nation, and because I can never hope again to hear such bold things repeated on any stage. The last observation principally refers to the afterpiece, since many passages in Brutus' that were extremely applauded, were only striking from their application. Let me beg my reader's patience while I enumerate some of those that appeared the most popular. Destructeurs des tyrans! vous, qui n'avez pour rois, Than Numa's gods, your virtues, and our laws! Nous avons fait, en lui rendant hommage, Sous un sceptre de fer, ce peuple abattu, Je porte en mon cœur La liberté gravée, et les rois en horreur. I bear engrav'd, and kings I hold in horror. Sois toujours un héros !-sois plus, sois citoyen! Be a hero still!-be more, a citizen! Arrêter un Romain sur de simples soupçons ! Arrest a Roman only on suspicion! That were to act as tyrants! Dieux! donnez-nous la mort plûtot que l'esclavage! Ye gods! oh rather give us death than bondage! The two following passages had a very different effect upon the audience; the second nearly proved the occasion of a tumult. Quel homme est sans erreur, et quel roi sans faiblesse ' Les droits des souverains sont ils moins precieux ? Scarcely was the actor allowed to finish this speech, or the following, which set the powder into a yet more violent explosion. Rome a changé de fers, et sous le joug des grands, Rome has but chang'd its bondage, and beneath At these words some flaming loyalist in the second tier of boxes, more bold than discreet, clapped vehemently. The whole pit was in commotion in an instant, every one rising up, hissing and exclaiming, Ah, que cela est béte! All eyes were turned immediately to the spot where the clapping was heard, with menaces, execrations, knocking and stamping. The players stopped to wait the event, and by degrees the storm blew over; for how could a single offender be distinguished among such a crowd? and that he was single was very plain from the sound. Happy was it for him that none of his neighbours betrayed him, since, if discovered, he had doubtless expiated his folly-for folly it was, not spirit or courage à la lanterne, without having rendered any service to his shadow of a monarch. After such a proof of republican jealousy, no one ventured to take notice of any passage that was not orthodoxly democratic. Yet 'tis surely hard that this intolerance should prevent the company in the boxes, who, by paying their money have purchased the privilege of delivering their free opinions, from testifying their approbation or disapprobation of striking passages, when the gentlemen in the pit assume a right of clapping or hissing at pleasure, till their hands and throats are sore. 'Tis truly laughable to me, that the French, who have so little of the Roman in them, should uniformly apply to themselves what is said of that great people. Every soldier of the national guard now believes himself a Titus, and sees a Brutus in each deputy to the national assembly. At the words, Be a hero still!-be more, a citizen not a tailor's heart but palpitates in his bosom, delighted to find that 'tis so easy to be a hero. Enough of Brutus!-only one word more upon the performance of the piece. It was completely French. Brutus screamed so beyond all bounds that he wounded my ears deplorably. Titus had much to recommend him; a pleasing yet manly voice, which in many places affected me extremely. He was very successful in expressions of the great or the noble, but his passion was caricature. The good Tullia looked too much like an own sister of the lascivious Tarquin, and Porsenna's ambassador had that abominable peruke-maker physiognomy and those peruke-maker graces and airs, so common among French actors, and which accord so ill with the plumed helmet. The costume was observed with taste and accuracy, though this must be understood only with regard to the leading characters. Brutus's toga with the purple stripe was truly Roman, as well as the fashion of his hair and beard. His shoes and stockings only, and his snubbed nose, reminded me that he was monsieur such a-one. Valerius Publicola united to his Romish dress such a true ancient Roman countenance, as represented upon gems, that this was a much more complete deception. As to the senators, the lictors, the populace, and the rest, I have nothing to say about them, excepting to remark upon the folly of spending a great deal of money in getting up a play, and then rendering the whole expense nugatory, by saving in a few trifles. When the curtain drew up, and exhibited the Roman senate seated in full assembly, on hearing the words, destructeurs des tyrans, I could not help looking round upon these magnanimous heroes, whom I found indeed in one uniform toga, but with their hair finely be-frizzed and be-powdered, white cotton stockings, and red slippers. There was an end of all deception at once: I thought of the famous picture of Dido upon the funeral pile, with her courtiers standing round in Spanish hats. But to proceed to the afterpiece, Epimenides awaking at Paris.' A short sketch of the plan of this little comedy may perhaps not be unentertaining to the reader. The scene is in a walk in the Tuileries. Aristus relates to his daughter Josephine, that Epimenides, after having lived for a time, always falls asleep for a hundred years, and then wakes again to a new life. "By this means," he adds, "he has been a spectator of all the revolutions in the states of Greece and Rome, and has often witnessed also, in France, how the monarch and the great men have, with unbridled power and licentiousness, oppressed the people, and trampled them under foot. He saw how Louis Quatorze made his subjects the slaves of his fame, and yet, while everything was sacrificed to that phantom, how artfully he contrived to make himself idolized by a people, of whose misery he was the author. This Epimenides," he continues, "will soon awake, and behold less ostentation but more truth; will behold vanity and folly dressed in their mourning weeds, and the people at length considered as of some account." Epimenides soon appears, and expresses his satisfaction at contemplating once more the garden planted for the great Louis. Pity," said he," that the monarch should prefer the gloomy palace of Versailles to this pleasant and smiling abode." Aristus answers, that a successor of the great Louis, now the idol of France, has come to live there among his people; that his presence has diffused peace and happiness among them; that he is surrounded by no foreign guard, but that all things in the nation had assumed a new face. The shouts of the audience at this passage, almost everpowered the voice of the speaker, and the cry of encore! encore! resounded so from all parts of the house, that he was obliged to repeat it again. Epimenides then asks, "whether all abuses had been reformed?" Aristus answers with hesitation, and a shrug of the shoulders, Many." 66 Epimenides.-"The courtiers, then, have adopted a different system?-Dost thou not deceive me?" Here was a grand exclamation of Non! non! non! Aristus.-"A wise monarch does not take counsel of his courtiers." Epimenides." Of the parliament, I suppose? ?" Aristus." Every honest man is now his counsellor, for each province sends its deputies to the court. Yet all things cannot be completed in a moment. Many people have played very shameful parts; but that is past, and the heavens begin to look brighter |