THE THEATRES.
THE principal event of the week is a sad one ; for it threatens to de- prive the English stage of its greatest comedian, Mr. W. FARRELL At the Haymarket on Tuesday evening, just at the close of the perform- ance of Old Parr, it became evident to those on the stage that the indi- cations of weakness and decrepitude exhibited by Mr. FARREN were more real than simulated : he was in a state of unusual tremor, and sank down in his chair as if actually insensible. At the fall of the curtain presently afterwards, medical aid having been sent for, it was pro- nounced to be an attack of paralysis, affecting one side and arm. Mr. FARREN is said to have suffered two similar attacks before, the last being apparently less severe than the first, which occurred twenty years ago, but more so than the second. He was remarkably hale in ap- pearance, and is not a very old man, and his habits have been active and regular : there is hope, therefore, that he may recover. Drury Lane has received an accession to its musical attractions by the appearance of Mrs. ALFRED SHAW in Cinderella. This opera has been performed alternately with The Favourite; and the beautiful dancing of CsaLarre Gann and M. PETIPA continues to please.
Covent Garden has been closed during the week. The alleged rea- son is the preparation necessary for the performances of the juvenile corps, who have arrived from Paris. The very small success of comedy, however, rendered the closing any thing but a sacrifice on the part of the lessee. Les Enfans Castelli, and their companions of Le Gymnase Enfantin, forming together a company of thirty-six performers, are announced to appear on Monday ; M. Lerrammott, a grotesque dancer from Paris, is also engaged. The children had been previously an- nounced at the Princess's, and the manager of that theatre issued an advertisement stating that those engaged at Covent Garden were not the real "Enfans Castelli ": this statement, however, has been officially contradicted by the agents at Paris.
Mr. HAMMOND reopened the New Strand Theatre this week, with a
monologue entertainment under the inviting title of A Night with Punch. It consists of a collection of facetite from the amusing weekly publica- tion, strung together by means of slight sketches of character and in- terspersed with comic songs ; the whole concluding with a series of per- sonations, one of which was the redoubtable " lignum-vita: Roscins " himself. Whether it was that the fame of Punch had raised inordinate expectations of merriment—that the jokes, so diverting to the reader, lost their effect in the telling—or that Mr. HAMMOND'S mimicry was not sufficiently exciting—or owing, perhaps, to a combination of all three causes—the performance went off heavily, and exhausted the patience of the audience. Mr. HAMMOND has one of the qualities of the hunch- backed hero—hardness; but he wants a more essential one—humour.
Another illustration of the poverty of resources on the part of our
dramatists has been afforded this week by the simultaneous production at the Haymarket and the Adelphi of two different versions of a French farce, which, judging from the English performances, has nothing to recommend it to a translator. The Haymarket piece issues from the MORTON mint, and is stamped A Railroad Trip, or London, Bir- mingham, and Bristol. The Adelphi coin, though equally base, bears the name of STERLING, and the title Wanted a Wife, with a similar alias. The plot is one of those cat's-cradle complications that tease and perplex rather than amuse ; and the farce has no other qualities than bustle, confusion, and practical jokes of the most extravagant absurdity, offering excuses for buffoonery, since it affords no opportunity for any better sort of acting. People hissed at both houses, as well they might; but some laughed ; and so these counterfeits will pass current for a few nights, in default of " metal more attractive." The Princess's has produced an English version of Don Pasquale; Mr. PAUL BEDFORD taking the part that LABLACHE created.
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