At the Adelphi, that clever pantomimiste, Mademoiselle CELESTE, has now
brought utterance to aid the mute eloquence of her looks and gestures: she even ventures upon a few words of English ; and if the foreign accent were more remarkable than it is, the intensity of mean- ing with which she speaks them, would more than atone tor any pecu- liarity. But in fact there is something very charming in the well- imitated pronunciation of one's own language by a foreigner, espe- cially if she be a handsome woman. MALIBRAN'S Itelian-English and SCIIRCEDER'S German-English were both pleasing and expressive : nor is CELESTE'S French-English less so The piece of which Mademoiselle CEI.ESTE is the heroine is a melo- drama, written for the occasion, and called St. 3fary's Eve, or the Shore of the Solway; and in order to allow her to speak in French as well as English, she is representented as a girl whose parents were one French the other English,—or, as the buffo of the drama happily expresses it, " she is like straits of Dover, English cis one side and French on the other." The interest of the story arises from the dis- tressful embarrassment into which Madeline is thrown by her endea- vours to screen her brother, a proscribed Jacobite. She is on the eve of marriage ; and her intended husband, mistaking her brother for a favoured lover, casts her off; but on learning the truth, be rewards her devotion by saving her brother's life and marrying her. There are some effective situations for the display of CELESTE'S pantomimic address and powerful acting; and a plentiful admixture of comical scenes, which are skilfully introduced so as to relieve the serious business without destroying its effect. The force and distinctness with which CELESTE depicts in her face and action the passion of the scene, are perhaps excessive : her style of acting is rigid and precise, and smacks too much of the conventional gesticulation of pantomime to make us forget the actress in the cha- racter; but she gives some genuine touches of feeling that make us feel her heart is in what she does. For a thorough command over the resources of her art, and that abandon which throws all the energies into the performance, Mademoiselle CELESTE is unequalled by any English actress now on the stage : Miss KELLY is the one that might have best compared with her. But notwithstanding all these accom- plishments, the simple earnestness with which Miss SHAW pleaded for her forlorn friend, went more home to the feelings than the most stu- died and striking attitudes of the pantomimiste. A Mr. HENRY BEVERLY made his first appearance here as a representative of the line of characters that has become dormant, if not extinct, by too-glorious JOHN'S prostration. He has no lack of experience or confidence ; but his humour is not of the rich Reeveian vein. He is hard, coarse, and mechanical ; makes faces as if his features worked on hinges, has a loud, thin, monotonous voice, and is too ostentatiously comical : nevertheless, his persevering efforts to appear very drunk elicited considerable laughter; but one look from WILKINSON was more pregnant with drollery than the whole perform- ance of Mr. BEVERLEY. 0. SM►ITH'S dressing and dying are both inimitable : be falls headlong when shot as if impelled by the force of the bullet.
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