The various novelties to be noticed, and our very limited room for the purpose, will, we hope, be admitted as an excuse for the brevity of our observations.

SEPT. 29. Mr. ELLISTON made his appearance on these boards in Rolla, a character which he had previously performed at the Hay-market. If his theatrical pretensions had not been before so well established, we should have thought it injudicious in him to select this part for his debût, in which, though he gives very general satisfaction, and in some passages delights the critical spectator, he is by no means so successful as in many other characters, He received the loudest applause from the audience on his entrée, and at the close of his performance.

Mrs. JOHNSTONE, who appeared in Elvira, is the lady who performed Zaphira, in Barbarossa, at Covent-Garden, in the year 1797.* Since that period she has been improving her talents in the Bath theatre, where she was most deservedly a favourite. She has several eminent qualifications for the stage. Her figure is tall and elegantly proportioned, and her voice harmonious and extensive; she seems to have studied the part with great care, and her execution of the most important and difficult scenes was very striking. Her reception was highly flattering. Mrs. H. Johnston, who, for the first time, performed Cora, exhibited the delicacy and maternal sensibility, which are the criteria of the part, in a most impressive manner.

OCT. 6.-Beaux Stratagem.-Mr. Elliston's Archer does not reach the easy gaiety and gentlemanly address of Mr. Lewis, and it rather wants, what the acting of Elliston is seldom deficient in, vivacity and spirit; but there certainly is no comedian at present, at Drury-Lane, so fitly qualified for this, and other characters of the same sort, such as Doricourt, Benedick, &c. &c. and as we cannot have Mr. Lewis at both theatres, Mr. Elliston has unquestionably a fair right to them till he has some more powerful competition to encounter. Miss De Camp proved an excellent Cherry.

RICHARD COEUR DE LION was the afterpiece; revived, with all the delightful, but here ill-understood music, of Gretry; and with uncommon splendour of dress and scenery. Matilda, first acted by Mrs. Jordan, afterwards by Mrs. Crouch, and by both in a style of great excellence, is now fallen, by lawful inheritance, to Mrs. Mountain, who, like her predecessors, charms "the very faculties of eyes and ears." A Miss HOLLOWAY, with a pleasing figure, and not an unpleasing voice, but as yet imperfectly modulated, was introduced

* See vol. v./p. 48.

and well received in Laurette. That any character should pass from so accomplished an actor as KEMBLE to Mr. Kelly is rather singular: Kelly, however, who of course sings much better, acts the part also with spirit and feeling. We do not bring the fact to recollection for the sake of any invidious comparison, but rather to amuse our readers with a very neat jeu d'Esprit attributed to Mr. Kemble, during the first rehearsal of this piece. "How shockingly you murder time," cried Shaw, the leader, as Mr. K. was trying the song. "If I do, Mr. Shaw," returned the tragedian, "I am still not so merciless as you, who are continually beating him."

8.-School for Scandal.-Miss DUNCAN, from Edinburgh, a lady whose merits have frequently been proclaimed in our provincial notices, made her appearance in Lady Teazle. This character has been played in a very different manner by two of the greatest comic actresses of the present age, Miss FARREN and Mrs. JORDAN, and the town has received the impression.from both with almost equal satisfaction. It is perhaps difficult to fix the manner in which it should be performed. The graces and accomplishments of fashionable life would scarcely be expected from a rusticated belle, such as Lady Teazle is supposed to have been before her marriage with Sir Peter; but without a personal display of those graces and accomplishments, should we rest satisfied with the exhibition of this character on the stage? This is a question we leave to those who delight in the subtleties of criticism, and shall proceed to say that Miss DUNCAN is, in our opinion, since Miss Farren, and we must add the elegant Mrs. Esten, the most adequate representative of the fine ladies, of any candidate that has appeared on the London stage. Her figure is sufficiently tall and slight, without being straggling and unimportant; her countenance is not beautiful; (dare we write not handsome ?) but it is marking, and has sufficient comic expression. Her voice is good, and varied with some of those playful intonations which please so much in the delivery of elegant comic dialogue; she has ease, sprightliness, no slight familiarity with the jeu de theatre, (a qualification which has made many actresses popular with very indifferent natural aids) and a seif-possession withal, which enables her to give full efficacy to all the requisites we have enumerated. She sings also with admirable taste and sweetness. If, therefore, in a line of character so difficult to sustain, Miss Duncan possesses such undoubted merit, and if, as is stated and believed, her forte lies in characters of another sort, it must necessarily be yielded that she is an acquisition of the very first consequence, both to Drury-Lane and to the public. Such is our general opinion of Miss Duncan, to which, at present, we must confine ourselves. We do not mean to say that, "she is alone the Arabian bird;" there are some defects both natural and artificial, to be counterbalanced against her numerous merits, but they will not be found either of such number or magnitude as to weigh very heavy in the scale. The characters which Miss Duncan has hitherto performed have been Lady Teazle (seven times) Rosalind, Lady Townley, and Miss Hardcastle (three times each) Sylvia, Miranda, and Maria in the Citizen.

Mr. ELLISTON's Charles has not quite the air of elegant dissipation which we think the author intended he should convey; but here we say again, quid rectius? Has there been any one, since Smith, with much fairer pretensions

After King, the chances are very much against any actor in Sir Peter, especially so young a comedian as MATHEWS ; but the judgment and observation, in aid of the strong genius and real talent of this performer, brought him through the task with great credit. The timidity inseparable from such an undertaking, somewhat depressed his exertions on the first night of performance, but in the subsequent representations he gave himself fuller play, and produced a more powerful effect. Nothing can be better than his disclosure of JOSEPH's gallantry to Charles in the library scene, and his affected laughter in the fifth act with Sir Oliver. Miss Pope is as excellent as ever in Mrs. Candour; and DoWTON's Sir Nol is entitled to distinguished approbation.

