28 JULY 1838, Page 11

THE THEATRES.

THE revival of Every Man in his Humour was successful only in MACREADY'S personation of Kite/y, which is excellent. He alone of all the company seemed thoroughly to understand and fully to ex- press the author's ideas. " Jonson's learned sock" fitted him well : the other actors shuffled through their parts in the loose slipper of farce. This fine old comedy has only escaped from stage oblivion by the patronage that "great actors" have given to its principal character. Kitely, however, is only one of a group; though the most command- ing figure in it, inasmuch as his jealous humour, approaching nearly to passion, gives stronger relief to its features. Moreover, it is en

dowed with a vitality beyond the rest ; which are for the most part mere impersonations of obsolete follies and affectations—flies of the

day preserved in the anther of old BEN'S satire. Wanting the in- terest of a main plot Of story to concentrate the attention—being merely an exhibition of characters, the originals of which have passed away with the fashions of the time—it is not calculated to hold a permanent place on the stage. Indeed, we have no company of comedians fit to fill the various parts ; all of them being nearly of equal prominence, and requiring peculiar talent to develop their humour. MAI:READY, in his flat black velvet cap, fluted ruff, and close-fitting gown of sober broadcloth, might have stood for Sir l'itomas GRESHAM. The respect he challenged for the grave City merchant, made his infir- mity of temper the more ridiculous by contrast. The man who is so prompt, firm, and clear in his business matters, and who checks his brother Downright's choler, is, when the jealous fit comes over him, perplexed and irresolute,—suspecting his wife, yet fearing to be thought to suspect, not daring to dismiss the wild gallants and idle coxcombs that infest his house,—and mistrustiug the fidelity of his clerk, in whom he reposed such unbounded confidence. The mean- Bess of suspicion was most forcibly and ludicrously depicted in the wavering of his purpose to impart the secret to Cash the clerk—his hefting and fuming like one "nettled and stung with pismires "—and the climax of his blind folly and rashness when he charges every man round with being a party to his shame and his wife's dishonour. The intensity with which MACREADY expressed this passion of diseased humour developed its absurdity, and enforced the point of the moral. WEBSTER'S Bobadd was a very Salamander of a fire.eater: he looked bite a red lion rampant leaped from a sign.board. The swaggering gait and braggadocio manner of the swash-buckler were, however, too ptilpahly assumed : Bobadil is grandiose us well as craven by nature. HILL, the American comedian, looked the rustic simpleton Maqer Stephen to the life, but he could go no further; nor was BUCKSTONE, as Master Matthew the town-gull, a whit more successful—though he avoided buffoonery: but fine comedy is not the element of either actor. STRICKLAND'S Brainworm reminded us of MUNDEN only enough to make the recollection fatal to the imitation—if it deserve the name. HEMMING as Wellored, and WORRELL as Cash, deserve especial men- tion. HILL is at home and very amusing in the character of a)Yankee speculator and trader, in a Wee d'oceasion called New Notions. The unabashed effrontery and cool cunning of the scheming adventurer are combined with the restless activity, sordid selfishness, and coarse man- ners of the trafficking native of that paradise of pedlars, America. There is too much of the slang and exaggeration that pass for smart- ness and humour in the United States ; and which, after all, is only Munchausen Redivivus : it excites laughter by its monstrous absurdity for the moment, but we soon surfeit of the gross counterfeit of wit. It is pleasant, however, to see the "high-pressure, go-a-head" system, that would reduce America to the condition of a calculating machine in perpetual motion, shown up by one of its own citizens. Mr. TALFOURD'S tragedy, The Athenian Captive, is definitely an- nounced for next Saturday ; and to-night a new petite comedy, called The Artist's Wife, is produced.