8 FEBRUARY 1840, Page 9

A nautical burletta, with the title of Poor Jack. or

the W16' of sa Sailor, has sneceeded Jack Sh,flairs/ at the Adelphi u but the hero of the halter is still :1 favourite, and has taken the place Harlequin. The new meiodrama is one of those medleys of sea-slang and sentiment, domesticity and drollery. for which this theatre is famous : and when we add that it is concocted by lit-s-F.sToNe. that T. P. Coosts personates " Poor Jack.and that a fishing-boat is swamped on the stage, the nature and popularity of the piece may be inferred. We (night to state, however, that the " nautical incidents" are fOUIlded on fact, and narrated in a publication entitled the Bride of Obeydah. According to the dramatic version' Poor Jack, a very well-bred as well as tenderhearted sailor, saves Eleanor, a beautiful girl, from the wreck, protects her across the desert, and is rewarded with her hand. But Miss is no sooner out of danger than she repents of her match with a common sailor, and most ungratefully gives her gallant preserver the slip. They meet afterwards, however, by accident, and she makes the amende, by acknowledging him : and the dramatist having, with more promptitude than the Admiralty, promoted him to a Lieutenancy, and bestowed on him plenty of prize-money, Pa' consents to receive Jack, "poor" no longer, as his son-in-law. The highest praise that can be awarded to T. P. COOKE'S acting is, that he prevented the sea-slang from having the effect of sea-water, by the gusto with which be uttered it : he has " sea-legs," too, and poises himself on toe and heel alternately, as though the stage were the deck. Miss FORTESCUE, as Eleanor, redeemed the meanness of the character by the fervour with which she expressed her love and gratitude, her misgivings when urged to consent to the form of marriage, and her subsequent repentance and reparation. This young lady showed a degree of feeling and earnestness, that not only prove her talent to be of a genuine kind, but make one feel an interest in the fate of the heroine. Yarns personates two characters,—a female pedlar, with prudish professions of "propriety and respectability ; " and an exquisite of the " bear " species, with a tongue too big for his mouth: and BUCKSTONE and Mrs. KEELEY play a footman and nurse-maid, dressed up to pass for a lady and gentleman. The excessive ludicrousness of these transformations defies description ; but the breadth of the burlesques, and the roars of laughter they produced, may be imagined. BEDFORD plays a sailor of the villanous stamp—a foil to the shining qualities of" Poor Jack ;" and to say the truth, a more amusing person. The scenery is beautiful ; and the storm, with the fishing-boat chasing a large vessel, and foundering in a "white squall," is equal to the best scenic effects of the Pilot.