Remarks on the various dramatic performances which I witnessed at Paris,
with opinions on the French theatre in general.

In my ideas of dramatic works I am neither rigidly classic nor romantic,
and I think both styles may be good if properly managed and the interest
well kept up; in a word I am pleased with all genres _hors le genre
ennuyux_,[43] and tho' a great admirer of Shakespeare and Schiller, I am
equally so of Voltaire, Racine and Corneille; I take equal delight in the
pathos of the sentimental dramas of Kotzebue as in the admirable satire and
_vis comica_ of the unrivalled Molière, so that on my arrival at Paris I
was not violently prejudiced either for or against the French stage, but
rather pre-occupied, to use a gentler term, in its favour; and I have not
been at all disappointed, for I think I can pronounce it with safety the
first, perhaps the only stage in Europe.

I now mean to speak not of Operas, nor of Operas-comiques, nor of
melodrames, nor of vaudevilles; all these have their respective merits; but
when I speak of the French stage, I confine myself to the regular theatre
of tragedy and comedy, of their classical pieces; in a word, to the
dramatic performances usually given at the _Théâtre Français_.

The first piece I saw performed was _Manlius_;[44] but I was too far off
from the stage to judge of the acting, and could do little more than catch
the sounds. The parterre and the whole house was full. I was in the fourth
tier of boxes, yet I could distinguish at intervals the finest and most
prominent traits, of Talma's acting, particularly in that scene where he
upbraids his friend with having betrayed him. This he gave with uncommon
energy and effect. The plot of this piece is very similar to that of
_Venice preserved_.[45]