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extraordinary cold, which had kept theatres closed during the previous winter months, still continued to be excessive in February. At the same time the efforts of the party satirized to stop the comedy in its career, were of course incessant. Its representation was, however, subsequently resumed; and it is to this day a stock-piece at French

theatres.

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A second play, entitled the Tontine, having been ill received by the actors, the author broke off with them, renounced for a time all connection with the stage, and engaged in a task honorable to his friendship. His friend Petis de la Croix, then employed upon his translation of the Thousand and One Nights, needed the assistance of a more expert pen than his own in preparation of the work for press: and one or two of the best years of Le Sage's life were spent in the revision of this translation. Meantime a war of rival interests had arisen among the comedians, which opened the way for the lucrative exercise of his peculiar talent, the union of pungent satire with the airy fun demanded in the lighter productions of the French stage. Besides the two great theatres of Paris, certain "minors were allowed to be open during two seasons of the year, in the ancient fairs of Saint-Germain and Saint-Laurent. Only marionnettes were, at first, the performers; and when, in sixteen hundred and ninety, an attempt was made to introduce a troop of children of both sexes, the company of the Théâtre Français, who had one of two shares in the exclusive privilege of speaking the native language upon a dramatic stage, ordered the usurping show to be pulled down. The Italian company-which had not long before been relieved from the general prohibition to use the French tongue, and enjoyed the other half share in the monopoly-made in the year sixteen hundred and ninety seven an unfortunate use of their privilege. It announced a comedy for representation under the title of the False Prude. The court covered in those words a libel upon Madame de Maintenon, and banished the Italians from the country. The conductors of the performances of the fair affected then to step into the vacant place, assumed the character of the Italians' successors, and played fragments of Italian farces. These exhibitions proved attractive, and the French comedians obtained an order from the judges, forbidding their rivals to represent any comedy whatever by means of dialogue. The innovators thereupon abstained from comedies, and confined their

performances to single scenes. These likewise were prohibited. Taking advantage of the literal sense of the word "dialogue," they had, next, recourse to scenes in monologue. At first only one actor spoke, and the rest expressed themselves by signs. Then came an improved form of monologue; the actor who had spoken retreated behind the scenes, while the other, who remained, spoke in his turn, and in turn retreated, in order again to give place upon the stage to the first. Some. times the speaking was all done behind the scenes; and sometimes the one actor who spoke before the public repeated aloud what the others whispered to him. The ingenuity of these contrivances to elude the vexatious pursuit of the law, gave zest to the performances, and the people thronged to the spectacles of the fair.

The next step of the dramatic warriors was to purchase from the directors of the Royal Academy of Music, to whom it was understood legally to belong, the privilege of singing. But, when they attempted to make use of this privilege, they found their theatre invaded by a strong body of the police, sent by order of the judges; and under the protection of these authorities the carpenter of the Théâtre Français and his assistants proceeded to a second demolition of the building. This work had already begun, when an officer made his appearance with a command from the court, bearing date the same day, which overruled the decree of the judges. The proprietors instantly set about the repairing of what little mischief had been done; next morning the play-bills were placarded just as usual, and in the evening the house overflowed. Again, however, their theatre was destroyed, and that completely, even to the burning of its fragments; but again it was rebuilt.

To prevent the recurrence of these ruinous attacks, the actors of the fair at last determined to confine their performance to dumb show. Among other pieces representdis-ed in this manner was one called the Chicks of Leda; a ludicrous parody of the Tyndarides of Danchet. The company of the Théâtre Français had by this time come to be familiarly known as the Romans; and the success of the Chicks of Leda, as well as of many similar pieces, was ensured by the energy with which the Romans were burlesqued and mimicked by their opponents. noble Roman was at once to be recognizednot only by caricatures of the characters in which he commonly appeared, but by the imitation of his peculiar gestures and the

Each

tones of his voice. In order to accomplish | eluded by the fair men, the belligerents on the last object without breaking the rule of both sides let law alone, and confined their dumbness, the comedians of the fair pro- efforts to the use of pun and satire, ridicule nounced in solemn tragic tones a succession and personation. In seventeen hundred and of syllables without sense or meaning, but sixteen, the Italian company was recalled arranged in sonorous Alexandrine mouth and entered into an offensive and defensive fuls. alliance with the Théâtre Français; but the allied troupes were worsted. Parody, the chief weapon of the fair, was too strong for prerogative: the dexterous pointing of Le Sage's pieces had the effect of silencing the batteries of the allies. The Duchess of Orleans, wife of the Regent, being determined to witness the representation of the Princess of Carisma, one of Le Sage's most popular vaudevilles, it was ordered to be performed at the Palais Royal. The Regent was pres

