THE THEATRES.
Tue. occurrences of the week, though trivial, are sufficient to prevent an entire blank in our chronicle of stage doings. POWER reappeared at Covent Garden ots Wednesday, as Ale hero of a new farce; but the firm of )Ifuckintoill and Co. hung as dull and heavy round the neck of their Hibtattian representative as one of the Indnerubber capes of their namesake. The sunshine of PowEit'e merriment was quenched by is Scotch mist of stern authority, and his genial good-humour chilled by a cold repellent air (111;10 foreign to his nature. Nut only is the principal character to grave for farce, but the main incident is positively unpleasant diverced husband teaching his henpecked successor how to control the termagant wife that has plagued them both in turn, is very disagreeable sort of fen at best; nor is it lightened by the sentimentalism,: of the ex-husband at meeting with his son. Baursee, us the timorous sputtss., plucking up a spirit with the desperate energy of a man frightened at his own Ale ts- and Mrs. W. CLIFFORD, RS the virago, who, when her fury fails, con. quers by sobs and tears—realized the impotent violence of a domestic broil most ludicrously. We hope to see POWER in a pert better suited to him. A dash of pathos or sentiment and a touch of ettergy are very effective in giving nerve to his easy smiling gayety, but the sombre does not become him altogether.
The whole of the music of the Black Domino was given on its first representation at Covent Garden yesterday week ; but three acts proved rai too tedious, and so the first was dispensed with here, as the third h been at the Olympic: even the second and third, however, were too much for people's putienee. The music is Acetat without his animal spirits : it is vapid as flat champagne ; and a constant straining after effect destroys the charm of' his striking itetr.7neetation. The titter failure of this opera, may teach managers what it is strange they should need to learn—namely, that local or areidental success is not a safe test of worth ; and that nothing but what bus intritts;e merit will ever bear translation. The novelty, the eclat of A UBER'S name, and the finished performance, mainly contributed to give the Black Domino the brief popularity it enjoyed in Paris. BUNN is getting up ll Flout() Magic° at Drury Lane. The one element of sterling excellence is here ; but whether the essential aids to the production of fine music, in the way in which only it can be en- joyed, will be added to the inure flimsy accessories of attraction, remains to he seen.
The Lady of Lyons has taken strong hold on the public liking. The intensity of expression, and the enteeittl manner of NIACREADY'S per- sonation of the hero, sustain the interest from first to last. Being called for after the play on Wednesday, Mr. Alarm:am very properly alluded to the attempts made by one or two Tory papers to give a petty colourine to some passages of historical rather than political Ohl. sion in the play. He disavowed on the part of the author, and of himself as manager, all intention to make the stage a vehicle for the dissemination of planks of any kind ; and appealed to the audience to confirm his declaration of rite groundlessness of such it charge in this instance. The response of the audience—the proper jury to try the question—was unanimous in the appellutit's learnt. It is obvious to common sense, that the .• Republican sentiments," as they are called, are not only proper to the characters, and the time and place of the scene. htut naturally arise out of the dramatic situa. Lions. The :ANA on the play, we may venture to assert, laid more to do with green-mien jealousy than political feeling; and was as despicable as it has proved harmless. The author, who was last week reported as a Mr. CALVERT, or Mr. Citron's:a., is now publicly announced as Mr. EDWARD LYTTON BULWER. 'I he studious con. cealment of the writer was doubtless iittended to obviate the influence of the personal prejudice that Mr. Be awett and his friends assigned as the motive of the opposition to his first dratuatie pi (Auction, the now forgotten Dachfsse de la Valliere. Though that drama was, in our opinion, justly condetnited, we think that the present was more indulgently re- ceived than an avowed production of Mr. Bleavist's would have been : not because it di-twined the supposed personal opaosition, but simply for the reason that the work of a writer of Mr. Ilciaviat's high stand- ing, would, very fairly, have been tried by a si verer test than that of an unknown and (as it e as believed) an untried author. It muse be con- fessed that the Maid of Lyons does less honour to the practiced pen of the veteran litterateur, than to the inexperienced hand of a tyro. We are glad, howess.r, that the success of the play enables us to number Bui.wi:a among the list of popular dramatists. A new tragedy by the author of Ion is announced as having been accepted by the nmeitgement of Covent Garden. We hail with pleasure these promising symptoms of the revival of dramatic literature.
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