194 



Monthly TheatricaL Iteview. 



[ Feb. 



think he looks out of ,liis element after he 

 has descended. Tliere is some exquisite 

 panoramic scenery by Rol)erts and Stan- 

 field ; part of it represents a ship, and her 

 adventures through a storm, from . her 

 launch at Dover (exliibited with the Strictest 

 regard to all the localities), until she is 

 towed into a continental sea-port. Several 

 views of Ijondon are also given with great 

 effect. The overture by T. Cooke, is very 

 good : as to the music tliroughout the 

 piece, it would be absurd to say any thing 

 about it more than that it was better than 

 sucli things are usually. This theatre has 

 lately had almost a constant succession of 

 bumper houses. 



. A farce called " Wool- Gatltering ," 

 written expressly for Liston, and with the 

 design of exhibiting him as an absent Man, 

 has been well received. Its fun is all of 

 the broadest kind, sometimes excessively 

 laughable, and sometimes vastly vajjicL 

 With Liston it is upon the whole very 

 amusing ; without him it would be a vciy 

 dubious affair. The following is a fair sam- 

 ple of its structure : Wander (Liston) is 

 presented with a candle to light him to 

 bed. He falls into a fit of musing, and 

 walks off with the lighted candle thrust, 

 like a walking- stick, under his arm. 



COVENT GARDEN. 



Who does not know the history of Beau- 

 ty and the Beast ? Whosoever is so la- 

 mentably ignorant of faiiy lore, has no 

 business either with seeing or reading of 

 pantomimes. As we now write only for 

 tliose who arc well versed in such essential 

 points in the education of youth, we shall 

 not detail the fu'st half of the wonders of 

 Harlequin and the Magic Rose ; or, JJeaulii 

 and the Beast. The second name of Mr. 

 Farley's pantomime discloses its parentage ; 

 and we need merely say, that we are intro- 

 duced to the sufferings of poor Prince 

 Beast, by the speech of Ugalina the en- 

 chantress, \\\\Q comes to uiterrupt the 

 orgies of a set of black monkey-like devils, 

 that have been dancing and singing for 

 some time with great agility and persever- 

 ance. Among them, Turlebrook (Mr. E. 

 Parsloe) distinguishes himself by walking 

 and hopping on his hands, and at last sup- 

 porting his wliole frame in a horizontal 

 position upon one arm, round which he 

 wheels as round an axis. Through the 

 agency of the Genii of the Rose (who has 

 a very laudable and mortal hatred of Uga- 

 lina), Prince Azor (the Beast) becomes 

 Harlequin, Selima (Beauty) changes to 

 Columbine, and her father and his servant 

 are transformed into Pantalon and Clown. 

 All the parties, Iiaving come in a few se- 

 conds from Persia, begin their new opera- 

 tions at Dover. Harlequin's first exploit 

 is the turning of a hamper of wine into a 

 wine-cellar. Pantaloon tumbles in, and is 

 picked up with his body so saturated with 

 iKOken bottles, that some time is occupied 



in extracting the fragments. He recovers, 

 however, is subsequently wrapped in blan- 

 kets, and i)ut, to sooth his wounds, into a 

 hot bath — to(? hot it is ' presumed, as he 

 roars for cold water. He is gi-atified to 

 his hearts content by the instant change of 

 the ai)])ariitus into a shower bath, which, 

 we must suppose, deluges him most un- 

 mercifully. One of the most amusing 

 things in the piece is the change of the 

 Living Skeleton, by a draught of turtle-soup, 

 into an Alderman of enormous capacity 

 (in a certain region), intended of course to 

 represent a noted city knight, distinguished 

 alike for his rolundily and his good-humour. 

 But vi'e must end our history of trans- 

 formations — not, liovvever, before we record 

 the cutting off of a woman's head, cap and 

 all — the thrusting of it into a head of cab- 

 bage, and the change, forthwith, of the 

 said head (of cabbage, we mean) into a 

 cauliflower. It would be a waste of words 

 to praise the scenery of a piece at Covent- 

 Garden Theatre : it is enough to say that 

 INIessrs. Grieve, Luppino, and Pugh sus- 

 tained their own reputation and that of the 

 house. There is a Panoramic- Aerial- 

 Voi/age — (the length of the name is, we 

 suppose, typical of the great distance which 

 the spectators are presumed to travel) — in 

 which we are made to see views of 

 Constantinople, St. Petersburg!! and Am- 

 sterdam ; tiie latter place by moonlight. All 

 this is admirably executed, as are the 

 scenes representing Covent-Garden- Market 

 at Night, and Bartholomew- Fair. 



There has been no new piece at this 

 theatre. Neither of the plays of which we 

 gave an accoiuit last month has been since 

 presented, tliough we were led to expect 

 the re-appearance of both from the bills. 

 We have had, however, a revival (as it has 

 been somewhat whimsically called) of Mrs. 

 Centlivre's comedy, " A Bold Stroke for a 

 Wife." This was the play concerning 

 which, before its first presentation, Wilks 

 the comedian predicted that " the play 

 would be damned, and the authoress 

 would be damned too for writing it." It 

 is no very favourable specimen of the dra- 

 matic powers of this lady, the success of 

 whose pieces was said to have made Con- 

 grev^ in disgust, cease writing for the 

 stage. The pleasantries of its dialogue are 

 chiefly gross indecencies, and the humour 

 of its characters and incidents is broad farce. 

 Its representation of Quakers may have 

 been true a century ago, when it was 

 written, but at this day it is extravagant 

 caricature. Still the admirable acting of 

 Mr. C. Kemble, as Colonel Feignwell, has 

 given the jiiece considerable attraction. 



A Mr. C. Bland (from the Liverpool 

 Theatre) has been added as a vocalist to 

 the Covent Garden company. His name, 

 and the recollections associated with it — 

 he is the son of Mrs. Bland, so long and 

 so deservedly a favourite with the public — 

 would have insursd him in any case an 



