in which the people have been placed, in giving, in some
respects, a new tone to dramatic compositions, and in calling forth
productions of deeper interest, and capable of exciting more profound
emotion, than could generally be produced by the works of the earlier
periods of French literature.

It is an animating proof of the ascendancy of virtuous feeling, and a
striking illustration of the tendency of great assemblies of men, when
not actuated by particular passions, to join in what is generous and
elevated in human thought, that not only have the tragedies of the
earlier writers continued to be universally admired, and constantly
acted during the whole period of the revolution, but that the standard
of sentiment has not been lowered in those productions which have been
designed expressly for the French stage during that period, and that the
dignity of ancient virtue, and the elevation of natural feeling, still
ennoble the tone of French tragedy.

* * *

The French comedies and comic acting are not less characteristic of the
people than their tragedies. They are a gay and lively, but not a
humorous people. A Frenchman enters into amusements with an eagerness
and relish, of which, in this country, we have no conception; all his
cares and sorrows are forgotten; all his serious occupations are
postponed; all his unruly passions are calmed;--he thinks neither of his
individual misfortunes, nor of his national degradation; neither of the
friends whom he has lost in the war, nor of the foreign soldiers whom it
has placed at his elbow; his whole soul is absorbed in the game, in the
dance, or in the _spectacle_. But his object is not laughter, or passive
enjoyment, or relaxation; it is the excitation of his spirits, the
occupation, and interest, and agitation of his mind, the varied
gratification of his senses, the exercise of his fancy, the display of
his wit, and taste, and politeness.

The exhibitions at the theatres are accommodated to this taste. With the
exception of some of Moliere's works, such as the Bourgeois Gentilhomme,
and M. de Pourceaugnac, (which are seldom acted, at least at the Theatre
Francais), there are hardly any French comedies which are characterised
by what we call humour,--which have for their main object the
representation of palpably ludicrous peculiarities of character and
manner. You never hear, in a French theatre, the same loud
uncontrollable bursts of laughter, which are so often excited b