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The Example of the Comedie Francaise

An address given at the Friends'' reception for
the cast of the Comedie Frangaise, Nov. 14, 19^^
 

ERIC BENTLEY
 

I
 

N our New York weekly magazine The Nation, the issue
dated July 31, 1879, appears a despatch from London above
the initials XX:
 

The Comedie Francaise gives to-night the last representation of
its extraordinarily successful series, and I am reminded that I am
on the point of losing my opportunitv^ for carrying out an intention
long deferred, and making a few remarks upon this very interesting
episode of the visit to London of the children of .Molicre. The first
remark to be made is that this visit has been a brilliant, a complete,
an unclouded success. It is saying little for it to say that it is in¬
comparably the most noteworthy event that has occurred for many
a long year in the theatrical annals of London. . . . But what I may
say is that the episode \\ill have been a memorable one in the annals
of the house of Moliere itself. Its members, individually, have re¬
freshed their laurels and renewed their fame, and the beauty and
power of the best French acting have affirmed themselves under cir¬
cumstances which give an added value to the triumph. The appeal
has been made to a foreign audience, an audience whose artistic
perceptions are the reverse of lively, whose ear does not respond
quickly to the magic French utterance, and whose mind does not
easily find its way among the intricacies of French sentiment; and