632 Theatrical Matters. [June, 
indulge ourselves with deriving hope ; and from the existence of the 
fooleries that load the stage, we may augur some merit in even the two 
cherished tragedies. 
The success of the theatrical speculations on the Continent is stirring 
up the spirit of our actors, and a company is said to be forming to make 
the tour of the Netherlands and Germany. Kemble, Egerton, and 
others, are on the wing at the close of the season; Miss Smithsen, of 
course, is the heroine. Abbott is on the Continent, and from his habits 
would make an expert manager, and the speculation promises to be a 
fortunate one. The English language is popular in Germany, though it 
is miserably spoken. But Shakspeare is read every where, and under- 
stood no where ; however, the name is enough: he is lectured upon, and 
dissected, and criticised, and lithographed, and imitated, and disfigured 
in all imaginable ways. But all this bustling makes him popular, and 
will make the English actors popular, and will even conduce to the popu- 
larity of the English themselves, intractable as they are. 
The King’s Theatre proceeds from triumph to triumph.  Pisaroni, 
after having sustained the frosty fortunes of the season during the winter, 
has now given way to the spring flower generation of the Malibrans and 
Sontags. Neither of the younger ladies is handsome, but they sing | 
tolerably, and the noblesse must be satisfied with them, or they can hav 
none ; and the Opera-house must not be shut up while it affords the only 
general receptacle for diligent matrons and their unmarried daughter 
Flirtation must find its vent, matches must be made somewhere or other ; 
divorces must be arranged, scandal must be talked, sets must be made at 
young boobies flung loose upon the world with money ; in short, the 
great business of the great world must have an Exchange, a grand 
Auction mart for its management ; Almack’s is too exclusive; routs 
are not exclusive enough. The Opera-house is the exact medium, 
where the discreet matron may open her box to whom she likes, or shut 
it on whom she dislikes—may draw a favourite fool from any quarter of 
the house, or keep out a bore, or be blind to an ami de trop, those nui- 
sances of society, who act as Marplots in the most critical occasions, and 
have spoiled more marriages than the blacksmith of Gretna ever made. 
Sontag’s voice has lost its novelty, and with it has lost its chief charm. 
It executes violin passages, and flourishes through the scale with the 
adroitness of desperate practice, but it never had feeling, and it never 
will. But the interest attached to Sontag is now of a tenderer kind. 
Happy exemption of singers and actresses from the penalties of the sex! 
one of those syrens may march through the world with all the evidences 
‘of being as “ women wish to be that love their lords,” and only become 
more interesting. ‘The newspapers have been for the last three months 
discussing the hollowness of this German woman’s physiognomy, and 
lamenting over the lost charms of her neck and chin. But beyond this 
all is wrapt in a cloud. Lord Clanwilliam first had the honour of being 
supposed her husband. But he escaped the charge under cover of the 
rumour that he was affianced to the Duchess of Berri. Prince Leopold 
next had the honour: and if sneers could fasten matrimony on his High- 
ness, he is fast bound in the chain.. Then the Duc de Chartres was sup- 
posed to have come over expressly to introduce the lady to his illustrious 
father, and obtain his consent to the alliance. Then a sovereign prince 
with three hundred acres of empire in the Black Forest, was the happy 
spouse. The last report gives the lady to a German Count; and a still 
