6 FEBRUARY 1836, Page 18

ELTON is also acting at the Queen's, in a new

piece called The Dela- - sion ; in which he personates a husband who, labouring under a secret delusion that his wife has been unfaithful to him, and believing that he has been the death of her supposed paramour, has laconic a monomaniac, . and fancies that his wife is mad instead of himself. He calls in a doc- tor; who, though a very ludicrous personage on the stage, proves a most rational " mail doctor :" for, when be finds out that the gentleman and not the lady is the insane person, instead of shaving the head of his patient, clapping a strait waistcoat on him, and putting him under the arrest of a couple of brutal keepers, he humours the madman's notion, and thus gains his confidence; ascertains the nature of his delusion, affects that it is his own case, and that he has discovered he himself

was deceived ; and when the poor maniac is prepared to ludieve the truth, brings forward the living evidence of the \ ite's fidelity in the

person of the supposed dead man himself; who hieing the lover of the niece, in order to be near her had followed and paid attentions to the aunt. ELTON'S personation of the maniac is perfection. Ile bits the precise point of excellence, the union of reality with refinement ; and thus prevents that painful impression which the literal representation' of lunacy would excite ; while his performance is utterly removed from the rant of stage madmen. The mixture of sanity with raving, and the existence of method in the madness—arising from correct reasoning and drawing just conclusions from false premises—are admirably depicted. The effect is to interest the audience and to awaken their sensibilities, but not to shock their feelings or outrage that propriety which should always pervade dramatic performances. The character is well con- ceived and ably drawn ; and the incidents are ingeniously contrived to heighten the interest progressively by developing the nature of the delu- sion entirely through its manifestations. The dramatic effect is so

powerful that we lose sight of any little faults in the construction of the plot. The author indeed appears to know more of the mind in its aberrations than of the stage. He has given a valuable lesson to "mall doctors ;" we hope they will go and profit by it. This justifies the choice of such a repulsive subject. •

Mrs. NISBETT, as the Wife, evinces that quiet, suppressed feeling, which would naturally belong to the character ; and which is more • affecting even on the stage than an ostentatious display of emotion. She acts up to ELTON well. We wish we could say as much of the representative of the Doctor : this character, indeed, is vulgarly drawn —which, besides being inconsistent, injures the effect—but the actor certainly did not make it less absurd. The unconscious cause of the delusion, the niece's lover, too, is lamentably unfit for the part : he has not even the smartness of a policeman. This, however, is his misfortune, and the fault of the management to put forward such a re- presentative of a lord—" the pink of the park," as he is called. PARRY is a very pleasant and gentlemanly scapegrace cousin; and Miss MOR- DAUNT a pretty and agreeable niece.