Bubbles of the Day answers to its title: it is
a flight of brilliant, well- rounded periods, rising one after another, and reflecting in the polished surface, with the prismatic hues of wit and fancy, the follies and vices of the time. Or it may be more aptly likened to a blaze of fireworks, whose coruscations explode squibs and crackers ; the plot being little more than a frame for the pyrotechnic display. Metaphor apart, Mr. JERROLD'S comedy is a series of racy dialogues, where caustic humour, stinging satire, and flashing eloquence, are intermingled with occasional touches of deeper feeling. During the first two or three acts, the audi- ence were kept alive by this brisk fusillade, every shot of which was levelled at some notorious knavery, and hit the mark,—as the roar of laughter and applause that echoed each report abundantly testified : but as the business of the comedy came on, an utter destitution of in- terest in the story caused the attention to flag : people grew wearied, either with the rapid succession of boa mots and repartees, or with details of circumstances that they cared not for ; and the unravelment in the fifth act was heard listlessly, like a penance for the foregone enjoyment.
This is the plot. A couple of young ladies run off with a couple of young lovers, instead of the spouses destined for them, a selfish old Lord and a vulgar City Knight—to the discomfiture of a grasping and ambitious father and a wily usurer : Lord Skindeep finds a discarded son in the person of Captain Smoke, an adventurer ; and the mercenary father is proved to have assumed the name of Spreadweasel in order to escape recognition by his family, who needed his assistance.
Mrs. bliss= and Mrs. WALTER LACY, the two runaways, are very sprightly and entertaining ; Mrs. /slisurrr especially, whose joyous laugh and winning looks are captivating. FARREN, the specious egotist Lord Skindeep, was, perhaps for the first time in his career, imperfect in his part ; which lost some of its intended effectiveness in conse- quence. MEADOWS makes the money-lender, Malmsey Shark, quite a character, by the way in which he personates a part with no very dis- tinguishing features : his chuckling grin, like the rattle of the snake, sounds the knell of a fresh victim. HARLEY, as Sir Phoenix Clearcakc- the names bespeak the farcical nature of the comedy—knight of the hammer, talks George Robins's advertisements very amusingly ; CHARLES MATHEWS, as Captain Smoke, is as light as his name; and BARTLEY, as Spreadweasel, compresses his heartiness into a vice-like close-fistedness. Messrs. WALTER LACY and J. Virus() as the lovers— Mr. GRANBY, as Corks, a butler who abuses his master in a Sunday paper, under the signature of " Brutus the Elder "—Mrs. WEST, as Mrs. Quarto, a literary lady—Mrs. GAGER, as Guinea, a mercenary lady's- maid—Mr. Wiassr as Miftin, a barrister's clerk—Mr. BRINDAL, as Kimbo, a valet versed in stock-jobbing—Mr. HEMMING, as Waller, the brother of Spreadweasel—and Mr. F. MerraEws, as Mr. Brown, the father of a sucking legislator—are each and all entitled to a recognition of their share in the performance.
The play is magnificently produced. The curtain fell amidst general applause ; and the house greeted the announcement of the new comedy for performance thrice a week, with a call for the author—which was reluctantly obeyed.
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