La vie extraordinaire dune chienne nommée Cléo (French Edition)

There sleeps Titania sometime of the night, Luird in these flowers with dances and delight ; And there the snake throws her enamell'd skin, Weed wide enough to wrap a fairy in: And with the juice of this I'll streak her eyes, And make her full of hateful fantasies. Por this production Garrick composed a Pro- logue, one of his weakest, in which he asked pardon for daring to put an English opera on the stage: An Op'ra too I play'd by an English Band!

Wrote in a Language which you understand! I dare not say who wrote it — I could tell ye, To soften matters, Signor Shakespearelli. And he adds, with becoming modesty: Except for the remains of Shakespeare's poetry, the piece cannot fairly be declared guilty on the first count; and, as for the second, the play has been so cut about that little sense remains. But then, as Garrick remarks: After this first attempt Garrick allowed The Tempest to slumber until ; then he turned it into another opera in the style of The Fairies, which the same composer. Smith, fitted with music and in which the same tenor, Beard, played the principal part.

In this revival, however, Dryden's masque of Neptune and Am2 hitrite had been retained. This editor affirms that, in compiling his list, he had the assistance of Garrick's friends ; and he adds that he is informed that it is perfectly accurate. The latter phrase seems to suggest that he had submitted it to members of the actor's family, or to other competent judges.

Moreover, the words used by Garrick in the Prologue to The Fairies " I confess the offence " point to him as author of the arrangement. All three of these operas were played at Drury Lane and published by Tonson ; of The Magician Garrick formally acknowledged the authorship. Several critics, especially Theo. Gibber, accused him, during his life of having cut up Shakespeare's pieces into operas ; Garrick never denied these accusations.

In any case, the operas were performed at his theatre and under his direction. Bandello, the Italian novelist, from whom Shakespeare has borrowed the subject of this play, has made Juliet to wake in the tomb before Romeo dies: At this theatre they added a dirge and funeral procession at the beginning of Act V.

Garrick, who was acting his own version with Miss Bellamy, replied by a similar attraction. The piece is printed in his Works, vol. A grave alteration, in more than one sense, is that by which he awakens Juliet in the tomb before Romeo is yet dead, thus introducing a sensational scene, with plenty of contortions and groans for himself, followed by a funeral procession and a dirge, to verses of his own composition, worthy, perhaps, of a place in some opera libretto, but hardly equal to the society in which they find themselves.

The changes in poetical form bear especially on two points: All " quibble " is removed ; for example, the second scene of Act I. In the same way the charming exaggera- tion in which Juliet anticipates the weariness of the long hours which are to separate her from her lover, " I must hear from thee every day in the hour," is garrickized into '' I must hear from thee every hour in the day " ; and that is certainly more ordinary and easily understanded of the people.

But why, instead of the original reply assigned to Romeo — I will omit no opportunity That may convey my greetings to thee, why do we read in Garrick, " I will admit no opportunity? Secondly, all the rhymed portions of the play are reduced to prose, so that no inharmonious "jingle" may remain; in other words, Garrick dared to unpoetize some of the finest passages, so as to produce a form of speech more closely assimilated to everyday conversation. We append an example, taken from Act II. Here Friar Laurence's opening speech is cut down, but the rhymes are left, it being evidently considered more as a lyric than as a piece of dialogue.

What is the matter, son?

Full text of "New dictionary english-french & french-english [Texte imprimé]."

I'll tell thee ere thou ask it me again ; I have been feasting with my enemy, Where to the heart's core one hath wounded me, That's by me wounded ; both our remedies Within thy help and holy physic lie. Be plain, good son, and homely in thy drift. Then plainly know, my heart's dear love is set On Juliet, Capulet's fair daughter ; As mine on hers, so hers is set on mine: When, and where, and how, We met, we woo'd and made exchange of vows, I'll tell thee as we pass ; but this I beg That thou consent to marry us to-day.

Holy Saint Francis, what a change is this I Passage about Hosaline omitted; after which, Garrick comes to the rescue with the following lines: But tell me, son, and call thy reason home. Is not this love the offspring of thy folly. Bred from thy wantonness and thoughtless brain? Be heedful, and see you stop betimes. Lest that thy rash ungovernable passions, O'erleaping duty and each due regard, Hurry thee on, thro' short-liv'd, dear-bought pleasures. To cureless woes and lasting penitence.

Arms, take your last embrace ; and, lips, do you The doors of death seal with a righteous kiss]: She speaks, she lives I and we shall still be bless'd I My kind propitious stars o'erpay me now For all my sorrows past. Rise, rise, my Juliet, And from this cave of death, this house of horror, Quick let me snatch thee to thy Romeo's arms, There breathe a vital spirit in thy lips.

And call thee back to life and love. Why do you force me so? I'll ne'er consent ; My strength may fail me, but my will's unmov'd. I'll not wed Paris — Romeo is my husband. Her senses are unsettl'd — Heaven restore them! Romeo is thy husband ; I am that Romeo, Nor all the opposing powers of earth or man Shall break our bonds, or tear thee from my heart. I know that voice. Its magic sweetness wakes My tranced soul. I now remember well Each circumstance. Dost thou avoid me, Romeo? I have no strength, but want thy feeble aid: Poison I what means my lord? The transports that I felt to hear thee speak.

