so 



Monthly Thealrical lievieto. 



[Jan. 



great power, and gives scope to Mr.Warde 

 and Mr. C. Kemblc for some vigorous 

 acting. Josephine, the v\ife of Kruilzner, 

 gave Mrs. Cliattcrley but little to do, and 

 that little not quite within her line. Coo- 

 per went through the part of the Hungarian 

 with great discretion ; but one or two lighter 

 characters, which are introduced no doubt 

 to ease the galleries of their Iiorrors, do 

 littlefor the piece. On the whole it pos- 

 sesses consideiable attractions, and is sus- 

 ceptible of much improvement, vvliich it 

 will probably receive. Some of the scenes 

 are exceedingly beautiful. 



We have not space to analyze two plea- 

 sant trifles, one in two acts, taken from 

 the French, called " Twas I ,-" and ano- 

 ther " The Scaj)e-Goat," a veiy lively one- 

 act piece, in vvliich Mr Farren is exhibited 

 as a plagued old tutor. This liouse has 

 continued to attract very cro^^'ded au- 

 diences ; but tlie absence of Young is felt 

 severely. 



Mr. Serle has ajjpeared several times in 

 Hamlet. Pie possesses, in a very eminent 

 degree, taste, judgment, and feeling ; but 

 lie lias not yet evinced the powers requisite 

 for pourtraying the stronger passsions. But 

 he may ripen. He has made some depar- 

 tures from established usages in his ])er- 

 formance of Hamlet : for instance, in the 

 scene with the Queen, the pictures, instead 

 of being held in his liand, are fixed in the 

 pannel, or hung on the wall of the apart- 

 ment — this change is questionable ; but 

 hi other points his alterations are improve- 

 ments. The scene with Opheliti, in which 

 //a»iZt>< desires her to "go to a nunnery," 

 was admirable. We cannot lielp thinlving 

 tliat Mr. Serle, by a little training, may 

 overcome those deficiencies in liis voice 

 under which he sometimes labours rather 

 too ai)parently. He is too good a ]ier- 

 former to he spared, and the ditliculty of 

 filling with a due portion of sound a large 

 theatre, is not as great as is sometimes 

 imagined. 



DRIRY LANE. 



The ruler of this establishment lias re- 

 tired for a season (and we trust sincerely it 

 will be a short one) from the cares of go- 

 vernment, but he has yielded the reins to 

 faithful and able hands. No great exer- 

 tions have been yet made to satiate the rage 

 of the times for new jiieces ; but the 

 managers have not been idle — 3Iiss Kelly, 

 Dowtoii, and lately Liston, are among the 

 established campaigners who have been 

 added to the corps, and earnest has been 

 already given, that in comedy, at least, old 

 Drury will fight a tough battle with lier 

 neighbouring and fr/i'miUable rival. ]VIuch 

 dramatic cant (it is tlie most provoking 

 kind of cant we know.) has been exi)ended 

 upon an experiment of Miss Kelly to give 

 a new reading of Liiilij Teazle. This part 

 lias been hitherto jjcrformed by actresses 

 who, in their respective days, were fine 



ladies upon the stage. Mrs. Abington led 

 the way, and from her time to the present 

 Ladii Teazle has been a woman of fashion. 

 But Miss Kelly finds in the play, that, ac- 

 cording to Sir Peter Teazle's own confes- 

 sion (and surely there can be no better au- 

 thority), 'twas little more than "six months 

 since his lady made him the happiest of 

 men ;" she finds that he has been "just half 

 a year on the stool of repentance," — that 

 his lady was " the daughter of a poor coun- 

 tiy squire," that the old gentleman found 

 her " sitting at her tambour, in a linen 

 gown, a bunch of keys by her side and 

 her hair combed smoothly over aroll ;" MisS' 

 Kelly, in sJiort, discovers that Lady Teazle 

 had but a few short montlis to learn all 

 that could fit her, and unlearn all that could 

 unfit her for a lady of fashion, and natural- 

 ly enough concludes, that it is no offence 

 to the genius of Sheridan to give to his he- 

 roine something of that air of rusticity, of 

 ^^•hich, if "he were a living being, it would 

 be almost a miracle were she wholly divest- 

 ed. Yet for this a certain herd of critics 

 liave sonnded an alarm, as if the very cita- 

 del of dramatic taste were stormed, and 

 truth and nature were rudely violated by — 

 Miss Kelly ! There is something that 

 sounds like a solecism in these last words; 

 and we sincerely hope that this now match- 

 less actress — matchless where native cha- 

 racter breaks from restraint and triumphs 

 over vice and art, as in that scene in the 

 library, the chef-d' ceiivre of Sheridan, will 

 again try whether there is enough of taste 

 in the town to overcome the established 

 dogmas of a bigotted and unreasoning cri- 

 ticism. 



Towards the end of last month Mrs. 

 Inchbald's three-act drama of the Midnight 

 Hour was brought out as an opera, and 

 under the new title of " The Wager " the 

 music was composed and selected by Mr. 

 T. Cooke, and has considerable merit. 

 There was no other material alteration in 

 the piece, but it derived great attraction 

 from Miss Kelly's Flora. 



Another opera has been presented at 

 this theatre, entitled Leocadea. The story 

 is taken from Cervantes, but the drama has 

 been performed with considerable success 

 at Paris, we believe at the Italian Opera 

 tliere. However the plot may suit a fo- i 



reign audience, tliere has been generally a , 

 reluctance to admitting such subjects upon \ 



the British stage : although we think some 

 splendid exceptions might be cited, and 

 some good reasons given for tlie allowance 

 of these themes, under judicious manage- 

 ment, in the drama. Leocadea, the heroine, 

 four years before the piece is sup]iosed to 

 open, has been met alone by a company of 

 intoxicated cavaliers, when she is mistaken 

 for a frail fair-one known to a companion 

 of theirs, — is pursued, seized, forced to a 

 neighbouring chateau, and dishonoured. 

 She escapes, at the risk of drowning, on the 

 night of her ruin — thenceforward lives in 



