THE TnE.-vr RES.

COVENT Oa tows and the Adelphi have made splendid F.Aster offering:, encli after its own peculiar fashion, and both of the extravaganza spe- cks. proper to the season. VEsrms has invoked the Fairies, and reari- mated the Steep/ay lle,titty inll'a'„d.VaTr.s has raised the Devil himself; and as his Satanic Maicsty isits London intog., and therefore cannot his tail unfold, hy way of emilit-:,ating for the t,e..ultation of that spinal appendage. the .1,W/cc-lit the Nile does duty :Is afterpiece :

rind a most dazzling feature it Mg more eyes than a peacock,

and all of them much brighter. and 1,,ing provided with tue ice as many legs as a centipede. since the tail has to move as an independent member.

The romantic incidents in the life of the Sleeping Beauty are familiar to most readers ; but as the early studies of the thitliful chroniclers of the nursery are too apt to be forgotten, stud doubts thrown on those vera- cious records by the subsequent perusal of the ponderous fictions of his- torians, it may be as well to touch on the leading facts in this biography of the somnolent fair, as they are embodied on the stage of Covent Garden. We are first introduced into the cavernous boudoir of the Fairy Baneful, who is destined to be the evil genius of the heroine : the ace's-boy flying in with the Elfin Flying Post, she learns from the Court Circular that the infant daughter of Thomas. surnamed Noldy, King of Noland, is to be christened that day, and dust all the Fairies are invited to the banquet : incensed at being passed over, the hag orders her dragon to the door, and. having only nine thousand miles to travel before dinner, she arrives just after the seven fairy guests had with simultaneous suddenness appeared in their places at table. Great is the consternation, prodigious the politeness, of the King and Queen; and that omnificial functionary the Great-Grand- Lord-High-Everything at the court of Noland is in a flutter of ob- sequiousness and alarm. The banquet. over, the King calls out, " Ring twice for baby;" and the nurse enters, bearing the royal infant with a tail of " long-clothes" like a comet ; the assembled guests bursting into an exclamatory chorus "The very image of his father!" quite like mortals. The good Fairies endow the baby Princess with all human fascinations ; and the malignant one dooms her to death at

in-

stanter: by the prick of a spindle. The whole Court swoons n- stanter: but the Fairy Antidota commutes the sentence of death i to a nap a century long ; during which the young lady s to pre-

serve her youth and beauty, and at the end of the time to be awakened by the kiss of the Prince who is to marry her. • An interval of nearly eighteen years is supposed to have elapsed; and the Princess, in the person of VESTRIS, is seen in the apartment to which she had been confined, eagerly awaiting the hour of her "corning out." She gives proof of her vocal powers by singing a parody of that classical melody " Nix my Dolly," from which the perfection of her other accomplish- ments may be inferred. Iler destiny is fulfilled : she is persuaded to an- ticipate the hoar of approaching liberation ; and losing her way in the castle, stumbles on an old -Woman spinning, whose spindle inflicts the fatal wound: she is borne to the state bed; and there, surrounded by the drowsy Court, and watched over by Sylphides, her snooze of a hun- dred years commences. A second interval elapses ; and the Magic Forest next appears. whose trees defy alike the woodman's axe and.the traveller's titot ; but at the approach of the true Prince, the green turns blue and the trees stir their stumps, and bow him to the Castle of Som- nolence, surrounded by its sleeping guards. Larry 0•Log, an Irish woodcutter, who had been all his dill axing his way through in vain, is barred out by a quickset-hedge, that springs up extempore, and at every turn is beaten back by the pugnacious branches ; while the Prince is silently ushered into the chamber, and, kissing the rosy lips of the Sleeping Beauty, the spell is broken. A splendid fete is given to the seven Fables; who depart in a patent safety "fly," or sociable rather. On the first night, the insect wings of the "fly" were rendered power- less by some unforeseen hindrance ; but since then the Fairies have soared upward in the air-borne vehicle, constructed for them, as the bills say, by Mr. Bitanwsm., "time out of mind the Fairies' coach- maker " at Covent Garden.