And see thy opening eyes, stopt for a moment His impetuous conrse, and all my mind Was happiness and thee ; but now the poison Rushes thro' my veins — I've not time to tell — Fate brought me to this place, to take a last. Last farewell of my love and with thee die. I know not that. I thought thee dead ; distracted at the sight Fatal speed! And found within thy arms a precious grave ; But in that moment — oh! And did I wake for this? My powers are blasted ; 'Twixt death and life I'm torn, I am distracted!

And must I leave thee, Juliet? Oh cruel, cursM fate I in sight of heav'n. Thou rav'st ; lean on my breast. Fathers have flinty hearts, no tears can melt 'em. Nature pleads in vain ; children must be wretched. Oh, my breaking heart I Rom. She is my wife ; our hearts are twined together.

Capulety forbear ; Paris, loose your hold. Pull not our heart-strings thus; they crack, they break. Stay, stay for me, Romeo — A moment stay ; fate marries us in death And we are one — no power shall part us. It is of this feeble stuff that we are told that it is '' a clever Pasticcio," and that Garrick " deserves some credit for the manner in which he has fallen into the tone of the situation, and caught up the sweet key of Shakespeare's music. Is it in the charming line, '' Bless me! Or in the forcible reply of Romeo to Juliet's cry, " Death's in thy face": Or in the miserably disjointed prose, '' I thought thee dead ; distracted at the sight fatal speed!

Or in the constant employment of worn-out phrases, such as: Or in the absence of any striking thought or image except such as are reminiscences of Shakes- peare? No, no ; '' let him that hath no music in himself, nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds," hail this as Shakespeare's harmony ; for our part, we refuse to hear in it anything but a very poor variation on a fine theme, played by an inferior musician on a wretched instrument.

To sum up this examination of the new Romeo and Juliet: Garrick wanted a piece free of all fancy and of purely poetical declamation, a piece in which the dialogue should be as natural as possible, giving free scope to the actor ; he wished, moreover, to make Shakespeare's tragic force yet more powerful and to create for himself an oppor- tunity of playing one of those terrible scenes of passion and death in which he excelled. To reach these ends he sacrificed the poet to his own preten- sions.

He was neither the first nor the last actor- manager to do so ; may these pages be a warning to his successors! Antoine produced at the Odeon Theatre, Paris, a practically com- plete version of Romeo and Juliet in a very close translation. While this English edition is passing through the press the same play has once more been " managerized " on the London stage.

It is curious that less respect should be shown at home than abroad for our great dramatist's works. Garrick found a simple remedy for this lengthy violation of the unity of time: There were, then, in the original Winter s Tale, two parts: This exposi- tion, with its condensed and solid action, its rapid happenings and touching scenes, must count among Shakespeare's best work ; compared with it, the conclusion, brought about by the well-worn trick of a recognition and by the unexpected change of a statue into a woman, is feeble, and is hardly saved from disaster by some pretty scenes of country life, and by the amusing, but super- numerary, character of Autolycus.

Between these two halves, Garrick did not hesitate one moment ; with what one is obliged to call his habitual bad taste in such matters, he chose the inferior portion, because it did not infringe the classical rules of unity. In order to make a piece of ordinary length out of the two acts he preserved, he added songs and verses of his own; yet he has the impudence to say in his Prologue, in which Shakespeare's genius is compared to good wine: In this night's various and enchanted cnp Some little Perry's mixt for filling np.

The five long acts from which our three are taken Stretched out to sixteen years, lay by, forsaken. It is of these arrangements of Garrick's that Theo. Gibber said in The Midsummer Night's Dream has been minc'd and fricasseed into an indigested and un- connected thing, call'd The Fairies: And how prettily might the North-Wind like the tyrant Barbarossa be introduc'd with soft Musick!

Rouse, Britons, rouse, for shame! Think you see Shakespeare's Injured Shade. He grieves to see your tame submission to this merciless Frocrustes of the stage, who, wantonly as cruelly, massacres his dear remains. Of all Garrick's nefarious attempts on Shake- speare's pieces, the most celebrated is his travesty of Hamlet. I have brought it out without the Grave-diggers' trick and the Pencing-match. In order to judge at the present day to what lengths his zeal carried him, we must have recourse to contemporary accounts.

Here is one of them: In consequence of this arrangement, the old Third Act was extended to the Fourth. Little or no change, in language or scenery, was attempted till the Fifth Act, in which Laertes arrives and Ophelia is distracted, as in the old play. Fitzgerald adds that, by the town, Garrick's version was considered to approach a burlesque. The Gravediggers were absolutely thrown out of the play. The audience were not informed of the fate of Ophelia ; and the Queen, instead of being poisoned on the stage, was led from her seat and said to be in a state of insanity, owing to her sense of guilt.

When Hamlet attacks the King, he draws his sword and defends himself and is killed in the rencounter. Laertes and Hamlet die of their mutual wounds. The people soon called for Ham- let as it had been acted from time immemorial. He always presented Richard in the horrible mixture we owe to Colley Gibber, and of which half comes from that scribbler's inkpot or has been looted by him from other plays of Shakespeare's. It is almost unnecessary to add that this latest concession to French criticism of Shakespeare's barbarisms delighted more than one of Garrick's friends abroad.

