TILE TlIEATRE S.
PowEn returned just in time to enliven the dulnesc of the week before Christmas. and to fill to overflowing the measure of merriment in the holyday-time. The Haymarket dispenses with Harlequin and clown in et an-equence : Pow En and Ibn would be a surfeit for the greatest glutton of laughter. The theatre had t een rapidly approxi- mating to a state of vacuum, and the treasury was in danger of' be- coming an exhausted receiver, under the influence of the ponderous pathos of the Maid Mariendorpt : indeed we thought the atmosphere of the house felt rather rarefied on Monday, notwith: teeing the hot-air stoves and POWER'S beaming face. The voyager look Al as fresh as a daisy, and seemed as glad to meet an English areiesee again as they were to see him : the welcome he received was most inspiring. The ease and enjoyment of PowEa's manner is so infectious—he takes the whole audience so entirely into his confidence—that every word he accents with a knowing wink or a jerk of the head elicits a roar of laughter, as though it were a capital joke. He was glorious in the Irish Lion, as " Mr. T. More, Esquire," the drunken tailor, who passes himself off a genius : whether cross-legged on the shop-board, redolent of tobacco and " much bemused with beer," giving utterance to his aspirations in a thick-voiced contempt of his craft, or playing " the lion's part " at the conversazione, all fun and frolic, his humour is equally spontaneous and inimitable.
Previous page
