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THE DRAMA. 



Drury Lane. — A piece, which in a double sense is entitled to the 

 appellation of a novelty, has been produced at this theatre since our last. 

 It is no less than a tragedy in five acts, under the title of The Provost 

 of Bruges. Who the author is, is as yet, as far as the public is con- 

 cerned, as much a matter of mystery as the identity of the writer of 

 Junius. The tragedy itself is deriving all the benefit of this ignorance 

 of the authorship. It is, undoubtedly, a work of considerable merit, 

 both in a literary and dramatic point of view. At another time, how- 

 ever, when more respect was paid to the legitimate drama, and whea 

 tragedies were among the most frequent productions of the dramatic 

 muse, it certainly would not have met with the success, or excited the 

 interest, of which it can boast. In the three first acts, there is more 

 than the usual quantum of " the heavy :" the interest flags so much 

 that the audience, were they not good-natured and indulgent to an 

 excess, would assuredly lose all patience, and put the fiat of their 

 " damnation" on the piece. A few of the scenes, however, even in 

 these three acts, possess a redeeming interest, and the remaining two are 

 so full of tragic incidents, that they could not fail to save the piece from 

 such a fate. If the pruning-knife were judiciously applied to the first 

 three acts. The Provost of Bruges would undoubtedly, with tolerable 

 acting, be still more successful than it is. 



There is one fault in the piece, which, were one to consult their feel- 

 ings merely, would be regarded as one of no ordinary magnitude. We 

 refer to the unhappy denouement. All the personages in it, in whose 

 favour the sympathies of the audience have been enlisted, come to an 

 unhappy end ; while those whose conduct is regarded with abhor- 

 rence are eventually triumphant in their ignoble and unprincipled 

 enterprises. The Provost of Bruges, the hero of the piece, falls into 

 the hands of his tyrannical enemies, and, to save himself from an igno- 

 minious end, plunges a dagger into his bosom. His daughter, stung 

 with the misfortunes of herself and her husband, first becomes insane, 

 and soon afterwards dies ; while her husband falls by the hand of the 

 common foe. This is undoubtedly a painful termination ; and the only 

 thing that can be urged in its behalf, is, that it accords with his- 

 torical fact. 



The success of the piece is undoubtedly to be ascribed as much to the 

 superior acting of the leading dramatis personce as to its own intrinsic 

 merits. Mr. Macready, as the Provost, sustained the character with 

 more than his usual spirit. The defect which generally characterises 

 his acting is a want of energy. In the present instance, he runs, if 

 that be possible in him, to the opposite extreme. In some of the 