The taste, splendour, and completeness with which these marvellous incidents are repre.•goited, may be inferred by fancying the effect of the elegance of the Oly mph: burlesques on a grand scale, and with all the advantages of a stage whose boards shift about at the will of the me- chanist as thotyli they were endued with volition. The characters all speak in famili.tr verse, and condescendingly indulge in puns and slang phrases ad libitum, parodying our popular songs, and showing good taste in the selection of airs, as well as an intimate knowledge of the lyrics of the day. The great Tom Noddy is personated by BLAND. in the grandiose sty le of blustering importance lie su successfully assumes : the insignificance of his mightiness, and the nothingness of his grandeur, are highly diverting ; his kingly pride puffs itself out like a pouter pigeon, presenriy subsiding - into a most meek state of collapse. HARLEY as Lund Fat:co/am, the Grand High-Everything, is in full fea- ther, and is a comitatal state of effervescent fussiness his whimsicali- ties are the true graces of burlesque. Mrs. TA YI.EURE, as the Fairy Banejid, is the very essence of verjuice ; and .11noronxsi as the Wood- cutter is pa: to the purpose. VINING tops the part of Prince Pcr- .reet—tito,y1: unluckily he made a farts pas, and fell with his fair bur-

den on tls ht : Vssvnis showed she was not hurt, by Asking

her plums..., !Loa most concerned at its being ruffled, and adroitly applied a ir,r-.toe in the an:logue by way of a pleasant rebuke to the disconcerte., a a i ;am, The Mademoiselle :Ilse:Ls LUIGI BETTONI, is oppor- tunely iutro , dill lay her powers, which arc of no ordinary kind.

She is mli-grown indeed ; but her execution is et cu

now r, • nr s:eatlittess of aplemb, vigour, and elasticity. The

great i., t• dancinw, however, consists in the graceful and plea- se's:LI:: cf her movements—she seems to enjoy it : instead of

the usu..: i tat smirk, her face hcmus with animation and her eyes spsik.,• i II (Highs. In the pas de deux with M. SAxoNi. who is clever ta;,1 • 'aster. Mademoiselle BETTONE evinced a perfect com-

mand of ic::: to the extent of her physical powers ; and whatever she attemp: • ; achieved w ith perfect case and elegance. In the

Cacimm: . • dile:111er little for in into all its voluptuous mazes v ith the nee:. • sr a 41;anisit maid inspired by the presence of her lover; and Lc; r r, rn of tile castanet accompaniment is beautiful. She is

Du ens:, I. 1., re.

,,,.; tieritgs of the Dreil in London, as set firth by PEASE.: - - • ; :;,1 enacted by YATES, are too iniscellaneMIS to adroit t•! •■• • 1:1.•,, a. At the Adelphi. this tnuch-injured potentate certainly or c...• /1,•I • pp,•;; sc black as he is generally painted : OD the con•rary, he t with a tinge of yellow melancholy, that accounts ft• • bet hem jolly green." For all his brimstone, he is nit match l his friend .11117//thi/Ophcle.:, who fidlows him to earth, and, assuming :be eri-e u blackleg, Outwits the Devil completely.. Mr. )loo/cell IS u"Str, ?be travelling title of the dark gentleman, is, in fact, a saturnine ic;0,1 : betrays a surprising ignorance of the wicked- ness of nu. Lind, that 1.1,,Vt:S hint to be very imperlixtly acquainted with his t..,!•;•.t ; asd moralizes on the immoralities of Loudon in a

