311 Theatrical Matters. ^ [Sept. 



intelligent and promising of our young performers. She ought to be retained in 

 deference to the public opinion, not less than to the exigencies of the stage. 



The Haymarket has produced nothing that we have heard of but Liston, 

 who plays at the rate of four times the pay of a field-marshal ; three times 

 the salary of a vice-chancellor; twice the average of a bishopric; one half 

 more than the salary of a secretary of state ; and the full salary of a chief 

 Justice ; or about 8,000/. a-year. Liston is certainly a pleasant fellow, but 

 after this, he can have no great reason to complain of public parsimony. 

 Like some of o>ir statesmen, he cannot deny that " he has had his price." 



But it is in the English Opera House that the true activity of management 

 has been displayed. Since the commencement of the season there has been 

 a vigorous succession of performances, the only way to deserve the popu- 

 larity essential to a theatre. 



A clever melodrame, " The Witness," from an Irish tale, has been fre- 

 quently played. 



This was followed by " The Spring Lock," a musical drama, founded on 

 the old Italian story of the Bride who disappeared on her marriage day, and 

 was, after many years, found to have perished in a chest, where she had 

 sportively hidden herself, and whose spring lock had closed upon her. But 

 Mr. Peake, the present author, has had more compassion on her, and has 

 merely shut her up for a few days in a cabinet where she had gone to give 

 a last look to a favoured lover's letters. This serious portion is diversified 

 by the adoption of another old Italian story of the frolic of a prince who 

 brought a stranger to his palace while overpowered with wine, and amused 

 himself witli his embarrassment when this Christopher Sly has returned to his 

 senses. Doctor Mnnente (Keeley) is the subject of the experiment on this 

 occasion, but the amusement arises not from his luxury but his fright. He 

 is left in darkness, and then visited by fiends, who dance round him, compel 

 him to swallow food, which he thinks the direct cookery of Beelzebub, and 

 finally, whirl him down a trap-door in the midst of an explosion. Keeley 's 

 acting his terrors is extremely clever; but mere pantomime is a waste of 

 this pleasant little performer, and the author has given him nothing better. 

 A few remarks on a negro attendant, more remarkable for matter of fact 

 than novelty, are all his dialogue, and Keeley is reduced to his skill as a 

 grimacicr. The music is by that promising composer Rodwell; and very 

 pretty and well adapted to its purpose. But we should wish to see him 

 exert himself on the production of something in a higher style. He has talents, 

 and should give the evidence of them, that can be furnished by an opera and 

 by an opera alone. 



Two operas from the German school have appeared. The first was Die 

 Rauherbrant (" The Robber's Bride,"), by Ries. 



Theatres are at a discovmt in all directions. The proprietor of one of the 

 Paris theatres has fled the capital in order to escape his creditors ; and we 

 believe that the art of flying would be one of the most popular among our 

 theatrical neighbours if it could effectually lift men above their difficulties. 



The Dublin theatre, built a few years ago, by Harris, at a sum not much 

 less than 100,000/., was lately put up to auction, and, notwithstanding all its 

 merits, and among the rest, that of "not being under the jurisdiction of the 

 licenser," as the bills declared, in their largest letters, it was scarcely bid for, 

 and was bought in at 17,000/. ! 



The papers gave Coven t Garden to Arnold ; an imputation which Arnold 

 instantly repelled in the most unequivocal manner, as an attack on his com- 

 mon sense. 



Laurent, the Parisian manager, was reported to have offered 8,000/. 

 a year for it. But it turned out a fanfaronade ; for, on his being applied to, 

 to put the offer on paper, it was discovered, that, " in his education, writing 

 had been neglected." 



Mathews and Yates have been coimteracting the gloomy weather through 

 a large range of country. But the farmers are so busy drying their crops, 

 the merchants so busy speculating on an importation of corn from the Baltic, 



