452 
formerly Miss Brunton}, who has played, 
im a very pleasing and lady-like style, Pio- 
lante in *‘ The Wonder,” and Miss Hard- 
castle, in Goldsmith’s “She Stoops to Con- 
quer.’’ The latter is indeed a very delight- 
ful little actress, who knows how to do 
justice to highly comic situation, without 
trespassing on the delicacy of sex; and who 
has the rare merit of seeming to have stu- 
died nature more than the school. We 
never witnessed, even in real life, more 
natural emotion than she assumed as Vio- 
lante, in that scene with Don Felix, in which 
the embarrassment of her secret, which 
friendship forbids her to betray, and his 
jealous reproaches, produce those tears 
which subdue, at once, her own affected 
indifference, and the angry suspicions and 
resolution of her lover. 
Little has, as yet, been attempted here, in 
the line of the genuine drama. Mr. Mac- 
ready (upon the new system, it seems, of 
temporary engagements and high premiums 
by the night) has again appeared i in Macbeth. 
But, inimitable as this performeris, in several 
characters of no subordinate description, 
the sublime and high heroic of Shakspeare 
is evidently not his forte; and the aspiring 
and tyrannical, but conscience -haunted, 
Thane, is one of his feeblest delineations. 
He has played, also, Leontes in “‘ The Win- 
ter’s Tale ;”’ his representation of the last 
scene of which, where the social emotions 
haye their scope, is one of the finest pieces 
of acting on the stage. 
COVENT-GARDEN THEATRE 
has presented us with two very acceptable 
noyelties,—a successful adaptation of one of 
the racy comedies of the olden time—Row- 
ley’s ‘‘ City Wonder, or a Woman never 
Vexed ;”’ or, as it is new-baptised, ‘‘ Wo- 
man never Vexed, or the Widow of 
Cornhill ;’’ and a new actress, Mrs. SLo- 
MAN, who,—though by no means equal in 
physical power and energy to Miss O’ Neill, 
is not very much behind her in the natural 
expression of more tender pathos. 
The former of these was produced for 
the first time on Lord Mayor’s day, and 
concluded with a Lord Mayor's pageant of 
the old time, as in took place in the year 
1444, and a royal and civic assemblage at 
Guildhall. It is strongly marked with the 
merits, and alloyed with some of the usual 
defects, of the dramas of the age of Eliza- 
beth:—passages of great poetical beauty, 
with some of daring hyperbole; striking 
contrasts of character, with what must now 
appear as quaint, and occasionally oyer- 
strained, peculiarities of humour and of 
phrase; and sudden vicissitudes of fortune, 
with passions and emotions which border, 
occasionally, on the province of tragedy, 
mingled: with a considerable portion of the 
ludicrous and droll. Like most of the old 
comic and mixed dramas (not excepting 
even those of Shakspeare), it has one essen- 
tial improbability on which the main action 
hinges; but grant to the poet (as you do to 
New Music and the Drania. 
the algebraist) this assumed datum, and alt 
(Dec. f 
the results are natural enough. ‘Thus, Shak- 
speare makes no scruple of supposing that, if 
a young lady do but disguise herself in boy’s 
apparel, neither her father nor her lover will 
know her, even in the most familiar inter- 
course ;* and Rowley would have us believe, 
thatarich and handsome widow could make 
open love to a pennyless profligate and 
gamester in the street,—that, for her soul’s 
sake, she may haye something to vex her, 
in the ruin she expects from his extrava- 
gance. As for her disappointment, in the 
result, as the character of the runagate is 
delineated, it is natural enough. The vola- 
tile spirit, who was a dicer and reyeller in 
his desperate poverty, might be sobered by 
the sudden possession of wealth, and its 
concomitant and solid comforts. The play, 
upon the whole, bating the heayy, and at 
once negligent and artificial monotony of 
Young, in the relentless and afterwards 
ruined old merchant, Foster, was well acted. 
Miss Chester, in the cheerful archness of 
the widow, and Miss Lacy, in Mrs. Fos- 
ter, the termagant wife of the old mer- 
chant, were equally happy. The latter we 
never knew to act so well. And .C. 
Kemble (frequently asadmirable in comedy 
as he is sometimes lamentable in tragedy), 
performed Stephen Foster in his very best 
style. The piece was perfectly and deserved- 
ly successful. 
With respect to Mrs. Sloman, she ‘has 
played three characters, — Belvidera, in 
“‘ Venice Preserved; Mrs. Haller, in 
“ The Stranger;’”’ and Isabella, in “ The 
Fatal Marriage:” and although, from the 
apparent consciousness of comparative defi- 
ciency of physical power, she has judiciously 
given to some of the scenes and passages of 
each a comparative under-tone; yet, the 
expressive sweetness of her voice, and the 
clearness of her enunciation, together with 
the general correctness of her conception, 
render her a very valuable acquisition in the 
present state of the tragic dramatic corps ; 
and it is evident that she is winning her 
way to deserved popularity. 
THE HAYMARKET 
closed a rather protracted season on Mon- 
the 15th, with considerably more eclat 
than it commenced. We have had more of 
the genuine drama of late, and the attend- 
ance has seemed to justify the opinion, that 
the taste of the town is not so depraved in 
its dramatic taste, as the advocates for farce 
and pageantry would have us_ believe. 
Among the novelties of this latter part of 
the season, Mr. HamBLin has played, suc- 
cessively, Hamlet, Rob Roy, Joseph Surface, 
Falkiand, and Captain Irwin. He has some 
merit,—a good figure, and a countenance ca- 
pable of considerable expression ; and appears 
to haye a susceptibility of dramatic emo- 
_ tion ; ~ 
* Our modern dramatists pursue the same path 
with less excuse, the disguises cf modern dress 
being su mucl: less complete. 
