| Title: | The Mysterious Stranger; founded upon Satan; ou, Le Diable à Paris |
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| Description: | The Mysterious Stranger, founded upon Satan; ou, Le Diable à Paris. Written by Charles Selby. Mme. Céleste played the Mysterious Stranger. James Hudson played the Count. Mlle. de Nantelle was Miss Emma Harding. |
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| 1st Performance: | Oct 29, 1844 |
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| Theatre: | Adelphi |
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| Source: | The Illustrated London News, Nov 9, 1844, p. 300 |
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| See Source: | Go to Source Images (9.1 MB) |
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| Review: | The Illustrated London News, Nov 9, 1844, p. 300 |
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SCENE FROM THE "MYSTERIOUS STRANGER."
The accompanying sketch embodies one of the most effective scenes of this
spirited piece. The Satanic tormenter of the puzzled Count Beausoleil
(Mr. Hudson) has fully performed all his predictions. The Count has lost
his fortune, and with his fortune his friends and his mistress. On a rumour,
however, that his runaway banker has been arrested, his mistress returns,
for there is then a chance of the fortune being recovered, explains away her
desertion, and renews her vows of fidelity. At this nick of time
his mysterious persecutor enters, declares all the lady has said to be false,
and proves it by putting the Count into a closet, declaring that the banker has
escaped beyond the possibility of arrest, that the fortune is lost, and that he
himself, being rich beyond calculation, will marry the lady himself; and she
consents, to the great horror of the Count, who rushes forward maddened, seizes
the pistols from the case his visitor has brought, with an offer of being his
second in the duel that must inevitably take place with his dearest friend, for
whom his mistress has deserted him, and fires! As the weapons had probably
been prepared for such a catastrophe, by the agent who brought them, he
stands in the doorway harmless, thus again turning a natural cause into a proof
of his supernatural power; the cleverness with which this is done throughout is
the great merit of the piece.
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