THE THEATRES.
Tim luckless Lyceum is a second time abandoned by its manager, and the company again left to their own resources. BuNN, following the example of ARNOLD, has beat a retreat. To what a wretched condi- tion the theatrical profession has been reduced by the fully aid reck- lessness of mean and unscrupulous speculators ! No wonder the stage has sunk so low. But we are now looking forward to a better state of things.
Meanwhile, the English Opera company are doing their best to attract the public ; and, judging from the audiences we have seen this week, with fair success. PEARL'S new melodrama, Blanche (I Jersey, with some pretty music by BARNETT, is very popular : indeed, the incident of a daughter robbing the postman of the warrant for her father's execution, is calculated to excite the sympathies, if tolerably well dramatized. In this case it is capitally done : the web of circum- stantial evidence is woven so ingeniously as to leave no chance of escape for t:.e accused—no Old Bailey lawyer could find a starting- hole in it. The means whereby he is saved are not so satisfactorily accounted for ; the expert dramatist knowing full well, that the au- dience, whi:e they would scrutinize with lynx-eyed watchfulness the proofs of guilt, would be content with any pretence for escape. Ac- cordingly, when Miss ROMER, dressed in an epicene suit of brown, (like Fidelio,) presents a little popgun pistol at the head of the burly post. man—whose huge corked-hat alone would shield him from the pea- sized bullet—and the man, instead of knocking her down with the but- end of one of his leadless horse-pistols, sullenly gives up his letter-bag- the applause is tremendous. However, the business is not yet done; for, though the death-warrant is abstracted and torn up, the authorities proceed upon the information contained in other letters ; and the inno- cent man is on his way to execution—makes his dying-speech, takes leave of his frantic child, and all that—when, lo ! one of those senti- mental villains, so invaluable on the stage, rushes in and confesses that lie is the murderer : conscience, and his old blind mother, had so worked upon him that be could not contain himself,—and be struts off to execution in all the pride of conscious virtue, amidst general plaudits. We need not say much about the performance : who could help act- ing well under these circumstances ? Situation is every thing; and in this piece no actor can say he "wants a situation"—even the murdered man is provided with a moonlight lamp to set off his whitened face to picturesque advantage. We may just hint, however, to Madame SIMON, who plays the blind woman so cleverly, that she should assume more decrepitude, and a tremulous voice, to overcome her youth- ful appearance ; and that cottagers in those days, before Penny Maga- zines were known, did not speak with such purity of accent—for the fine language, the author is responsible. Her son, too, takes after his mother, and talks of being " hiahn"—fancy a smuggler saying the sea is hiahn It might seem hypercritical, perhaps, to object to Mr. DID- DEAR'S kneeling on one knee, when he begs pardon of the innocent man, like a cavalier going to be knighted ; and it is hardly reasonable to object to his giving himself, after confessing to such a crime as mur- der, into the custody of a whole regiment of vibratory Its—thus " murrr.derrr-errr.'" It is only your cold-blooded critic that has lei- sure to note these conventional deviations from nature. We do think, nevertheless, that writers of melodramas might condescend to more homely phraseology, without danger of being thought vulgar. The lust novelty, The Little Laundress, is a translation of the French piece Madetoit Friquct, in Which VERNET played so inimitably. His famous part of Trangnille is taken by Comerusr, the new low come- dian ; who imitates ViatNrr, but whose dry clownish humour is evi- dently a mere assumption—and what is worse, a mannerism, for he is the same in other characters. The characters and incidents of this piece are so thoroughly French, that they appear unnatural to an Eng- lish audience, especially with English actors.
Other novelties are announced here ; among them, a nautical extra. vaganza and a German operatic drama.
Mr. Plis:t.es makes his first appearance at the Haymarket in Shy- loch, on Monday; and on the same night Mrs. 1Vayixrr joins the company, which has this week received the addition of Mrs. FITZ- witLIAM. MACREADY, we hear, is instituting a thorough " reform of the repre- sentation " of plays at Covent Garden. Not only will the theatre be redecorated, and the scenery, wardrobe, and properties entirely reno- vated, but the old conventional absurdities, that have gone far to make even SI1AKSPEARE'S plays ridiculous, will be abolished. Opera, as well as Tragedy and Comedy, will be cared for. H. PHILLIPS, WILSON, and Miss SHIRREFF are engaged. Young KLAN, we are told, was offered an engagement on his own terms, and declined : the new actor, Mr. PHELPS, we believe, is engaged instead. The admis- sion, it is expected, will be somewhat less than the old prices. As for Drury, it appears by no means certain that it will open at all : indeed, we are only surprised how a manager who so entirely suits his own convenience in money matters, can find performers to en- gage with him.
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