Murger carried his story to a friend, Theodore Barriere, (since famous
as a play-writer,) and in three months' time the piece was ready for the
stage, was soon brought out at the "Varietes," and the names of Murger
and Barriere were on every lip in Paris.
We have nothing like the French stage in the suddenness and
extensiveness of the popularity it gives men. We have no means by which
a gifted man can suddenly acquire universal fame,--can "go to bed
unknown and wake famous." The most brilliant speech at the bar is heard
within a narrow horizon. The most brilliant novel is slow in making its
way; and before its author is famous beyond the shadow of the
publisher's house, a later new novel pales the lustre of the rising
star. The French stage occupies the position our Congress once held,
when its halls were adorned by the great men, the Clays, Calhouns,
Websters, of our fathers' days, or the Supreme Court occupied, when
Marshall sat in the chief seat on its bench, and William Pinckney
brought to its bar his elaborate eloquence, and William Wirt his ornate
and touching oratory. The stage is to France what Parliament is to
England.
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