THE THEATRES.
COVENT GARDEN having no competitor this Easter in the production o f a holyday piece, the White Cat is not only matchless but unrivalled for beauty and playfulness ; and unfolds a tale of enchantment as marvellous and diverting as any one of the series of fairy legends which Madame VESTRIES and Mr. PrAxeati have annually amused the town withal since Madame has had the management of a theatre. The story runs in this wise. The great Wunsuponatyme, King of the unknown country Neverminditsnamia, "has reigned so long he thinks it time to mizzle "; but being perplexed as to which of his three sons should succeed him, the three Princes having been born at one birth, he submits to endure the cares of state, converting his throne into a couch, until his doubts are resolved by a dog that can creep through his thumb-ring. Prince Paragon is the favoured youth : suddenly he finds himself in an en- chanted spot " fifteen thousand miles from everywhere," and is ushered by bodiless hands bearing torches into a fairy palace, where dwells the White Cat: here he is amused by the catcalls of feline Catalanis, the cat- gut scraping of an orchestra of Grimalkins, and a paw de deux between the White Cat and her Tortoiseshell Tom ; bodiless hands bringing in the feast, and waiting on the guests. The White Cat not only bestows on Prince Paragon the diminutive dog, but provides a wooden horse to boot, which transports him and his faithful follower Jingo the jester, to his father's court. The old King now requires his successor to marry a Princess who has been seen by no one for five years—a condition pro- posed by his Prime Minister Count Coincide ; when straightway the wooden horse, refreshed by a peck of sawdust and a sack of shavings, and a rubbing down with bees-wax and flannel, transports the Prince to the palace of the White Cat. That the Prince may gain his ends, the White Cat consents to part with hers, and commands him to cut off her head and tail ; whereupon she is transformed into a Paragon of Prin- cesses, who, instead of taking the kingdom from the old King, bestows one of her half-dozen on him and each of his sons.
Madame VESTRIS, as Prince Paragon, resplendent in costume, pro- claims her love for the White Cat, in a plaintive ditty, beginning "All round any cat," and sings a parody on " 0 I ruddier than the cherry," with ludicrous effect. BLAND, as the dogged old King Wunsuponatyme, is quite in his element, and burlesques the part without buffoonery; HARLEY as Jingo, G. HORNCASTLE as Count Coincide, and Miss MUR- RAY and Miss LEE, as the other two Princes, each contribute their due share to the fun. Miss MARSHALL as the White Cat reminded us of JENNY VEarriti in Le Chat; she and her brother dance a feline mi- met in kittenly style. The spectacle is splendid, but not overdone. The words of the play are a continual play upon words ; the doggrel dialogue being a concatenation of puns and jokes, so pat to the purpose that each one goes off with eclat.
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