THE THEATRES.
OF a dozen different theatres now open, we contrived to visit half during the Easter week : our circuit included only those that lay be- tween Covent Garden and St. James's ; but had we been disposed to extend our peregrinations beyond, mortal patience would have endured no further—the sight of the Monkies and Dogs at the St. James's was the finishing stroke. The entertainments generally are not peculiar to the season ; and moreover, by the time this report meets the reader's eye, the holydays will be well nigh over : therefore we shall pay no regard to Easter-tide in this brief notice of their characteristics.
The Lyceum claims the first place, in virtue of its new manage- ment. The company consists almost wholly of strange faces ; with the agreeable exception of Mrs. STIRLING, who spoke tha opening ad- dress, and was warmly welcomed back to the stage, which it was reported she bad left. Mrs. STIRLING, indeed, is the chief if not the sole attraction of this theatre; for the rest of the performers, though of respectable talent in their several ways, are of no great mark or like- -Mood ; perhaps we ought to except Mrs. B. Pmer.th, stirightqictress, who Sings very prettily. Mrs. Simmrsa's personation of ,Lisfy Mary Wortley Montagu gave life and spirit to a tame but not inelegantly- written piece : her flighty and wanton manner is enlivened with a hearty• vivacity equally natural and delightful : her assumption of the high- wayman, in which character she robs and terrifies the old lord intended for her husband, is a charming specimen of graceful swagger. Mr. SHAW, Who played the fop, and Mr. AainsoN, the old beau, are practised and useful performers : the subordinate parts, also, were well filled, especially the old lady, the waiting-maid, and the stupid footman. The melodrama of The Silver Crescent, or the Oath of Vengeance, is of the Pistolberg and Daggersdorff sort, the taste for which is now 'banished to the outskirts of the town. Mr. H. BEDFORD, (brother to 'PAUL BEDFORD of Covent Garden,) who has a tenor voice as powerful St his frame, and Miss E. Homena, with Mrs. PENLEY, are the princi- pal vocalists. The scenery and costumes are very complete and appro- priate.
Izaak Walton, on the Olympic stage, is a fish out of water ; very 'Pretty to see, but not at all lively. PARREN looks as like the picture of "a pike in a doublet " as possible ; Tottenham Cross, and the meadows by the Lea, appear in all the freshness of old Izaak's own descriptions ; and VESTRIS sings "Come live with me and be my love," in a way to make one accept the invitation extempore. So far all is delightful ; but fitassetion and dialogue are heavy, and though short, tedious. The milkmaid is no milkmaid, but old Izaak's ward in disguise ; " Vena- tor " is her lover, a young Templar who scrapes acquaintance with " riscator " in order to get into his good graces ; moreover, old Izaak "himself disperses a riotous body of Prentices and Templars by lee- - ;taring the combatants, and resists single-handed the attack of a gang of gipsies, flinging their leader out of the window : these and other Incongruities interfere with the truth of the scenic pictures, and destroy the charm of the associations. Vienna's mimicry of the rustic speech and manner of Maudlin is capital; the improbability of her guardian not recognizing his ward may be excused on that account. SELBY and OKBERRY, as the two Apprentices, looking like overgrown Blue-coat boys, are very amusing; and BLAND and his fellow Gipsies make a pie- turesq.ue group. The view of old Fleet Street, with the gathering of the Prentices, is an effective scene ; but the landscapes are the most beauti- (ul: the breezy freshness of the morning, with the first ruddy streaks of dawn seen over the misty trees, the sunny brightness of noon (only that the tints are too autumnal), and the glow of evening, are depleted with the delicacy and purity of easel-painting : in aerial effect TRunses - scenes are superior to STANFIELD'S. The Garrick Fever is a laughable farce, in which KEELEY plays a trolling actor, who passes himself off as Garrick at a country theatre. KEELEY'S ludicrous figure, acting Hamlet in a black velvet ,coat with square skirts and knee-breeches, and a powdered tie-wig , out of tie, a broad blue riband over his shoulder, and long weepers, b only part of the fun : his first appearance, disconsolate, jaded, and covered with dust, carrying his " wardrobe " in a ponket- handkerchief—his trepidation at his own temerity, exaltation at the success of his scheme, and finally his discomfiture when, overcome with the wine he had drunk, he confesses his imposture—complete the glorious absurdity. Miss TAYLOR as Ophelia, in a hoop-petti- coat, all flounced and furbelowed, with powdered toupee, calls to • mind the young beauties floating in a sea of silk and satin on a court-day in old times. GREEN looks comical as the manager dressed for the Ghost, but his drollery is not to our taste. The perfect manner in which this trifle is got up, even to the costume of the Call-boy and the Barber who appears but once, deserves especial praise. Mrs. 'Mims:emu, as a dowager, seems like a resuscitation of one of our ,stately great-grandmothers, both in dress and manner; and BROUGHAM as an Irish Major, with portentous powdered wig and whiskers, is the very image of a red-hot Orange volunteer.
We saw enough of' the revival of Lodoiska, at Covent Garden, to tes- tify the efficient style in which it is got up, and the potency of the blow-up finale, and to doubt the policy of reviving these modern antiques of bygone popularity ; though it is more amusing and effective than the so-called novelty, The King of the Mist, at Drury Lane.
At the Haymarket, the joint attraction of POWER and the "ascend- ing orchestra" was deemed sufficient : the latter, in our opinion, might be altogether dispensed with, for the orchestra made quite noise enough as it was, without winding up the band to put them on a level with the other performers. A stupid farce was revived, in which 0. SMITH ap- peared, but not to advantage; we shall see him in Mephistopheles next week.
Of the performances of the troop of Monkies and Dogs at the St. James's, (the goats do not appear, so that the beard and horns of the entertainment are cut off,) we frankly avow we are not unprejudiced judges : had the exhibition taken place in a booth at a fair, instead of an elegant theatre, and the showman appeared in a dirty spangled jacket, instead of being a portly gentleman in broad-cloth with dia- mond rings, we should have been content to smile at the docility of the animals and their ludicrous helplessness ; but, as it was, disgust almost overpowered the sense of the ridiculous. It is no new thing to see dogs and monkies dressed up like men and women, imitating luunanity abominably ; not new even to the stage, for we learned from a septuage- narian, that, "sixty years since," a troop of these animals shot a deserter and stormed a castle at Sadler's Wells, in much better style than the pre- sent bestial company. The performance is dull, and protracted to a length tiresome even to those whom it pleased ; and the merriment was excited by the failure of the poor creatures, not their successful efforts : the best feats were the skipping and rope-dancing and the shooting the deserter : to see dogs walking on their fore-paws, with their hind-legs in the air, is simply disagreeable. How long will the public tolerate these disgusting stage nuisances? At all the theatres over the water, brutes are the grand attraction : if the animals could retaliate, they would be much more amused with bipeds "tarred and feathered," and men, prone as their tendencies, aping the form of the beasts they most resemble.
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