DRURY LANE THEATRE.—A new drama, called the Spanish Hus- band,
was brought out on Tuesday evening. It is a dull and tedious affair; the dialogue vapid, and in the extremes both of familiarity and inflation; the characters had no character at all; and the plot depended for its probability solely upon the obtuseness of the Spanish Husband's perceptions and his more than buzzard blindness. The author (Mr. Howard
perceptions, we heard) did not seem to have made up his mind
whether his drama was to be serious or comic; but as Miss Phillips was the heroine, and very much agitated, we presume the former was in- tended. Cooper was laudably energetic as the Spanish Husband, and sermonized very considerably about painting; which art and the ladies' faithlessness were the principal texts enlarged upon in the dialogue. 1Vallack, as the seducers-artist, made the most of his maudlin character; and Mr. Jones, as a moral rake, appeared quite resigned to his melan- choly fate. Miss Mordauut and Harley had nothing to do ; indeed the best both of the "sayings and doings' fell to the share of Mrs. Glover, whose bustling activity and persevering vivacity, as lady's maid, saved the piece. One smart allusion passed unheeded, though the best mot of the evening. This most useful of abigails being disappointed in finding a hiding-place for the seducer, exclaims against the "clumsy Spanish houses,' which "have no provision for the necessities of high life." A personage with the ominous title of "Prince of the Blue Devils,'"' was introduced in a masquerade scene. The very name was infectious ; and Harley described the Spaniards as "yawning like an oyster-bed at turn of tide." This simile was unfortunately but too applicable to the greater portion of the audience, who patiently dozed under the intik.. tion. The conclusion found most of them asleep ; and the clacqueurs, who had been very active all the evening, secured by their exertions a second hearing for the Spanish Husband. The dresses were splendidly Spanish ; but the characters, like the dialogue, were English except in name. A Mr. Robinson sung a ballad very pleasingly in the character of a minstrel : his voice is of the calibre of Bland, and his style and execution neat and unpretending.
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