1824. ] 
tion; but he has the misfortune of a husky 
hoarseness of voice, the ill effect of which 
he aggravates by that species of audible 
inspiration called the tragedy-pump, and by 
the measured formality of an over-pompous 
delivery. Mrs. Hampiin has also made 
her appearance as Julia, in “The Rivals,” 
Miss Woburn, in “ Every One has his 
Fault,” &c. In the latter, especially, she 
shewed herself to have respectable qualifi- 
cations for the line of genteel sentimental 
comedy. ‘That best pattern of natural act- 
ing, in characters of rustic archness and 
simple naiveté, Miss Kelly, has also re- 
appeared, though not always in the parts 
most suited to her talent. In Charlotte, for 
example, in “ The Hypocrite,” admirable 
as her acting is, she wants the easy fa- 
shionable elegance which constitutes an 
essential part of the charm of the cha- 
racter. A Miss Grorcr has also made 
a very successful début here as Susanna, in 
“ The Marriage of Figaro,” and has repeated 
the favourable impression she made, as a 
vocalist, on that occasion, successively in 
Polly, in “ The Beggar’s Opera,” and in 
Rosina, in the musical afterpiece of that 
name.- Her voice is sweet and flexible ; 
and her musical proficiency, though not 
equal to that of some of our prime favour- 
ites, is, apparently, not inconsiderable ; and 
she has the good taste not to pretend to 
brilliancy and display, beyond her endow- 
ments. The most finished and beautiful of 
all her efforts was the echo song, not very 
consistently introduced into the character of 
Rosina. She gave the echo notes in a sort 
of musical ventriloquy, which had an effect 
Literary and Critical Proémium. 
453 
we do not remember ever to have heard 
surpassed. Her principal deficiency as a 
singer appears to be in power and volume, 
as it is called; which would, probably, be 
felt still more at the larger theatres. But 
she should remember, that an operatical 
performer should not only sing, but act; 
and that, especially as her speaking-voice is 
pleasing, and her enunciation distinct and 
clear, she ought, in justice to herself, her 
author, and her audience, not to give the 
dialogue of her parts with such pointless 
negligence, as if she thought the words and 
sentences of the scene were nothing more 
than a highway-path, that was to be hurried 
over in her way to the airs and songs, 
MINOR THEATRES. 
It would be unjust, in this instance, to 
pass, in silence, the ADELPHI and SuRRY 
Theatres: since the latter has produced, in 
fact, the best contrived, and, which may appear 
extraordinary, the best acted version of the 
eternal Der Frieschiitz yet exhibited; and 
the former, in Valmondi, has not only shewn 
that we can manage a scene’of goblin ter- 
rors without German assistance, but that, 
even in so comparatively a contracted 
sphere, the illusions of scenic trick and 
magic can be as well kept up, and a long 
and imposing procession (we allude parti- 
cularly to an autode fé presented there) 
can be even more completely arranged and 
managed, especially in uninterrupted con- 
tinuity, than we have yet seen accomplished 
at either of the larger houses. It is time 
these melo-dramatic raree-shows were left 
to their proper sphere ; and that our national 
theatres returned to the legitimate drama. 
NEW BOOKS PUBLISHED IN NOVEMBER: 
WITH AN HISTORICAL AND CRITICAL PROEMIUM. 
Authors or Publishers, desirous of seeing an early Notice of their Works, are 
requested to transmit Copies before the 18th of the Month. 
———= 
HE publications of this month pre- 
sent little, either. in literature or 
science, to furnish matter for an interesting 
article of preliminary criticism. Philosophy 
slumbers, and the Muse is mute; and His- 
tory boasts not of her instructive volumes. 
The Novelists alone are garrulous; and, 
even they, are not affluent in the treasures 
of amusive excitement. If the press, how- 
ever, be idle, or employ itself only upon 
triflés, neither the fault nor the repose is 
ours. The time of periodical expectation 
is arrived; our columns must have their 
wonted fullness; and the labour of research 
is not the less because there is little to be 
found. We must satisfy ourselves, and 
endeayour (which is the same thing) to 
satisfy our readers, by using what there is. 
If the place of polite literature, and of 
memoir and biography, be supplied by mere 
ana and chit-chat (for it scarcely amounts 
even to anecdote) about Lord Byron, we 
must gossip about him too: on what every 
body is talking, we must not be silent. 
Conversations of Lord Byron; noted dur- 
ing a Residence with his Lordship at Pisa, in 
the years 1821 and 1822, by Thomas Medwin, 
Esq., of the Light Dragoons, Author of 
“ Ahasuerus the Wanderer,” large Svo.—If 
we regret, in some degree, the suppression 
of the autobiography of Lord Byron, and 
call, rather, in question the right of abso- 
lutely destroying, how proper soever it 
might have been fora while to withhold, the 
memoirs which so extraordinary a man had 
thought fit to prepare of himself, we can by 
no means approve of the present attempt 
to supply the avidity and amuse the curio- 
sity which that suppression has. left unsa~ 
tisfied. It is not every man, even of trans- 
cendant abilities, whose conversations de- 
serve, or are fit, to be recorded, or the 
record of which ‘will furnish a tolerable 
picture of his mind ; still less is eyery inti- 
mate 
