirited dialogue in which .they abound. A great many of the episodes are cast in dramatic form, in which the inter- locutors are not merely actors and actresses, but men of letters, Ministers, courtiers, and aristocrats. We meet with the Comte, afterwards Duo, de Moray at every turn, a brilliant, haughty figure who "stalked proudly along, amidst all his acts—good or bad—knowing that much would be conceded to him [? forgiven] even uiato the bloodshed perpetrated in them."

Then there is Alfred de Musset, always sitting down to work, but seldom achieving anything. Soon after his appointment, M. Arsene Houssaye offered de Musset 10,000 fr. for a five-act comedy. De Musset was enraptured, and started off at once to set about the new piece. "Unfortunately, he went into the Café de la Regence on his way home. He sat down to play a game of chess, and according to an expres-

sion invented by himself, 'he absinthed ' (absented) him- self until 1 o'clock in the morning, absences similar to those of Byron when at - Venice. Such men would be gods if they were not men." In connection with de Musset's chess-playing, M. Arsene Houssaye tells a curious

anecdote. One of the attendants at the Comedic Franeaise, Beanbillet by name, and an original character to boot, used to

frequent the same cafe. "For nearly ten years he silently watched Alfred de Mussel • at play.' When the others dis-

cussed a clever move, he nodded his head, never saying a word. One day, however, he was asked outright for his opinion. It was then that he made the reply which has become historical, I do not understand the game of chess." What P You

have been watching us for the last ten years, and you don't understand the game of chess P'. Even so ; it amuses me, but I do not understand.' How many philosophers arc there that could say the same, if their opinion were asked

about the battle of life' P" Alfred de Mussel's unfor- tunate predilection for absinthe is well known, but it appears that he took it in combination with beer and brandy, a beverage even more potent than the favourite mixture of the German Chancellor. There are numerous bacchanalian episodes in these chapters, the most amusing

being that of the supper-party at the house of Dumas, when the Entr'actes de la Comedie de Moliere were improvised by

that fertile writer, in collaboration with MM. Arsene Houssaye and Verteuil. Of the latter we read :—" Verteuil had his inkstand by the side of his champagne-glass. He frequently

dipped his pen in the wine, though he never made the mistake of lifting the inkatand to his lips." M. Arsene Houssaye's pages sparkle with genuine French esprit. His correspondence

with the Minister of Fine Arts, from which he often quotes, is anything but formal and precise. His enemies complained that under his rule the discipline of the Theatre Francais had gone to the dogs; and, on his own showing, he was certainly no martinet. There were four secretaries, of whom only one did any work at all. But the others were invaluable

in maintaining the spirits of the company. They cost nothing, and afforded great entertainment to the socigtaires and pen- sionnaires by their erratic goings-on. The Director's relations with the Government—whether Republican or Imperial— abounded with lively passages :— " When on the eve of the Empire, after the famous speech at Bordeaux, with its motto, The Empire means peace,' the Com6die Frangaise and the Opera gave each a gala performance in honour of the President, and almost Emperor. I composed the bill as follows:—' Com6die Francaise. Extraordinary Representation. Cinna ; or, the Clemency of Augustus : Tragedy in five acts by Pierre Corneille. The Empire Means Peace: strophes spoken by Mdlle. Rachel. There's No Saying What May Happen (Ii ne Paut ,Turer de Rten) : Comedy in three acts by Alfred de Muaset.' True enough,' said the public, scanning the bill; there's no saying what may happen with regard to the Empire meaning peace and the clemency of Augustus.' When, at his arrival at the theatre, I went to pay my respects to the Prince, he said, half-smiling, half-vexed : Monsieur Arsene Houssaye, you have got a strange way of composing your bills.'— 'Monseigneur,' I replied, I announced Cinna, because I know that you will give the people the opportunity of remem- bering the clemency of Augustus. The strophes, The Empire Means Peace, are but the translation of your magnificent speech. "There's no saying what may happen," is the invariable comment on the future.'—The Prince never got out of temper, but I was by no means easy in my mind, because the bill I had com- posed smiling—one cannot rid one's self of that incurable French tendency to jest at everything—might have had the effect of making the public too skittish. But the moment the performance began, a solemn feeling pervaded the whole house, and everything was applauded."

Even more amusing was the Director's very happy retort on Dumas. The latter had just started his paper, Le Mousquetaire. Some one informed M. Arsene Houssaye that in the next day's issue there would appear an article from the editor beginning : "The Theatre Francais is perhaps under the impression that it amuses people." Quick as thought the Director immediately

made out a bill for the next two days .in which nothing but works by Dumas figured in the programme. M. Arsene Houssaye continues :—"Alexandre Dumas, who fancied there was a coolness between us, came to see me and gave me a hearty grip of the hand, saying : Don't you think that the bills of the Theatre Francais are better edited than my paper?"

Wherever one dives into these discursive Reminiscences, one is sure to light upon something amusing or interesting. Even in the somewhat angular English in which they now appear, the grace and fancy of the original are not wholly disguised. Some of Mr. Vandam's expressions are very peculiar. By " eagle-nook " we suppose he means eyrie. "Dumb-stricken" is not a usual form; and what he exactly desires to convey by the "more or less heraldic peasant-girl "—alluding to Charlotte Oorday—we are at a loss to imagine. But it is only fair to state that the notes are often really helpful. M. Arsene Houssaye's allusions often require elucidation, and this the translator has supplied intelligently enough.