Jn Irishman's Notes in Paris, No. IF. 227 



theatrical city, London suffers sentations, whieli licenses the theatres 



IS 23.] 



As E 

 ill a comparison with Paris ; I do not 

 mean the point of success in the higher 

 attainments of dramatic representa- 

 tion, but that general love of comedy, 

 which fills a house, and honours an 

 author. Not only in number do our 

 theatres fall short of those in Paris, 

 but their nights of performance are 

 more than doubly frequent : a dozen 

 theatres are open together, and all 

 respectably attended (with two or 

 three exceptions), every night of the 

 year. When to these favourable cir- 

 cumstances are added, a consideration 

 of the many new productions in each 

 season, the degree of merit they pos- 

 sess, and the popularity and fortune 

 they obtain, it must, with a sigh of 

 sincere regret, be admitted, that with 

 us dramatical literature flourishes 

 much less fruitfully than among our 

 lively neighbours. 



The French and Italian Opera (the 

 one vocal throughout, as the other, 

 and both celebrated for their acade- 

 mical orcliestra,) play on alternate 

 nights. The first and second French 

 theatres, always emulous, are licensed 

 for legitimate tragedy aud comedy: 

 the Salle Favart is a kind of second 

 opera, in style somethpig like our own 

 vocal comedy, in three acts. The 

 Theatres dc A'^arietes, des Vaudevilles, 

 and GjTnnase Dramatique, confine 

 themselves to comic sketches, in two 

 acts, enlivened by national airs. While 

 tlie Porte St. Martin, Gaiete, and Pa- 

 norama Dramatique, are constantly 

 attractive for pompous melodrame and 

 scenical machinery. Franconi has his 

 course for equestrian feats ; and there 

 are, besides, inferior houses. 



At a time when the stage of England 

 has sunk into so discreditable a state, 

 when it would seem that ail talent for 

 a kind of composition upon which 

 English excellence has already so 

 divinely exercised its powers is lost; 

 an enquiry into the apparent causes of 

 our barren boards would certainly be 

 interesting, and, haply, might turn out 

 providential. But in this place, and 

 at this moment, the subject cannot be 

 fairly examined : it is however obser- 

 vable, from a hasty consideration of 

 anotiier nation's rival display, that 

 some rcgulalions may be deduced not 

 unfavourable to talent and novelty. 

 Those enviable objects seem to be se- 

 cured to our neighbours by two provi- 

 sions: the first evident from our enu- 

 kncration of the houses and their reprc- 



for particular kinds of compositions, 

 and precludes each one from all inter- 

 ference with the interests of the others, 

 whether principal or minor ; the se- 

 cond appropriates, by law, for the 

 author a certain proportion of the 

 receipts of the house upon every night 

 on which his piece may be played. 

 Now it were indeed remarkable, if the 

 same regulations with us would not 

 effect similar advantages. The very 

 great supply of various entertainment, 

 which our leading houses undertake to 

 present to the town, is far more 

 heavy and more difficult than any one 

 establishment can produce. Hence, 

 what an audience gains in one line of 

 characters, it is sure to lose in another; 

 if the comic company be inviting for a 

 season, the operatic may be good, but 

 the tragic will be indifferent ; and so 

 in reverse. Thus, too, our theatres 

 have been losing concerns. It is a 

 matter of surprise, that, in a country 

 so classical, there should be no proper 

 market for musical talent; and the 

 question is, would not separate interest 

 in different styles embrace public sa- 

 tisfaction and private emolument? Tho 

 theatres in Drury-lane and Covent- 

 garden, limited to tragedy and comedy, 

 might well uphold national taste and 

 talent ; while, as they stand mixed aud 

 confounded with opera, melodrame, 

 pantomime, and spectacle, the g-ineral 

 reputation of the stage is sunk, and 

 each one only helps to ruin the other. 



During the few months I was in 

 Paris, the first French theatre received, 

 amongst others, six works which proved 

 successful ; of which, one produced the 

 author (M. Jouy) 30,000 francs during 

 the season's run. But in London how 

 striking the contrast : impertinent de- 

 lays and uncivil rejections, and, above 

 all, the vicious taste which our managers 

 so covetously cater for, have diverted 

 our poets from any exertion for the 

 theatre ; and this, too, at a period when 

 the press so well establishes the meri- 

 torious essays which have been made 

 in this kind of composition, for tho 

 gratification of the reader in his closet. 

 It was, indeed, miserable for our larger 

 houses to complain, in extenuation, 

 that such inferior establishments as the 

 Adelphi or Olympic, for instance, en- 

 croached upon their privilege in opera, 

 — when not a month passes without a 

 stroke of emulation from tiie former, 

 and under very superior advantages, 

 upon the lattcr's pretensions to j)anto- 



niimu 



