The magnificent spectacle of the week is the Sardanapalue of
Lord Byron Produced at the Princess's Theatre. But does not this possess merit enough to be entitled a " fine play," as well as the Lady Tartufe of Madame Girardin ? We evade this question, by answering that it is not as a fine play that Sardanapalus appeals to the inhabitants of this metropolis. Assyrian antiquities are a rage of the day ; a love of splen- did decoration is a leading sentiment in the playgoing public. This love of decoration in general has been consulted by Mr. Charles Kean ever since he opened his theatre. He now kills two birds with one stone, hit- ting at the same time the taste for splendour and the taste for Assyrian antiquities. The tragedy goes for nothing, but the hall of Nimrod, with its strangely costumed guests and its big Assyrian man-lions, will draw all the world to Oxford Street. The reader has only to fancy the figures in the Layard room of the British Museum heaving warm with life and rich with colour, Yet retaining something like their stony origin, and he will have a notion of the sort of personages who present themselves on the boards of the Princess's Theatre. The scenery is superb ; and the art of grouping has probably never been carried to such perfection, so as to contribute to the idea of immensity while dealing with a limited space. Mr. Charles Kean has modelled his play-bill on that of Macbeth, and keeps up the tone of elaborate explanation and instruction with all so- lemnity.
Previous page
