THE ANGLADE FAMILY.

[Drury Lane] February 4, 1816.

THE well-known collection of French trials, under the title of Causes Célèbres,' has served as the ground-work of a new piece, brought out on Thursday at Drury-Lane Theatre, called Accusation, or The Anglade Family. The old historical materials are rather scanty, consisting only of a narrative of a robbery committed on a nobleman by some members of his own household, for which a M. d'Anglade, who with his family occupied part of the same hotel, was condemned on false evidence to the galleys, where grief and mortification put a period to his life before his innocence was discovered. On this foundation an interesting drama has been raised by the French author. M. Valmore is introduced as a lover of Madame d'Anglade, who rejects his unlawful passion. In revenge, he agrees with a worthless valet to rob his aunt, who resides under the same roof with the family of M. d'Anglade, in whose hands part of the stolen property (consisting of bank-notes—a trifling anachronism) is treacherously deposited by an accomplice of Hubert, Valmore's servant, under pretence of paying for jewels which d'Anglade is compelled to dispose of to satisfy the demands made upon him by a relation who was supposed to have been dead, and whose estate he had inherited. He is seized under strong circumstances of suspicion by the police, and conveyed to prison; but the agents of Valmore are detected in stealing away with part of the property from the place where it had been secreted: they are stopped

1 Recueil des Causes Célèbres, rédigé par Maurice Méjan. 21 vols. '1808-14.

2 Accusation; or, The Family of Anglade, by J. H. Payne, was produced February 1.

separately by the domestics of the injured person-each is made to believe that his accomplice has betrayed him—and on the manifestation of d'Anglade's innocence and of his own guilt, Valmore, unable to escape the pursuit of the officers of justice, puts an end to his existence with a pistol, in a summer-house in which he has in vain tried to conceal himself.

The interest excited is much of the same kind as in The Maid and the Magpye:1 and we think the piece will be almost as great a favourite with the public. There is a great deal of ingenuity shown in the development of the plot; the scenic effect is often beautiful, and the situations have real pathos.

The acting was upon the whole excellent. Miss Kelly, as the wife of the unfortunate d'Anglade, gave a high degree of interest to the story. She was only less delightful in this character than in that of the Maid of Palaiseau, because she has less to do in it. Mr. Rae 2 was the hero of the present drama, and he acquitted himself in it with considerable applause. We never saw Mr. Bartley to so much advantage as in the rough, honest character of the relation of d'Anglade (we forget the name), who comes to claim restitution of his fortune, to try the integrity of his old friend, but who generously offers him his assistance as soon as he finds him plunged in distress. Mr. Wallack was Valmore, and there was a scene of really fine acting between him and Mrs. Glover (the Countess of Cerval, his aunt), where she tries to probe the guilty conscience of her nephew, and to induce him to release d'Anglade from his dangerous situation, by a confession of the treachery of which he has been made the victim. Mr. S. Penley played the part of the unprincipled valet very unexceptionably, and Mr. Barnard made an ad

1 See ante, p. 105.

2 Rae was d'Anglade; Bartley, Léon de Valency; Powell, Bertrand; Knight, Marcel (the gardener); S. Penley, Hubert; and Barnard, Fourbin.

mirable accomplice, in the character of a strolling Italian musician. Knight, as the raw country lad by whose means the plot is chiefly discovered, was as natural as he always is in such characters. He perhaps has got too much of a habit of expressing his joy by running up and down the stage with his arms spread out like a pair of wings. Mr. Powell, as the faithful old servant of the Anglade family, was highly respectable. One sentiment in the play, "The woman who follows her husband to a prison, to share or to alleviate his misfortunes, is an ornament to her sex, and an honour to human nature,” was highly applauded—we do not know for what particular reason.1

2

Covent-Garden.

THE same drama has been abridged and brought out here as an after-piece. We cannot speak highly of the alteration. The sentimental French romance is cut down into an English farce, in which both the interest of the story and the naïveté of the characters are lost. The two characters of the valet and the Italian stroller are confounded in the same person, and played by Mathews, who is death to the pathetic! Charles Kemble played the Count d'Anglade in a very gentlemanly manner. Farley was the most turbulent valet we have ever seen.

1 It was about this time that Madame Lavalette assisted her husband to escape from prison.-[W. H.]. Madame Lavalette enabled her husband to escape from the Conciergerie prison, December 20, 1815, by exchanging clothes with him.—[ED.]

2 The version used at Covent Garden was called The Portfolio; or, The Family of Anglade. It was by James Kenney, and was produced on February 1. Mathews was La Ruse (the Hubert of Drury Lane), and Farley was Berthold (Bertrand).

MEASURE FOR MEASURE.

[Covent-Garden] February 11, 1816.

1

IN the Lectures on Dramatic Literature by William Schlegel, the German translator of Shakespeare, is the following criticism on Measure for Measure, which has been just acted at Covent-Garden Theatre: "In Measure for Measure, Shakespeare was compelled, by the nature of the subject, to make his poetry more familiar with criminal justice than is usual with him. All kinds of proceedings connected with the subject, all sorts of active or passive persons, pass in review before us; the hypocritical Lord-Deputy, the compassionate Provost, and the hard-hearted Hangman; a young man of quality who is to suffer for the seduction of his mistress before marriage, loose wretches brought in by the police, nay, even a hardened criminal whom the preparations for his execution cannot awake out of his callousness. But yet, notwithstanding this convincing truth, how tenderly and mildly the whole is treated! The piece takes improperly its name from the punishment: the sense of the whole is properly the triumph of mercy over strict justice, no man being himself so secure from errors as to be entitled to deal it out among his equals. The most beautiful ornament of the composition is the character of Isabella, who, in the intention of taking the veil, allows herself to be prevailed. on by pious love again to tread the perplexing ways of the world, while the heavenly purity of her mind is not even stained with one unholy thought by the general corruption. In the humble robes of the novice of a nunnery, she is a true angel of light. When the cold and hitherto unsullied Angelo, whom the Duke has commissioned to restrain the

1 Revived February 8.

excess of dissolute immorality by a rigid administration of the laws during his pretended absence, is even himself tempted by the virgin charms of Isabella, as she supplicates for her brother Claudio .; when he first insinuates, in timid and obscure language, but at last impudently declares his readiness to grant the life of Claudio for the sacrifice of her honour; when Isabella repulses him with a noble contempt; when she relates what has happened to her brother, and the latter at first applauds her, but at length, overpowered by the dread of death, wishes to persuade her to consent to her dishonour; in these masterly scenes Shakespeare has sounded the depth of the human heart. The interest here reposes altogether on the action, curiosity constitutes no part of our delight; for the Duke, in the disguise of a monk, is always present to watch over his dangerous representatives, and to avert every evil which could possibly be apprehended: we look here with confidence to the solemn decision. The Duke acts the part of the Monk naturally, even to deception; he unites in his person the wisdom of the priest and the prince. His wisdom is merely too fond of roundabout ways; his vanity is flattered with acting invisibly like an earthly providence; he is more entertained with overhearing his subjects than governing them in the customary manner. As he at last extends pardon to all the guilty, we do not see how his original purpose of restoring the strictness of the laws by committing the execution of them to other hands, has been in any wise accomplished. The poet might have had this irony in view that of the numberless slanders of the Duke, told him by the petulant Lucio, without knowing the person to whom he spoke, what regarded his singularities and whims was not wholly without foundation.

"It is deserving of remark, that Shakespeare, amidst the rancour of religious parties, takes a delight in painting the condition of a monk, and always represents his influence as beneficial. We find in him none of the black and knavish