1827.] Theatres. 



appetite of widowhood ; make up the cha- 

 racters. A stupid major in love with a 

 stupid niece, are only drags and deterio- 

 ration : the wAofe, however, is lively. 

 Cooper, the young husband, deserves 

 praise for his cleverness. He is vastly 

 improved ; the quakerism of his tone, phy- 

 siognomony, and gesture, is passing away, 

 and, but for his extraordinary fondness for 

 dressing like a banker's clerk, or a foot- 

 man out of livery, he might pass for a very 

 pleasant stage gentleman. He is drunk 

 during three-fourths of the farce too 

 long a period for the amusement of the 

 audience, or the probability of the play ; 

 but his liveliness (that we should ever live 

 to write the word of Cooper!) carries off 

 the excels, and we congratulate him on 

 having made an advance in his profession. 

 Farren is excellent in the drowsy old 

 owner of Poppy Hall, which he got by 

 nodding at an auctioneer in his sleep; a 

 story from Joe Miller, and whose selection 

 does credit to Kenny's sense of the ab- 

 surd. Mrs. Glover is a capital Mrs. Ge- 

 neral ; but she talks like platoon-firing, 

 and at once dazzles and deafens. Her ra- 

 pidity is equivalent to loss of teeth ; she 

 mumbles the unfortunate author. 



The Lyceum has reached its close. 

 " The Freebooters," Mathews, and Miss 

 Kelly as the Serjeant's wife, have sustain- 

 ed the popularity of this attractive the- 

 atre. 



The dramatic world will lament to hear, 

 that the deputy licenser, that severe guar- 

 dian of the virtue of the stage, ^jr. George 

 Colman, jun., whose immaculate life has 

 long been an honour to society, and whose 

 scorn of sycophancy and servility will 

 render his name memorable among the 

 patriots of Great Britain, has been lately 

 afHicted with a series of misfortunes, in 

 the shape of dramas returned by the Duke 

 of Devonshire, in which the Duke, not 

 having the fear of heaven and the King 

 before his eyes, had actually the hardi- 

 hood to restore, reinstate, and reinscribe, 

 several atrocious and obnoxious phrases ; 

 such as " How do you do ? Does the King 

 eat his mutton roasted or boiled ? A Lord 

 Mayor may be a jackass for a year, and an 

 Alderman a jackass for life," &c., which 

 the purity and loyalty of the deputy li- 

 censer's mind could not tolerate, and had 

 therefore cut out. The rumour goes, that 

 the deputy's first idea was that of resign, 

 ing his situation 5 but on second thoughts, 

 he was content with resigning his opinion. 

 The obnoxious phrases were, therefore, 

 suffered to remain, the deputy making a 

 private protest that they are not his sen- 



425 



timents. And thus is the world to be 

 overrun with a deluge of interrogatory 

 vice, and declamatory dilapidation of the 

 honour of the aldermanic intellect, to the 

 great scandal of the nineteenth century. 

 George Colman, jun., is now writing his 

 life, in which the foregoing transaction is 

 to form the principal episode. 



The stars of the theatrical world are 

 still planetary. Miss Paton, whose oxy~ 

 mosis lately puzzled all mankind, and who, 

 we fear, is ill of more than a stage indis- 

 position, is wandering somewhere among- 

 the .solitudes of Brighton. Braham has 

 disappeared ; but as neither frost not 

 thaw, youth nor age, can touch his voice, 

 we rely upon his returning to light early 

 in the season. Young is on a tour to visit 

 the tomb of Napoleon, and is expected by 

 the first India arrivals. Macready is un- 

 discoverable, and there are some doubts of 

 his having been actually imported. But 

 he is probably gathering new conceptions 

 of human nature, and the capabilities of 

 his purse among some of the country the- 

 atres. Elliston is managing away at a 

 prodigious rate in the neighbourhood of 

 the King's Bench. He is understood to 

 have made some valuable operatic disco- 

 veries of old scores, probably left behind 

 in the habitual negligence of Mr. Dibdin. 



Theatrical Biography, of all others the 

 most amusing, is to delight the town du- 

 ring the winter. Harry Harris is in his 

 third volume, and near (we hope not omi- 

 nously) his end. Michael Kelly's life is 

 to be succeeded by another of the same 

 good-humoured old martyr to love and 

 gout, but totally different, and much more 

 amusing in anecdote and private history. 



Reynolds is writing his life over again ; 

 but, as he says with his accustomed plea- 

 santry, by no means with any intention to 

 amend it. Farley is occupied on a history 

 of the chief bears, dogs, elephants, and 

 donkeys that have performed within the 

 period of his management 5 with an ap- 

 pendix on the genius and literature essen- 

 tial to the author of pantomime. 



The English Company under Abbott in 

 Paris are terrifying the French. The 

 Boulevards are deserted of the prome- 

 naders. The Opera Comique, the VarietSs, 

 the Porte St. Martin, are empty. The 

 onJy person to be seen at the opera is Lord 

 Fife, speculating on the figurantes. The 

 critical spirit of the Parisians is fine. 

 They consider Charles Kemble. in his for- 

 tunate moments, to be nearly equal to 

 Miss Smithson, but as to approaching 

 Clermont, they bid him despair ! 



M.M. New Scries. VOL. IV. No. 22. 



3 I 