A further improvement: the actors came upon the stage each furnished with a roll of bills, on which were printed in large characters the names of their parts, with the most necessary of the words that they must be supposed to speak. On coming to the point at which the matter inscribed on any particular bill was required-the whole roll having previously been put in order-he unrolled and displayed it, and then slipped it to the back. At first these placards were in prose; after-ent at the entertainment, and the triumph wards, couplets adapted to well-known airs were written on them. The orchestra played the air; persons hired for the purpose, and posted in different parts of the pit, sang the words; the public itself supplied the chorus. By means of a further contrivance, the performers were relieved from the inconvenience of carrying so many paper bills: little boys, dressed as cupids, were suspended by machinery from the roof: and, supporting the rolls between them, unfolded and dis--that world's romance-two volumes were played them at the proper times.

Although Le Sage, in the prologue to Turcaret, had pointed some satirical strokes against the performers of the fair, he now sympathized with them to the extent of setting about some compositions suited to their new school of art-the opera of handbills.

The first pieces composed by him for this purpose were represented by means of bills, and the words were wholly sung. A few sentences of prose were, by degrees, interspersed among the couplets. At length, their confidence increasing with their strength, the two companies of the fair ventured to assume the title of Opéra Comique. The accession of Le Sage was thus the means of introducing consistency, and something of the appearance and polish of art, into the homely beginnings of the French comic opera, or what is now called comédie vaudeville. Neither the deplorable state of public affairs in France, the higher interests of other departments of literature and art, nor the intrigues of the court and church, prevented the public attention from being profoundly occupied by the progress of the war between the privileged company, the regulars, and the guerillas of the fair. Law and authority being at every point defeated or

VOL. XXXIV.-NO. III.

of the comic opera was perfect. The records of the French stage enumerate one hundred and one pieces, wholly or in part composed by Le Sage, and performed by the compa nies of the comic opera.

In the midst, however, of those less worthy occupations-which, through a long series of years, were the means of keeping alive the fire upon his hearth-Le Sage did not forget the higher claims of literature. Of Gil Blas

published in seventeen hundred and fifteen, their author's age then being forty-seven; and a third was issued nine years afterwards. The fourth, and final volume, was delayed until eleven years after the third had appeared. This work placed Le Sage, at once and for all time, in the rank of a European classic. Its contemporary reputation may have been owing in a measure to the skilfully interwoven anecdotes and allusions, then more intensely relished, because better understood, than they can now be by ourselves. But the truth of its lively pictures. of human nature will for ever satisfy the wits of the experienced, and their variety will never cease to charm the fancies of the young. The creator of its class, it has been followed by a thousand imitations.

A notion was long current, and is perhaps not yet quite exploded, that Gil Blas is itself an imitation. Voltaire asserted that it was translated or stolen from the Spanish of Vincent Espinel; and, more recently, the charge was repeated in another form, by a Spanish Jesuit named Isla. A translation of the work by this person was published at Madrid in eighteen hundred and five, under the title of Gil Blas Restored to his Country. He asserts that Gil Blas was composed in the Spanish language, during the ministry

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law, rose to a high reputation as an actor, under the name of Montmenil. His style was the quiet, natural, and unaffected. François Antoine was incited by his brother's success to an unsuccessful imitation. Le Sage had for some time ceased to admit Montmenil to his presence, when, by the pious management of the second son, Julien François, who had gone into the church, he was persuaded to witness, at the Théatre Française, the performance of his own Turcaret. Le Sage appreciated his son's talent and forgave him for following its bent. Father and son had, both of them, good hearts, and Montmenil effaced the remembrance of his early disobedience by conduct the most filial and submissive. He became the old man's pride and his constant companion; a support and an honor to the family. When his duties at the theatre prevented Montmenil from passing his even

of the Duke of Olivarez (sixteen hundred | Réné André, whom he had intended for the and thirty-five), that the work was denounced to the government as containing dangerous revelations regarding the secrets of the court, and the manuscript seized. The unnamed author, escaping into France, there, it is said, died, leaving a copy of his manuscript, which he had concealed and taken with him; this fell into the hands of Le Sage, and was by him enlarged, and otherwise adapted to his purpose, in the same way as he had adapted previously the work of Velez. This story refutes itself, because Isla confirmed it with the assertion that the original MS. was still in the Escurial. The Comte de Neuchâteaux, in a dissertation read before the French Academy, in eighteen hundred and eighteen, and prefixed to the edition of Gil Blas published in the year following by Didot, has answered both Voltaire's assertions and the Spaniard's. He proves that the life of the Squire Obregon, the work named by Vol-ings at his father's house, Le Sage, deprived taire, as the original from which Le Sage copied, bears no resemblance to Gil Blas, either in subject, form, or style. Proceeding then to deal with Isla, he overthrows the Jesuit's assertion, by showing that if, as he pretends, the original work was accessible in Spanish, he ought to have published that work with all the evidences of its authenticity, instead of translating Gil Blas into Spanish out of French.

