426 



Monthly Theatrical Report. 



[APRIL, 



and Young's logo, as perfect a play is given 

 as the modern stage can supply. Miss Jar- 

 man is, it is true, no very superb Desde- 

 inona. But where are we now to find a 

 better ? 



The utter dearth of actresses of the higher 

 order is one of the phenomena of the day ; 

 and while we have a dozen of very pretty 

 and ingenious females for all the minor de- 

 partments of tragedy and comedy, we have 

 neither the lady of comedy, nor the heroine 

 of tragedy. Debutantes come, are ap- 

 plauded, yawned at, and pass away. We 

 hear with wonder and with incredulity of 

 the time when three great actresses con- 

 tested the tragic palm, and when Siddons 

 herself was long kept in the back-ground by 

 this rivalry of talent. But all have va- 

 nished alike ; and if a woman walks the 

 stage well, dresses showily, and repeats her 

 lines without a lapse of memory, she has 

 gone through the degrees, and is entitled 

 thenceforth to figure through the sublimities 

 of Shakspeare. 



No comedy has appeared at Covent Gar- 

 den. The " Merchant's Wedding," which 

 the newspapers, and the whole tribe of pe- 

 riodical publications, with the single excep- 

 tion of ourselves, praised loftily, and v/hich 

 we pronounced to be a dull affair, though 

 compiled by a very smart contriver of these 

 things, has gone the way of all things of the 

 kind. The obvious fact is, that, beyond a 

 few nights, these rifacciamenti never live : 

 they have their experiment for a night or 

 "two, are lauded as surprising recoveries from 

 the treasuries of our dead literature, and are 

 no sooner recovered than they are replaced 

 in the sepulchre the shelf from which they 

 should never have been disturbed. 



The attempts to vary the performances by 

 opera have failed. Sapio has taste, and a 

 very pretty voice ; but it is a voice for the 

 concert-room, and there " his commission 

 ends ;" it wants power for the stage. As 

 an actor, Sapio of course makes no preten- 

 sion, and he has no claim. Miss Stevens's 

 return has had no favourable result; and 

 that public favourite must feel that some ex- 

 traordinary repossession of her powers must 

 occur, before she can recover her hold upon 

 the audience. 



The " Invincibles," a farce, double dis- 

 tilled, from the French and from the Ger- 

 man, has been subjected to a triple opera- 

 tion by Morton. Nothing can be duller than 

 the plot, but the dialogue, which is altoge- 

 ther a tissue of common-places, familiar to 

 the memory of the oldest inhabitant Mor- 

 ton's usual offence. But the manoeuvres of 

 Corporal Vestris, and her half-dozen female 



musqueteers, have lifted this dreary farce 

 into popularity. The manual exercise is 

 gone through with a dexterity that might 

 raise the envy of the Guards ; and it is un- 

 derstood that the staff of the Tower Ham- 

 lets Militia regularly take post, in the front 

 of the pit, to give the last polish to their 

 military science. 



Drury Lane has done nothing conspi- 

 cuous during the month. But it feels the 

 effects of that most impolitic of all systems, 

 known technically as starring. Mathews 

 is gone ; and, however unimportant any 

 one actor's loss may seem in so strong a 

 comic company, yet the season has gone 

 down. The public are a jealous public j 

 and when they see any thing openly sub- 

 ducted from their entertainment, they take 

 a distaste to the whole affair as managers 

 ought by this time to have known, and will 

 at all times be compelled to know. But the 

 hardship is not less severe upon authors. 

 The engagement of a principal performer 

 comes to an end in the run of a piece. The 

 part must be either supported by an inferior, 

 which is ruinous ; or the piece laid aside. 

 What man, who can exert his ability in any 

 other way, will write for the stage or what 

 man does write ? We have not had for 

 years a single original performance. Every 

 thing has been translation, patchwork, pie- 

 bald mediocrity. Nothing has lived a week, 

 and nothing deserved to live half the time. 



Opera at Drury Lane has gone down ex- 

 actly in the same way, and for the same 

 reason. Mrs. Glossop, who still so absurdly 

 Madames herself, succeeded, with the power- 

 ful help of Braham, in bringing opera into 

 popularity. She sang with great skill and 

 elegance, and was increasing in success. But 

 her engagement was for apart of the season 

 . it came to an end she went to gather 

 laurels round the country theatres and the 

 opera instantly sank, and is now nothing. 

 Miss Paton is equally rambling ; and we 

 have, in consequence, Miss Love actually 

 filling the character of prima donna. We 

 can scarcely conceive these errors of ma- 

 nagement to be wilful. But no manager 

 will do his duty to himself or the public, 

 who suffers performers thus to start away 

 from his theatre. Why not retain the policy 

 under which the theatres flourished so long ? 

 Why not form, at the beginning of the 

 season, the company which is to continue 

 till the end ? If performers, vain of their 

 talents, should object to this, let the ma- 

 nager be firm. The public understand 

 reason, like the rational exercise of autho- 

 rity, dislike professional arrogance, and will 

 support the right side. 



