266 
thrown, ”’ should not be metamorphosed. 
Add to which,there were curtailments, dis- 
jointing omissions and inaccuracies in the 
delivery of the text, which were quite un- 
pardonable. Nor was the play, in’ other 
respects, got up to the best advantage. 
Wallack had little of the Ghost, either in 
semblance or deportment ; and there was as 
little of awe-inspiring solemnity in his man- 
ner, as of evanescence in his appearance. 
Why Mrs. Faucit was borrowed from thé 
other house to represent the Queen we know 
not; for, with all her attempts to ape the 
stately step and the portliness of Mrs. 
Siddons, we perceived almost as little 
of royalty in her Gertrude, as we did in 
the Claudius of poor old Powell ; who, with 
his dull monotony, and hereditary false em- 
phasis of force on every incidental, or even 
expletive adjective,* gave as illegitimate an 
idea of kingship as we remember since the 
days of King Cresswell himself. But theno- 
velty of the night was Miss Graddon in Ophe- 
lia ; and, unless we were of the number of 
those who would barter Shakspeare and na- 
ture for a song, with what approval can we 
speak of this ? Ophelia is one of those sweet 
exemplifications of feminine character, in 
the felicitous delineation of which Shaks- 
peare stands unrivalled: nor is it possible 
for us to consider it in any other point of 
view than as a character that should be 
acted: but Miss Graddon can only sing. 
She displayed, it is true, in the fragments 
of beautiful airs with which the scenes of 
melancholy derangement are interspersed, 
the degree of musical accomplishment she 
possesses ; but shall we, in this sing-song 
age, be permitted to say, that even these 
lost their dramatic interest, in proportion 
to the skill and and execution bestowed 
upon them. Ophelia should appear to sing 
because she is mad, not to have gone mad 
because she can sing; and if the voice be 
pleasing and plaintive,the less of art appears 
in the singing, the nearer it approaches to 
wild simplicity, the more delightful the 
effect. We know, indeed, that such is not 
now the fashionable maxim: but if Shaks- 
peare is to be thus Italianized, and the in- 
spirations of the divinest poesy are to be 
sacrificed to the flourishings of an air of 
rousic, let our theatric caterers be, at least, 
consistent—turn the tragedy of Hamlet into 
# Will the three-fold distinction of emphasis (that 
word to which Johnson so absurdly denies a plural) — 
the emphasis of force, the emphasis of quantity, and 
the emphasis of tune or inflection—never be dinned 
into the apprehension of readers and reciters? Will 
they never profit by the observation of realities, for 
the correction of their imitative arts; or be led to 
the conviction, that in the easy flow of spontaneous 
speech, the first belongs almost exclusively to sub- 
stantives and essential verbs; and never, but in the 
case of direct antithesis, to the adjective; that the 
second is the proper emphasis of adjectives and 
adverbs, increasing thereby instead of diminishing, 
the power of the ensuing word; and that the third 
is the emphasis of sentiment and emotion. 
Theatrical Review ; and Music. 
[ April 1, 
an opera; and if a Sapio or a Sinclair be 
but robed as the Prince of Denmark, no 
doubt but there are those who who would 
be equally edified and delighted by hearing 
the finest soliloquies ever penned by bard 
or moralist, given in air, recitative and 
bravura. 
COVENT GARDEN. 
Miss Foorr has repeated, several times, 
the character of Letitia Hardy, and has 
shone in her more appropriate sphere, 
Maria Darlington. She has playedalso with 
some éclat Miss Hardcastle, in She Stoops 
to Conquer; and Mrs. Inchbald’s outré 
comedy, Wivesas they were and Maids as 
they are, has been injudiciously revived, to 
exhibit this pleasing, but certainly not 
powerful actress, in another character ( Miss 
Dorillon), much beyond her sphere. Of 
actual noyelty this house has presented 
nothing. 
THE ORATORIOS. 
The Oratorios have been continued alter- 
nately at the two houses. We spoke of 
one at Covent-Garden in our last. We 
certainly were not better pleased when we 
went there again; for though it was Handel’s 
Messiah that was announced, we thought 
the vocal corps inadequate to the sublimity 
of the music. We had one air, indeed, from 
Miss M. Tree, and two or three from Miss 
Graddon and Miss Love; and we had 
Braham ; and Mme. Caradori was intro- 
duced for one Italian song ; but it did not 
harmonize ; and there was too much of Miss 
Hamersley, and too much of Mr. Bellamy 
—who, though he has taste, and knowledge 
of music, has now only the ghost of a 
voice, which was always inferior to his skill. 
Drury Lane presented us, on Friday 11th, 
a higher treat ; and it was not the less so for 
not being al/ oratorio. Miss Stephens, Miss 
Love, Mme. Caradori and Miss Graddon ; 
Braham, Horn, Bedford, Robinson and Tin- 
ney make up something like a corps de con- 
certe; which for gradation and yariety could 
not well be mended. From Mr. Tinney to 
Mme. Caradori! Can we imagine a yocal 
scale of greater compass—the bass of bass 
to the altissimo: and, for instrumental music, 
when we have mentioned Mr. Lindley’s 
concerto, and his accompaniment of Bra- 
ham, it would be superfluous to say more. 
In the selection, also, we had like judicious 
variety. Weber's Kampf und Sieg, or the 
Battle of Waterloo, is worthy of its repu- 
tation. We do not know whether, in the 
grand and the solemn, our ears could not 
learn, by a very short apprenticeship (dif- 
ferent as they, undoubtedly, are), to place 
him next to Handel. There isa depth in his 
music which seems to breathe from the very 
land of metaphysics; and the sublime of © 
music is certainly not the worse for touch- 
ing the sources of the mysterious in our 
feelings. Beethoven did not please us in 
the same degree ; nor Haydn; but we had a 
judicious sprinkling of our divine Han- 
del. Nor were we sorry (wide as the dis- 
tance 