That proves, my friend, not only how great an empire your rare talents as an actor have acquired among your nation, but still more, the perfect esteem it has conceived for your enlightenment and taste as an author: The same tenderness of heart caused Mr. Tate to bring all to a happy ending: Resuming, then, this question of Garrick's atti- tude towards Shakespeare's plays, we may say that his enthusiasm, undoubtedly sincere, for the dramatist was corrupted by two influences: To this latter influence are chiefly due the adaptations of Romeo and Juliet and of Macbeth, as well as the preser- vation of Cibber's and of Tate's monstrosities.

The two influences combined produced the opera of The Fairies and that of The Tempest. The publication of Johnson's Preface in marks the end of a school of criticism which deemed it necessary to judge Shakespeare by the rules of the classic theatre, to which he had never attempted to conform. Thenceforth commentaries tend to become explicative rather than destructive: Farmer's important Essay on the Learning of Shakespeare ; Mrs. Montagu's enthusiastic, if at times ineflSicient, study; Morgan's curious ex- amination of the character of Palstaff; later, Schlegel's Lectures and Hazlitt's writings, — all these are tributaries to the same current of opinion.

Before the two last appeared the Romantic revival had brought about a general condition of thought more in sympathy with that of the dramatist. Garrick, born in , had been educated in the respect of the classical rules and theatrical pro- prieties; his knowledge of the French stage and his relations with French men of letters prevented him from throwing off this yoke. Chesterfield, writing to Mme de Tencin in and , declares that the French do too much honour to the English by translating their novels and plays.

He considers that the French theatre is too precise and refined to put up with the irregularity and the indecency of the English pieces ; but then he prefers the French stage to all others, not excepting that of ancient Greece. It was to Frenchmen especially that Garrick looked for sympathy in his efforts to shape the rough-hewn idol of his worship ; and they did not fail to greet his labours with benevo- lent approval. On the other hand, Le Blanc did not refuse to recognize Shakespeare's merits: If he is revolting because of the pettinesses which are common to him, he is yet more astounding by the sublimity of his genius He is, indeed, a great genius.

Sometimes, when reading his pieces, I am surprised at the sublimity of his vast genius ; but he does not allow my admiration to last long. Portraits in which I find all the nobility and loftiness of Raphael are followed by miserable pictures, worthy of the tavern-painters who copied Teniers," etc.

Could one ask more from a Frenchman of that date? One could easily establish a parallel between Johnson's attitude towards Garrick and Garrick's toward Shakespeare ; of both it may be said: The piece and its author have been applauded none the less for that. It would be incredible that he could ever have imagined his poetical powers sufficient to allow him to correct the great writer's defects and to match his majestic verse, did we not remember that rhymers even feebler than he had dared undertake the same task.

Hoadley, brother of the author of The Suspicious Husband, and himself an ecclesiastic far happier in the court he paid to possessors of fat livings than in that he oifered to the Muses. He refers to Garrick's revision of Hamlet and "fears too little has been done. With a grave sufficiency that is delightfully comic, he suggests the addition of lines such as these: Soft you now, The fair Ophelia! I have made too free With that sweet lady's ear. My place in Denmark, The time's misrule, my heavenly -urged revenge, Matters of giant stature, gorge her love As fish the cormorant.

She drops a tear. As from her book she steals her eye on me.

I'm angry at these tears: But 'tis our trick ; Nature her custom holds, Let shame say what it will ; when these are gone The woman will be out. Oh, speak the manner. O rose of May, kind sister, sweet Ophelia, By heaven, thy death shall be o'erpaid with weight Till our scale turn the beam. D'ye see this, Gods, And Hamlet still alive? In his most ambitious attempt, the Ode to Shakespeare, he borrows his form from Dryden ; but he does not succeed in discovering one new or personal thought, and the images which he employs are either commonplaces or quotations, avowed and unavowed.

We do not, of course, reproach him with the use of phrases quoted between inverted commas, such as: We note at random: Warble forth such wood- notes wild" cf. Even those expressions which cannot be assigned to any particular author are old and worn and belong to all the hack writers ; for example: When Garrick writes society verses and occa- sional lines he is more at ease. He possessed the knack necessary for turning a neat compliment to a lady, the wit required for aiming a dart at some rival or critic.

In throwing off these trifles he had no need of poetry, and in this subordinate class there is nothing better than his verses — To THE Countess of Burlington Written in a Prayer-hook she gave him This sacred book hath Dorothea given To show a straying sheep the way to heav'n ; With forms of righteousness she well may part Who bears the spirit in her upright heart. Or those on Johnson's Dictionary, completed in Talk of war to a Briton, he'll boldly advance That one English soldier will beat ten of France ;. From'a print in the collection of A. These little monologues often represented a whole scene in epitome, and were, no doubt, sprightly and effective when spoken and played by a good actor; to-day, when we read them, after the lapse of a century and a half, much of their brilliancy has departed and they remind one of the faded tinsel of some theatre wardrobe.

Here is Peg Woffington complain- ing of a new regulation which forbids beaux to penetrate behind the scenes: No beaux behind the scenes! Public complaint, forsooth, is made a puff ; Sense, order, decency, and such like stuff. But arguments like these are mere pretence ; The beaux, 'tis known, ne'er gave the least offence, Are men of chastest conduct and amazing sense. Each actress now a locked-up nun must be.

