THE THEATRES.
(so-called) new comedy, The Inheritance, produced nt Covent Garden on Tuesday, and ushered in with the customary formula of a prologue, turns out to be a commonplace play by Mr. FITZBALL ; who has treated the clever novel of this name in a similar way to Paul Cliffia-d. We wish lie had made it a melodrama at once ; for, as it is, it wants both the wit and vivacity of a comedy and the poetry and passion of a serious (llama, while it has little help from stage situation. The plot, instead of serving to develop the characters, has not much interest beyond the mere mystery. The story of the play is briefly this. Gertrude, who at the opening is in possession of the title and inheritance of the earldom of Rossville, finds, by the sudden appear- ance of a vulgar and brutal American named Lewiston, who claims her as leis daughter, that the title and esates belong to Lindsay, her re- jected lover: she is, however, made happy and restored to her rank of Countess, by finding a husband in the new Earl, and a father in Adam Black—a rich, careful, but kind-hearted old Scot, who had taken a fancy to her from her resemblance to his wife, lost with her infant in a vessel burnt at sea. The wretch Lewiston turns out to be an im- postor, and only the brother of the man who saved Gertrude from the burning ship, and sold the child to her reputed parents, by whom she was palmed upon the old Earl as his niece. II. WALLACK'S personation of old Adam Mash stands out in such bold relief before all the other characters, that they are endurable only in so far as they are concerned with him. He embodies with a force and cempleteness only comparable with FARREN'S performances —and if it be coarser, it is more broad and genial also—the shrewd, blunt, and caustic Scot, taught by the selfishness of the world to re- press his sympathies, but wuose natural kindliness gushes out like water from the rock to keep fresh the one green spot of affection in his memory. Had ;illy less artificial actress than Miss TAYLOR performed time part of his child, the effect would have been still more powerfuL It is the only character in the novel that is at all done justice to in the dramatic version. HENRY WALLACE has struck out a new path for his talent, and one in which he bids fair to be successful. We won't be critical on his Scotch * accent : his feeling would have made a still worse imitation tolerable. He gives the spirit of the character. .111r. PRICHARD, a new actor, formerly of Edinburgh and Dublin, performs the part of Lindsay with gentlemanlike propriety and energy; and, being a very respectable actor of the declamatory school, he is an acquisition to the company. The coarse brutality of Lewiston is really shocking to the sense : the dramatist has vulgarized this character be- yond nature; it is a libel on the Americans. The worst that can be said of I lames, who acted it, is that he does but too much justice to his part. COLLINS has resumed his part in Paul Clifford, which is now played as an otfterpiece. Another new drama, called The Carmelites, is in rehearsal.
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