There is one note she strikes invariably with truth and
effect—that In the gentle Desdemona she might be seen with pleasure ; of gentle remonstrance—of affectionate upbraiding; whose sweet- although in Cordelia, the innocent and affectionate, who for an tress converts even reproach into a sound of gladness welcome to a instant or two is seen in that troubled drama like a dove gleaming lovers ear. " Parle, pule, encore !" he might exclaim like poor momentarily among thunder-clouds, it is true she gave little satis- Valerie, " j'ai besoin de Ventendre." But Miss Kelly must set herself faction. But the fault was Tate's, who has put rant and verbiage to form a just and rigorous estimate of her own strength ; and like into Cordelia's mouth ; for which sacrilege, it is to be hoped, the singers of inadequate organs, learn to husband her powers and use audacious botcher is every instant pricked to death below with the them to the most advantage. For the exhibition of characters of pen with which the deformed Lear—" Demens ! qui nimbos et non high ton and brilliant intrepidity, she wants ease, assurance, spright- liness, vigour, and spirits. She will never astonish, dazzle, or be- witch ; but she may warm the heart with a softer flame, and conci- POINTS OF HORROR !! ! ! Bate by the expression of purity and tenderness. OR, THE PICTURESQUE OF CORDER'S CASE. There are two characters, drawn by two experienced hands, of WE have already animadverted upon the taste for murder two stage heroines, one ancient, the other modern, to which the at- in the enlightened public of Great Britain. It is so extrava- tention of Miss Kelly is solicited ; as offering, the first, a species gently eager, that murderers will come to be held in the of excellence which, by cultivating her genius and exercising her light of public benefactors. An occasional bloody deed puts the judgment, she may hope to approach ; the latter presenting an reading world on the qui viva, and keeps the intellectual water eminence high above her reach, towards which she will no?suc- of the country from growing stagnant. Will any one deny that the moment, amid the free allusions and sometimes licentious expressions of artists, and historians in small, during the week days ; and on the his dialogue. The eye sparkled with intelligence, but it was a chaste and Sunday, has chased away the ennui of the operatives far more purified beam, from a mind unsullied though sportive. Her levity was effectuall than the accustomed restoratives of either drinking or y never wanton ; her mirth had no approach to rudeness... From her early driving. No ; it is clear we should never get through the cares habit of acting in tragedy, she had drawn enough to give to the occasional of existence without a good supply of crime ; our cases of police pathos of comedy a charm of infinite value. The reproach of her Julia, in the Rivals, to Falkland, was extremely affecting ; and few scenes drew prevent us from being nationally that dullest of things and greatest of monsters, a perfect character. We could not live without those
more tears than the sensibility she discovered in the return of Lady
Townley to the use of her heart and her understanding." little blemishes of rape and murder—spots upon our reputation, Well said, Mr. Boaden ! " Si sic omnia" . . . he might have which seem to add to the number of our attractions, like the wen snapped his fingers at the critics . .. " gladios contemnere potuit." upon poor Maria Marten's neck, which her first lover, the son of " Though I doubt," writes admirable Colley Cibber of Mrs. Mountfort, the lady of the manor, described with such exactness. as Melantha, in Marriage a-la-Mode; " it will be vain to offer you a just The historian of the loves and fates of William Corder and likeness of her action ; yet the fantastic impression is still so strong in my memory, that I cannot help saying something, though fantastically, Maria Marten describes the " crowds that flocked from all quarters about it. The first airs that break from her are upon a gallant never seen :" before, who delivers her a letter from her father, recommending him to almost torn in pieces by the multitude, eager to rush in to behold her good graces as an honourable lover. Here now one would think she the wild and singular aspect of the open grave." We know not might naturally show a little of the sex's decent reserve, though never whether most to admire the ready sympathy of the people with so slightly covered. No, Sir; not a tittle of it: modesty is the virtue of injustice, or their intense love of the strong emotions excited by
a poor-souled country gentlewoman ; she is too much a court lady to be