And priestly managers must keep the key. Pritchard, in her r61e of Queen Bess, indulging in patriotic sentiment: If any here are Britons but in name, Dead to their country's happiness and fame. Let 'em depart this moment ; let 'em fly My awful presence and my searching eye.

No more your Queen, but upright judge I come To try your deeds abroad, your lives at home. Your wit, whate'er your poets sing or swear, Since Shakespeare's time is somewhat worse for wear. Your laws are good ; your lawyers good, of course ; The streams are surely clear, when clear the source. In greater stores these blessings now are sent ye ; Where I had one attorney you have twenty.

The Chelsea pensioner, who, rich in scars, Fights o'er in prattle all his former wars, Tho' past the service, may the young ones teach To march — present — to fire — and mount the breach. Should the drum beat to arms, at first he'll grieve For wooden leg, lost eye, and armless sleeve ; Then cocks his hat, looks fierce, and swells his chest: It is wonderful that he has been able to write such a variety of them. Pluto, at Proserpine's request, has granted a boon to mortals: Thus a whole series of characters defiles before the audience: The most amusing sketches are old Lord Chalk- stone and Mrs.

Bowman ; the second a would-be fine lady, to whom Sheridan's Mrs. Malaprop perhaps owed a hint. There is also a Frenchman, who is in England " pour polir la nation," and who states thus his qualifications for the task: Sir, my merit consists in one vord — I am foreignere ; and, entre nous, vile de Englis be so great a fool to love de foreignere better dan demselves, de foreignere void be more great a fool did they not leave deir own countrie, vere dey have noting at all, and come to Inglande, vere dey want for noting at all, per die.

Cela n'est il pas vrai. This little sketch is light, but sparkling ; the dialogue is good and the characters vigorously drawn. Erom it one may judge of the meaning of the word comedy for Garrick — a series of situa- tions in which amusing and ridiculous types of humanity can be brought together to expose their peculiarities before the eyes of the audience. As for the plot, that was always as slight as might be, and he preferred to take it ready-made from the works of some predecessor.

Here, as in the poems, composing power is lacking, and it is worthy of note that, in the only one of his pieces which is important from its structure, he had the assistance of his friend George Colman. Colman would never admit that Garrick's collaboration had been an effective one, and, as Joseph THE DRAMATIST 91 A full analysis of his other comedies, farces, and interludes would not adduce much fresh evidence in his favour as a playwright; we will content ourselves with a brief mention of the most important.

The Lying Valet — a development of the second act of Motteux's curious medley, The Novelty; or, Uvery Act a Play, with reminiscences of a Prench comedy by Hauteroche — turns on the endeavours of Sharp, valet to Gayless, an in- debted beau, to prevent Melissa, his affianced bride, from discovering the true state of the master's fortunes. The situations are amusing, if somewhat forced.

Garrick, when young, must have been very vivacious in the part. A Miss in her Teens, or A Medley of Lovers, provides a somewhat insufficient frame for the portraits of Fribble, an effeminate dandy, and Flash, a cowardly bully, two suitors with whom Miss Biddy has amused herself during her lover's absence at the wars. In his adaptation Garrick has certainly not weakened the French piece on which he has founded his own. But, indeed, bullies and dandies are favourite characters in all the comedies of the day.

Edwige Wilson

Knight says in his David Garrick p. Several married women whose affections he has trifled with decoy him to a rendezvous in Hyde Park, and expose him to the laughter of their friends. Daffodil is an amusing character, but he reminds one of Congreve's Vain-love and Tattle. In the same way, when in Nech or Nothing we see Martin Belford's servant disguise himself as a gentleman in order to marry a woman of fortune, we are reminded of a part of The Way of the World.

A Feep behind the Curtain is like- wise, as its sub-title The New Rehearsal con- fesses, only another version of the Duke of Buckingham's famous farce. The Guardian, in which Ave see the middle-aged Mr. Heartly slowly brought to understand that his ward. Miss Harriett, prefers him to the very foolish young suitor he had proposed for her, is a really excellent little comedy; but it is a very close adaptation of Pagan's La Fupille, of which Voltaire used to declare that it was the best short piece in the Prench language.

In Prance his value as an author was never overrated. VII THE MAN Shall we be accused of demolishing with ruthless hand Garrick's reputation as a dramatist, or of plucking too majiy laurels from the brow of one whom his friends deemed as worthy of the Laureate's crown as the illustrious Paul White- head? Our only desire is to judge according to the evidence, and, whilst despoiling Garrick of meretricious and unjustifiable glories, to leave him clad in one that is truly his own: He was one of those chameleon men who can change their personality at will, and adapt themselves at pleasure to the characters of every human type.

But this very plasticity of mind is the negation of that originality in thought and temper which is needed to achieve distinction as an author. Johnson would have been a poor comedian ; his pupil was a poor writer. To one more encomium Garrick has, however, every right: Certain weaknesses he had, the defects of those qualities which conducted him to success on the stage, and which the adulation attending his career served to nourish.

He was vain; but not uncommonly so, given the atmo- sphere in which he lived — and his good sense prevented the disease from becoming more than 04 THE MAN 96 skin-deep. He was changeable, inclined to follow his impulses and to promise more than he always cared to perform after reflection. The fact is that he brought to his calling more thought- fulness than is often the case ; the readiness of sympathy necessary in the translator of the feelings of fictitious characters was balanced in him by a strong common sense that saw things as they are.

