580 THINGS THEATRICAL. 



(those of Austria Proper), it is, if not a good, yet far from a positively 

 bad government; and, were its influence confined to its proper do- 

 minions, we should have no fault to find. But in its foreign policy, in 

 its attempts to influence other nations, it must be still regarded by all 

 civilized Europe in the same light as in the time of Gustavus 

 Adolphus. Whenever indeed it will renounce that policy, as England 

 and France have renounced their former policy (that of monopolising, 

 the one the whole of the sea, and the other the whole of the land), 

 then it may take a friendly place unmolested among the nations of 

 Europe. But there can be no hope for this during the life, that is the 

 administration, of its present head ; one whose invariable motto has 

 been, " Evil, be thou my good !" will not be reclaimed at the end of 

 his life " he will die in his sins/' But there is reason to hope that 

 the better spirit which is now taking root in Prussia, Baden, and many 

 of the German states, and which was once springing up in Austria 

 itself under Joseph II, will, when the present profligate minister is 

 called to his account, gradually penetrate into Austria itself; and, 

 without probably altering the form of either its government or reli- 

 gion, alter the spirit of both, by making both a system of light instead 

 of darkness of extended justice and beneficence, instead of fraud, op- 

 pression, and malevolence, 



THINGS THEATRICAL. 



THE lovers of the legitimate drama cannot, of a certainty, complain. 

 Commencing the season with the revival of Coriolanus, was a fair 

 pledge of the intention of the lessees of the larger theatres to put it 

 in the power of the public to prove their love for the national drama, 

 about which so much has been said lately ; and he has followed up 

 Coriolanus with several of Shakspeare's best plays, namely, Macbeth, 

 Hamlet, Henry VIII, and King John in all of which Mr. Vanden- 

 hoff has sustained the hero. We spoke of the general excellence of 

 this gentleman's acting a month or two since, when he was perform- 

 ing at the Hay market, and are glad to offer a more decided opinion 

 upon his merits, now that he is in a situation more worthy his genius. 

 The representative of the Roman heroes expired with the retirement 

 of John Kemble ; and we hail with pleasure their resuscitation in the 

 person of Mr. Vandenhoff. His Coriolanus is a splendid portrait of 

 Roman dignity and patrician pride, 



" Ere Roman virtue dwindled to a name." 



His representation of this character, so magnificently portrayed by 

 the great dramatist, identifies it with the Coriolanus of history. His 

 Hamlet is likewise an elegant and classical personification, and, taken 

 as a whole, the most perfect representation the stage can boast. The 

 great merit of this gentleman's style is consistency he forms a bold, 

 just, (and frequently original), conception of the character he has to- 

 represent; he never sacrifices his judgment to a vitiated taste for' ap- 

 plause, but adheres to his orignal design, following in this the 



