J4 tigairts.
Mr. Murdoch, an actor from the United States, long esteemed among his own countrymen, made his London debflt at the -Haymarket on Mon- day, in Farquhar's comedy The Inconstant. It is scarcely necessary to state that this is one of the numerous plays of the old repertory, in which a dashing young gentleman of high birth and breeding, but of low moral- ity, is the commanding figure. These plays, so popular in their day, have sunk into oblivion, partly because both in plot and in language they usually infringe upon Modern feelings of propriety, partly because the act- ors, who shone as the representatives of the brilliant rakes of the last cen- tury, have passed away, leaving a vacancy which none have filled up. Indeed, since the time of Mr. Charles Kemble there has not been a single theatrical artist who has gained a high reputation by presenting that com- pound of physical force, genial repartee, overflowing spirits, and aristo- cratic bearing, that was once deemed essential in the beau ideal of the "man of wit and pleasure about town." With these oldfashioncd athletes of profligacy, the neat, insinuating adventurers of the modern stage, so exquisitely delineated by Mr. Charles Mathews, have little or nothing in common.
Now Mr. Murdoch has many qualifications of the old school ; and his appearance on Monday night must have awakened in veteran playgoers sundry reminiscences of the youthful days. He is built on a large scale ; his enunciation is strong ; and though his gayety is somewhat stereo- typed, there is a substantiality about him that stamps him as the com- manding figure while he is present on-the stage. The gallantry of Mim- bel in the last act, when he determines to die with a merry face though death approaches him in the horrible form of deliberate murder, and the joy lie evinces when deliverance comes upon him like a miracle, were portrayed with singular farce • and it is a fine conception on the part of the actor, that the distress which the young hero -occasionally displays to the audience while he conceals it from the ruffians is made to appear most poignant when a sense of indignity rather than of fear must be the feeling of the moment. We suspect that Mr. Murdoch is less an original genius than a careful artist, who has conscientiously formed himself on an approved model. However, Nature has endowed him with good material, and he has formed himself well
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