THE AFRICAN ACTOR.
MR. Annittnag, a native of Senegal, appeared as Othello, at Covent Garden, on Wednesday. His person is tall and well-
formed, and his action free, flowing, and graceful. His face is not disagreable, though we have seen better-looking Africans; but it • is not susceptible of much variety of expression. His voice is rich and melodious, and sonorous withal ; and in passages of ten- derness its tones had great sweetness. It resembles MACREADY'S, but has more volume. Indeed, his acting altogether—though with a due interval—reminded us of that tragedian. His deport-
ment is manly, and occasionally dignified; he moves and speaks with deliberation and self-possession. fie evinced a great deal of feeling and nature in his performance : these, indeed, were its re- deeming qualities; but they could not reconcile us to its numerous and glaring defects. Its beauties, however, surprised us more than its faults.
An African is no more qualified, by virtue alone of his com- plexion and the conformation of his face, to personate any Moorish . character—much less such a one as Othello—than a huge flit man would.be competent to represent Falstaff on the score of his bulk alone. The property-man can furnish as good a suit of "the shadowed livery of the burnished sun" for stage purposes, as Dame .Nature herself,—perhaps, in his own opinion, a better ; and Eng- lish audiences have a prejudice in favour of European features, Which more than counterbalances the recommendations of a fiat nose and thick lips. In one particular only we might expect a native African to be better qualified by nature to personate a character of his own clime and complexion,—that is, in having the fiery temperament of these children of the Sun. But herein Mr. ALDRIDGE possesses no advantage ; he is a remarkable ex- ception to the general rule, being, on the contrary, tame and .laiwtoyant. So that, in fact, he is without even the ordinary natu- ral qualifications which are essential to the verisimilitude of the -character.
The' swarthy actor is not new to the stage he has played at several provincial theatres, and at some of die minor houses in ,several His declamation is not only ineffeetive, but very faulty : it-is marked by numerous instances of falsa emphasis, incorrect readings, and interpolations of the text even, and by a few vul- garisms of pronunciation. It was, however, free from rant. Othello describes himself as being "unused to the melting mood." Mr. ALDRIDGE'S grief is querulous and lachrymose, and his pathos mere whining. In the most violent bursts of passion, he Was deficient in energy and power; though in depicting the struggles of mental agony and suppressed emotion, he was vigo- rous and natural. But as be did not in the more calm scenes portray the lofty-minded nobleness of Othello's nature, nor that air of. commanding dignity which would be habitual to his station, neither in the impassioned parts did he evince any of that moral 'grandeur which gives sublimity to the scene as it lives in SHARSPEARE'S page. It is superfluous to enter into any detailed criticism of such a performance as this. It was upon the whole a 'failure. The range of characters in which Mr. ALDRIDGE could appear must necessarily be very limited ; we therefore expect his acting to be the more perfect. He has no genius, but is not with- out talent; and he has two great requisites7-3 good voice and a .good figure. He is said to make a capital Mango. He was to • have appeared in that character and in Zanga on the same night; but the applause bestowed on his performance of Othello induced the Manager to announce its repetition instead, and he is to play them on Tuesday. We think he might perform Gambia. Mr. ALDRIDGE was very warmly received, and was called for after the curtain fell; when he expressed his gratitude to the audience, in a set speech, couched in the most florid terms.
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