The records of the present week give evidence that managers,
little aided by contemporary wit, have betaken themselves to a rummage of old stores ; and the result of their search shows that, as in the case of .Alad- din, old lamps may sometimes be better than new. Hamilton of Bothwell- haugh, for instance, gives very dim light at Sadler's Wells ; but The Comedy of Errors, which, in its original shape, has not been performed for nearly fifty years, sparkles most vividly as soon as it is taken down from the shelves. Mr. Phelps does not play in the piece : indeed there is not one of the characters that is made striking enough to entitle an actor to more praise than for an intelligent zeal di- rected to the general good; and those vocal embellishments which were added about five-and-thirty years ago, when the " comedy" became a. musical drama, are of course eschewed, consistently with the strong legi- timate feeling of Pentonville. It is the whole movement of the piece which, thanks to an efficient stage-management, is admirably kept up, that delights the audience, and a roar ensues whenever the master or. man of Syracuse is taken for the master or man of Ephesus. Nor is the five-act farce that amused the Georgians less fortunate than the five-act farce that pleased the Elizabethans. The Heir-at-Law is as extravagant with respect to its characters as the tale of the Dromios with. respect to its incidents ; but the personages are all well fitted for the stage, and as a long repose has cured it of the malady of being a hack- nied play, it comes out with great freshness at the Princess's; where, like The Comedy of .Errors at Sadler's Wells, it is played by the general com- pany, while the principal actor rests from his labours. While we are thus taught at both Oxford Street and Pentonville that. there was a certain hearty "fun" among our fathers and our forefathers, for which we can find no parallel at the present day, we are reminded at the Adelphi, that some ten years ago there was an impulse among the young wits of the age to devote themselves to theatrical writing, for which likewise there is now no similitude. When Mr. Albert Smith assisted itr the composition of the burlesque Valentine and Orson revived this week, a success at the Lyceum was a sufficient goal to put all his energies in motion; for at that time, the thought that he would one day reach the summits of Mont Blanc and of popularity, could scarcely have occurred in his wildest dreams. Valentine and Orson has been com- pressed by Mr. Smith from two acts into one, and decorated with new verbal pleasantries. The change of the same man from the genial pro- ducer to the careful reeditor of his own work is a theme which might have furnished Horace with matter for an epistle.
At Drury Lane, too, the glance is retrospective; for the novelty, en- titled An Impudent .Puppy, is no more than a version of that very well- known piece, Um Monsieur qui suit lee Femmes ; which, moreover, does not assume English costume for the first time. However, it affords Mr.
C. Mathews a good rattling comic character ; and therefore it succeeds.
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