182?.] 



Domestic and Foreign. 



543 



tion. It occasions the same wonder in our 

 minds, that we should leei with respect to 

 persons preferring the phraseology of Cicero 

 and Virgil for the embodying of their 

 thoughts, to the free arid boundless forms of 

 expression which their mother-tongue would 

 a fiord them. 



The Road Guid?, No. I., London to Bir- 

 mingham. This is a very useful and con- 

 venient publication. The distances between 



each stage are carefully set down, and a de- 

 scription of every place on the road worthy 

 the least notice, is pleasantly detailed. 

 The whole is contained in a size well adapt- 

 ed to the pocket. Indeed, when a traveller 

 leaves London for a particular place, he 

 needs only the direction to that place, and 

 not a huge volume containing all the cross 

 roads in the country. No. II. is to continue 

 the route from Birmingham to Holyhead. 



THEATRES. 



EASTER customarily brings with it a round 

 'of spectacle at the principal theatres. The 

 English are, after all, a pantomime-loving 

 people ; and, though Christmas monopolizes 

 harlequin, yet Easter lays claim to something 

 as like harlequinade as is contrivable by the 

 Parleys of this present world. 



" Peter Wilkins," an imitation of Gulli- 

 ver, and perhaps among the most amusing 

 of the imitations of Swift's immortal bur- 

 lesque, is the ground-work of the Covent- 

 garden spectacle. Peter is wrecked on a 

 desert island, where he renders a .service to a 

 female inhabitant of the moon, by whom he 

 is introduced to all the novelties of this 

 hitherto forbidden sphere, notwithstanding 

 the rising propensities of Mr. Green. The 

 idea is wrought up by Mr. Farley into a 

 series of adventures, the mirth of which may 

 probably alone for their perfectly terrestrial 

 calibre. The proverbial skill of Covent-Gar- 

 den in machinery is exhibited to great ad- 

 vantage. The audience are kept in constant 

 anxiety by the soaring ambition of the per- 

 formers, particularly of that very pretty little 

 pantomimiste Miss Scott, who has established 

 a high reputation in birds of paradise, flying 

 sorceresses, angels, and other wonders on the 

 wing, and whose delicate bones, we sin- 

 cerely hope, will not be broken in the course 

 of her professional elevations. A great deal 

 of showy scenery fills up the intervals left 

 in the mind of the audience by the acting and 

 dialogue ; and, with the help of Messrs. Grieve 

 and Saul, who are the true performers on 

 the occasion, the audience listen to Keely 

 and Power with perfect patience. Both 

 these actors are clever and popular; but as it 

 is the business of an actor to say only what 

 has been set down for him, and as neither of 

 them is emulous of the honour of authorship, 

 we must allow ourselves to say that they 

 both talk a vast deal of nonsense in the 

 course of the drame of " Peter Wilkins." 



Charles Kemble, after his pilgrimage to 

 the waters, has returned to the favouritism 

 which his fine stage qualities always deserve 

 and obtain. Miss Foote, to whom popularity- 

 adheres with a desperate fidelity, and whom, 

 in our natural deference for the sex, we be- 

 lieve to have been lt more sinned against 

 than sinning," is playing to full houses dur- 

 ing a brief engagement, and the theatre 

 is enjoying the reflux of that golden tide, 



which, we are always inclined to think, ac- 

 tivity and good sense in managers would 

 render perpetual. Bt a serious loss seems 

 about to be experienced in Jones, the most 

 animated, intelligent, and effective actor of 

 the lighter comedy that the stage has seen 

 since Lewis. Whether he joins the Drury 

 Lane company, from which overtures have, 

 it is said, been made to him, we cannot as- 

 certain. But to have lost such an actor is 

 among the worst omens of a theatre. 



Drury Lane exhibits at least activity. A 

 succession of performances, if not quite ori- 

 ginal, yet not much remembered, have sig- 

 nalized the manager's diligence. The pre- 

 sent spectacle is " Gil Bias," which, however 

 antiquated, and in fact attempted to be 

 brought forward, perhaps, as often as any 

 other subject on the stage, is yet either so 

 little known, or so well adapted to the popu- 

 lar tastes? (so far as the subject goes), that 

 it at this moment makes a popular spectacle. 

 Gil Bias is played by Miss Kelly, to whom, 

 by an especial right, belong all exhibitions 

 of archness, subtlety, and female pantaloons. 

 She has talent and well turned ancles, and 

 thus she follows the direction of nature. 

 Some pretty scenery, though not so effective 

 as the general displays of *this theatre, con- 

 summates the charm, and Gil Bias is more 

 lucky than his original. Laporte appears 

 from time to time in little farces, translated 

 from the French. He is an ingenious actor, 

 but too grotesque for the English stage ; his 

 pronunciation is a still more formidable draw- 

 back. At his time of life the difficulty of a 

 new language is insurmountable : and how- 

 ever we may admire the boldness of the 

 effort, it is impossible to congratulate him 

 upon its success. 



Mathews, always ingenious, and labour- 

 ing with extraordinary diligence for novelty, 

 is proceeding in his entertainment at the 

 Lyceum. It consists of the " Home Circuit," 

 a series of scenes and characters familiar to 

 Londoners. Epping Hunt scene contains 

 some very pleasant songs and recitations, and 

 is on the whole deserving of the habitual po- 

 pularity of that very dextrous and attractive 

 performer. 



Yates, at the Adelphi, carries on a similar 

 exhibition, consisting of the anecdotes of his 

 early theatrical career ; some of those ex- 

 cellent imitations of the style and dialogue of 



