7 FEBRUARY 1852, Page 11

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Amid the general decline of the drama, even the combinations of farce appear to be wearing out. A wife who to cure her husband of a propen- sity to infidelity wins his heart in the guise of another woman, and after- wards frightens him by putting on male attire and forcing him to fight a duel, is surely a personage of a class too familiar to playgoers • yet on such a foundation rests A Duel in the Dark, a farce recently produced at the Haymarket. Buckstonc, panic-struck, is always droll, otherwise the piece has but little to recommend it.