Orem out 311noit.
Talfourd for its author. A "willow-pattern" plate is represented on the drop-scene ; and when this is removed, the business of the drama sets forth the history of the persons, the houses, and the junk, depicted on Messrs. Spode and Copeland's primitive work of art. To an auditor thoroughly weary of the beaten track of Christmas recreation, the appear- ance of a new idea is refreshing. Moreover, the dialogue of Mr. Talfourd
is far beyond the usual mark in point of briliancy ; and the Chinese de- corations are in excellent taste.
A revival of the melodrama of Blue-beard at Astley's shows a becoming regard for antiquity, which was probably stimulated by Mr. Batty's possession of two elephants ; though we believe that in the good old times, the elephant in Blue-beard's procession was animated by human beings placed in legs of wicker-work, and a schism that once occurred between the hind and the fore legs has its place in theatrical tradition. Blue-beard belongs to that oldfashioned class of Oriental melodrame of which Aladdin and the Forty Thieves were equally celebrated specimens ; and to modern playgoers it will chiefly be familiar through the medium of Mr. Planche's burlesque, originally produced at the Olympic. Mr. Planche, however, took the turban off Blue-beard's kea4ifor his historical spirit did not allow him to ignore the fact that the maneny wives was not a Turk, hitt a French gentleman.
Among the holyday patrons of the theatres, we hear a pretty general complaint of the extremely late hour at which the pantomimes terminate. A journey from the theatrical metropolis to Hackney, Camberwell, Clap- ham, &c. &c., in the company of three small children, and commencing at one o'clock in the morning, is no trifling matter ; and a consideration of the inconvenience may diminish the number of juvenile visitors. Would not an omission or curtailment of those very long pas-de-deux, in which Harlequin and Columbine emulate the Operahouse, but which really amuse nobody, be a wholesome movement in the early-closing direction?
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