T. P. COOKE AT THE SURREY.
IN a piece called Black-eyed Susan, the favourable report of which attracted us to the Surrey Theatre, Mr. T. P. COOKE presents the beau ideal of an English sailor. The beau ideal is a thing having slight relation to the real character ; and which has its existence only on the stage, and in novels, songs, claptraps, and sentiments. It is a creation of a blue jacket, loose black handkerchief, trowsers very tight across the hips and wide down the legs, a bronzed face, and straw hat stuck on the back of the head. It is prodigal of its money, constant to its sweetheart, and has an extreme proneness to hornpipes and loyalty. Lastly, it speaks always in a lingo consisting of a nice de rangement of the nautical nomenclature. Such is the tar. ef the. stage, and such to a miracle is Mr. T. P. Coma in Blackfejlea Susan's Wil liam. For our own parts, we are free to confess that there are three personations abhorrent to us in a theatre,-,those of a Sailor, an Irishman, and a Frenchman ; which are entirely fictitious conceptions, and as wearisome by their repetition as distasteful by their manifest variance from truth. Who does not tire of the Irishman's" at all, at all," and blunders ; the Frenchman's fopperies and grimaces ; the Sailor's jerk of his irowsers, devotion to grog and George, and incessant-gabble of misused nauticaltereW Mr. T. P. Cocain. has the merit of softening down these absurdities. He looks the tar excellently;. and by the force of his talents he continues to give an air of vraisemblance to the stuff which is attributed to him. Notwithstanding his exertions; however, the piece did not justify the character we had heard of it. The mixture of lingo and sentimentality, only supported by one incident, furnishes but a meagre entertainment. The piece is said to be taken from the ballad ; but except the names of William and Susan, the quality of sailor, and the lady's feature of black eyes, we do not perceive what is or was to be borrowed from that source. The solitary incident is, that William sees his Captain committing a rudeness to his wife ; he cuts him down, is tried for the insubordination, and sentenced to death. We have his trial by courtmartial, which is somewhat tedious to behold ; and the preparations for his execution at the fore-yard, all most unnautical in effect, though of much pretension to nautical accuracy. Just at the moment of his doom, the wounded Captain rushes in according to stage usage, and proclaims that William was discharged from the service at the time of the assault, and consequently not liable to the Articles of War. The drama, it will thus be seen, is slight and feeble ; but it is supported by very respectable talent ; and a Mr. B ucic STONE, whom we remember to have seen at the Adelphi, is particularly amusing. As we have mentioned the faults in the nautical vocabulary, we shall instance, for example, William's oath of "grape shot and caluster ;" the idea of which would seem to be borrowed from Acres oaths appropriate, in the Rivals. The manager of a theatre might as correctly be made to swear by his foot lamps and chandeliers.
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