90 
tude that make the company and seryants 
of agreat theatre. The most acknowledged 
ability will not compensate for the absence 
of this exactness. All have seen the mi- 
serably harassed career, and still more 
miserable end of Sheridan himself,. per- 
haps the greatest dramatic genius that 
ever stood at the head of a tieatre since 
Shakespeare. On this we touch reluctant- 
ly, and we touch no more. - 
It is impossible to look upon the present 
state of our winter theatres, without con- 
trasting them with the summer ones, which 
have during the year been sources of 
affluence to their proprietors. The Hay- 
market, where a single three act farce, of 
but little dramatic merit, old in its plot 
and pointless in its dialogue, has netted 
probably not Jess than ten thousand 
pounds! This success is of course to be 
shared between the lucky conception of 
introducing a vulgar, popular character, of 
which ever ry body must hay e hadsome exam- 
ple, and the diligent and close personification 
of its vulgarism by Liston. - Taste shrinks 
from these things, the true drama disowns 
the whole buffoonery, and what Sheridan or 
the elder Colman could not have done 
were their lives at stake, has been done by 
the playmaker of the Haymarket. But, 
the point in question is not the occasional 
put the continued success of the manage- 
ment; and to this we must give the praise 
due to diligence, activity, and punetual fide- 
lity to its engagements. 
The Adelphi, too, bas been a fortune to 
its proprietors: they, it is true, are actors, 
but the nature of their company exempts 
them from the evils of the character. They 
personally make up the chief strength of 
their. establishment. They are uncon- 
trouled, -they have only their own interests 
to consult, they have none to rival or be 
rivalled by; they play neither comedy nor 
tragedy, but burlettas and meio-dramas; 
they are rudely careless of dramatic fame, 
and wisely attentive only to the most rapid 
means of realizing the income which their 
general and personal merits amply deserve. 
A still stronger eontrast is afforded by 
Covent-Garden in the days of the late Mr. 
Haivis. It was remarkably successful. 
With asmall but select company of attors, 
it made head against Drury-Lane and 
Sheridan, :with Siddons, Kemble, and the 
whole genius of the stage. It actually 
fought them down, and the theatre became 
a source of high opulence. But in the 
Monthly Theatrical Review. 
[Jury, 
midst of their success, it was unfortunately 
burned down. An actor was manager of 
the new theatre. Kemble’s conceptions of 
theatrical grandeur were suited to his ta- 
lents; and he determined to make it a 
fabric in which his whole conceptions could 
be realized, ‘‘ to make Covent-Garden 
theatre worthy of the drama of Shake- 
speare,’ were the ill-fated words. He 
built a colossal edifice, of which till this 
hour the debt hangs upon the income, and 
Harris’s wealth yanished without hope of 
return. 
This’was the work, in part, of ill-for- 
tune, and in part of imprudence; but the 
original success should not be forgotten ; 
nor the lapses of a retired man in his old 
age be placed against the prosperous wis- 
dom of his time of vigour. The same 
attention to details, the same perpetual 
diligence to discover, stimulate, and even 
instruct dramatists, the same generous re- 
muneration, and the same habitual justice, 
fidelity, and activity, which distinguished 
the elder Harris, must ensure the same 
successes at any period and in any consti- 
tution of the public mind. _ Dramatie abi- 
lity may be the very rarest of all: a pre- 
eminent dramatist may be a pheenix, to be 
seen but once in five hundred years; but 
there is and must be a vast deal of minor 
ability, yet fully equal to public gratification 
and theatrical prosperity, floating about 
upon the great expanse of general society. 
That they have not sought this, or sought 
it foolishly, or, having found it, neglected, 
deceived, or disgusted it, we will by no 
means say of managers; but whatever 
their wishes or their zeal may have been, 
they must now feel their error in, we fear, 
a broken treasury, as we know, in a barren 
stage. 
At the King’s Theatre, Pasta still at- 
tracts immense crowds. If the fashion- 
able world are pleased, it is not for us to 
deny their right of bemg pleased in their 
own way. “ Medea,” a new opera, is 
the present favourite. Our regret is, 
that it cuts down the ballet to one act, 
and extinguishes the divertisement alto- 
gether. 
Vauxhall ‘has opened with a concert 
sustained by Braham, Sinclair, and other 
able singers. The scheme is prodigal and 
popular; but in this climate of clouds, 
nothing is certain but that it will rain 
whenever it can. 
i scteastieciancademeal 
WORKS IN THE PRESS, AND NEW PUBLICATIONS. 
» WORKS IN PREPARATION. 
A portrait of the Marchioness of Winchester, from 
a painting by bi Mes thune4 is being engraved by 
Thomson. 
Archdeacon Coxe tis nearly ready for publication 
«« The History of the Administration of the Right 
Aion. Henry Pelham, from 1743 to 1754.” 
A Resident of Oldbury, New South Wales, has 
in the DIES *« An Account of Agriculture and 
Grazing” in that country. 
New editions of Carey’s and Patetuon's Books of 
Roads are daily expected. t 
Mr. Sass, author of ‘* Journey to. Rome and Na- 
ples,” is preparing for the press a History of the 
Arts of Painting and Sculpture in England, with an 
account of the different Institutions, dc. _ 
* 
