1826.] 
stretch out bis,hband to raise him.  Sud- 
idenly themalignant demon seizes that hand 
dn,bis.grasp,) and. instead of attempting to 
Saye himself, ..he . endeavours, _ with all his 
maight, to pull down-D{Auverney with him, 
ewho),is- critically rescued by the return of 
-Bug-Jargal; and his dog (who, by the way, 
plays ajconspicuous part through the whole 
piece).at the very moment when the Obi, 
by his desperate struggles, had Joosened 
mt 
° Monthly Review of Literature. 
435 
the tree by whipk he clung, and fell head- 
long down’ the precipice. Atb' this! while 
Bug-Jargal is a ‘prisotiero oni! parole, (or 
on hostage. | He had outstayed! his :time, 
and hastens to return to the French eamp, 
where he finds’ his ten hostagesvom the 
point of being shot} and in'the. confusion 
that follows on his’ atrival): ‘designedly or 
undesignedly, the’ noble negroo Tumselfi: is 
shot, and the scene closes: “ood 99 lo 
HsIg 
MONTHLY THEATRICAL REVIEW. 
THE. winter, theatres have at length 
opened, and both are full of, at least, showy 
promises for the time to come. Both ex- 
hibited their claims by a previous list of 
performers, and in this tactique it must 
be allowed that Drury-Lane obtained the 
mastery. We find, in the Coyent-Garden 
list, no new performers of note but Young 
and Sapio, while we perceive the loss of 
some valuable ones. Braham is gone, and 
Mrs. Glover and Miss Love have disap- 
peared with him ; the former lady certainly 
.@ most excellent actress in her particular 
lines of vulgar fashion and citizen shrew- 
ishness ; and. the latter a very pleasant spe- 
cimen of espreglerie, and becoming every 
Season a more, dexterous performer; how- 
ever, the muster-roll contains some yery 
valuable names— Young and Charles Kem- 
' ble, Jones and Farren, all public favourites, 
will fight. the, battles of the house with 
Spirit; and. we hope with success, 
Sinee.the recess, a change has taken place 
in. the immediate management ; the non- 
| theatrical managers have retired, and the 
kingdom of Coyent-Garden is now governed 
‘by. a triumvirate: Charles Kemble, Faw- 
» cett, and Sir.George Smart. . But a divided 
| government is not often the best contriv- 
ance for securing unity of action, and any 
one of the three would have probably been 
‘better than the three together. It has 
. been announced that some of Shakspeare’s 
tragedies are to be brought forward with 
_ peculiar splendour. So let it be; let 
Shakspeare be honoured in the highest 
places. but\it should be remembered, that 
; the very system. by which the em- 
h Darrassments of this. stately theatre have 
_ heen created, ina principal degree. The 
Tate John, Kemble’s passion for magnifi- 
- eenee, and his real homage for Shaks- 
\peare, of whose finest characters he was 
| the finest \representative that we shall 
(probably ever see, exhausted the resources 
_e@f the house on; decorating the stage. 
_ He, produced, splendid, shows, but left 
arming the lamp-lighters of the theatre, to 
astonish us by the worn-out majesty of 
Roman processions, is but a waste of time, 
money, and even of lamp-lighters.. ‘What 
can Covent-Garden do with the tragedies 
of Shakspeare without a tragic actress— 
and what can the tragedies of Shakspeare 
do with a town surfeited with even their 
excellence ? - Novelty is the very food, the 
life, the essence of theatrical success: The 
stupid Latin motto over the stage should 
be blotted out, and “ NovELTY’’ written in 
its place. It would be well for managers 
if they burned every book in their library 
older than the last half-dozen’ years, and 
determined to have something new, at 
whatever cost, risk, or trouble.» Nay this 
system of haying something new, let it be 
what it might, had been tried within me- 
mory, and found prodigiously successful. 
The very men are alive by whom it was 
supported: and though they are ‘now 
worked out, still they are evidences: of 
what could be done, and done without a 
miracle. Morton, Reynolds, and Colman 
are in the land of the living’ still; and 
though the one is’ nursing’ his gout, the 
other legalizing and licensing, and the third 
rearing turkies and Swedish  turnips— 
though they may never write anything en- 
durable again—and though they were, in 
their general efforts, as far from true co- 
medy as any five-act-farce writers on the 
face of creation, yet they kept up the 
ball ; they enlivened the town, ‘and, asi the 
grand result of all, filled the treasury! 
Morton is announced as writing a co- 
medy for Covent-Garden; his generation 
are past, and we may not have many ‘tears 
to weep over their extinction. His comedy 
will of course be an overstrained axhibition 
of overstrained character ; nature upon the 
rack, and pelted with dry jokes, antiquated 
puns, and duplicate double-entendres. \»But 
it will have some peculiarities worth a 
laugh; unless (and the caveat is jai ne- 
cessary one, in bis case), Mortor should 
plunder from the French in his usual style. 
Literary robbery is, of course, not amenable 
to the Old Bailey, but if it were a crime 
punishable, even by fine and imprisonment, 
what would have become of Morton’s'per- 
sonal liberty or purse durmg these last 
forty years. Impunity encourages ‘crime, 
and agate ‘that there has been no 
3 ™% . 
“oan exhausted, treasury... In ,the. same 
gusoaring spirit, he built,a Grecian temple 
viwhen ,he should haye built an English 
theatre, and the burthen of this showy ex- 
0) penditure has left the proprietorship crushed 
“raiailer, its inextricable oppression. We 
fully.think, that the idea of expecting any- 
oy thing from) regilding the. banners, and’ ‘Te- 
