The opening night of the Haymarket passed off without much
eclat. The house looks all the better for a little cleaning, and the new drop- scene of a " Temple of the Muses," by PHILLIPS, is an improvement on
the old one ; though its effect would have been improved by the omis- sion of the figures. The audience was by no means a full one at the commencement ; and " God save the Queen" was sung in a way that indicates music to be a very subordinate feature of the entertainments. MACREADY, BULWER, and POWER, arc the stars by which the manager apparently intends to steer his course ; and he may reckon on a pros- perous voyage. The Sea Captain is again in commission ; Richelieu is to be recalled to take the lead in affairs ; and the Lady of Lyons will probably appear so soon as her health is reestablished. PowEit as the Irish Lion wags his tail to the infinite delight of the company, making the audience roar with laughter ; and has attracted the Queen to see him on His Last Legs. The performance of Hamlet was remarkable chiefly for the success of Miss P. Howrox in Ophdia : she divided the applause with MACREADY. It is a very beautiful personation, but is yet susceptible of a few more touches of natural feeling. Miss HORTON on the first night did not represent Ophelia as under the influence of love : she returned the tokens of Hamlet's passion with indifference, and his outbreak of mad- ness affected her little. Her first mad scene was touching in the ex- treme, though scarcely -wild and unconscious enough she burst into song with the sudden impulse of one who had no power of self-control, and wandered from one theme to another ; taking leave and calling for her coach with the air of one distracted. Her second scene was not so good : she showed too much self-possession throughout ; and though site did not give the song with the air of a concert-singer, as is some- times done, there was too much " method" in her madness. The tra- ditionary stage-trick of spreading the scarf on the ground, and scat- tering it over with flowers as though it were the corpse of her father, is not a characteristic trait of a disordered fancy ; which does not seek to realize the painful objects that haunt it. Oplielia might try to conjure up her father living, but not dead: moreover, it was as much dis- appointed love as her father's death that crazed the poor girl. Mimic, is a favourite part with i\IACREADY, as with most other tra- gedians; and for the same reason—its predominance, and the scope it affords for displaying stage accomplishments : but he certainly does not embody the ideal abstraction, neither are his powers adapted to the personation of the wayward, contemplative character. The essential defect of MscitEsor is, that he cannot get rid of his personal identity. By dint of lashing himself into a rage, he succeeds in producing an artificial furor that passes for inspiration in scenes of vehement action; but the development of Hamlet's character is a mental, rather than a physical process. MACREADY'S personation wants .soul; nay more, it is deficient in the personal attributes of a flighty manner and sarcastic levity of tone, that throw flickering lights across the gloom of a pro- found melancholy. His monotonous and disjointed utterance, and formal manner, only relaxing occasionally into a lackadaisical affecta- tion of self-pitying fondness, or bursting out into a noisy manifestation of energy, conveys the idea of a pedantic lecturer giving his reading of the character to a class of pupils; so visible is all the mechanism of acting. 31sci:1:.11)Y neglects one of the leading points in the play,— namely, Hamlet's bitter hatred of his uncle, which is obvious in the marked contempt and aversion with which Hamlet always treats him : the very first sentence lie utters is a sneer at the King, yet MACREADY enunciates it with the solemn gravity of a philosophic truth. Mrs. WARNER, as the Queen, leaves nothing to be desired; and WARDE, who appears not to have wholly recovered from his severe indisposi- tion, looks the villanous King admirably. STRICKLAND, as is the cus- tom, makes the politic courtier Polonius a garrulous imbecile ; and OXBERRY gives the pragmatical humour of the Grail digger with a tone of insolence that is not necessary to the licence of his tongue. J. WEBSTER assumed an air quite inconsistent with the modest excellences of Hamlet's chosen friend; and WEBSTElt himself gives a hard and clownish version of the fop Osric.
The costumes are superb, and their fashion is better suited to the play than those at Covent Garden : the scenery, too, is in good taste. The substitution of life-size pictures for the miniatures, formerly used in the closet scene, is au improvement. The idea of the Ghost coming out of the picture of Hamlet's father is ingenious, but too pantomimic for tragedy. We had almost forgot Mr. Pum.rs's personation of the Ghost—and perhaps it is well to do so entirely, for both his speech and presence are any thing but spiritual.
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