THE ENGLISH THEATRES.
NEITHER the Haymarket nor Covent Garden has brought out any novelty this week : and the only change desired by the benefit-takers at the latter is the occasional substitution of the Midsummer Night's Dream for London Assurance—so popular still are the current perform- ances of several months. Madame VESTRIS, however, by managerial right, revives Mrs. INCHBALD'S comedy, Wives as they Were and Maids as they Are, for her benefit on Monday week. Tonight is the last of MACREADY'S short reengagement at the Haymarket ; during which Werner has been alternated with Money and the Lady of Lyons. CHARLES KEAN and ELLEN TREE appear together on Monday, in Macbeth; and the conjunction of these two stars will doubtless fill the little theatre in the Haymarket, notwithstanding the powerful counter-attraction of the comet RACHEL at the greater house on the other side of the way.
The Minors, however, have not been idle, nor altogether unsuccess- ful in their endeavours to countervail the benign influence of the weather ; albeit to us, hacknied in playgoing, nothing less than the ad- vent of the prodigies elsewhere described seems comparable with the out-door phmnomena of a May-time such as we read of in CHAUCER, and SHARSPERE.
At the New Strand, the audience are amused by a melodramatic medley of the Life in London species, entitled The Rubber of Life, or St. James's and St. Giles's; in three games ; the cards being dealt by the practised hand of Mr. E. STIRLING, and cleverly played by the com- pany. To note all the odd tricks made and the points won, would be to make that appear tedious which is quite the reverse : there is as little of plan and sequence in the scenes and characters that succeed each other in the " Rubber of Life " with the rapidity of cards on the green table, as in a rubber of whist : and the efficacy of the trumps is no less ; Mr. HALL being the Knave, and Mrs. KEELEY the Queen. The tableau of the " Silver Hell, St. James's," and the " Rookery, St. Giles's," are animated and characteristic ; and the meeting of the " Maid - servants - hel p - yourselves-and-don't - mind - your-mississes So- ciety," with Mrs. KEELY for chairwoman, is equal to " The Ladies' Club " in point of fuu. The scene where Mrs. KEELEY, having dressed herself in her mistress's clothes, is made love to by the footman, is a rich bit of farce. Mr. CORRIE as " John Footman," in love with his own calves and despair at his young mistress's marriage, is capital : his comic humour is quietly effective, and never coarse or obtrusive. Mrs. J. SAVILLE, as "the victim" of her husband's villany, acted with such talent and pathos that we long to see her in a character better developed. H. HALL as gambling-house bully, ATTwooD as a Jew bailiff, MAT.. NARD as Major Faulkland, a profligate scoundrel, and SAVILI.E as a " man about town," act very effectively. Mr. and Mrs. SELBY have joined the English Opera company ; and appear together in an ingeniously-constructed vaudeville, adapted from the French by Mr. SELBY, called The Handsel Penny; which their acting and that of Miss PINcorr in the principal characters renders very amusing,—though the finish and lightness of French comedians is wanting to give effect to the minute points of humour.
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