THE THEATRES.
THE closing of Drury Lane on Saturday last, the opening of the Hay market next Monday, the temporary departure of ELLEN TREE from Covent Garden to fulfil her country engagements, the daftt of Miss JANE MORDAUNT in Juliet at the same theatre on Monday, and the elec- tion of Mrs. STIRLING as Chairwoman of the Ladies' Chill at the Olym- pic, in place of Mrs. GLOVER, who is engaged at the Haymarket, are all the news of the week ; to which we are happy to add the notable cir- cumstance of the Queen and Prince Albert having privately visited Covent Garden twice to see 'mon 111Tnes play, of which they ex- pressed their admiration. A lively little ballet-divertissement, entitled Les Champs Blysea, has varied the amusements of Covent Garden this week, and introduced a juvenile pupil of OSCAR BYRNE, Master W. Smrru, a boy of nine years old, who gives extraordinary promise of agility in the arts of bounding, pirouetting, and other varieties of limb-twisting : it must be confessed, however, that the Irish jig and Highland fling, executed con amore by grown dancers, was the most pleasing part of the exhibition. The ballet is got up with great taste ; and the apparition of the little dancer in the midst of a basket of bon-bons is a very pretty Jitney. CIBBER'S comedy of the Double Gallant is to be revived here on Thursday ; and, with Romeo and Juliet, will fill the void occasioned by the temporary withdrawal of Love and the Legend if Florence,—pre- miming that the new Juliet is successful ; which, judging from the pro- mise of Miss JANE MORDAUNT'S trial performances at the Queen's Theatre, when it was under the management of her sister Mrs. Nis- BET, may be anticipated. The Haymarket company is very strong in names ; and if the per- formers who appear on the opening night continue through the season, its success will be greater than ever : the bill of fare is Hundct, with MAcuunnv and WARDE, Mrs. WARNER and Miss P. HORTON ; and POWER in farce. OXBERRY is engaged instead of BUCKSTONE, who continues at the Adelphi. C. KEAN is the remove for MicanaDv, in tragedy. Miss HELEN FAncrr is too ill to appear, her lungs being af• fected by her exertions. We are sorry to learn that to her bodily suf- ferings have been added mental distress, arising front some idle slanders that had become so current as to render it necessary for her relatives to publish medical certificates of the nature of her malady. The scan- dal, probably, was limited to the foul atmosphere where it was engen- dered, and may become known to the public, as it is to us, for the first time by the contradiction. The Gentleman in Black has appeared at the Olympic; and the staid gravity and formality of Mr. JONES, who personates the myterious cha- racter, together whit the smart, off- hand manner of WILD, who discharges
vollies of puns, keep up the humour of the equivoques capitally. The fun consists in the chagrin of Mr. Peter Punctilio, a sedate middle- aged wooer, and a walking chronometer, whose character for punctu- ality causes him to lose a rich young wife, after having been annoyed by being successively mistaken for a doctor, a lawyer, an undertaker, and a parson.
Previous page