He was Celt and Anglo-Saxon com- bined; and that is why he was so successful an actor-manager. That also explains why he was careful, even parsimonious at times, in small matters, but ever ready to faire un beau geste and to give freely. Johnson declared that, whenever he drew Garrick's attention to some case of distress, he always received from him more than from any other person, and always more than he expected: He has given away more money than any man in England. There may have been a little vanity mixed, but he has shown that money is not his first object. By the excellence of his private character and the innocence of his life he raised the status of his profession.

Parsons, David Garrick cmd his Circle.

Films de fiction de la Médiathèque de Meudon

He was witty and vivacious, ever ready to amuse others ; anxious to shine, it is true — but then, he was an actor. If in France it was the eminence of his talents that drew the attention of the refined world, it was his qualities of heart which attached to him so many people of diverse ranks and turned his admirers into friends ; and Parisian society, as a whole, paid him the immense com- pliment of long repeating in their drawing-rooms, " Mr.

Garrick was made to live amongst us. They met at London in , and the friendship then begun lasted for thirty years ; in the Eorster Collection is a letter that Garrick received from Monnet only a few weeks before his death. Garrick paid a visit to Monnet in ; he met him again during his stay in Paris in ; Monnet came to see the English actor in London in Erom to they exchanged a regular corre- spondence, the Erench part of which, consisting of more than fifty letters, was carefully preserved by Garrick. It is interesting and touching to follow through these papers yellow with age, the progress of this affection ever fresh.

As Monnet grows older his letters become less frequent and the writing feebler ; but the friendship which united him to the Englishman does not lose its force. Monnet interests us here in three ways. Next, from a per- sonal point of view: Thirdly, the details of his visit to London are especially worthy of our consideration and throw light on the relations between the theatres of Prance and of England in the eighteenth century.

In order to set Monnet in his historical place as travelling impresario, we must remind our readers that, in , French actors were not exactly a novelty in England. The appearance of actresses on the stage had excited great interest, and, at a date when the opinion of London was becoming more and more Puritan, no little indignation. Charlanne, L' Influence fran- gaise en Angleterre Paris, , to whom we are mdebted for much guidance. But if the London merchants and apprentices looked askant at such ungodly foreign invasions, the Court, presided over by a Prench queen inordin- ately fond of shows and spectacles, did not hesitate to encourage them.

In a second Prench company sought the protection of Queen Henrietta, and was allowed to play in the Cockpit at Whitehall ; they gave, before Charles I. Purthermore, the king allowed them to perform at Drury Lane Theatre twice a week during Lent, on sermon-days — a manifest injustice to the English actors, who were debarred from showing at those times.

If we may believe Sir Henry Herbert, they were even authorized to play all Holy Week — a most extraordinary permission and one calculated to offend other than Puritan susceptibilities. We find them established in their new quarters next winter and playing tragedies and comedies before the king and queen. It is not astonishing to hear that the native actors complained bitterly of this unfair rivalry ; but Henrietta was so fond of her own countrymen, and had so much influence with her husband, that their protests passed unheeded.

Not many years elapsed, however, before the decree of the Long Parliament reduced all these rivalries to silence. When the new theatre at Dorset Gardens was opened in its lighting, decorations, and machines of all sorts were imported from Erance. Smart society flocked to hear the Erench comedians play in their native tongue, and those that understood least applauded most, from fear of being thought ignorant ; how different from what we see at London to-day! The English actors again raised pitiful moan. Dry- den's prefaces and prologues are full of allusions to the subject: We dare not on your privilege intrench, Or ask you why you like them?

Their countrymen come in, and nothing pay, To teach us English where to clap the play ; Civil, egad I our hospitable land Bears all the charge for them to understand ; Meantime we languish, and neglected lie, Like wives, while you keep better company! And for the pencil you the pen disdain ; While troops of famished Frenchmen hither drive And laugh at those upon whose alms they live.

Old English authors vanish, and give place To these new conquerors of the Norman race. More tamely than your fathers you submit. You're now grown vassals to them in your wit. Mark, when they play, how our fine fops advance The mighty merits of these men of France, Keep time, cry Ben! Well, please yourselves ; but sure 'tis understood That French machines have ne'er done England good. Besides actors, French singers, dancers, and musicians were all in fashion, and earned large sums, while their English rivals were en- tirely neglected.

The accession of William III. At this date Saint Andr6 was drawing crowds to Dorset Gardens with his ballets. During Anne's reign and that of George I. Prance hecame the national enemy ; to encourage Erench arts or commerce was to he a Popish Jacobite. As masters of deportment, of singing, and of cookery they still remained in vogue ; but even in the intervals of peace, troops of Prench actors dared not cross the Channel. Thus when Monnet, in , brought his band of comedians to the Haymarket, the recollection of the former visits of his countrymen had long been lost, and his attempt seemed a greater novelty than it was in reality.

Next, as to Jean Monnet himself. He was born at Condrieux, on the banks of the Rhone, in , the son of a poor baker. Thanks to friends at Paris, he was taken into the household of the Duchesse de Berry, where he became a page. Unfortunately his patroness died while he was still young, and Monnet found himself without resources.

