THE THEATRES.

SIIAKSPEARE'S Theatre—of course we can only mean Covent Garden iscarrying away time palm of merit and the reward of success from all competitors. The Tonpest is now added to the catalogue of tri- =pliant revivals ; and while the manager who announced that the plays of England's greatest poet had ceased to "draw houses," is pro- ducing his foreign and nonde.ciipt inanities to weary half-audiences, the (h isle and splendid representations of our own romantic drains—rich in poetry, in striking and true delineations of life and character, in maxims of heaven-burn wisdom, and gems of eloquence familiarized into household words — bring crowds, hold them entranced, and send them home delighted.

The Tempest, as produced by Macacaey, is almost a new play to such as are tamiliar with it only in the spurious version of the stage. Next to King Lear, the Tempest has been the most scurvily used ; for, not to speak affectedly of proper reverence for the integrity of SHAESPEARE'S text, the interpolations of the commonly-received ver- sion distort the symmetry of the ph it. and encumber the drama with impertinent persons. The introduction of Dorinda, the double of Miranda, and Hyppolito, who has never seen a woman, could not have lawn better contrived had the object been to vulgarize the beautiful idea of a maiden who had never beheld any man but her father. Two lines will serve as a memento of the pour trash thus foisted upon us as an improvement on SmmAKsi'EameE- JJ,i4a. 11w do you tint yourself? HeF/ma,. suanexliat sow The picturesqueness of SHAKSPEARE'S imagination, and his consum. mate art in blending the real with the supernatural, are in no play more conspicuous than in the Tempest a deep human interest runs through every scene, bearing on its current the fantastic shapes of a fairy world. Prospero is more than magian; yet his eommunings with Arid, and his power over the elements and the spirit of the enchanted isle, do not appear inconsistent with his mortal character. The strange sounds and visions might be adumbrations of the fancies of shipwrecked men, thrown on a desert shore, suffering from grief, remorse, and the grosser pangs of hunger. How finely the dramatic interest is toned down to harmonize with the shadowy and etherial character of the marvels ! The story involves strong passions and violent deeds ; yet the evil is kept remote, and all that is good and beautiful brought promi- nently forward. Prospero's sense of injury at his usurping brother's hands, has become subdued by time and philosophy ; as the bitterness of the wrong was palliated by the kindness:of the noble Neapolitan Gonzalo, who, as Prospero tells Miranda,

" K now•in; lovi d my books, did curnisblime From my own library with volumes that I prized above my dukedom."

What a clue to the meditative character of Prospero !—The heart of the man has been softened and enlarged even in his savage solitude, by the converse of his daughter. There is no one drowned in the wreck : the apprehended loss by the King of his son, and by Ferdinand of his royal father, is but a trial of their affections—a lesson of humanity : and the frustration of the murderous purpose of the bad brother and his base minion, is like the interposition of an overruling power, to make Prospero's mercy to them not impossible without an outrage against poetical justice. Ferdinand and Miranda are a pair of lovers in whom the flame of passion burns as; pure and holy as ever it did -on the altar of the human breast : the delicate frankness of con aiding affection in the offer of Miranda to be the wife of Ferdinand, realizes the innocence of Eden. Arid, the mischievous sprite, liber- ated from torture, assumes a shape of beauty, becomes a messenger of goodness, and " does his spiriting gently," making the air vocal with melodious mirth. Even the bagaiorn monster, Cabbie), is so-far huma- nized, that it is only the debased part of his nature rebelling against re- straint which causes him totment. All is attuned to the harmony of love and benevolence.

In this play there is little occasion to call forth the powers of the actors : Caliban excepted. all that is rt quired of them is not to mar the beautiful poetry. 3ISCIteanY's Pres:per° has nothing of the vul- gar necromancer, but much of the philosopher and the father : the moral dignity and goodness of the character showed nobler than the robes either of the magician or the duke. Ile speaks the famous passage—" The cloud-capped towers, the gorgeous palaces "—a hose solemn grandeur is not a whit lessened, hackneyed as it has been —not in the pompous tone of an elocutionist, but as if the reflection arose spontaneously to his mind at the disappearance of the vision. This is true histrionic eloquence. Miss HELEN Farcer and Mr. ANDERSON are at least gmeeful Us Miranda and Ferdinand; and the King, the intrusive Duke, and the courtiers, are adequately represented. Miss P. Howtoses Arid is a very delightful and fairy-like persona- tion : her green weeds, ss ith a wreath of coral, bescem the sea-sprite : she glides through the air, upborne by her filmy pinions, as if that were her proper element, tripping it on the ground like one unused to a solid footing : she is arch and joyous, with an air alternately pert and bold, or shrinking and obeisant, as occasion requires. 0. BENNETT is a very effective stage Wilma ; but to reulize the demi-dxmon savage, demands a genius in his way : had his performance been all of a piece with his look and the manlier of his first appearance at the mouth of the cavern, it would have been excellent. HARLEY and BART- LEY, as Trincalo and Stephan°, are comical, each according to his petal- liarmanner.

