The Little Haymarket, which used not to know what the
word "season" meant, but kept open its doors for five hundred nights at a stretch, was shut up on Saturday ; and the bills of the theatres now open are less dis- tinguished than heretofore by promising foot-lines. The only novelty of the week is the appearance of Mademoiselle Rachel as Monime in Racine's Mithridate. This is indeed a novelty in the strictest sense of the word; for not only is the tragedy new here, but is hardly ever performed in Paris. Unfortunately, it is not so striking as it is new; and of all the characters in which the great tragidienne has acted, we never saw One in which she made so little impression. Mithridate is exactly the piece to revive for the sake of a masculine " star," since the King, and not his mistress, tress, is the leading personage. But Wednesday was the night of Ra- chel's benefit, and on such occasions freedom of choice seems to be the order of the day. Mademoiselle Rachel has a pretty little sister, one Mademoi- selle Dinah Felix, aged about ten years, who on the same evening recited a couple of La Fontaine's fables, with very great point and spirit. Season and post-season of the St. James's have now both terminated; and Mr. Mitchell merits high praise for the energy and taste with which he has con- ducted his theatre during a period marked by the performances of Brohan, Perlet Lafont, Lemaitre, Clarisse, Regnier, Bouffd, and Rachel
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