544 Theatrical Matters. [Nov. 



they amounted to embodying the vision of the murdered Tybalts, her 

 sinking on the ground, yet following with a fixed eye and gesture the 

 fearful object of her fancy, were excellent. The action is common to 

 the stage, but it could not have been more finely executed. 



The close of the play is contemptible in point of authorship, and is 

 a mere temptation to rant in the actor. It is with us a full answer to 

 the notion of the dead walking, that Shakspeare's ghost has never 

 marched across the stage on some crowded night, and vindicated his 

 own fame by tearing the book out of the prompter's hand, and pulling 

 Romeo's nose. The whose scene is, as is well known, a vulgar interpo- 

 lation ; and to Shakspeare an act of sacrilege. But this young actress 

 had the happy art of subduing the rant while she increased the pathos, and 

 making the audience weep without any of the usual sacrifice of Romeo's 

 shirt and cravat, or the most frightful imitation of an epileptic fit in her 

 own pretty person. 



The exterior of a young tragedian is of some importance. We cannot 

 discover in Miss Kemble the transcendant beauty which the critics dis- 

 covered at the first moment, through the foci of so many hundred opera 

 glasses. Her features strongly resemble those of her mother, and 

 are, of course, intelligent. Her figure is undersized and slight, but 

 decidedly graceful ; but the quality of her voice is Siddonian : praise 

 cannot go further ; it still wants maturity, and it sometimes is suf- 

 fered to sink much too low for the necessary effect of the stage ; but it 

 is soft, sweet, and clear, and requires only practice to be capable of 

 every inflection of feeling and genius. Abbott's Romeo has been very 

 well received. He is an old favourite, not more for his public per- 

 formance than for his personal character. We are glad to see him 

 restored to the London stage, and to see powers, of whose versatility 

 the public was not sufficiently aware, suffered at length to display them- 

 selves. In addition to his ability in the Romeos and young lovers and 

 heroes of tragedy, parts that must now exclusively fall to him, he is 

 an excellent and easy farceur, spirited without violence, and humorous 

 without vulgarity. 



Charles Kemble's Mercutio was one of the novelties. This able actor 

 has long been desirous of playing it, and the choice was cleverly justi- 

 fied. His JMercutio is a vigorous representation. But we altogether 

 disapprove of the attempts made by some of the critics to depi'eciate 

 the weU-established skill of Jones in the part. The striking pecu- 

 liarity of Shakspeare's character, is that extraordinary substantiality 

 which will allow to be looked at all round and in a dozen different as- 

 pects, yet all equally real. There are portions of Mercutio's dialogue 

 which completely sui t any colour of coxcombry that an actor may adopt. 

 Jones's Mercutio is a coxcomb in the old sense of the word ; a man of 

 oddity, saying and doing every thing that comes uppermost, recherche 

 in his dress, fantastic in his language, and eccentric in his actions. But 

 under this whim, lives a keen insight into human nature, and a bold 

 heart. His indignation at Tybalt's superciliousness is the gallantry of 

 a soldier, and his few words after he receives his mortal wound, amus- 

 ing as they are, have a strange combination of habitual extravagance 

 and natural feeling. We always looked upon Jones's ]\lercutio as an 

 excellent picture of this pleasantest of '• humorous gentlemen," and we 

 so look upon it still. 



But there are portions of the character which might be thrown into 



