THE TIIEATRES.
BB, humorous magician l OH) by a stroke of thy wand, or rod rather, makes ministers of state minister to merriment, turns figures uf speech' to figures of fun, puts a comical phiz to the dullest blockhead that ever supported a big wig, and makes majesty a jest without depriving it of externals—potent priest of Mounts, invisible, shrouded in mystery- Hunknown Being, (so a speculative Cockney interpreted the symbolical cipher,) that to thy Temple of Waggery in the Haymarket dust attract worshippers from all quarters, and solidest them laughing away-- brightening dim eyes, lightening heavy hearts, kindling smiles in dreariest faces, lifting loads of care from burdened bosoms—and since mirth is " chief nourisher at Life's feast," snaking fat those who tend to APLEAN ; thou art like Falstaff; "not only witty in thyself, but the cause of wit in other men :" the running fire of laughter that thou hast kept up in the Haymarket any time these seven years, is now returned in vollies at the Adelphi, reverberating from that pit whose echoes are eachinnatory in redoubled peals front the galleries above. Not that 1113 himself is there, nor are his caricatures embodied in tableaux—that were hnpossible, for what mime could embody the sly humour of H13? — but his spirit exercises its droll influence, and the symbolical cipher 1113 is the spell that sways the audience, though PEAKE is the author of the three.
H. 13. happen to be the initials of two fellow lodgers, advertising ad- venturers both: the one Humphrey Bobus—the poor proprietor of a pro vincial paper (some ponderous "Mercury,") of the state of whose affairs printer's " pie " is the aptest type—is in want of a sleeping partner ; the other, Henry Belasquez, an Israelitish exquisite, whose whole wealth consists in a four thousand pound prize in a lottery of living beef, (in plain terms, he has won a prize-ox in a raffle,) wants a sleeping partner of another sort—videlieit, a wife. The two advertising II. B.s get each other's letters: Humphrey Bobus is wooed by a widow be- witched; and Mr. Belasquez, being mistaken for the renowned KB, is engaged by a country coxcomb burning for revenge at being nicknamed the "County Guy,' to "take off" a lady; the Hebrew 'Adonis sup- posing the said "taking off" to mean abduction, not caricaturing. The confusion is further embroiled by other coincidental circumstances; but no description of the equivokes can give an idea of their drollery : to enjoy the practical jokes, they must be seen. YATES as the ;kW dandy, all rings and ringlets, WILIKINSON as Hum- phrey Bohus, WEIGHT as the 13rummagem Beau, and BEDFORD as the captain of a steamer, who, when his wife's "steam is up," calls out "stop her!" "case her!" are each in their element but Mrs. KEELEY as Betty Nanyle, the maid-of-all-work at the lodging-house, is worth all besides ; with her cheraux defrise of curl-papers, her smutty face, and hands to match, her dogged, devil-may-care inanner, and trolloping, trudging gait, she looks the listless, hopeless, comfortless domes- tic drudge—the sullen, saucy, slatternly " slavey"—to the life : her lack-lustre eyes indicate the:cloudy state of her intelligence; and the attempt to hannner into her head the two letters H ziscociating them with hard brush, hog's bristles, hot buns, is utterly unavailing, for the articles themselves obscure her perception of' the initials of their names. The tone in which she miuters to herself. on beim: told to look for a lost " key of the ale-cask," " I shan't look for the hey of the ale— they don't give me none on it," is itself a key to the .forlorn indif- ference of her position : she is that social anomaly perso.1111e,l, a servant- of-all-work, from whom every virtue under heaven is expected, and in whom, theft-Awe, none at all is ever Annid ; " a poor shilling thing," flitti,ig on the confines of ilized society—haunting attics and cel- lars—always giviug or receivit.g " wanting "--a spirit tess and restless ghost, that cannot be "laid," till laid np—one who has innumerable places to tell of, but who is equally destitute of "a local habitation anti. a name."
Of the other theatres there is nothing to be said. The pernirman.,:., of Love in. a Village at Drury Lane may to vbaritably passed stilt : the promised performance of Der has been postponed repeatedly, on account of the alleged indisposition of Miss DEWY ; and the house has been closed two nights; Miss E. MONTAGUE, the little star that twinkled in this dark hemisphere, having become invisible. Lut.,; and the Beggar's Opera ran in couples nightly at Covent Carden, till the Christians pantomime, Harlequin and the Me,rrie (1. Ed- motion, or tlo. Great Bed cl it ni:er the arrangements. Jack Sheppard is the subject of the Drury Lane liantominie ; and some capital fun may be made of it. At Cie Haymarket, the old performances are repeated, the Sc Captain making his appearance twice a week. I.Eton IfuNT's play is in rehearsal at Covent Garjen, and will probabh, be brought out after the novehy of the pantomime is past.
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