In Residence

92 AU THEATRE DU GRAND GUIGNOL judicious pleasure. You ask therefore in vain for detail. “La Mineure” (No. 3) was, on the other hand, even more life-like than No. 1. A witness retained by justice to identify a criminal discovers him by chance in the person of the President of the Court himself. She is hauled to the deepest dungeons of Saint Lazare, and everything thus ends happily. For one moment the nerves of the spectator are braced up to meet the sword of Damocles—and then, with a single blow, the Juge d’Instruction subtly and delicately strikes in, and we can breathe again. The Docteur Goudron was now to appear, and it was a spectacle saddening to the serious philosopher to observe everybody pretending, often most elaborately, that they had read Poe’s story on which the play is based. Alas! that we should have been among them! Yet so it was. Many years have elapsed since our feet trod civilized MacAdam ; many years since we spent hour after happy hour poring over our Poes. Surprising? Ay, but true. Yet some dimmest recollection of Dr Tarr and Professor Feather does hurtle heavenward to us across the mist-. kissed abyss of memory: so much, no more. The actor who represented Doctor Goudron—his name is worthy to be graven on tablets of brass: it is con- sequently not to be printed here. His self-restraint, his command of expression, his elocution were alike wonderful. Booth, Irving, could not have done it better: it could have barely been equalled even by Wilson Barrett in his prime.