192 Theatrical Matters. QAuc 



the audience that Miss Love was seen to go off, not in a hearse from the 

 stage door, nor on the wings of one of her ntiother Venus's doves, but in a 

 post-chaise and four from the Blackmoor's Head, doubtless, to try the effect 

 of change of air for her head-ache. Next day various reports of the most em- 

 barrassing nature were circulated through the town. The disappearance 

 was attempted to be accounted for on the various grounds, that this captivat- 

 ing actress, and affectionate spouse had pined at the distance that intervened 

 between her and Mr. Granby Calcraft, her husband, could endure absence no 

 longer, and in a sudden paroxysm of fondness, had rushed back to him and 

 happiness, in London. Other and conflicting authorities had their opinions 

 too. But the formidable reality visited the manager, in the shape of 

 returning the admission money. Sheridan, who understood professional feel- 

 ings on this subject in the most acute degree, was in the habit of saying that 

 he could give words to the chagrin of a conqueror, on seeing the fruit of his 

 victories snatched from him ; or the miseries of a broken down minister, 

 turned out in the moment when he thought the cabinet at his mercy ; or a 

 felon listening to a long winded sermon from the ordinary ; or a debtor just 

 fallen into the claws of a dun ; but that he never could find words to express 

 the sensibilities of a manager compelled to disgorge money once taken at his 

 doors. " Fund," says this experienced ornament of the art of living by one's 

 wits, "fund is an excellent word ; but re-fund is the very worst in the lan- 

 guage." The manager, however, honourably made the proposition, which 

 was accepted by a considerable portion of the audience, another performance 

 was sidjstituted, and next day came forth a more formal explanation in the 

 papers. We have not heard that any of the wells in the neighbourhood of 

 Nottingham were dragged, nor that rewards have been offered for any tldmgs 

 of the fair actress, stolen or strayed, living or dead : we therefore hope the 

 best, and remain in gentle expectation. 



The Anglo-Parisian company are again forming their battalions for a French 

 campaign. Abbott, whose management has shown him so perfectly fitted for 

 the task, is recruiting and drilling with all imaginable assiduity. Egerton, 

 Charles Kemble, Miss Smithson, and Mrs. West, are to lead the van, and the 

 Parisians are to be stormed by a rapid succession of heroes and heroines before 

 the year is over. We applaud all these efforts, and wish them every success. 

 Now that the war is over, and the Bourbons have flung Bonaparte's bitter- 

 ness with his sword into the great deep, there is no reason why we should 

 not be on the best terms with Messieurs les Fran9ois that we can. They 

 have tried us in fighting, let them now try us in playing ; let our pikes and 

 pistols be turned into stage truncheons, and daggers with neither edge nor 

 point ; and all our killed and wounded be kings, queens, and lovers. 



Miss Mitford is said to be busy on a new tragedy, for the opening of Drury 

 Lane. New comedies are threatened, but we have grown too familiar with 

 threats of this kind to feel any peculiar alarm. The comedies will, of course, 

 degenerate into farces, and the farces into ' translations from the French.' 

 However, we will not admit that the genius of comedy is dead without hope 

 of revival. There are brains enough in England for other things than 

 stockjobbing and steam engines. Even the Peerage does not absorb all the 

 national intellect ; and we may see clever things in prose and verse, though 

 Lord Holland and Lord Harborough were no more. 



The theatrical companies are undergoing various changes. Drury Lane has 

 bade its farewell to Gattie and Mrs. Davison, Miss E. Tree, and some other 

 performers whom we lament, more or less, and whose places we are by no 

 means certain that the manager will easily supply. Miss E. Tree is an un- 

 questionable loss in all the parts that require youth, acuteness of conception, 

 and are not the worse for a handsome face. She may take with her the con- 

 solation of being by much the prettiest actress in face and figure of her time, 

 and while characters fit for her period of life are supplied to her, she will be 

 one of the most pleasing. The enormous size of the winter theatres is injuri- 

 ous to delicacy of feature, and sweetness of voice : the one is lost in the dis- 

 tance, and the other is forced into violence, by the space which it labours to 



