THE THEATRES.
Gmattetes " improvement " on SHAKSPEitE'S Romeo and Juliet was selected by Mr. enemata KEAN as the medium for exhibiting himself to his friends and admirers in a new costume and with a fresh set of sPeclises to rant forth, on the occasion of his benefit; and as the
Manager was at great pains and expense in the getting-up of the tra- gedy, it is to be repeated so long as people are found to come and see it. This may prove longer than might be supposed front the flatness of the performance, and the moderate quantity of applause on the second night : the number of theatrical quidnuncs who must needs see CHARLES KEAN'S Romeo, and of persons who go to see the play without much regard to the acting, is sufficient to fill the Haymarket for a few nights at least in this dull theatrical season.
Romeo and Juliet is one of the plays of SHAIESPERE that suffers most from such representations as we are now accustomed to witness : "fly, soft ideas, fly 1" seems to be the motto of all the Romeos and Juliets of our time. The stage cannot boast of a tolerable lover in comedy, much less for tragedy ; and as for the romance of the characters and the senti- ment of poetry, no one expects to find either embodied now-a-days. Though not among the admirers of Mr. C. KEAN'S style of acting, we were fain to hope that the personal advantages of youth and comely form, and a feeling not wholly indifferent towards his Juliet, might have had their due influence in his assumption of the gallant and tender lover. His appearance walking across the stage at the back of the scene was promising, for he is dressed with becoming elegance ; but his first look and words dispelled the illusion : the leaden tone in which he replied to Benvolio's greeting sounded the knell of the lover's spirit. Mr. KEAN has no lack of vehemence and activity ; but his ardour and impetuosity resemble the fizzing and fussing of a firework, that explodes and leaves an empty case behind. When he enters the garden after o'erperching the wall "with Love's light wings," he coolly takes a seat ; and we almost expected to see him rub his shin by way of suiting the action to the words "He jests at scars that never felt a wound." In apostrophizing Juliet, he waved his cap with an air as though its plume typified the " winged messenger of Heaven," that "sails upon the bosom of the air." He must have fairly startled Miss TREE with the violence of his pro- testations, and such was his empressement that he seemed about to scale the balcony ; but on reentering at Juliet's summons, he stalks in with stern deliberation, uttering in a raven's croak, that belied the simile most ludicrously,
" How silver-sweet sound lovers' tongues at night, Like softest music to attending ears !"
Mr. KEAN'S blank and dreary visage and monotonously hoarse utter- ance threw a funereal gloom over the scene, that Miss TREE'S light comedy accents rendered more lugubrious by contrast. The love-making seemed a restraint upon his physical energies, which burst forth with redoubled fury when there was any fighting to do. The style in which he killed Tybalt would have brought down the Coburg in thunders of applause : so exterminating was his onslaught, that the "butcher of a silk button" had no time for the "minim rest." His assault on the tomb with the crow-bar was equally vigorous ; and he despatched Paris in a most masterly style. In a word, he is a Romeo militant ; laying siege to his lady-love, and waging deadly war against her kinsmen. The melodramatic catastrophe of Ganarch's version gave Mr. KEAN a fine opportunity for displaying his athletic desperation : he brought Juliet from the tomb with the air of a pirate ravisher bearing off his prize from the harem ; and the action with which he accompanied the fustian phrase "fathers have flinty hearts," conveyed an idea of his intention to macadamize the flints for the benefit of posterity.
Miss ELLEN TREE'S Juliet is a strange admixture of sedate, womanly propriety, and theatrical extravagance : we regretted to see her adopt Miss K.EMBLE'S overacting in the scenes with the Nurse, and were dis- appointed to find a deficiency of impassioned tenderness in those with Romeo. All the characters, however, were overdone ; and Mr. Wll.- lames Mercutio, especially, was offensive in its vulgarity. We would willingly except Mr. WEBSTER'S Apothecary, so well had he conceived and dressed the part ; but the Manager's experience of the habitual ob- tuseness of his audiences induced an excess of painstaking that deterio- rated from the art of his personation. Mr. H. Wallach, as Friar Law- rence, was careful to give as little occasion as possible for wishing Mr. PHELPS were in the part ; and upon the whole he succeeded.
The scenery and costumes are handsome and in good taste, bating a superfluity of white fringe in Juliet's bed-furniture: the river view in Verona, and the cloister of Friar Lawrence's cell, are extremely pic- turesque. The street-scene is too crowded with houses to be effective : the throng of combatants and officers not only block up the way, but the proportion of the buildings and figures reminds one of Gulliver in Mr. KEA.N and Miss TREE were called for at the end, according to Custom; but the moral of the compliment was the shout for "Wallack!" whose buffoonery in Mercutio had been such a welcome relief to the triste portion of the performance. Mrs. W. CLIFFORD, who played the Nurse, was more entitled to a call, for she made as much merriment, and gave no offence. MACREADY is playing in Money and the Lady of Lyons, with Miss HELEN FAUCIT, on what are termed the off-nights. No more of Sir LITTON BULIYER'S plays for the Haymarket, since Mr. MACREADY has got Drury ! What has become of the play that SHERIDAN Kziownito was said to have written for CHARLES KEAN to play in ? Is Mr. WEB. STER reserving his comedies and tragedies till his rivals take the field? Names without novelties will not last long ; and no time is like the present.
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