Theatrical Review. 4,37 



appearance, quite capable of supplying his place. The Ballet on the 

 whole went off better than the opera, and may serve as a stop-gap 

 till after Easter. 



DRURY LANE. 



February 28 th. The opera of Fair Rosamond was produced on 

 this evening at old Drury. Having 1 succeeded in raising 1 the expect- 

 ations of the public to a high pitch by his opera of the Mountain 

 Sylph, Barnett forthwith proceeded to make another effort to place 

 himself high on the list of musical geniuses, and adapted melodies 

 and harmonies to the greater part of the words of a libretto, which 

 tells at greater length the following silly tale. 



Henry the Second, in the disguise of a Troubadour and under the 

 name of Edgar, having obtained admission to the castle of Lord 

 Clifford, wooes and wins the heart of Rosamond the Baron's daughter, 

 whose hand however has been promised to Alberic de Vere. At a 

 banquet in the castle, Henry or Edgar quarrels with de Vere and 

 then walks off' with his mistress, unnoticed though certainly not un- 

 seen. The lovers retire to a hut in a forest, and are there surprised 

 very mal-a-propos by the enraged father and the jilted suitor. The 

 Queen too, by a dramatic juggle which we could not fathom, is also 

 present on this occasion, and (we suppose to save himself a severe 

 and well-deserved matrimonial lecture) the king gives up his ladye- 

 love rather than unveil his incognito. In the next phase of the story 

 we are present at the coronation of Henry and Eleanor, and so is 

 Rosamond, and, what is worse, she is so surprised at the discovery of 

 the rank of her quondam inamorato^ that she screams her recognition 

 and betrays to the jealous consort of her lover the whole unwelcome 

 truth. The next important point is a private conversation between 

 the king and his confidant, overheard by the queen and her confi- 

 dant the subject of course being the fair flower of the world (Rosa- 

 mundi, rose of the world, Rosamond) and her place of concealment. 

 The queen by this conversation is made aware of the entrance to 

 the bower at Woodstock, and, as tradition tells, having penetrated 

 its recesses, offers the agreeable alternative of a sharp poniard or 

 deadly poison to the hated object of her husband's affections. Op- 

 portunely the king, the father, and the forlorn bridegroom, rush in 

 at the critical moment, and all matters are comfortably settled by 

 the consent of the monarch to give up the spotless maiden to her 

 enamoured swain. 



Such is a brief outline of the exceedingly foolish plot. What silly 

 individual perpetrated the vile trash we know not, but a more un- 

 promising framework was perhaps never used on which to hang 

 crotchets and quavers. The prose is execrably written, the rhymes 

 much worse than the prose. And even if the style had been as pure, 

 the wit as sparkling, the pathos as touching, the poetry as refined as 

 the best in the language, they would not redeem from condemnation 

 the gross violation of historical truth and traditionary lore which mars 

 the play. Who has not in imagination sorrowed over the fair Rosa- 

 mond as she drained the death-bearing cup, shrinking from the 



