mirable, Schiller”? with more“ modifica- 
tions””.than;improvements,. we should say; 
‘« off feeling,|| sentiment, and. character.’’ 
We see in it as.dittle, of “ the spirit,” as of 
“ the letter of ,theoriginal ;’’. and of,“ pas- 
sages of-high poetical beauty;,or of a pathos 
guagefully, simple, natural; and affecting,”’ 
none. at) all. Lhesineident of Giana bemg 
terrified, into writing a letter, which repre- 
sents: her,as.a, faithless wanton, and. into 
binding. herself, by solemn oath, neyer to 
vindicate her innocence, on which the fatal 
eatastrophe hinges, is, as it is here ma~ 
naged,,so; stupidly impossible, as to put the 
broad extinguisher of incredulity, at once, 
npomall,;sympathies. and interests with 
the. heroine, or. in the fable; while the 
broad-farce caricature, Count Gaudentia 
(ME. Yates again, with a change only of 
costume, fresh from the mess-room of the 
exquisites, of the 20th, or 10th, if you 
please, in “ Pride shall havea Fall”) as a 
prominent instrument for a catastrophe of 
death and horrors, is a revolting incon- 
gruity, that would disgrace the pen and 
jadgment, of .a.school-boy. Is it not 
enough) thet our comedy has degenerated 
into, farce? must our tragedies become 
farces, also?., It were in vain to criticise 
the acting) layished on such absurdities: 
but it) may be acknowledged that Miss 
Lacey,and Miss F. H. Kelly did more for 
the respective characters of the rival Prin- 
cess and the humble Giana than the writing 
deserved ; but, that even Mrs. Davenport 
eould_only make, of the gossip Beatrice, a 
miserable imitation of the Nurse in ‘“ Ro- 
meo and Juliet.” 
_ “ King John” has been got up here, also, 
with great splendour. It is played in the 
true spirit of riyalry at both houses, on the 
samenight ; and, if the acting of Shakspeare’s 
dramas bas not attraction for the play- 
going public, the costumes of the ages and 
characters he represents, have. The taylors 
and mantua-makers haye the reputation 
of performing their parts well; whatever 
may be the case with the actors and ac- 
tresses... In the only female character of 
importance, Drury Lane has undoubtedly 
the advantage.. Mrs. Bunn is not, it is 
true, a Mrs. Siddons; but she is the best 
Lady Constance sve haye. Mrs. Bartley 
neither, looks, nor moves, nor speaks the 
character... The laboured mechanism of 
syliabie-distinctness, the overstrained quan- 
tities of monotonous yowels, the precon- 
certed transitions from the loudest to the 
softest aspiration, upon the same key-note, 
vatmot xepresent. the storm.and the melt- 
ing shower; the perturbations, the indig- 
nant scorn, the fond , affections, the pa- 
thetie, bewailings of the high-minded and 
agonized, mother, who, sees her loved and 
only child hurled. from, the towering pros- 
pect ofa,thyone, to captivity and dungeons 
ands impéading, death... Mr, Young, also, 
must have) pereeiyed, from, the  rareness 
and sennty feebleness of the plaudits which 
atcompanied some of the electrifying pas- 
New Music.and:-the'\ Drama. 
549 
sages /ofhisyauthor, that mere scowling 
glamees; from features illumined by no in- 
felt» passion, and studied. appropriations, of 
attitude. and, motion,,, with a, tedious) for- 
tality -of zmetrical) recitation, diversified, 
only by, the alternations, of loud: ands soft, 
like the beat.of Lord; Monboddo’s. drim,* 
cannot communicate. to an\audience the 
guileful struggle and the bursting, storm of: 
soul, the fearful agitations, the) headlong 
humours of a character of mere. passions 
and impulses, in such scenes and situations 
as Shakspeare has placed him, in;—in 
short, that it was Mr. Young who, -from 
general estimation, was put up with, where 
King John was looked for; not King) Jobm 
that was recognised.as identified. inthe 
acting of Mr. Young. .C. Kemble’s Fat- 
conbridge was the only reputable perform- 
ance in the cast :. which, though not exactly 
all, perhaps, that Shakspeare meant, in 
combination of easy humour and. confident 
high-aspiring heroism, is. certainly one of 
Mr. K.’s best characters ;. and -one |in 
which he distances all rivalry among’ his 
contemporaries. . Bennett, in some. parts’ 
of some of the scenes of. Hubert, shewed 
some indications of capabilities for an actor, 
if he had discretion enough to ayoid mon= 
grel imitations of Kean and Macready, and 
those ranting bursts of vociferation with 
which, every now,and then, he, “ cleayes: 
the general ear.” 
Dee. 15.—Mr. Sinclair made his. first 
appearance, for the season, as Prince Or- 
lando, in ‘‘ The Cabinet.” . He was, in 
excellent voice, and paid a little more at- 
tention to the dialogue and. business of the 
scene than heretofore. His. ‘‘ Polacca,’’ 
in particular, was beautifully executed, 
with more chastity of taste, richer melody 
and more skilful transitions, we should’say, 
than his precursor, but with less of what 
may be. called dramatic expression. He 
was compelled to sing it three times. To 
all the music, native to the piece, he did 
ample justice; but. failed.in the injudi- 
ciously introduced melody, “ Belieye me 
when all those endearing young charms ;’” 
and the feeling seemed to be universal that 
it was out.of unison. These arbitrary in- 
troductions, without reference to the gene- 
ral character of the musi¢ with which they 
are to be mingled, cannot be too much dis- 
countenanced, 
Of the performance of “ The Fair Peni- 
tent,” (on the 20th) we have only space to 
say, that Mrs. Sloman was as successful in 
Célista,as the repulsive nature of the character 
could well admit; that Young, in Horatio, 
was every where. respectable, and in some 
of the scenes and passages, in spight of his 
mannerisms, highly effective; and that 
Kemble, in Lothario, was quite ,at, home, 
But more of this, perhaps, hereafter. , 
* His Lordship eritically maintained, that there 
are no other varieties of tone, in the speaking voice, 
than those of loud and ‘soft ‘in the) beating of a 
drem. Verily some of our actoys) seem to be most 
orthodoxly of his Lordship’s erced. 
VARIETIES, 
