The pantomime,' with Mr. Grimaldi, soon brought all to rights, and the audience drank in oblivion of all their grievances with the first tones of their old friend Joe's voice, for which indeed he might be supposed to have a patent. This great man (we really think him the greatest man we saw at the theatre last night) will not "die and leave the world no copy," as Shakespeare has it, for his son is as like him in person as two peas. The new pantomime itself, or The Beggar of Bethnal Green, is not a very good one. It has a clever dog and a rope-dancing monkey in it. The degeneracy of the modern stage threatens to be shortly redeemed by accomplished recruits from the four-footed creation. The monkey was hissed and encored, but this is the fate of all upstart candidates for popular applause, and we hope that Monsieur will console himself for this partial ill-will and prejudice manifested against him, by the reflection that envy is the shadow of merit.-Miss F. Dennett was the Columbine, and played very prettily as the daughter of the Blind Beggar. But who shall describe the pas de trois by the three Miss Dennetts, "ever charming, ever new," ,"2 and yet just the same as when we saw them before, and as we always wish to see them? If they were at all different from what they are, or from one another, it would be for the worse. The charm is in seeing the same grace, the same looks, the same motions, in three persons. They are a lovely reflection of one another. The colours in the rainbow are not more soft and harmonious; the image of the halcyon reflected on the azure bosom of the smiling ocean is not more soft and delightful.

Harlequin and the Sylph of the Oak; or, The Blind Beggar of Bethnal Green, by Farley, was produced December 26 and repeated nightly. Grimaldi was clown, and his son an attendant on harlequin ; Miss F. Dennett was Bessy.

2 DYER, Grongar Hill, 1. 103.

JANE SHORE.

Drury-Lane, January 5, 1817.

MISS SOMERVILLE, who gave so interesting a promise of a fine tragic actress in the part of Imogine in Bertram, last year,1 appeared the other evening in Alicia in Jane Shore." We do not think Rowe's heroine so well adapted to the display of her powers as that of the modern poet. Miss Somerville is a very delightful sentimental actress, but she makes an indifferent scold. Alicia should be a shrew, and shrilltongued: but Miss Somerville throws a pensive repentant tone over her bitterest imprecations against her rival, and her mode of recitation is one melancholy cadence of the whole voice, silvered over with sweet gleams of sound, like the moonbeams playing on the heaving ocean. When she should grow sharp and virulent, she only becomes more amiable and romantic, and tries in vain to be disagreeable. Though her voice is out of her control, she yet succeeds in putting on a peevish dissatisfied look, which yet has too much of a mournful, sanctified cast. If Mr. Coleridge could write a tragedy for her, we should then see the Muse of the romantic drama exhibited in perfection. The fault of Miss Somerville, in short, is, that her delivery is too mannered, and her action without sufficient variety.

Mr. Bengough, as the Duke of Gloster, was in one or two scenes impressive, in others ridiculous. He has a singular kind of awkward energy and heavy animation about him. He works himself up occasionally to considerable force and spirit; and then, as if frightened at his own efforts, his purpose fails him, and he sinks into an unaccountable vein of 2 January 2, 1817.

May 9, 1816, see p. 206 ante.

faltering insipidity. The great merit of Mr. Kean is his thorough decision and self-possession: he always knows what he means to do, and never flinches from doing it.

[We think the tragedy of Jane Shore, which is founded on the dreadful calamity of hunger, is hardly proper to be represented in these starving times; and it ought to be prohibited by the Lord Chamberlain, on a principle of decorum.

