t a playhouse in Paris where it is not
performed, although in each it takes a different tone, to which the
actors, as they change from one stage to another, insensibly adapt
themselves. Thus the four principal vaudeville theatres have each their
own style. There is an immeasurable distance between the vaudeville
_grivois_, the laxity, not to say the positive indecency, of the Palais
Royal--supported by the _double-entendres_ of Ravel and Madame Lemenil,
and the buffoonery of Alcide Tousez--and the neat and correct little
comedies of the Gymnase, so admirably enacted by a Ferville, a Numa, and
a Rose Cheri. To the latter theatre, the Parisian matrons conduct their
daughters; the former they themselves hesitate to visit. The substance
is not invariably more praiseworthy at the one than at the other, but
the form is always more decorous.

In discussing the vaudeville, the theatre bearing that name naturally
claims the precedence, to which the excellence of its present company
also gives it some title. Until the year 1792, there existed at Paris no
theatre specially appropriated to this style of performance, which was
given at the Comedie Italienne. It attracted crowds; and Sedaine, the
composer, vexed to see it preferred to his comic operas, wrote a couplet
against it, exhibiting more spleen than poetical merit. The attack,
however, together with the refusal of a small pension which he had
claimed from the Italian Comedy, to whose treasury he had brought
millions of francs, irritated Piis, the vaudevilliste then in vogue, the
Scribe of his day. In conjunction with Barre and a few actors, he opened
a theatre in the Rue de Chartres. The enterprise was crowned with
complete success, and an able company was soon assembled. Mr. Hervey has
collected some droll anecdotes of the actors who flourished under this
management, although they lose part of their point by translation.
Chapelle, a short stout man, "with eyes that were continually opening
and shutting, thick black eyebrows, a mouth always half open, and a pair
of legs resembling in shape the feet of an elephant," was remarkable for
his credulity, and his comrades took particular delight in mystifying
him. "Seveste, who had just returned from fulfilling an engagement at
Rouen, told the unfortunate dupe that, during his stay in that town, he
had succeeded in taming a carp so perfectly, that it followed him about
like a dog; adding, that he was much grieved at having lost it. '