THEATRE
King Henry V. By William Shakespeare. (Old Vie.) LAST year the Bristol Old Vic put the old Old Vic to shame when they came up to the Waterloo Road with Denis Carey's bright production of The Two Gentlemen of Verona. Now they are back again, but with some of the brightness fallen from their air : it is not only over-familiarity with that exercise in patriotism, King Henry V, which leads to a final impression of ordinariness. And yet it is not ordinary either. Who could say that of a production in which Pistol; of all people, fairly outshines the King ? John Neville begins well, it is true, when he claps on his crown, sits on irresolution, and gives his excellent answer to the Dauphin's service of sneers ; but thereafter he seems to find the blunt and bloody rOle uncongenial. If Henry is not the plain man here, he is no more effective than the wooden sword he waves towards the breach. Mr. Neville's Henry thinks altogether too much, and deep thoughts are a dangerous thing for an actor playing such a hero. James Cairncross as Pistol makes ample use of such resonance and volume as Mr. Neville doe% not employ, and by the simple device of staying resolutely inside the character, makes the clown much bigger than the king. An
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