PEMBERTON'S SHYLOCK.
CATALINI'S smart saying on SoerrAG might be applied to PEM- BERTON, with a difference : he is of the first class, but not the first in that class. This, in one line, is our honest opinion, after wit- nessing two scenes of his Shylock—we were too late for the earlier scenes. The correspondent who favoured us last week with his cri- tique, shall again be allowed to describe the whole performance.
" Mr. PEMBERTON appeared in Shylock on Monday last. His concep- tion of the character was, generally, just ; the execution of it vigorous, and he made many of the accustomed points and some new readings. But
in the least prominent parts, the performance wanted the grace and filling up of KEAN'S acting. Looking to the standard of judgment we erected fur ourselves, last week, we are entitled to pronounce the effort as most successful. The audience, which till half-price (about the third act of the play) was fair, became then very full; and both before and after, the applause was continual and enthusiastic. At the end of the fourth act, in which Shylwk retires, it was even rapturous. We speak here as re-
porters, not as critics :—at the same time we must confess that the ap- plause was in most respects deserved. Mr. PEMBERTON is evidently endowed with great and varied powers as an actor ; and his Shylock somewhat strengthens our opinion that his excellence consists rather in energy and depth and variety of passion, than in grace and soft and delicate touches,—rather in the wild workings of an impassioned, an inspired, and highly-excited intellect and state of feeling, than in the refined and more gentle impulses of nature. - In the scene where he bar- gains with Eassanio and Antonio for the loan, we noted the varying expression of revenge, counting upon and sometimes already imagining the possession of its prey ; and the restless twinkling of the eye, which told
of the eager calculation of gain passing in the usurer's mind. He was peculiarly happy in the passage where he proposes that the penalty of the bond shall be a 'pound of flesh' He gave it in a careless, jocular tone, hesitating in his propositioa, as if he thought of what he should' name; and then quickly uttering it as if that or any other penalty, however insig- nificant, or no penalty at all, would do as well. This point was readily felt and acknowledged by the audience. " We thought the scene in the second act, when he pays his servant Launcolot, and gives his injunction, to his daughter Jessica before he leaves home, the least effective part of the performance. It was tame in com- parison, with the other parts.
" The scene in the third act was a masterpiece. The strength of the Jew's passions, of his joy, of his sorrow, his revenge, and his avarice, rose in the struggle, one upon the other, in rapid transitions, now over- coming-, now overcome by each other. WC have never seen human misery painted in stronger colours than when,. hearing of the loss of his daughter and recollecting the jewels she had carried away with her, he exclaims, in agonizing bitterness of soul, "rhe curse never fell upon our nation till now l'—and so on through the remainder of that passage ; as if, indeed, he, alone, did bear his persecuted nation's sufferings.
One's sincerest sympathy was involuntarily excited on behalf of his lonely and helpless wretchedness ; and the auditor was prompted to pity the
man, though his misery seemed but the due of his avarice and his fiend- ish purpose of revenge. And then the joy, as deep and malignant as his sorrow, on hearing of the losses of his debtor Antonio, all his hope of revenge, did bear the man up even from his lowest grief,—and his daughter and his ninnies were forgotten, though but for a moment,—then to come back again upon his mind to torture and distract him:
" In the trial scene, the energy and variety of Mr. PEMBERTON'S powers had full play, and he developed-them in a manner to call forth the
most genuine applause. We must notice one point which told with par- ticular force : when Antonio, on stating the terms of his forgiveness, de- mands that he should become a Christian, he sinks on his knees, in utter exhaustion ; his body bent double, and his head nearly reaching the ground;—the attitude was intensely expressive. " Of his excellencies and defects in. this performance, we may safely say, that the former predominated, and that the latter may he summed up
in the want of completeness. Mr. PEMBERTON'S Shylock was as the bold sketch of a. master, wrought up, and yet unfinished: the genius of the painter is discerned, and the beauty of the design, but as a picture it is
imperfect, and one's mind, resting on the excellence it sees, would fails it
were finished, that it might delight in the result. The feeling• prodUces an honest recognition of great talents, but it is mingled'with disappoint-
ment that its effects have not been quite adequate to their promise. We do notthink that Mr. Pkin BERSON will greatly alter his style of acting : his opinions, as his years, are matured ; his performances are formed upon them, and his day is too late to allow of much alteration. Nor do we think that he can effectively do more than add to his strength, grace; and this is but the work of good' sense and taste; of which he must be abundantly provided to delineate characters With-such truth as lie has dis- played both in Virginius and Shylock. We opine that his performances are as the measure of'his strength and his powers : a man cannot be tall and short; stout and slim; nor can we expect' one to have the powers of many. Whether he will be such as others have been, who have preceded him in this line of character, it is difficult to say : we do not recollect many, who have such varied powers; and the' management of Covent Garden Theatre have chosen from the few elect a pretty fair substitute for the great tragedian who has but lately retired. We would even yet withhold our final judgment of Mt% PEMBERTON'S merits, until we have seen him in Zang; Macbeth, and' Othello."
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