THE THEATRES.
The jeremiads upon the decline of Pantomime have been uttered so ()len, that at last people will begin to think they are a species of funeral dirge, which it is the custom for journalists to sing at Christmas, and which have no more particular meaning than the ode wherewithal the Laureate used to celebrate the Sovereign's birthday. Or some may even fancy that a dismal howl is kept ready stereotyped, laid by carefully for the whole year, and regularly set up in the winter, like the theatre in the West- minster dormitory.
Unfortunately, such is not the case, and the lamentations have become trite because the stimulus to lamentation has been repeated. , In this in- stance the shepherd's boy has shouted " wolf " so often precisely because the wolf has so often come.
Drury Lane gives us a pantomime called Friar Rush, with an introduc- tion somewhat below, and a "comic business" very much below the ave- rage. There are an old father and a pretty daughter, and a contest be- tween a handsome poor lover and a baron who has his pockets stuffed with money by one "King Gold," the Plutns of the piece. Need we tell our readers, that this is just the sort of plot that would be given to a panto- mime rattled up in a hurry? The only striking point is the appearance and disappearance of the Baron's castle under the influence of the ignie fatuus or "Friar Rush." The harlequinade tries to be facetious about Jenny Lind and the sale of Shalcsperes house; but the attempt is vain; and, take them altogether, a succession of more pointless and purposeless scenes cannot be imagined. The one exception is a scene in which Harle- quin dies, is broken to pieces, and rolled flat: but this is only the revival of a very old idea, which has been current from the days (we think) of the once celebrated Harkquin and Padtnanaba. Indeed, it suggests the melancholy reflection that there was at one time an ingenuity in construct- ing pantomimes, of which there is no sign at the present day. Harvey, the Harlequin, does the dying scene well; and the humour of Ridgway, the Clown, who really works very hard, alone makes the pantomime en- durable.
The Princess's also mainly owes its success to the very clever Clown, Flexmore; for the tricks in Old Father Tints show as little invention as the ornaments of a Twelfth-cake.
The Adelphi has made no " hit " by its attempt to substitute an Italian
pantomime of action with a Pierrot and a Polichinello for the usual hale- quinade. Anything that is in five acts and does not end with the death. of the dramatis personte may be passed off for a comedy; but the Lon- doners Isaye, a very olear theory -about theirpantorrnmes, and have no no- tion of the best Pierrot in Paris being substituted for a "Clown Anglais."
The Lyceum is the seat of the real Christmas triumph. Mr. Planche gives his burlesque, and of course it succeeds—thanks to the circumstance that he understands his business in this respect better than any man in England. The Golden Branch is not, as a drama, equal to Fortunio and some others of his burlesques; the peculiarities of the very remarkable tale (by the Countess d'Anois) upon which it is founded being rather descriptive than dramatic. But if be does not quite come up to the imagination of the reader by the way in which he renders the wonders of the enchanted tower, --nand even here we do not believe there is any one who could have so well performed a task so difficult,—he has turned to admirable account all the pastoral portion of the story, and by dressing his shepherds and shep- herdesses in the old conventional style, plunges us into a most delightful Watteau sort of life. He has, in addition to his talent, the advantage of working for a management distinguished by its taste, which spares no ex- pense in rendering pieces of the sort attractive and thoroughly satisfactory to the eye. Mr. Beverley has put forth all his power, and his Aroviian scenes are of a beauty almost unprecedented.
Turning to the Haymarket burlesque, we find a very different state of things. The dialogue abounds in jokes; and we have no doubt that if the mere books of the two burlesques were laid before a reader who had not an eye to the stage, Mr. a'Beckett's work would be found immeasurably su- perior to Mr. Planches. But Mr. Planchd has a talent for constructing these pieces, which Mr. a'Beckett has not; and the comparatively few ver- bal jokes which he introduces into his dialogues hit strongly, because he employs them with tact; whereas Mr. a'Beckett's perpetual fire of brilliancy Often leaves an audience unmoved. It was really melancholy to hear so much epigrammatic point produce so very little effect. Mr. Planchd has another talent peculiarly his own—he chooses his music well; and he writes words that not only fit the tunes, but that sound most amusingly on the ear, by a droll imitation of the words to which the tunes originally belonged. The story of the Haymarket burlesque is not a good one. It is called the World Under-ground; and the characters are personifications of the subterranean productions, Coal, Iron, Delf, China, Quartz, and Brass. These different elements of commerce are brought into violent collision by a contest for the hand of an universally admired princess; and great variety is occasioned by transporting the scene of action to the different regions. The burlesque company at the Haymarket is really superior to that of the Lyceum; for, now that Madame Vestris plays only subordinate parts, there is no one to equal Miss P. Horton, Mrs. Keeley, Miss Reynolds, and Mr. J. Bland. But still there is something loose in the story, that contrasts unfavourably with the strongly marked progress of Mr. Planches, and something in the style of getting up, though the dresses and scenes are very splendid, that renders disadvantageous a comparison with the elaborate elegance of the Lyceum.
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