412 THEATRICAL INTELLIGENCE. 



tion is too great to be resisted in every case, except where an author 

 can take the town by storm an event about as likely to [happen 

 as the advent of a second Shakspeare. 



ENGLISH OPERA-HOUSE. This republic commenced their cam- 

 paign with a very pathetic drama, entitled " Lucille," in which Mrs. 

 Keeley sustained the heroine with a degree of talent scarcely infe- 

 rior to that displayed by that consummate mistress of melo-drama 

 Miss Kelly. It was eminently successful ; and the author, Bernard, 

 was immediately installed writer to the theatre, to the exclusion of 

 almost every other dramatic scribe. 



"The Huguenots,'' divested of the fine music which rendered it 

 so successful in Paris, was the next novelty. This ingenious ar- 

 rangement was mercilessly driven from the stage, and made way for 

 another failure, christened lf The Witch's Son." It was a powerful 

 narcotic lingered a few nights, and gave place to "The Man about 

 Town," a broadly humorous one-act drama by the pet author Ber- 

 nard. Wrench, in the hero, was irresistibly ludicrous, but the part 

 was intended for John Reeve. Another farce from the same pen 

 followed as quickly as possible ; this was " The Middy Ashore," 

 which, to say the best of it, was a sad mass of low sea-slang and vul- 

 garity. The Middy was enacted by Mrs. Keeley with great spirit 

 and animation, and met with great applause from the galleries I 

 Pathos now being wanted, the stock-author soon accommodated them 

 with a ladle-full of the pathetic, in the shape of three lugubrious 

 acts, called "The Farmer's Story." The miseries entailed by both 

 wealth and want were- lavishly bandied about in every scene. If 

 calamity could afford an audience a solid entertainment, there was 

 variety sufficient to satisfy the most fastidious stomach. A little 

 change being thought desirable, young Oxberry was permitted to 

 indulge the town with a new version of a very old piece, called " Mat- 

 thew Falconi," which was better done at the Queen's Theatre a 

 couple of years ago. Then came " Mrs. White," a broad one-act 

 farce by Raymond, which afforded some ludicrous situations and droll 

 incidents. This lasted somewhat longer than its noisy companion, 

 " The Rebel Chief," a glorious compound of all the trumpery of 

 modern melo-drama, which no degree of human forbearance could 

 endure. Equally as bad, but of a different order of trash, was what 

 was intended for a burlesque on " Theseus and Ariadne." This truly 

 elegant production could only have been understood in a penny 

 theatre in St. Giles's. At length De Pinna's opera of " The Rose of 

 Alhambra," which had been a long while in preparation, was pro- 

 duced with a most effective vocal company. The Choruses were 

 superbly executed, and Wilson and Miss Sheriff, in the tenor and 

 soprano parts, exerted themselves greatly, and ensured the success of 

 the opera. As an opera containing one or two pleasing melodies, 

 many passages of grace and lightness, and several concerted pieces 

 conceived very tastefully and combining a thorough knowledge of 

 the capabilites of the instruments written for, the composer is enti- 

 tled to great merit. 



Peake, whose talents as a dramatist have been rapidly declining, 

 favoured the public with a dying struggle. He brought forward his 



