The French Plays have had a double attraction this week
: Les MI- moires du .Diable, a melodrama compounded of love law, and diablerie, which created a furor among the Parisians, preceded VERRET'S inimit- able personation of Le Pdre de la Debutante, which shakes the house with laughter. No description can convey an adequate idea of the in- finitude of drollery which VERNET makes out of this character : the points are so minute, that to select one or two as instances would only raise a doubt of the efficacy of the whole. The secret of his power lies in the complete absorption of the actor in the assumed character : he never looks out from the part for a moment, even though he addresses the audience, and gets into the orchestra ; and so unlike a stage-player does he look that you would suppose that he was some real person among a set of performers. He is a country manager, who succeeds in bringing his daughter before the Parisian public, by dint of intriguing, flattery, and a dogged perseverance that will take no denial and heeds no rebuff : it is the one idea of his existence. His scanty Brutus wig, whose juvenile curls by no means hide the grey hair that they adorn, is a type of his slender claims to success and the composite nature of his pretensions. He expatiates on the talents and accomplishments of his daughter, and eulogizes the discernment, generosity, and influence of the manager, with such seeming good faith that it is difficult to doubt his sincerity : he may be a bore, a dotard, but at any rate he is in earnest. When in the fervour of his flattery be caps the climax of adulation by shouting out "homme etonnant !" it is as if the ardour of his conviction had raised him to a sublime pitch of enthusiasm : the dupe may laugh, but he is taken in.
CARTIGNY'S personation of an old servant who pretends to be idiotic is the most remarkable piece of acting in Les Memoires du Diable: the variety of tone and emphasis with which he utters " non " and " oui," the only words he speaks, give to them the significance of whole sentences. M. RHOZEVIL'S assumption of the Satanic character is a clever piece of masquerading ; but its effect depends on the costume, dialogue, and situation. Madame r OCHE is a pleasing actress, whose person and voice constitute her chief attractions.
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