HAY MARKET THEATRE.
A NEW " semi-historical play," as it is somewhat pedantically termed in the bills, entitled Madame the Barri, or a Glance at Court, was produced at this theatre on Tuesday night, with con- siderable success. It is a translation from the French ; but whether by reason of the English words, the English actinas, or the English adaptation, it was tedious and heavy, and not only allows of, but requires, much curtailment. The plot turns upon a court intrigue of the Duke of Richelieu to supplant Madame du Barri, by introducing a new favourite to the notice of Louis the Fifteenth ; which is frustrated by the virtue of the girl, who turns out to he the daughter of a friend of the King.
The design of the drama is to present a picture. of the profligate court of Louis ; which, though imperfect, is sufficiently striking as far as it. goes. There is Madame du Barri, the reigning favourite, a clever and dashing woman, in whom the sense of shame and right is not quite dead, but only stifled by levity, and glossed over a certain boldness of manner more honest in seeming than in reality. She was personated by Miss TAYLOR, in it hard and artificial style, as though she performed the part by rote. This young lady is be- coming so hackneyed in mannerism, that nature is scarcely seen Through the medium of her art; she acts, but never seems to feel the character; and her performance, therefore, is not only uninteresting, but repulsive—clever as it may be. Then there is the King himself, assuming an air of dignity quite at variance with the undignified nature of his pursuits : he had but an indifferent representative in H. WALLACK. Count John du Barri—an im- pudent, heartless, court dependant, with an affected brusquerie, that serves as a veil to his unblushing profligacy, is a somewhat striking character, boldly and rather too abruptly played by COOPER; whose performance wanted ease, coolness, and (if we may be allowed the phrase) keeping, though it was not unsuc- cessful. WEBSTER, as the Duke of Richelieu, made nothing of a part that FARREN would have rendered prominently attractive. HARLEY, as the Duke de Lavrilliere, a thorough-going. place- hunter, who dispenses lettres de cachet to the possessors of court influence as freely as though they were blank forms of petitions, was very amusing, and afforded a specimen of the old French court, that was scarcely an exaggeration. Mrs. ASHTON, as the intended victim, played well ; but it was a character for Miss ELLEN TREE, who is suffered to "waste her sweetness" in Grub Street. Mr. POOLE is the reputed author (or translator rather) of the piece: it will not add to his reputation.
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