The scenery is designed in good taste, and extremely well managed ; though no resources are displayed beyond what the public are familiar with at this thetere. The first scene, showing the dispersion ofthe fleet, and the wreck of the vessel containing the King, is striking: but had the opening scene of the play (which was left out) been enacted, the stage representing the deck of the vessel, the triumph of the machinist and the realization of SHAKSPEARE would have been more complete. A scene of the valley of diamonds, from Sinbad, is introduced, and serves the purpose of a view of the Enchanted Isle well enough, being in keeping with the rocky barrenness of an island of volcanic origin, which is the character given to it by the scene. painter, and suggested by the poet. The masque has scarcely splendour and space enough for the capo &opera of Prospero's art. On the whole, however, the spec. taele is excellent its poetical character is well sustained throughout. What the original music of this drama was, it were vain now to in. quire ; for the same fate has attended it as all the other music originally connected with SHAKSPEARE'S plays. Music of some kind must always have accompanied the performance of the Tempest ; but, at a period when there was no theatrical orchestra, the only instruments being a few of the noisiest kind placed in a box by the side of the stage, any com- bination of voices and instruments was impracticable and unattempted. The earliest adaptation of any part of the Tempest to music, that we are acquainted with, is Ariel's song, " Where the bee sucks," by Dr. Witsoe ; and the existence of this composition may, perhaps, account for Ponces'. not having reset it. After the Restoration, a few, and but a few, of SHAKSPEARE'S ;dusts were revived, but revived with alter- ations. They were regarded as obsolete, and unsuited to the language and taste of the times. To SHADWELL first, and afterwards to DRYDEN, was allotted the task of adopting SHAKSPEAllE'S Tempest to the stage. The first alteration was soon forgotten in the superior attraction of the second ; for DRYDEN called to his assistance the aid of Puncess, and (as in the case of LOCKE'S music in Macbeth ) the excellence of the music has sanctioned for nearly two centuries DRYDEN'S alterations and additions. Many and various have been the revivals and changes of the Tempest ; but, until now, DRYDEN'S play has been preserved and preferred to that of SHAKSPEARE for the sake of PURCELL'S music. In the preface to his Albion and Albanius, DRYDEN has at great length propounded his views of the construction of ten opera ; which, in fact, were precisely those of the contemporary Italian school of dramatic composition. He says expressly, that " having invented this species of entertainment," (he assumes this as a fact,) "they were privileged to give to themselves and to other nations the laws by which it should be governed." His premises and his conclusion are equally disputable; but, having adopted this principle, he proceeded to act upon it, as far as was practicable, in his additions to such parts of the Tempest as were intended for music. The added singing characters were chiefly " dmmons or divinities:" a troop of evil spirits was introduced, headed by Rapine, Murder, and Fraud ; and to the characters of the original masque were added Eolue, Neptune, and Amphitrite. Here was

abundant scope for the exercise of PURCELL'S genius, and admirable use be made of it. There is no opera of the same date, of any country, that.eisplays such an effective employment of the agency of music in .dramatic representation (his own King Arthur excepted) as PURCELL'S Tempest.

But the restoration of SHAKSPEARE'S text has deprived the play of the .greater part of its musical attraction. Had it not been for the weak state of MACREADY'S vocal corps, we should have regretted this. Under existing circumstances, perhaps it was best as it was : yet much pot only may be added, but must be added to SHAKSPEARE'S Tempest, In order to carry out his own intentions. Music is the spirit of en. chantment that pervades his island; which is

--- full of noises,

Sounds and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not."

Arid l comes and goes with music. Ferdinand is directed in his ap- proach to Miranda by " This music, which crept by him on the waters,

Allaying both their fury and his passion

With its sweet air."

The masque in the fifth act is introduced, interspersed, and conclude4 with music. It is not, therefore, by merely adapting music to

SPE. ARE'S words, that his intentions as to its agency can be carried out.

