SERLE'S new drama of The Widow Queen having - been put in
abeyance for a short time by the illness of 11Irs. WAYLETT, PEAK L'S popular and cleyer piece The Climbing Boy has been substituted for it. A hit at the legislatorial folly of suppressing the cry of" Sweep "might be introduced with good effect at this particular itme. There were several novelties in the cast ; the principal one being ROSIER'S appearance in REEVE'S famous part of Jack Ragg. It was an arduous task to succeed REEVE in the part ; and the best praise of the new actor is that he did succeed. It was not an imitation, but genuine and original acting. ROSIER and Liepredecessor are contrasts and opposites, rather than resemblances. REEVE is rich and oily, sly and stipple : he is fat with unctuous drol- lery, wallows in fun, and rolls a joke in his mouth like a savoury mor- sel: there is a lurking perception of a jest in his e7e : his humour oozes out at every pore. ROSIER is quaint, dry, hard, edgy, and clownish: he makes fun by seeming unconscious of being droll ; blurt- ing out his words in a monotonous tone, as if merely to get rid of them. In sooth this want of modulation in his voice is not a little tiresome, though at times it falls in with the humour of the part. If he can get rid of this defect, he will be a prime favourite in low comedy. His face is grotesque and capacious ; and admirably characteristic of rustic ignorance, insensibility, and no-meaning. He dressed Jack Ragg capitally. .Mr. M‘IaN, who played SALTER'S part of Stinker the poacher (and let us add, 1Volfgang the robber, in the opera), is a clever actor in the line of characters that PAYNE and 0. SMITH are so famous in. From what we saw of him, he seems a master of his art. He has a good eye for the picturesque in costume, and a regard for nature and probability in his acting: we should like to see him in some part where his pecu- liar talent would be brought out more prominently. There is too mush of rusticity in Shaker for his style : but he showed that he felt the character truly, by the subdued expression with which he spoke of his starving family
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Mr. ARNOLD is lengthening his entertainments at both ends. Not content with their beginning an hour earlier, he prolongs them an hour later. In a theatre where there is no half price, this is without an'ex. cuse, and seems bad policy. It nifty be done with the best intentions, but it has the worst possible effect : the audience who stayed to the conclusion were fairly tired out.
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