upon which the monster drawing his dagger is about to plunge it deep into Malvina’s heart when one o’clock strikes,—his power is gone.” Il laisse tomber son poignard et cherche à s’enfuir, des ombres sortent de la terre et l’entraînent avec elles; l’Ange exterminateur paraît dans un nuage, la foudre éclate et les Ombres s’engloutissent avec Rutwen. Pluie de feu. Tableau général.”
The dialogue of this melodrama is spirited, the situations striking and well managed, and even in reading the play, one can clearly visualize that upon the stage it must have been extraordinarily effective, especially when set off with all the attractions of the scene painter’s glowing perspectives, the magic craft of the subtle machinist, and the richest adornment of romantic costume.[37] Even before he had introduced the Vampire on to the boards Nodier had prophesied that this macabre monster would win a veritable triumph, and his prediction was amply fulfilled. “Le Vampire épouvantera, de son horrible amour, les songes de toutes les femmes, et bientôt sans doute, ce monstre encore exhumé prêtera son masque immobile, sa voix sépulcrale, son oeil d’un gris mort, … tout cet attirail de mélodrame à la Melpomène des boulevards; et quel succès alors ne lui est pas réservé!”[38] On 1st July, 1819, writing in the Drapeau Blanc he was far more serious and far more emphatic: “La fable du vampire est peut-être la plus universelle de nos superstitions… Elle a partout l’autorité de la tradition: elle ne manque ni de celle de la théologie ni de celle de la médicine. La philosophie même en a parlé.”
All Paris flocked to see Le Vampire, and nightly the Porte-Saint-Martin was packed to the doors. Philippe and Madame Dorval were applauded to the echo by enthusiastic audiences who recalled them again and again after the final tableau. Even the book of the play had an immense circulation and every morning Barba’s counter was freshly stocked with huge piles of the duodecimo, which rapidly diminished during the day.
Not a few critics, however, adopted a very uncompromising attitude, and were unsparing in their condemnation of so popular a melodrama. In Les Lettres Normandes, 1820, (tome XI, p. 93) Le Vampire was thus noticed: “Le mélodrame du Vampire dans lequel on voit paraître un monstre
