9 MAY 1840, Page 12

THE THEATRES.

THE season is now in its prime; the influx of visiters to the Metropolis is at high-tide ; yet, at the very harvest-time of theatricals, managers are reaping but scanty profits. The prudent Adelphi is fain to close its doors three weeks before the expiration of its after-season, which used to yield a rich second crop ; and YATES complains that the fine weather has not agreed with hie friend The Peril. The Queen's marriage, the Royal partiality for plays, CHARLES KEMBLE'S resuscitation, pantomimes, Easter pieces, the premature closing of Drury, the permission to keep open every night during Lent—all these extrinsic advantages (on which players are apt to rely too much, by the by) have proved of little avail. And why? Novelty is wanting. The fallow days of Covent Garden—the dreary time before Christmas; which is generally considered the heaviest drawback upon the resources of the management—passed prosperously over; for Lore, who " rules the court, the camp, the grove," ruled the theatre too. Revivals are useful till-ups, but they rarely repay the labour and pains of' reproduction in the proportion of 'weenies : and spectacle is only good for holyday-time aud half pi ice A isiters. Let us will:Ter in YaerEe's ear, now his Devil is gone to the shades below, that he was a deuced dull fellow AA ith all his absurdi,iee, aud his tail a mere gauze and tinsel affair: Jail: Sloppard seems to have been house-cracking at the Adelphi in good earnest, finthe front-wall of the theatre has to be rebuilt. At the Haymarket, Sir E. I,. Reeve re's plays with INIALTEADe have not proved 60 attractive as Brueeen's llo-ecs with PowEa; but a new tragedy is announced f ,r the warm weather.. Ltaott 11 I" NT, too, has nearly finished a comedy for Covent Garden. If these are successful, the spring-time of their discontent will be made glorious summer. Amusement, in this high-pressure country, means excitement : if ..coarse, it will be so much more attractive, es it is the stronger for its coarseness; but strong exeitement alone will draw the multitude from their Promenade Coneerte, where they enjoy a plcasurable recreation that tickles the ears and does not stop the tongue, for a shilling ; and from their Tavern Theatricals, wher: sonic sort of mixture is sipped to the accompaniment ot singing and acting—of what sort we can only guess, never having had so much curiosity to visit the " Eagle" as would overcome a certain squeamishness. If further proof were wanted of the attraction of cheapness, the prodigious success of the Surrey under the low-price system supplies it. The gallery at Covent Garden p "cheapest ard lLst in the way of amusement for the many ; and as fluctuations are now a ',:.'t no ;E r of public liking—as the pit usNI to be ; the taste for theatricals being more wide-spread among the working than the middle classes.

But enough of this " bald disjointed chat."