The event that signalizes M. Laurent's management of Covent Garden,
the production of an English version of the Antigone of Sophocles, with Idendelssohn's choruses, is noticed under the head of Music.
• Mr. Henry Betty, a son of the whilom "Master Betty "—a boy-tragedian whom the fashionable world made a pet of some forty years ago— made his first appearance in London at this theatre on Saturday, as Hamlet. Mr. H. Betty is a practised performer, with a passable figure, and no lack of confidence ; and he went through the business of the part creditably enough according to the stage conventionalities ; receiving a great .deal of applause from injudicious friends, and eliciting a few hisses and some laughter from the less partial portion of the audience. His appearance is not uneomely ; but his face and eye are so inexpressive that not a ray of mind or feeling enlightened the blank of his physiognomy; and his voice, unable to bear the strain of incessant rant, became husky and almost inaudible at the last. Violent gesture, vociferous loudness, and a shaking of the head vigorous enough to dislodge a wig had he worn one, are the means by which Mr. H. Betty aims to express tragic passion: it is superfluous to add, that lie entirely failed to excite any graver emotion than regret at such an exhibition on the boards of Covent Garden. He has since .played Claude Melnote in the Lady of Lyons, and is announced to appear in Macbeth: but if he desires to continue on the London stage, he must be content with a much less ambitious range of characters. Mr. Betty can -never hope to become a great tragedian; though he may be a useful actor in subordinate parts.
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