PARISIAN THEATRICALS.
Although many of our older playgoers have, no doubt, a vivid recol- lection of the farce of The Village Lawyer, once illustrated by the comic talent of the late Mr. Charles Mathews, few probably are aware that the French piece to which it owes its origin is one of the greatest curiosities in literature and that if its reputed antiquity be established, Gaultier Garton's Needle becomes in comparison a modern production. The Fares de Maitre Pierre Pal helm, as the piece was first called, seems to have been composed at Paris by the clerks of the Basoche in the fourteenth or fif- teenth century, and we believe that a printed edition as old as 1490 is still in existence. It was touched up by Villon Clement Marot and Pierre Gringoire, and in 1700 was entirely remodelled by the Abbe Bruoys. His version, produced at the Theatre Francais in 1706, failed utterly ; but the piece again appeared towards the end of the century in an opera- tic form, and proved successful. Of late years, the work of the Abbe Brueys has been received with a favour formerly denied; and when it ; was revived at the Theatre Francais in 1861, after an interval of some fifteen years, the event was considered important. The most recent; transformation of the piece is its conversion into a one-act opera-book by MM. do Leuven and F. Langle, to which music has been composed by M. F. Basin. Under the title Maitre Pathelin, this last modification of the ancient work was produced on Friday the 12th instant at the Opera Comique. Fortune seems for a while to have abandoned M. Alexandre Dumas the elder. .Le Marbr, ler, L' Oreetie and La /'our St. Jacques, are the titles of an unlucky series, which is now increased by .Le Terrell de /a Reine produced last Monday at the Gymnase, and • by no means enthusiastically received. The plot turns on a squabble between Louis XV and his Polish Queen.
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