686 Theatrical Mutters. 



of friends" fly off and abandon him in his premature old age, the worst of 

 old ages; and the multitude, disgusted at their sudden disappointment, 

 mercilessly set themselves to discover every thing a fault where they had 

 once as hastily determined on discovering every thing a perfection. Kean's 

 only hope is in the virtue of retirement. He is still comparatively young ; 

 his capacity as an actor may be revived ; and a manly resolution to change 

 .ill his foolish and offensive habits for the studies and manners that be- 

 long to a wise sense of public opinion,, might yet make him an ornament 

 to his profession. But the task is one of supreme difficulty. 



Miss Kemble has gone through a list of performances, which must 

 have required singular diligence, and in which, to have not failed is no 

 trivial praise. Isabella, Euphrasia, Belvidera, and Portia, each require 

 peculiar powers ; and it is but justice to the actress to say that, but for 

 her, in all probability, the theatre must have been undone. One of her 

 latest and most studied performances was the " Gamester." The play 

 is a frightful exhibition of the frightful excesses of vice and despair. 

 But Siddons's marvellous powers gave it dignity. No living actress 

 w r ill ever do so again. Its displays are miserably coarse, its language is 

 abrupt and vulgar, and its characters are among the heaviest and roughest 

 sketches on the stage. Miss Kemble cannot be said to have failed in Mrs. 

 Beverly, for with her theatrical skill she can never undergo a decided 

 failure ; but the character adds nothing to her celebrity, shows no addi- 

 tional attraction in her performance, and should only warn her that, at 

 least for a time, her peculiar province is that of youthful tenderness and 

 the first developments of feminine feeling. Her Juliet is the best upon the 

 stage, and better than any that we remember; better than Miss O'Neil's, 

 whose person was too mature for the idea of Shak spear e's heroine ; and 

 her passion too open, violent, and clamorous for the fine and timid 

 susceptibility of that love whose picturing is the most exquisite work 

 of the most exquisite master of feeling that the world ever saw. 



Miss Kemble's chief deficiency is in voice. It has sweetness, and a 

 tone in that sweetness which carries with it a resistless recommenda- 

 tion, for it reminds us of Siddons : but it wants force and emphasis : it 

 perpetually falls into a whisper in the most important expressions of the 

 scene ; and passages on which the audience have habitually hung with 

 breathless delight, are hurried over in a mingling of sound, sweet, but 

 unintelligible as the murmuring of midnight waters. 



We annex no blame to her choice of performances. The stage 

 has but a narrow routine for a young tragedian ; and with the excep- 

 tion of Shakspeare's heroines, which are all inimitable, there is not a 

 heroine of British tragedy worthy of the talents of a true actress. The 

 true opportunity for Miss Kemble's powers must be delayed, until the re- 

 vival of the stage, until a new race of authors shall arise to fill the stage 

 with new forms of ideal interest and loveliness, and until the Belvideras 

 and Euphrasias are consigned to the oblivion, from which nothing but 

 the emergencies of the stage could ever have redeemed them. 



The affairs of Drury Lane have come at last to the crisis which had 

 been long anticipated. The expenses had so far exceeded the income 

 for a considerable period, that the manager had been compelled to give 

 up his contract, and the committee were compelled to look out for a new 

 lessee. We regret this ill success on Price's part, for he appears to have 

 been an active and intelligent manager. We of course speak only of 

 it hat has come before the public. The direct source of his loss is to be 



