648 



Monthly Theatrical Report. 



[DEC. 



hibitiona. But, after all, they are only in- 

 cidental ; and, in nine instances out of ten, 

 the evening of the London artisan will be 

 spent more innocently, and even more pro- 

 ductively, at the suburb theatre than in any 

 other relaxation offered to him. We much 

 doubt whether the well-known decrease of 

 the more atrocious kinds of crimethe street 

 robberies and murders, which, within me- 

 Hiory, were the terror of London is not 

 strongly connected with the increased fond- 

 ness for theatres. The artisan who, for a 

 shilling, can spend his evening in the midst 

 of music and pleasantry, with an interesting 

 play going on before him, and in the comfort 

 and companionship of a modern theatre, is 

 infinitely better circumstanced for morals, 

 health, and mental improvement, than the 

 artisan who spends the same time in the 

 alehouse, at probably five times the expense. 

 One of the errors of our English system is 

 the national want of amusement for the la- 

 bouring classes ; and the legislator who 

 should supply this desirable requisite, under 

 regulations adapted to prevent its inconve- 

 niences, would render a very valuable ser- 

 vice to his country. 



The activity of Drury Lane has not been 

 Buffered to go to sleep. That rare thing, a 

 five-act comedy, has appeared : it is by 

 Kenny a very ingenious, practised, and 

 dexterous artiste of plays. His " Bride at 

 Fifty" was a capital adaptation. The French 

 plot was meagre compared f o his fulness, 

 and witless compared to his gaiety. But a 

 five-act comedy is a formidable test of 

 power ; and we may be long before we see 

 one that will live beyond the first few nights 

 of public curiosity. There is one obvious 

 mischief in being able at adaptation the 

 writer finds it immeasurably difficult to be 

 anything else as long as he lives. Even his 

 dexterity is injurious to his legitimate suc- 

 cess. The man who has walked long on 

 crutches finds himself awkward when he 

 must trust to his legs. Even the supremacy 

 in these matters of spurious cleverness 

 sinks and limits the natural powers. The 

 rope-dancer stumbles on plain ground. The 

 player of Punch, the more practised he is, 

 the less he has the chance of ever speaking 

 with a human voice. The painter turned 

 copyist, can never draw an original stroke, 

 while he holds a pencil. To every man who 

 has an ambition to distinguish himself in 

 that most captivating style of authorship, 

 the Drama, we would say, in perfect con- 

 viction of the fact, Your peril is the French 

 stage ; never translate ; never adapt ; be 

 original, or you will be nothing ; draw from 

 your own breast ; or come at once to the 

 true and the salutary conclusion that you 

 have not the talent essential to the Drama. 



In these observations, we mean no offence 

 to Mr. Kenny, whom we have already named 

 a* a very dexterous and pleasant writer, to 

 the extent of his own objects in general ; 

 but whose dramatic distinction we think 

 unfortunately curtailed by himself by the 



timidity which will not venture without the 

 hand of some French Farceur to guide steps, 

 which would have been stronger and surer 

 if left to themselves. In the present instance, 

 we think that he has been betrayed from the 

 natural path of talent, by attempting to prop 

 up English humour with French plot ; and 

 that the Mansarde des Artistes y and a little 

 Bas-bleu farce, popular in Paris at the time 

 of the controversy between the " Roman- 

 tics" and the " Classics," have been laid un- 

 der heavy contribution. Yet the plot is the 

 worst part of the play. Sir Gregory Ogle 

 takes his second wife (a cheesemonger's 

 widow) and her two daughters to Paris, 

 where they all become extravagantly accom 

 plished. Sir Gregory has a nephew, whom 

 he orders to marry a rich widow, and a 

 niece who marries without his consent 

 and both of whom he treats harshly. But 

 Sir Gregory has learned, old as he is, the 

 worse habits of Paris, and pursues a hand- 

 some fair one, the daughter of an English 

 painter. Her father is discovered to have 

 been the husband of the Baronet's sister, 

 whom also he had treated harshly. The dis- 

 covery makes him a repentant sinner; he 

 allows his nephew to marry this pretty girl ; 

 he forgives his niece, and all is well. This 

 is nearly all the plot. Yet what can be less 

 equal to the severe exigencies of a five- 

 act comedy ? The characters are probably 

 Mr. Kenny's own, and their conception is a 

 favourable evidence of his skill. Liston is 

 a ci-devant English waiter turned into a 

 man of 50,000 /., rambling through the 

 coffee-houses of Paris, and performing the 

 affectations of an idle man of the town ; 

 yet, without losing his native good-humour. 

 He acts as a kind of Paul Pry, and is the 

 general maker-up of matters through the 

 piece; he frightens the Baronet into hu- 

 manity by a disclosure ; terrifies her lady- 

 ship into humility, by declaring that he 

 knew her as cook to an alderman, &c. He 

 laughs at all, and with all ; and, with no ap- 

 parent misprise of his own in the action of 

 the play, is every thing, and every where. 

 The blue-stocking portion rather disap- 

 pointed the audience. Her ladyship was too 

 vulgar in her manners, and too tawdry in 

 her dress ; her daughters neither said nor 

 did anything of interest ; and the dialogue 

 was feeble. Yet some pleasant hits were 

 made from time to time ; as when a lady 

 was mentioned to be so great a bine, that 

 she might have come from an university, a 

 French count says, " she is one of the ' Ox- 

 ford Blues.' " 



The pathetic portions of the play were al- 

 lotted to Miss E. Tree, as the painter's 

 daughter, who thinks herself abandoned by 

 Sir Gregory's nephew. Some of the recita- 

 tion for it was chiefly soliloquy was elo- 

 quent ; and it was delivered with very for- 

 cible effect by this clever actress, who cer- 

 tainly exerted herself to the utmost, and 

 was of much service to the play. But there 

 were, in fact, but three characters in the 