Le Sage published many other works some original, others translations or imitations. Among the latter, besides those already particularized, are Roland the Lover, from Boiardo, and the Adventures of Guzman d'Alfarache, from the Spanish of Alle man. He was the first to naturalize Alleman's *amusing tale in France, though not its first, or even second translator into the language of that country. His industry appears to have increased with his years. The Bachelor of Salamanca was his last and his own favorite fiction; and, at the close of his literary life which did not take place till seventeen hundred and forty-three-when he had reached the age of seventy-five, he published his Miscellany of sallies of wit and the most striking historic incidents.

Le Sage was no less fitted to shine in society than to excel in literature, but he lived after his marriage an exceedingly domestic life. His family consisted of three sons and an only daughter. Two of the sons, the eldest Réné André, and the youngest, François Antoine, occasioned their father no little pain by choosing the stage for their profession.

of the chief delight at home, was accustomed to adjourn to a neighboring café. He had, even in youth, been affected with symptoms of deafness, which increased with his years, but his natural gaiety was not lessened. His conversation abounding with wit, anecdote, and shrewd observations, and shown to the best advantage by a manly and various elocution, was heard always with delight. The picture of the author of Gil Blas, advanced in life, surrounded by a throng of youthful admirers, the more distant mounted on chairs and tables, in order to catch every word of his discourse, recalls what we may have heard of our own glorious John Dryden at the Coffee-house.

Montmenil's death, in seventeen hundred and forty-three, was a blow from which Le Sage never recovered. Paris became insupportable, and he retired with his wife and daughter to the house at Boulogne, which his second son inhabited in quality of canon of the cathedral. This son (Julien François)-remarkable for a strong personal resemblance to Montmenil-was an admirable man; a wit, and an admirable reader. The Comte de Tressan, commandant of the Boulonnais, seconded the attentions of the family; and from him we derive the few surviving anecdotes of the last years of Le Sage's life. They seem They seem to have passed heavily enough. The finely-strung nervous system of the author of Gil Blas, like that of some other great writers, had lost its tone from too continued tension. He is said at last to have existed only by help of the sun. From

daybreak until noon his faculties grew more and more lively. From noon till evening they gradually left him. When the sun had

actually set, he fell into a state of lethargy, from which it was in vain to attempt to rouse him, till the morning brought the sun with it.

From Hogg's Instructor.

--

HANNAH MORE. A SKETCH.

In estimating the merits of distinguished individuals, our opinion must obviously be modified by a knowledge of the external influences to which they were subjected. According as the tendency of these is to counteract or to forward their aims, a greater or less tenacity of purpose is demanded. And looking at the whole of a life, this is a quality that has more to do with greatness than may at first strike us; for greatness depends not so much upon the possession of brilliant talents, as upon steadiness and perseverance in pursuing a laudable object. A most obstinate struggle with circumstances has to be kept up by such as would rise to eminence from the humbler ranks of life; but a contest on a more extended scale has to be encountered by whoever aspires to be a reformer, as in this case the obstacles result from the condition of a nation or of society. They are also of a complex nature; the reformer has first to disentangle his own mind from the shackles of custom and prejudice, and next undertake the same task for others.

numerous visitors flocked to his studio to see
it, and amongst them were several who
proposed the intelligent question, "Who was
Samuel ?" The manners and morality of the
period were quite in agreement with this;
and though it is by no means denied that
there were many fine exceptions, it was then
the fashion to be irreligious and immoral.
Hannah More, when little above twenty years
of age, was taken from the comparatively
quiet coteries of Bristol, and plunged into
the whirl of the gay world of London; the
caresses and blandishments of the witty, the
great, and the learned, were heaped upon
her, but her keen, instinctive sense of right
was in no degree blunted, and the endeavors.
of the world to win her to its side only
served to draw forth the more unequivocal
declaration of her principles. These princi-
ples, like the course of every great mind,
deepened and widened with progressing
years.
We find her whose first essay was
penned with the design of fostering a purer
morality, gradually increasing her efforts for
the same praiseworthy end, and by and by
retiring from the vortex of fashionable life,
to devote herself to the study of the Scrip-
tures, and the composition of works bearing
more immediately on the subject of religion.

