198 



Monthly Theatrical Report. 



[FEB. 



circulating medium of that play-hunting 

 people. He has electrified the majesty of 

 the mob in Lear; which, if he does not 

 play exactly according to the standard of 

 English opinions, we are quite satisfied that 

 he plays with intelligence, feeling, and 

 force. He has Macbeth before him, which 

 ought to be still more effective from its 

 prodigious dramatic capabilities, the rapid 

 abundance of its incident, and the stirring 

 vigour of its conception. Yet the white 

 locks of Lear may do much more with the 

 Parisians than the old man's uncontrolled 

 fondness, and magnificent insanty ; even 

 Macbeth may not add to the supremacy which 

 Terry, as much to the delight of Paris as 

 to his personal gratification, has obtained. 



Elliston, enfeebled in his frame by ill- 

 ness, yet exhibits the singular activity of 

 mind which made his management of 

 Drury Lane the most restless, and varied, 

 the most lucky and unlucky on record. 

 Master Burke, certainly a very clever little 

 animal, breaks down the gravity of the whole 

 Southwark metropolis ; his wig, his little- 

 ness, his laugh, and his Irish accent, are 

 causing hysterics and apoplexies among 

 the fatter portion of the fair sex in the 

 neighbourhood of the Surrey theatre ; the 

 younger sigh unequivocally, in admiration 

 of the genius that can smile and sing for 

 three hours together : the romantic are 

 enraptured with his personal fascinations ; 

 the worldly think of his engagement for 

 three years to come at a thousand pounds 

 per annum, and resolve to lay siege to this 

 Rothschild of the stage ; and the sex, in 

 general, wish to hasten the pei'iod when 

 propitious time will invest his physiognomy 

 with a more matrimonial beard than that 

 of the dressing-room. 



Elliston has, sagaciously enough, pro- 

 posed that, like the Vauxhall people, a 

 juvenile night should be given to those 

 good children, who pine to see pantomimes ; 

 but whose prudence forbids them sitting 

 up after nightfall. The house is to be 

 opened at a fitting hour, to be regulated by 

 the nursery clock ; cradles are to be pro- 

 vided in the boxes for all infants under 

 three years old. A levy of matrons is or- 

 dered, to obviate accidents to any of the 

 mammas ; cake is to be handed round 

 between the acts, and the whole of the at- 

 tending physicians of the Queen's Hospital, 

 are to be stationed in the green-room du- 

 ring the evening. We have no doubt of 



the triumph of this project conception, we 

 had almost called it. Elliston deserves to 

 have the thanks of the community, in the 

 shape of the fullest house that ever was 

 seen. 



A project for licensing a Spanish theatre 

 has been proposed. We fear that the lan- 

 guage is too little understood (or too little 

 pretended to be understood), for popularity. 

 Doubtless, as many would feel- its graces, 

 as feel those of the French, a number that, 

 if truth were told, would not fill half of 

 one of the boxes. Yet the project might 

 take, and it would be worth the trial, on a 

 small scale, and by subscription. 



Arnold has opened his theatre for a 

 French company, who play the pretty little 

 vaudevilles that charm all the French 

 world, and will, in the course, of the year, 

 be, every one of them, seen mangled on 

 the English stage. The stage company is 

 good, ami promises are held out of its 

 being reinforced by many a great refugie 

 from Paris, where the English actors are 

 stripping the native artistes of every livre. 

 The French are, in their turn, invading 

 I.-ondres, and trying whether the fountain- 

 head of loans and bullion is not the right 

 place to look for fortune after all. How- 

 ever, both countries are benefited by the 

 exchange. The French will learn to speak 

 a Christian language, instead of their own 

 intractable dialect, and the English will 

 learn how to make fricassees, dance, and 

 cut out their own shirts. War will cease 

 between the two grand disturbers of the 

 earth. Our cannons will be cast into ear- 

 rings for the French paysannes, and their 

 feline abundance will be consigned to our 

 markets and coffee-houses, to supersede 

 the necessity of rabbits and shoulders of 

 mutton. We predict a revolution in mat- 

 ters of taste, that shall extinguish the game 

 laws, sub silentio, and make nugatory the 

 eloquence of Lord Kelmorsdale, Baron 

 Durham, and the whole anti-poachery of 

 the empire. 



The French Theatre is beautifully fitted 

 up, under the superintendance of Mr. 

 Beasle) r , the most ingenious of architects, 

 whether to build the lofty theatre, or the 

 lofty rhyme ; a man, as the poet says, 

 Tarn Musce quam Mortario. The whole is 

 showy, and we wish that he could bite the 

 managers of the winter theatres ; we 

 mean, of course, only so far as decoration 

 and taste are concerned. 



PROCEEDINGS OF LEARNED SOCIETIES. 



DOMESTIC. 

 ROYAL SOCIETY. 



November 30, 1827 We stated in our 

 last the election of Davies Gilbert, Esq., to 

 the Presidency of the Royal Society : this 

 situation having been declared vacant some 

 weeks before, this worthy gentleman having 



in the interim been nominated chairman, 

 delivered, on the day in question, the Royal 

 and Copley medals, accompanying each 

 presentation with some prefatory remarks. 

 From the ensemble of these remarks, mak- 

 ing what is usually denominated the Presi- 

 dent's oration, we draw a most unfavourable 

 augury as to the qualifications of Mr. Gil-' 