He did not, however, lose courage, and proved himself ready to turn his hand to any calling, honest or otherwise. We find him earning a precarious living as printer and author ; succeeding in the world, thanks to his physical advantages and the favour they won him with the fair sex — in other words, homme a bonnes fortunes ; then, disgusted with the world and thinking of becoming Trappist. For his relations with Garrick we have employed some MSS. He found this subordinate theatre, established at the fairs of St. Monnet was a born manager, with a most extraordinary eye for budding talent.

He engaged, as author, reader of plays, and stage-manager, Simon Pavart, like him- self a baker's son, who was just rising into notice, and who had made all Paris laugh in with his Chercheuse d'esprit. His chef d'orchestre was Rameau, the operatic composer ; his scene-painter and costumier Boucher, the well-known artist; his ballet-master was Dupre, who brought with him a young pupil named Noverre, destined to become Master of the Revels to every Court in Europe and to revolutionize the stage-dances of the day.

Germain was held every year from February 3rd to the Sunday before Easter in the streets between the church of St. Sulpice and what is now the Boulevard St. Laurent followed, from June 27th till the end of September. It was held between the Faubourg St.

La vie extraordinaire d'une chienne nommée Cléo (French Edition)

Denis and the Faubourg St. Martin, at about where is now the southern end of the Grands Boulevards. Their prayer was heard: Monnet's privilege was taken from him, and the Opera Comique closed its doors. Monnet did not long remain unoccupied. In we find him Director of the Lyons Theatre, at that date the finest in Erance. Here he not only gave seasons of tragedy, comedy, and opera, but organized tours to the neighbouring towns.

His enterprise did not, however, meet with the reward it deserved, and found him back at Paris, where for the next two years he seems to have lived partly as a friend and partly as a kind of steward in the household of the somewhat eccentric Mademoiselle de Navarre. He certainly was no Puritan ; but allowance should be made for the circumstances of his life, and for the milieu and century in which he lived.

In his letters to Garrick and in all his dealings with him he appears a very honest, disinterested, and affectionate fellow. The following portrait in verse probably paints him very correctly: Peau bise et poll brunet, En amour volage et coquet Dents blanches comme kit, Comme un roquet, Le regard d'un furet, Semillant et vif comme un frisquet. Le corps bien fait, Toujours, pour remplir son gousset, L'air guilleret Allant au fait, Et follet. Et jamais distrait de son objet. Ni trop sec, ni trop replet, Industrieux, sage et discret. Grand ni basset, Aussi ribaud qu'un baudet. Aussi flatteur qu'un barbet.

Engedlant par son caquet. Oui, trait pour trait. Ami, maltre, maltresse et valet. The enthusiastic Monnet had already engaged his company, and Sras at his wits' end to know how to employ them. Garrick, with whom I was not acquainted. I proposed that he should take Rich's place.

He refused, and that for reasons which I could not but approve ; he gave me, too, advice worthy of all the uprightness and honour- ableness of which I have had full experience from him since then. His opening night was November 9th, From the aristocratic subscribers seated in the boxes the visitors had a very kindly reception ; but the Jingoes who crowded the pit and the gallery refused most energetically to listen to the foreign artists. The scenes enacted at Black- friars one hundred and twenty years before were repeated; whistling and cat-calls prevented the actors from being heard; a hail of apples and oranges, mingled with candles borrowed from the sconces, fell on the stage.

On the second day the fight was longer and more stubborn. The subscribers had taken into their pay a contingent of Thames boatmen and Smithfield butchers, who cleared the gallery and tumbled their opponents into the pit or the street. The minis- terial candidate, Lord Trentham, was accused by the Opposition of having supported the Prench actors; new disorders broke out, not only in the play-house each evening, but also in the streets all day long.

Finally, the Lord Chamberlain, fearing that serious riots might result, withdrew the permission he had given, and closed the theatre. The whole cost of these unfortunate accidents fell on poor Monnet.

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His actors demanded their salaries for the season; the proprietor of the building required his rent. In spite of the assist- ance of his friends, he was obliged to " fixer sa residence dans la maison d'un juge de paix " — let us translate, he was arrested for debt. Then fresh subscriptions allowed him to settle a portion of his accounts and to return to Erance: Monnet for his spectacle at London " shows that the performance given by Garrick in favour of his unfortunate colleague had produced a sum of one hundred guineas.

Monnet seems to have gone back to France about the month of April Two years later his friends at court had succeeded in re-establish- ing him as Director of the Opera Comique, and thus set him in the way of earning that income of 6, francs a year with which he was able to retire only six years later. In the interval he had received a visit from his friend Garrick, who came to France in He had given, too, Gay's Beggar's Opera in a French version made by a German, declares Patu, in the Preface to the second volume of his Thedtre anglais ; and this the spectators had been unanimous in con- demning.

Details are, therefore, lacking ; but certain information is available, and deserves to be set forth here. Garrick appears to have reached Paris in the early days of June; on this point let us quote the Journal of C0II6, the dramatic author ': Fitzgerald calls this visit "a wedding-trip. It seems to us far more probable that Garrick came to visit his friend Monnet, who was better situated than any one else to aid him in securing dancers for his theatre ; see p. His family was connected with the law ; but young C0II6 soon showed a preference for the writing of light verse and comedies. The first Caveau was a friendly union of singers and artists: A few amateurs were invited, and good eating was seasoned by witty songs and sparkling epigrams.

