In Hippolyte you behold the innocence, simplicity and
ingenuousness of a first and pure attachment:
In Phedre the embrasement,
the ungovernable delirium of a criminal passion.
I have seen Mlle Duchesnois again in the Merope of Voltaire and admire
her more and more. This is an admirable play. The dialogue is so spirited;
the agitation of maternal tenderness, and the occasional bursts of feelings
impossible to be restrained, render this play one of the most interesting
perhaps on the French stage, and Mlle Duchesnois gave with the happiest
effect her part in those two scenes; the first wherein she supposes Egisthe
to be the person who has killed her son; in the other where having
discovered the reality of his person, she is obliged to dissemble the
discovery, but on Egisthe being about to be sacrificed she exclaims
"Barbare, c'est mon fils!" The part of Egisthe was given by a young actor
who made his appearance at this theatre for the first tune, and he executed
his part with complete success (Firmin, I think, was his name). Lafond did
the part of Polyphonte and did it well. At this tragedy many allusions were
caught hold of by the audience according as they were Bourbonically or
Napoleonically inclined; at that part of Polyphonte's speech wherein he
says:
Le premier qui fut Roi fut un soldat heureux.
Qui sert bien son pays n'a pas besoin d'ayeux.
Thunders of applause proceeded from those who applied it to Napoleon.
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