The Woman - Hater, at the Haymarket, is a slight sketch, by
Mr. BER- NARD, that has the merit of brevity at least : the idea, though not new, was worth working out more carefully. The " woman-hater," a Ger- man Baron, shuts his castle against all womankind, but can't shut his eyes to beauty or his heart to amiability : so he falls in love with the first pretty girl he sees; and she proves to be the wife of his nephew, whom he had forbidden to marry. The scene where the old bachelor's study is suddenly metamorphosed into a snug boudoir, with a cheerful fire and lamps lighted, and a mother and her children seated at their evening repast, involves a pretty compliment to the enlivening influence of woman's presence. We should have preferred Mrs. EDWIN YARNOLD to Mrs. CHARLES PETTINGALL for the young mother—which was pos- sible ; and FARREN as the misanthrope, instead of WEBSTER—which is not. Mr. WEERrEies style is too bard and full of effort to portray a character whose lineaments require the delicate touches of a master- hand to develop their inflections : it belongs to few, and only consum- mate artists, to depict a complete change of feeling in a scene or two, with the effect of verisimilitude.
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