2

Of Mrs. Alsop, who is said to have an engagement at this theatre, we have spoken at the time when she appeared at the other house. Those who have not before witnessed her performance will now probably have an opportunity of seeing her in company with Mrs. Mardyn, and may judge whether the laborious comparison we attempted between her and that lady was well or ill-founded. We see little alteration or improvement in her. Her figure and face are against her; otherwise she is certainly a very spirited little actress, and her voice is excellent. Her singing does not, however, correspond with what you would expect from her speaking tones. It wants volume and clearness. Mrs. Alsop's laugh sometimes puts us a little in mind of her mother; and those parts of the character of Violante in which she succeeded best were the most joyous and exulting ones her expression of distress is truly distressing. Miss Kelly played Flora; and it was the only time we ever saw her fail. She seemed to be playing tricks with the chambermaid: now those kind of people are as much in earnest in their absurdities as any other class of people in the world, and the great beauty of Miss Kelly's acting in all other instances is, that it is more in downright earnest than

3

1 Mrs. Alsop made her first appearance at Drury Lane as Violante in The Wonder, January 3, 1817.

2 See article in The Examiner of November 12, 1815, reprinted in Appendix, p. 341.

3 Mrs. Jordan; see ante, pp. 117-8.

any other acting in the world. We hope she does not think of growing fantastical and operatic.

The new pantomime' is very poor.]

MR. KEAN'S OROONOKO.

[Drury Lane, January 26, 1817.

SOUTHERN's tragedy of Oroonoko, which has not been acted, we believe, for some years, has been brought forward here to introduce Mr. Kean as the Royal Slave. It was well thought of. We consider it as one of his best parts. It is also a proof to us of what we have always been disposed to think, that Mr. Kean, when he fully gives up his mind to it, is as great in pure pathos as in energy of action or discrimination of character. In general he inclines to the violent and muscular expression of passion, rather than to that of its deep, involuntary, heart-felt workings. If he does this upon any theory of the former style of expression being more striking, and calculated to produce an immediate effect, we think the success of his Richard II3 and of this play alone (not to mention innumerable fine passages in his other performances), might convince him of the perfect safety with which he may trust himself in the hands of the audience, whenever he chooses to indulge in "the melting mood." We conceive that the range of his powers is greater in this respect than he has yet ventured to display, and that, if the taste of the Town is not yet ripe for the change, he has

3

1 Harlequin Horner; or, The Christmas Pie, by James Byrne. Produced December 26.

2 Oroonoko, as altered by Dr. Hawkesworth (1759), was revived at Drury Lane January 20, 1817. P. Cooke was Hotman; Bengough, the Lieutenant-Governor; and Smith, Captain Driver.

3 See ante, p. 69.

genius enough to lead it, wherever truth and nature point the way.

His performance of Oroonoko was for the most part decidedly of a mild and sustained character; yet it was highly impressive throughout, and most so where it partook least of violence or effort. The strokes of passion which came unlooked for and seemed to take the actor by surprise, were those that took the audience by surprise, and only found relief in tears. Of this kind was the passage in which, after having been harrowed up to the last degree of agony and apprehension at the supposed dishonourable treatment of his wife, and being re-assured on that point, he falls upon her neck with sobs of joy and broken laughter, saying, "I knew they could not," or words to that effect. The first meeting between him and Imoinda was also very affecting;' and the transition to tenderness and love in it was even finer than the expression of breathless eagerness and surprise. There were many other passages in which the feelings, conveyed by the actor, seemed to gush from his heart, as if its inmost veins had been laid open. In a word, Mr. Kean gave to the part that glowing and impetuous, and at the same time deep and full expression, which belongs to the character of that burning zone, which ripens the souls of men, as well as the fruits of the earth! The most striking part in the whole performance was in the uttering of a single word.

Oroonoko, in consequence of his gentle treatment, and the flattering promises that are held out to him of safe conduct to his own country, of the restoration of his liberty and his beloved Imoinda, thinks well of the persons into whose hands he has fallen; and it is in vain that Aboan (Mr. Rae) tries to work him up to suspicion and revenge by general descriptions of the sufferings of his countrymen, or of the cruelty and treachery of their white masters: but at the suggestion of the thought that, if they remain where they 1 Oroonoko, II, iii.