The English theatres are going on mournfully enough. Mr. and
Mats', Kean were to have appeared on Monday at the Haymarket; bate - tleman had a sudden attack of indisposition, and the appearance idis post- poned till Monday next. The Princess's, after a series of productions in- geniously unattractive, has modestly closed for a week—perhape aft the principle that theatres, like land, improve by occasionally lying *snow: on Monday, however, it reopens, with Mr. Allen in the Crown Di at Sit. At the Adelphi, a very commonplace farce is decked out with a fe ,tuerf inci- dents, to entitle it to the interesting name of Going to the Derbytot thing too nonsensical even for Adelphi farce, though Wright is amusing.
Meanwhile, a French theatrical invasion is threatened in good earnest. Not only is the entire company of the Palais Royal coming to the St. James's, but the troupe of the" Theatre Historique," armed with the dramas of Dumas and the whole of the splendid scenery and properties exhibited at Paris, is hastening to Drury Lane. The composer Adam, says report, is going to bring another force into the field—the company of the "Opera National." The English players seem alarmed, and begin to" demonstrate." Large placards are posted on the walls of the Metropolis, which at the first glance look like new manifestations of Chartism, but on closer inspection they turn out to be appeals to the British authors and actors, calling upon them to resist the foreign invasion by petition. Petition whom, for what? If people will pay their loose money to see foreign rather than English per- formances, we may lament the fact, but how they are to be stopped we do not see.
Previous page