under so vulgar a confusion : she reads the letter therefore with a care- the actual witnessing of the scene of blood. That the eagerness less, dropping lip, and erected brow, humming it hastily over as if she springs from the latter rather than the former, is clear from the were impatient to outgo her father's commands by making a complete wild zeal which has been shown to gain possession of every thing conquest of him at once ; and that the letter might not embarrass her which could bring the crime most readily and most forcibly to attack, crack ! she crumbles it at once into her palm, and pours upon him mind. The Sheriff has declared that he would not take a hun- her whole artillery of airs, eyes, and motion ; down goes her dainty diving body to the ground, as if she were sinking under the conscious load dred guineas for the murderer's pistols ; the "fatal cord " has been of her own attractions ; then launches into a flood of fine language and Compliment, still playing her chest forward in fifty fiats and risings, like which were dug from the grave, and which had been wrapped a swan upon waving water ; and to complete her impertinence, she is round the corrupting remains of the poor girl, will all be col- so rapidly fond of her own wit that she will not give her lover leave to lected as precious relics—it is true, the effluvium arising from praise it ; silent assenting bows, and vain endeavours to speak, are all the share of the conversation he is admitted to, which at last he is re- lieved from, by her engagement to half a score visits, which she swims odour will be precious in the nostrils of the curious. What a from him to make, with a promise to return in a twinkling." scene would the invention of Hogarth have suggested from the Akin to the unrivalled talent of this actress, or rivalled only by auction of the halter, selling " by the inch," among the eager the, descriptive talent that enables us to see her at the distance of bidders ! What a moral would the body of Corder have thrown a century and a half, must be that of her who would shine in the over it, lying on the anatomical board, in the Shire-hall, with the Widow Belmoure and Hippolitas, which Miss Kelly has unac- crucial operation distinct upon his breast ! Mr. Orridge, the con- countably assumed, or allowed to be forced on her acceptance. troversial gaoler, who, by his clinching arguments, made a deeper Let her eschew their acquaintance forthwith. To make aught of impression upon the prisoner than the whole strength of the Church, them; they demand a gaiety and versatility she cannot command. should not be forgotten in so characteristic a group.t He might Let her trust to her sensibility, and to the union of pathos and be represented as putting in the officer's claim upon the murderous pleasantry of which she has given indications. instrument ; which, however, the Sheriff persisted in retaining, It may be, indeed, that the necessity or the ambition of acting as the only return he should get for his shrievalty. If the public all sorts of parts is fraught with its advantages. "It prevents," will have Sunday papers adorned with pictures, let them aim at as Sir W. Scott remarks with some plausibility, "the ideas and gratifying something better than a morbid curiosity. And now that exertions of a young performer from being too much narrowed by the idea has occurred to us, shall we not enlist the Hogarth of our a single cast of characters ; and may operate in that respect like day, the inimitable CauflesiiisNis, to illustrate our notions of the the care taken by professors of gymnastics to cause their pupils picturesque ? Here is the ready work of his genius ; and time to bring into play, successively, exertions of a kind appropriate to each." But this discipline, alone has been wanting to do justice to his conception. the different sets of muscles, by if beneficial at any time, can be so only at a very early period of e Knight and Lacey's version. the profession, for the purpose of trying in which set or sets of fession, in procuring the instruments of recording it, is amusing as well as praise- d Mr. Orridge's alacrity when he had brought the prisoner to the point of con- sfiuseles, to prolong the metaphor, the actor's greatest forte lies; sic. &e."—See Orridge's Statement. HAYMARKET THEATRE—HUMBLE ADVICE TO AN ACTRESS that he may not expend his strength and spirits on such as are . OF MERIT. incapable of improvement, but confine himself to the exercise of THERE is but little now-a-nights to reward 'a constant visitor Of the those which Will enable him to shine in particular feats of strength, theatre. Novelty, perhaps, in this old world, is what we have no and to arrive at a higher though more confined excellence. title to expect ; but even the once noted and familiar characters of Miss Kelly has no time to lose ; she has been long before the the drama are absentees from the stage ; and every attempt to bring public ; and if she makes not haste to discover and manifest her them back and restore them to their proper sphere is, in nine cases forte, impatient people will begin to think it lies—nowhere.
imitabile fulmen ...."
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