Mr. H. F. Chorley's play of Old Love and New
Fortune, produced at the Surrey on the same night, is the very reverse of Mr. Lewes's. His story, as existing in his own mind, is probably not a whit more entangled than that of The Noble Heart ; but he has a certain vague manner of tell- ing it, which is anything but dramatic, and which has caused an ob- scurity that some of out contemporaries have complained of. The writing is Very nice and agreeable, though not remarkable for power ; and the purpose—that of curing the upstart pride arising from change of fortune —appeals to kindly sympathies. Had the work been a novel, with a due quantity of descriptive matter, we have no doubt it would have proved highly satisfactory; but as it is a play, the want of dramatic point and
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terseness is an insuperable objection. In Mr. Lewes's play, there is a great deal of talking when we want action, but at the end we find the point to which all the talk has been directed : in Mr. Chorley's play, we miss a distinct dramatic goal. A domestic story about a haughty young lady, somewhere about the time of William the Third, is set forth, and we see her at last compelled to take the lover she has at first slighted : but there is nothing that strikes us dramatically. Ample justice is done to the piece by a very fair working company, with Mr. Creswick at its head,
and a very liberal style of decoration. -
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