1829-3 Theatrical Matters. 191 



Don Giovanni took the lead, gave peculiar brilliancy to the season, and 

 M. Laporte has established at least the fact, that the public interest in 

 the King's Theatre may be kept up in the blaze of July. His company 

 are certainly superior, as a whole, to any that we remember. He has no 

 Catalani, no sovereign of song, it must be admitted. But since the bright 

 hours of that splendid singer are gone by, he has had the best singers that 

 Europe can supply. Pasta, Sontag, and Milibran, have now no equals ; and 

 his Signori are certainly a very able set. Zuchelli, Pellegrini, and Donzelli 

 are highly effective. His ballet alone has been deficient. No dancer of any 

 peculiar merit has figured during the season ; and though we may be much 

 charmed with the filial piety of Monsieur Coulon, and his Masaniello, yet 

 since the grand merit in a dancer is to dance, we should not have thought 

 the worse of him for being lighter in the limbs, and a little more graceful 

 in his use of them. One and but one dancer of the" whole corps, we should 

 ever desire to see again — a little Italian sauteuse, who exhibits no grace 

 whatever, but a vast deal of spirit and activity. She would make a capital 

 grotesque dancer, and her style realizes the vividness of her native stage, 

 between which, and the measured and formal dulness of the French dancing, 

 there can be no comparison. 



The principal performers of the winter theatres are careering it through 

 the country, and even through Ireland, hi spite of Captain Rock. Vestris has 

 returned from a Cossack expedition to Dublin, with 7001. for a dozen nights, 

 a plunder which has notoriously diminished the circulating medium of 

 the metropolis, and wUl make no small figure among the items of the 

 national bankruptcy. She has returned safely however upon English ground, 

 and is flying through the provinces, raising contributions upon the amateurs 

 to an alarming degree, and has already raised funds that would put any three 

 of her acquaintance into parliament. 



Some of the papers, have startled the world by an account of Miss Foote's 

 having been " robbed and murdered on her way to Liverpool." We dis- 

 believed the report at the time, and have had no additional reliance on it 

 since the accounts that Miss Foote is playing in Manchester to applauding 

 and mutually melting audiences. But this is the murder-season with news- 

 papers, and an accident sufficiently tragic is in the hot weather months in- 

 valuable. Wallack has returned from America: we suppose to resume 

 the theatrical sceptre from Cooper, who has wielded it with great activity, 

 and yet with great decorum, during his year of delegated sovereignty. His 

 marine propensities are still strong upon Wallack: lie rushed instantly to 

 the first shore where he could find a company. Brighton was the for- 

 tunate spot, and Russel the fortunate manager ; and at Brighton Wallack 

 and a corps de theatre are preparing to captivate the bathers. 



Miss Love has thrown the Nottinghamites into irrecoverable confusion. 

 After " delighting them," as their own Chronicles say, with all her acting, 

 singing, smiles and heaux yeux for one night, and raising the expectations of 

 the whole shire to the height of rapture for the second, one of those fatal 

 complaints which are so epidemic among pretty and popular actresses, seized 

 her. She was indisposed : the disease baffled the physicians, paralyzed the 

 manager, and outraged the audience. All the fashion and beauty of the stock- 

 ing weaving world were assembled, but no Miss Love appeared; her illness 

 had become suddenly so overwhelming, that it had carried her off", as rapidly, 

 as if she had been attended by four King's physicians, and was entitled to a 

 dozen buUetins a day. The stage was a blank, where all the world expected 

 to have found a prize. The manager was summoned — he resisted long, and 

 the summons was repeated in that tone, which no one could mistake for 

 entreaty. At last he came forward, like the man who drew Priam's curtain 

 at the dead of night, pale and speechless. The reason of the catastrophe 

 was fiercely demanded. Several ladies proposed that a general extermina- 

 tion of the company, manager included, should take place on the spot ; and 

 three aldermen of the town fainted, and were carried out in strong hysterics. 

 At length, the manager's (Mr. Manly,) words found their way, and he informed 