His perception of the extent to which music might be employed, was rather poetical and prospective than the result of experience. His stage directions point to instrumental effects, which in his time could have existed only in his own imagination ; such as " soft music "—" a strange, hollow, and confused noise "--" solemn and strange music," and the like. These are all hints to a composer, not of his own, but of a future age : for even the instrumental power which PURCELL had at command, eighty years after the first introduction of the Tempest on the stage, was wholly unequel to the realization of SHAKSPEARE'S in- tention : and PURCELL probably felt it to be so, for his score contains less of instrumental music than Dh clesian, and what he wrote was merely the aceonipaniment to the indict—" u deuce of winds," and " a

dance of spirits." It is clear, therefore, that SHAKSPEARE intended music to form a promineet feature in the representation of the Tempest ; ai.e1 equally clear is the. reason why it did not and could not either in hums own time or that of PURCF.LL. Btlt why not since? Various, as we have said, have been the revivals of the Tempest. ARNE added some songs to it ; as did SMITH, when it was revived by Ganerce in 1756 ; LINLEY, too, made some additions ; but these were all vocal. tune of these composers, though eminent in their way, were equal to the task of filling up the Sled:sped:in oteline : their knowledge of the power and application of instruments was not beyond the measure of their age, and would now be termed scanty. In 1790, KLMBLE revived the Tempest ; but, caring little alma the. linei!eal part of the play, and knowing less, he left it as lie found it. It was afterwards produced at Covent Garden ; when Dsvv took a good deal of pains in. getting it up, writing a new overture, founded on the prominent airs of the piece, and new act music : but DAVY'S score contains no melodramatic music, and probably none was written. Thus it has happened that SHAKSPEARE'S intentions have yet to be realized. The scene-painter and the niathink stecomplished all on Saturday tight that could be wished or desired, but the work is yet incomp!ete- that of the musician is baldly begun. COOKE had a glimpse of the stole but no more. Where the author directed "soft music," we had a few common chords from the wind instruments, and so on,—some- thing after the manner of the Castle Spare, when the ghost rises to Jomesses " Chaconne." But Stine-set:site deinands much more than this—be demands the coliperation of a need standing as to music where he stood as to the drama. We require, it may be said, an impossibility. Perhaps we do ; but the requisition is not the less imperative if the author's intentions are to be realized. As it would be an achievement worthy the highest musical genius, by such a one only could it be accomplished. It will be effected one day or other, and SHAKSPEAlle can afford to wait.

The little that remained to us of PURCELL in the present repre- sentation, was a sufficient evidence of his extraordinaty power as a dramatic writer ; and it was beautifully performed. A better singer than Miss P. HORTON might have been found, but not a better Ariel. The greatest musical failure was the masque. The materials here are sich and ample, capable of being moulded at the musician's will, to a more splendid and varied display of his art. This " majestic vision" ought to be what Feidinand styles it, "harmoniously charming: " but it was any thing else—a beautiiul scenic display, interspersed with some very dull music. Our conviction is that music was designed to be the chief element of the masque, or Ferdinand's emphatic epithet would else be inappropriate. It is all written in met:Aired rhyme, and so contrived as tar be capable of being broken into song and chorus, or laid out with every power of variety and relief. These golden oppor- tunities, which SHAKSPEARE has cast at the musician's feet, and en- joined him to use, no one has yet stooped to gather.

We expected that 11ACREADY'S reverence for the text of SHAK. sreeste would have occasioned his rejection of' all "baser matter," even though that matter were DRYDEN'S ; but his adherence to his author was not rigid. The song of " 0 bid your fdthful Arid l fly," was in- troduced in order to give Miss P. Hoaroe the opportunity of singing !ARLEY'S pretty melody; and PURCELL'S scene, " Where does the black fiend of ambition reside?" was also interpolated, but out of its place, curtailed and smothered with the various stage noises which the prompter hi s at command. Having thus %iolated the integrity of the original too, there was no plea (except that at which we formerly

hinted) for the exclusion of nearly all PURCELL'S music. Perhaps the selection was made with reference to the musical capacity of the corn- puny; and, thus regarded, was made wisely. This is the only excuse for the omission of' " Arise, ye subterranean winds," " Halcyon days," " Come down, ye blusterers," and the choruses "Around we pace," and "the Nereids and Tritons;" all of which were stock pieces at the Ancient Concerts in the days of their reputation. MACREADY is a man of too much good sense to misinterpret the spirit in which these remarks are made; which is any thing but queru- lous. All that was within his own province he has accomplished with surpassing excellence ; but we have been desirous to call his attention to a subject which, though out of his peculiar walk of art, we hold to be perfectly essential to the representation of the Tempest. Perhaps the present generation cannot produce a composer competent to the duty we have pointed out. WEBER was : how completely music can "enwrap and cast a spell upon the senses," he knew—felt—proved. His was the imagination to conceive and the skill to execute what SHAKSPBARE has shadowed out. We must await with patient hope the appearance of a kindred spirit.