26 JANUARY 1856, Page 9

gOt 4tatrts.

The Jealous Wife, played last week by Mr. and Mrs. Charles Kean at Windsor Castle, has been repeated at their own theatre with good suc- cess. It almost stands alone among the comedies of the old repertory. While it affords effective situations for two performers to work out, it neither offends by profligacy, wearies by didactic morality, sickens by sentiment, nor dazzles by wit. The tale of a matrimonial squabble, in which the lady is the stronger party, is ingeniously diversified by inci- dents, which come in as so many motives for continued action ; and as the woes represented are such as all comprehend without any remarkably painful chord, being struck, they create general amusement. Some lover of the past will perhaps bewail the habitual reduction of the piece to three acts ; but we cannot regard the abridgment otherwise than as an amelioration. As a specimen of literature, The Jealous Wife is worth little or nothing; as a work written for theatrical effect, its sole effi- ciency-so far as the present age is concerned-lies in the scenes in which Mr. and Mrs. Oakley are the chief personages.