Hannah More was a reformer; we conceive one who did so much, by example, and purse, and pen, towards purifying the morality and advancing the cause of religion in England, to be well worthy of such a title, and all the greatness it implies. It is true, Besides her literary reputation, Mrs. Hanshe had the primary advantage of a sound nah More was eminent for her piety and and religious education, and was thus placed philanthropy; so much so, that, although so as to have a Pisgah-like view of existing she had not obtained celebrity by her writdefects; but next to the difficulty of divestings, her memory would have been deserveding our minds of the warpings of habit and popular opinion, is that of preventing our selves from being caught in their meshes.

Of the state of religious knowledge, even amongst the higher classes, in the days of Hannah More, we may have a pretty accurate idea from the anecdote related in connection with Sir Joshua Reynolds' "Samuel." When this celebrated painting was finished,

ly cherished as a Christian and philanthropist. She was ever prompt to originate or help forward philanthropic movements; she wrote for them-books for the drawingrooms of the great, and tracts and ballads that insinuated themselves into the workshops of the town, and the cottages of the country; and she established schools for bestowing the blessings of education and a

knowledge of the truths of the gospel on the poor. She was considerate and liberal to that class during her lifetime, and at her death, the sums bequeathed by her to relig. ious and charitable institutions were on the most unificent scale. But perhaps the truest and most touching proof of her generosity and kindness to the poor, was that given on the day of her funeral, when, each with some semblance of mourning, they came crowding from village and hamlet to pay a last tribute to their benefactress, and give all they had to give-a tear."

66

In reading the life of this celebrated person, we can not fail to be struck with the large amount of good that she effected; and yet she was but a "lone woman ;" and, in addition to the disadvantages pertaining to her sex, Mrs. Hannah More was at all times delicate in health, and subject to very frequent illnesses. In consequence of this, she was deeply impressed with the evil of procrastination, and has recorded in her diary how necessary she felt it to be to prosecute her work assiduously during her intervals of freedom from sickness. This goes to prove what we have already stated, that greatness in general, as well as success, arises less from the possession of great talents, or from favorable circumstances, than the selection of a proper aim, and the resolution to follow it unswervingly. There are multitudes of examples in the world, of a stern and successful resistance of circumstances more overwhelming than any we are likely to encounter, and exciting us to emulation. We are disposed to lay too much stress on the force of circumstances, forgetting that we are to some extent the originators of them. Then we consider this a capital excuse for our indolence, it is this that is keeping us inactive, we are waiting for an opening, instead of making an opening. As for a favorable opportunity, it is vain for us to plead the want of that; we must not be too scrupulous, but seize the best that happens to come within our reach.

In perusing any work, we almost insensibly form ideas of the personality of the author; we become acquainted not only with his mind, but we "have a vision of our own," and can describe his appearance even when unaided by the engraver's art. Our childish notions of the subject of this sketch were unfavorable enough. We regarded her as an old lady who wrote good, but uncommonly dry books, and our prepossessions against her were in no degree ameliorated as we gazed on the uncouth personage depicted in

the frontispiece, that large truthful-looking characters beneath assured us was Hannab More. Some years subsequently, her collected works were procured for our especial edification; unfortunately, the exterior of the volumes was not calculated to make them find favor in our eyes, and after dipping into one, and skimming another, the whole were pronounced by ourselves, and some equally judicious critical companions, to be excessively egotistical and uninteresting. As years increased, "a change came o'er the spirit of our dream," we read the life and works of Hannah More with extreme pleasure, being then more capable of appreciating her excellences of character, as well as her merits as a writer; and when we saw two fine steel engravings, the one representing her as a blooming girl with flowing hair; the other from Pickersgill's painting, in which she appears as the most amiable, loveable, and benignant looking of all old ladies, we scorned the libellous old woodcut of former days, and a complete rev. olution was effected in our opinion.

Hannah More was the youngest of five sisters, and was born at Stapleton, in Gloucestershire, in the year 1745. Her father, having lost his money by the unfavorable termination of a lawsuit, lived here in a secluded manner. He was the son of the former master of an endowed school in the neighborhood, who not being encumbered with a superabundance of pupils, had plenty of leisure to "rear the tender thought" of his son. He, in his turn, "kept the ball moving," as Franklin says of kindness, and devoted his time to the education of his daughters; and as he brought a highly-creditable amount of talents and learning to the task, and had good materials to work upon, it is not surprising that he was very successful. This was particularly the case with Hannah, who was a somewhat precocious child, and her aptness in the acquisition of the first principles of geometry, and the rudiments of Latin, must have delighted the old man, and transformed the labor of instruction into a pleasant relaxation. The bias of her tastes very early displayed itself; one of her childish amusements was riding on a chair, accompanied by the announcement that "she was going to London to see booksellers and bishops.' It was a darling object of her ambition to attain to the possession of a whole quire of paper, and when some friend grati→ fied her wish, it was speedily filled with letters to imaginary personages.

The talents of the whole family were so much above the average, that they soon at

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