Colly's reputation grew so great that the merry Due d'Orl6ans appointed him his reader and secretary. From the duke's theatre some of his plays passed to the public scenes, where they achieved great success.

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His songs, too, were in every mouth, and the celebrated one on the capture of Port Mahon in brought him a royal pension of frs. The latter had come here with Garrick, the most celebrated actor in England, and Director of the London play-house. Denis, who saw Baron act during the eight or nine years that he was studying surgery in Paris, considers Garrick is much superior to that famous actor.

There may be, indeed there surely is, some little prejudice in favour of his England in this judg- ment ; but that very prejudice shows that Garrick is, at any rate, no ordinary man. I dined yesterday, the 12th, with Garrick, the English actor. He gave us a scene from one of Shakespeare's tragedies, in which we could easily perceive that the great reputation which he enjoys is by no means un- justified.

He gave us a sketch of that scene where Macbeth thinks he sees a dagger in the air, leading him to the room where he is to murder the king. Charles Denis translated into English, verses by J. On the English side we have found only one letter written to Garrick during this journey.

It is from the Duke of Devonshire, who says, on June 11th, His face expresses all the passions one after the other, and that without any grimace, although that scene is full of terrilDle and tumultuous move- ments. What he played before us was a kind of tragic pantomime, and from that one piece I would not fear to assert that that actor is ex- cellent in his art.

As to ours, he considers them all bad, from the highest to the lowest, and on that point we fully agreed with him. So it seems probable that in he frequented especially the society of his friend Monnet, and that he knew little of the literary and philosophic circles from which he was to have so flattering a welcome in He was a pupil of Petitot, the enameller ; but, having developed distinct gifts for portraiture, he came to Paris in He was protected by M.

He next accompanied some rich English travellers on a voyage in the Levant, and, attracted by the life and colour of Constantinople, settled for a time in that city, adopting the native dress and letting his beard grow. He kept the same peculiarities of costume when he went to Vienna some years later, and for that reason was called " The Turkish artist. His reputation was now very great ; but when, in , he returned to Paris he was obliged, in the more artistic atmosphere, to abate somewhat of his pretensions.

He remained, however, in fashion: Examples of his work are very numerous, especially in the galleries of Dresden and Vienna and in Switzerland. It has been asserted that he was presented to King Louis XV. Berry er, a Commissioner of Police in that city: On what you were good enough to acquaint me with, as to the design which brought to this place Messrs. Garrick and Levie, I have had them sought for but have not succeeded in discovering them.

You had given me hopes of sending me information should anything come to your knowledge on this subject, and I am led to believe that you have heard no more of the matter ; but I know without any doubt that one of our dancers named Devisse, who left furtively in the month of August last year and passed into England, is at present at Paris.

One of our actors assures me that he saw him and spoke to him in this town only a few days ago, and I have reason to believe that the object of his voyage, about at catching a likeness ; but his colour is thin and insipid, and he manages surfaces and indicates light and shade so badly that at times the heads of his models appear almost flat.

According to the actor Caillot, Garrick in went to Versailles to watch the royal procession going to the mass and was remarked by Louis XV. Thus the actor who was presented to the Court in had become in a simple spectator hidden in a gallery! But the best reason for not believing this story of a presentation is the fact that Garrick himself never made any allusion to it.

Another anecdote of this first stay in France is that which shows the actor overwhelming, thanks to his facial powers, the murderer of his countryman, Sir George Lewis, killed in the Forest of Bondy, See Fitzgerald, p, Garrick and Levi6 may take to entice some of our actors and actresses and to carry them off with them ; perhaps he has already taken measures to succeed in that. Sir, that independently of these reasons, his infringement of the regulations and orders of the king will decide you to give orders to have him arrested and carried to the Eor FEveque. The example is absolutely necessary ; first, to keep our actors and actresses within bounds and to assure that the public service be properly carried out; secondly, to forestall M.

Devisse's evil intentions and the operations of these foreigners. I beg you to remain ever persuaded of the devotion and respect with which I have the honour to be. Sir, Your very humble and very obedient servant, De Bernage. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries it is usually found spelt Fort I'Eveque ; but it was in no sense a fort. But the proper derivation seems to be from Forum, this being the original seat of jurisdiction and prison of the Bishop of Paris.

Later the For I'Eveque became a prison for lesser crimes and misdemeanours — debt, military indiscipline, poaching, offences against morality, etc. Here actors were con- fined for " inobservance of the king's regulations," or for " want of respect to the public. See also, Funck-Brentano, op. Was there any connection between this affair and Garrick's return to England? To this ques- tion it is impossible to give a decisive answer; but he seems to have withdrawn in some haste. It is quite possible that Garrick was already thinking in of in- creasing his body of dancers, so as to be able to vie with the brilliant spectacles produced at the rival theatre ; and, as we shall see, he succeeded, three years later, in attracting to Drury Lane the foremost maitre de ballet of the day.

For the original of this letter see Appendix. Later Levi6 retired to Paris, where Garrick met him and lent him money in Letters from Monnet ; Boaden, vol. See also Henry Angelo's Reminiscences London, , vol. Angelo lodged with him at Paris in In his Correspondence we have only discovered one allusion to it, when, in an un- published letter to his brother Peter, he writes: I had much honour done me both by Prench and English ; and everybody and everything contributed to make me happy. It is the best place in the world for a visit.

