| Title: | The Workman of Paris; or, The Drama of the Wine Shop |
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| Description: | The Workman of Paris; or, The Drama of the Wine Shop. (author unknown, composer Mons. Artus) Tableau 8 (James Gates) Quai des Ormes with view of Seine and Paris by moonlight. |
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| 1st Performance: | Nov 30, 1864 |
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| Theatre: | Adelphi |
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| Source: | The Illustrated London News, Dec 17, 1864, p. 600 |
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| See Source: | Go to Source Images (8.9 MB) |
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| Review: | The Illustrated London News, Dec 17, 1864, p. 600 |
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SCENE FROM "THE WORKMEN OF PARIS."
We have already noticed the new domestic drama of Parisian life, which the management
of the Adelphi has borrowed from the Porte St. Martin. "Les
Drames du Cabaret"--a title which might have been translated "Tragedies of the
Tap-room"--is designed, like the latest works of Mr. George Cruikshank, as a warning
against the vice of drunkenness. The greatest villain, however, among the dramatis
personæ is an elderly Dutch merchant, who does not get drunk, though he seduces, betrays,
and murders the unwary victims of his machinations;
while the honest workman Daubry, who only beats his wife and children after a glass too
much, and M. Albert, the dissipated young gentleman who ruins a poor girl as it were
inadvertently, when rather over-excited by wine, are represented as fit objects of our
sympathy. The moral would therefore seem to be that habitual intoxication is not
the worst of vices after all, but that M. Van Gratz himself, the wicked old rich man of
the story, is said to have once got tipsy in his youth and killed the father of
Albert
in his cups. The dramatic interest of the piece, with the powerful acting of
Mr. Benjamin Webster, will probably continue to draw for many nights a crowded audience
who may not care to discuss its moral teaching. There are two novel and elaborate
scenic effects, which greatly add to the attractions of the play. One of them
represents a foundry, or engineer's factory, with all its machinery at work; the other
is a view of Paris by moonlight, taking in the Pont Neuf and the Cité, with the towers
of Notre
Dame in the background. The reality of this picture is heightened by the introduction
of lighted lamps and similar appliances, producing a spectacle which in its kind has not
been surpassed. The engraving we here present gives a fair idea of it. Mr. Gates
is the painter of this scene.
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