tOr threrrs.
At the present day, we cannot afford to be too severe on the deficien- cies of a little comedy, called Caught in a Trap, which has been written by Mr. Hell, formerly principal light comedian of the Haymarket Thea- tre, and was produced at the Princess's, on Saturday last.. The plot is as simple as any old-fashioned tale of love and gallantry that might be found in a collection of Italian novelle, merely showing how a gallant of Seville, contrives, by assuming a disguise, to enter the house of a re- cluse widow of Toledo, whose heart he ensnares, and how the widow, equally astute, prevents him from marrying another lady, by putting on the garb of a duenna, and disseminating reports to his disadvantage. The incidents are trivial and scanty, and the catastrophe is somewhat clumsily brought about, but the dialogue shows more literary ambition than we commonly find in the works of modern English dramatists. The love passages between the fair widow and her adventurous suitor, are at once graceful and impassioned ; and we give no slight praise t:Mr. George Melville and Miss L. Leclercq, when we say, that they did full justice to the author's language. Mr. Melville, whose debut in Hamlet was a mis- take, has lately given promise of becoming a useful actor in a department in which there is the greatest room for promotion—the department of in- teresting young gentlemen. We do not know where we should find a better stage-lover than Mr. Melville makes of himself in Caught in a Trap. The Spanish scenery with which the piece is decorated, is ex- tremely beautiful and characteristic, and it may be declared generally, that, if the piece does not prove greatly successful, the misfortune must be ascribed, not to any sin on the part of the author, the manager, or the actors, but to the dissatisfaction of a modern public with those quieter means of amusement which were found sufficient by their fathers.
Mr. Charles Dillon, the tragedian, once a manager of the Lyceum, has been fulfilling a " star engagement" at Drury Lane.
Miss W'ndham is now the declared directress of the St. James's Theatre, without, however, any encroachment on the lesseeship of Mr. F. B. Chatterton. She has lately had an opportunity of distinguishing herself in a revived drama, called The Border Marriage, in which she makes an excellent figure, as a fascinating virago of the Scottish frontier.
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