636 



Monthly Theatrical Revkiv. 



[■JuNfT, 



'purest Htiinulant of the Boldior's course and 

 the humorist's pleasantry was supposed to 

 have been supplied in rash abundance ; and, 

 after a few exuberant extempore bursts of 

 merriment, the great leasee fell on the floor. 

 He was lifted on his legs witli much diffi- 

 culty, and tried to go on ; bnt thout.;h gra- 

 vity was not the order of the day, neither on 

 the stage nor among the audience, its prin- 

 ciple was predominant with the hero of the 

 pillows, and Faktaff again came to the 

 ground. Revival now grew more dithcult, 

 and the play closed without its hero. 



COVENT GARDEN, 



Disappointed by the early fate of Oberon, 

 lias since made a desperate effort by apply- 

 ing to the exhausted source of the Scotcli 

 novels. Woodstock, the last and nearly 

 the most languid of them all, had scarcely 

 appeared, wlien it v.-as seized for sacrifice 

 on the altar of the decaying stage. The 

 previous speculation had been to convert 

 the Talisman (from'the Tales of the Cru- 

 saders) into a drama of some kind or other : 

 but the rival activity of Drury Lane . had 

 seized upon the same subject. This com- 

 petition was to be avoided at all cliances, 

 and Woodstock, unluckil}-, was the sole 

 alternative. The novel is heavy, and is 

 merely a recapitulation of the escape of 

 Charles the Second, after the battle of 

 Worcester. The actual adventures wei'e 

 trifling, and the novel is nearly as trifling. 

 It is chiefly occupied with Charles Stuart's 

 reception at the house of an old English 

 cavalier, and his retreat from Cromwell's 

 piu^uit. The family of tise old cavalier, 

 his daughter Alice Lee, l)is son, a loyal 

 roue of the name of Wildrake, and Crom- 

 well make up the principal jicrsons of the 

 play ; the dialogue seems to have been 

 taken by the summary process of the 

 scissors from the novel. The whole was 

 remarkably dull in the re})rescntation ; dia- 

 logue without point or interest ; characters 

 either exhausted by perpetual use, or feebly 

 pourtrayed ; and incidents without spirit 

 or dramatic excitement. Charles Kemble's 

 performance of Charles Stuart was much 

 abler than his lack-lustre part deserved. 

 Wsrd's Cronncell, though it gave evidence 

 of the good sense of this intelligent actor, 

 was yet, through the unequivocal fault of 

 the original conception, a mere caricature 

 of the great King of the Commonwealth. 

 Such are the unliappy and failing resources 

 to which managers allow themselves to be 

 driven, through mere negligence of the means 

 within their power. Monstrous abortions 

 in the shape of " Operas," absorbing the 

 whole revenue of the house in their pre- 

 paration, and threatening it with utter ruin 

 by their failure ; or in default of these costly 

 fooleries, the fragments of some disem- 

 boweled novel, that scarcely any ingenuity 

 can hang together in a tolerable shape, and 

 that scarcely any ])atience can endure. The 

 whole of this deplorable system being 



attended witli fatal expense, and our chief 

 theatres at this hour being, we regret to say- 

 it, among the most hazardous establish- 

 ments of an age of insecurity. 



But what is the remedy ? there is but 

 ONE, — to liave on the boards of the stage 

 Tragedy and Comedy ! AH but those are 

 cx])ensive, to a degree that makes even 

 success unprofitable. If it be said that the 

 talent of our writers for both lias expired, 

 we say, let the managers try. Let them 

 judge of the ability of English authorship, 

 not by the bales of absurdity that overload 

 their desks from anonymous -wTiters, but 

 by the ]K)wers which the known living 

 writers display. We are not now talking 

 of supreme excellence, but would not even 

 such comedies as Morton's, Reynolds's, 

 and Colman's, be higlily important acces- 

 sions to theatrical popularity ; and do they 

 suppose that the ability of those men can- 

 not find successors ? If they suppose so, 

 they know nothing of London society, nor 

 of London literature. Why, when they 

 find any dramatic promise about a writer, 

 do they not excite tliat man to make a 

 further effoit? W'hy, when they see 

 Poole adapt ingeniously from the French, 

 will they not ascertain whether he could 

 not ])roduco something original ? Why, 

 when they find I'ocock a clever cutter-up 

 of a novel, if it be tolerable, will they not 

 try whether this dramatic second-hand 

 tailoring is not capable of being led on to 

 the production of a complete suit ? Is the 

 author of " Raising the V.'ind" dead out- 

 right ? or is Dibdin interdicted from the 

 use of his pen by the severity of the Surrey 

 climate, and incapable of corresponding 

 across Blackfriars Bridge? Yet, if these men 

 could not each overflow the theatres with 

 " admiring audiences" iit the rate of five 

 hundred pounds a night, who c;m doubt 

 that they could more than keep oflF the evil 

 day ? There are the two Smith?, exliaust- 

 ing their pun-making souls on epigrams for 

 Colbum, and songs for the dinner tables of 

 delighted gastronomes : why not seize on 

 those waited personages, drag them from 

 their Magazines, and compel them into the 

 public service. 



But no ! it is safer, pleasanter, and 

 wiser to do nothing — to complain of public 

 stupidity — to keep their idle hands in their 

 empty pockets, and philosophically contem- 

 plate the Gazette ! It is more provident 

 to give away two or three thousand pounds 

 to a composer, or a horse-rider, or a rope- 

 dancer, or a figurante, than to liazard fifty 

 pounds on the coats, breeches, and scenery 

 of a comedy, that may bring back the two 

 or three thousand pounds that the figurante 

 has carried away. Let managers seek for 

 talent, and they will find it ; but the 

 liigher it is, the less \\il\ it be inclined to 

 seek them. 



king's THEATKIi. 



Ar this theatre Pasta is singing away 



