18 DECEMBER 1852, Page 12

The great ecclesiastical drama of the winter season, the Westminster

play, shines out with more than usual éclat this year, chiefly through the extraordinary talent displayed by Mr. Twiss in the " crack " part of Syrus. Soaring far above the standard of mere carefulness and docility, he exhibits an ease, a mastery of gesticulation, and a perception of cha- racter, which would do honour to a professional comedian. The pro- logue alludes to the death of the Duke of Wellington, and to the coinci- dence that the Adelphi, the play of this year, was originally produced at the funeral games consequent upon the death of Paulus .7Emilius. The epilogue, which, to our thinking, is less spirituel than usual, refers to the gold mania in Australia and California.