The great fault of our countrymen is that they do not mix with the natives. J did " , and gives it the date ! He adds that among the Parisians, with whom age is a serious matter, Garrick passed for thirty-two ; but that the actor would have no such unpleasant? The only references to Prench affairs that we have noted are in the communications from Charles Selwin, an English banker at Paris, who speaks thus of Mademoiselle Clairon to the actor in December Such a triumvirate was never seen. But she eclipses the others and will soon be the greatest actress that ever appeared on the Prench stage.

If they had men equal to their women, I should be sorry for it, because I would not have any theatre preferred to Drury Lane, as there is no danger of any Actor's being so whilst M'' Garrick acts on it. She hopes soon to have it in her power to say to you what she thinks of fiction and asked his brother to send his correct age as set down in the family Bible.

In Garrick's letter there is no allusion to the Parisians in this connection. The fact is that the actor had forgotten his age ; he had already asked Peter to send him the exact date of his birth letter, May 12th, Forster Collection, vol.

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During that interval he had made two other Erench acquaintances, of whom we will speak briefly. Patu further proved the liberality of his taste by admiring not only the plays of Voltaire but also those of the detested Shakespeare. Considering his youth, his literary acquirements were extensive ; his judgment seems to have been sure ; had his health been stronger, he would certainly have played an important part in the literary history of his time.

Led by his desire to extend his knowledge of English literature and to see the plays of great Shakespeare acted by great Garrick, Patu, in spite of his feeble chest, braves the fogs of the Thames in November Con- sult also R. Montagu London, , pp. Dismissed from the employment of the East India Company in , he spent the next few years travelling in Europe. He remained at London only a few weeks, but during that short stay he followed the perform- ances at Drury Lane with the greatest assiduity. Soon after the New Year he was back at Paris, where he began that correspondence the Prench half of which has been affectionately preserved by Garrick.

I will write sometimes in English [he says in his letter of Pebruary 25th, ] ; pitifully to be sure, but what is that to me, since error is the only way to truth? And besides, a true Englishman considers thoughts more than words. Sometimes in Prench to make myself gratified with a Prench answer, the perusal of which will encourage my pen and invite it to do, if possible, in your language, what noble ambition, work and sagacity made you able to do in ours.

Meantime, do not forget, I beseech you, to give me some news of your stage, your warm, interesting stage, the remembrance of which strikes still to my very heart. Oh, Sir, how must I lament the state of our scene! His Memoirs of a Coxcomb, , has more literary merit. He wrote also very frigid tragedies and some philological treatises. I forced great many of my country- men to confess such a truth, though they are enemies to great Shakespeare, who is called among them, the absurd, ridiculous poet and whom they never understood a line of.

Well, let us have fine verses, interesting speeches etc. Before ten or twelve years, I do assure you, everybody will keep Corneille, Racine, and Campistron in his own library, and prefer the Pair of St. Germain to the Erench play- house: This letter is written in English. Je trouve cette pifece chaude, interessante et g6n6ralement 6crite k la Voltaire ; mais vous en jugerez.

La pr6face qu'il a mise k la tete, et que vous verrez lorsqu'elle pourra vous parvenir, ne manquera pas de vous rdvolter. Prit chard when he brings his daughter across the water to learn dancing and complete her "corporal education. The Eng- lish Farnassus ; or, Lives of the Principal Foets who have rendered Great Britain Illustrious, a work which was to reveal to the Prench nation beauties of which it had no suspicion or which it understood ill. Here, however, he needs the actor's collaboration: When that is complete, we will think of the others.

If you will not collaborate with me in this work, if you have so much spite against the Prench nation that you refuse to give it the benefit of your knowledge, I shall abandon my design. We do not know whether Garrick accepted his offer. It is certain, however, that the journalist always spoke in most flattering terms of the English actor, and made frequent allusions to "the celebrated Garrick," " the English Eoscius," etc.

I did not fail to tell him what I thought of his expressions, so false and so incon- siderate, about Shakespeare. The chief point that angers him is the irregularity of that illustrious poet's plans, irregularity which you are very far from defending. Other articles of the same year — one especially on Johnson's Dictionary cf. Coffey, Mottley, and Theo. Gibber — a piece in which Kitty Glive won her first successes.

From it Sedaine made his Diable a qicatre The second volume is composed of two pieces of Gay's: The preface of this volume contains an appreciation of Gay, for whom Patu had a deep admiration see his letter of May 18th, , with a translation of Swift's Reflexions on the writer and his work. Patu ; il a de I'esprit, il est naturel, il est aimable.

J'ai 6t6 trfes fach6 que son sejour ait 6t6 si court," etc. See, too, his letter to d'Argental of the same date, where Voltaire speaks of his two pilgrims to Emmaus— Patu and Palissot. J'ai modestement fait tout ce que je pouvais, mais il lui manquait surtout l'amour de ses semblables. Eva Rogo, Olajire Olanlokun, De la couleur d'une petite bille de bouleau. Bob, un Golden, partage sa chienne de vie avec 8 oiseaux et …. Bisca, une chienne de garde vigilante et affectueuse. French words that begin with c. French words that begin with ch. French words that begin with chi. Load a random word. Discover all that is hidden in the words on.