vein of se- ..s•e philanthropy is the only excuse fin: its prosi-

ness. ts a, i.t experience of London life is limited to the gambling I but the Devil, we may suppose, has mini instinc- tive prefi:rt:net: r titt• I (.■imilis of hens," Pala. IN:moms though too jolly for .lirphotspia,ss in his assumed character of Captain Iamb, be- comes the flash t 11;!% of the turf capitally well lie is the jolly, well- fed, know in e, rustic swindler of the race-course, in prime condition, with a voice :lint latch that defy shame and detection : he is a "leg " with a calf to Loot. IS ninon', as Lord Pigeon, a rouis Peer, who takes the Devil into his service, and in return is endowed with the faculty of be- coming invisible at will, is very comical by dint of a stolid look of wonder that he preserves throughout : his invisibility promotes abund- ance of fun in the shape of practical ,jokes, especially in a scene with his housemaid Peggy, inimitably played by Mrs. KEELEY. Peggy is soliloquizing—sola as she supposes ; and her cogitations about Lord Pigeon are realized by the " invisible peer," till she is fain to run away from herself : she sits on his impalpable knees, with a seeming un- consciousness that is quite diverting; and her exclamation, " Holt nice!" when she receives a kiss from his invisible lips, is edifying is the extreme. Mrs. KEELEY also sings a " sporting medley,' in the dress of a jockey, very cleverly: MATHEWS himself never mimicked the frantic excitement of the betting-men during a race better than she does in this song. BEVERLEY as Squire Foallyke, a country pigeon of Cap- tain tain Rook's plucking, gives a very good imitation of the uneasy reck- lessness of the raw gambler, and the agonies of remorse of the rained one ; but his Yorkshire pathos is not so native as his horse-laugh. WILKINSON plays a nervous man, in a perpetual state of tremor Ind paleness, with amusing truth ; and Miss DARLING personaks a gipsy charmingly. BUCKSTONE'S footman is a match for Mrs. KEELEY'S housemaid: his dapper smartness and self-complacency are so characteristic, that the flunky shines out even through the disguise of his master's clothes. In the Debating Society, where the pantry Parliament ape the forms and disorders of a certain assembly frequented by their masters, Bet:anon affects the air of therOpposition leader; YATES emulates the loud and glib-tongued volubility of an eminent lawyer ; and an Hibernian, who is a dumpling double of a great agitator, mimics the manner of the Mem- ber for Ireland : the exits and entrances, the "hear, hears!" and the Babel of zoological sounds, are done to the life ; including the sonorous " Order, order I" of an Ex-Speaker. " An amateur " also introduces sonic capital imitations of actors : the peculiarities of MACREADY, CHARLES KEAN, VANDENHOFF, and WABDE, are hit off to the life; KEELEY, HARLEY, and BCCKSTONE, are also well mimicked; Lens and CHARLES KEBIBLE are not so good.

How shall we do justice to the.glitteriug splendours of the Serpent oi the Nile? how rise to the ultra-sublime height of Mr. STIRLING'S poetic flights ? To say that he has succeeded-1n giving an entirely new idea of the scene in the Roman forum over the body of Omar, and of the loves of Anthony and Cleopatra, conveys but it faint conception of the daring of the Adeiphi rival of SHAKSPERE. Mr. LYON'S grief bears such an emphasis, that it stuns the ears, and he sighs like a blast fur- nace ; and Miss DARLING atones for her fair complexion by giving Cleopatra a gipsy-look of fascination, wearing her wreath with a rakish air, and showing an irresistible leg by looping up her petticoat. The tableaux of the meeting of Antony and 'Cleopatra on the Cydnus, and the battle of Actium, are so dazzling, th4t we are unable to appreciate their beauty ; and as for the dance of "women warriors "—what with the lustre of the arms, and the *Piety of symmetry in the legs, which have been most ungallantly depreciated—the tinsel and fleshings are overpowering. To relieve the severity of classic character, Eta:anon figures in a Roman helmet with a gilt cock-sparro'w " perched on his beaver ;" Mrs. KEELEY assumes the veil elf the goddess Isis, to frighten her truant spouse into submission; and ,other pleasantries are intro- duced, much to the detriment of the graver interest, n Melt is strongly infected with the fun.

•