13.-Wonder.-Don Felix is one of Mr. ELLISTON's most finished performances. The jealous transitions were finely marked, and the effect altogether just and forcible.

15.-School for Scandal,-A young lady named BOYCE, who, we believe, is one of the corps de ballet of this theatre, performed Maria with so much propriety and feeling, that we may expect she will soon quit altogether the service of Terpsichore for that of her sister Thalia.

16.---MATHEWs played Lissardo with great applause, in the stead of Mr. Bannister, junior, performing at the Hay-market for the benefit of his father, who scarcely lived to be told how successful his friends had been in his service.

20.---The Dash! or, Who but he! was so unsuccessful as not to be allowed to proceed to the close. It is the production of Mr. LATHOM, the author of several novels, and other productions. It will be sufficient to observe of this farce, that the less offensive characters and incidents were plagiarisms from other pieces, viz. the Spoil'd Child, Review, All the World's a Stage, &c. and that the little which remained to the author, after these deductions, was either too absurd or trifling to be entitled to the smallest notice. Mr. REEVE has composed some delightful music, which, notwithstanding the condemnation of the farce, will, we hope, not prove mere wasted sweetness; but be reserved as an accompaniment to some more fortunate and more deserving drama.

25.---Mrs. POWELL, after a long and serious indisposition, was greeted with loud applause in the character of the Countess, in the Wife of Two Husbands.

27.---Provoked Husband.---Pope, in Lord Townley, was easy, dignified, impressive. Dowton and Collins in Sir Francis and Squire Richard, and Powell in Manley, were more than respectable. Here our commendation must stop. With these exceptions the performance was far from reputable to the theatre.

Nov. 1.---The Foundling, a comedy, by the author of the Gamester, was revived on this evening for the purpose of introducing Miss Cherry, who twice last season performed Virginia, in Paul and Virginia. The fable of this comedy, which is not very interesting, is tediously conducted, and there is also something indelicate in the texture of it which calls for disapprobation. Miss Cherry performed Fidelia. This young lady's figure is pleasing; her action and deportment are judiciously governed; she delivered the dialogue with good sense, and evident feeling; and the audience seemed very well satisfied with her performance, which they interrupted with frequent applause. The tenuity and elevated pitch of her voice, will, we fear, preclude her from characters of much

exertion, but there are many parts, on the dramatic list, in which she will doubtless acquit herself with credit. A song introduced in the third act, and very neatly executed, displayed her vocal talents to much advantage.

14.---Recruiting Officer.---" An excellent play;" but we wish we could add, "set down with as much modesty as cunning." In truth, this is a comedy which no modern pruning can trim to the shape of decency. The trunk is infected, as well as the branches, and if they were both hewn down and cast into the fire, highly as we reverence Farquhar's fine comic genius, we should not lament the sacrifice. Luckily for the public, the piece was not so well acted as to demand a frequent repetition, and, to the credit of the good taste and discrimi nating morality of the audience on this evening, the fall of the curtain was attended with strong expressions of disapprobation. We except from our general censure of the acting, Messrs. Bannister, Powell, Dowton, Mathews, Collins, and Miss Duncan.

20.---MATRIMONY.---A musical afterpiece by Mr. Kenny, the author of Raising the Wind; taken, we believe, from a popular French petite piéce called the Two Prisoners, or Adolphe et Clare. The story is perfectly simple, though somewhat improbable; but our readers shall judge for themselves.

"Delaval and Clara, an amiable young married couple, at Berlin, having, by too fashionable habits, and a mutual perverseness of disposition, involved themselves in incessant quarrels with each other, at length both solicit the uncle of Clara, a cabinet minister, to use his power in procuring them a separation.--The uncle, convinced of the goodness of their hearts, and of their lurking fondness for each other, resolves, in order to cure them of their folly, and convince them how necessary they were to each other's happiness, to confine them both in a mock prison. He commits the management of his plan to his friend, the Baron de Limburg, whose castle, at a few miles from the city, is accordingly converted into the pretended prison. They are arrested separately, and meet unexpectedly in the castle of Limburg. Their meeting, at first, is attended with mutual reproaches; but, by degrees, feeling the solitude and gloom of their situation, they court each other's company, and finally relapse into all the ardour of their first affection. They are then detected in endeavouring to make their escape; when an offer of freedom is made to the first who should sign a deed of separation. This they both refuse, and determine rather to pass their lives together in a prison, than part again. The Baron, thus convinced that their follies are radically cured, discovers the plot, and they prepare to return, mutually happy, to Berlin."

This is an agreeable little after-piece; but if the author had not "bestowed all his tediousness upon it," we should have liked it better. The materials are too scanty for an entertainment of two acts. Indeed, the plot and interest seemed to terminate so naturally at the end of the first act, that we could not help exclaiming, like Prince Hal to Falstaff, "What trick, what device, what startinghole now?" A second act, however, there was; but it was like an appendix to a book, that was complete without it.

The acting of Mrs. Jordan, we think, entirely saved the piece. Her spirit, her naiveté, her matchless humour, and her song, which, by the way, is better sung than set, kept the house in excellent humour. Elliston played remarkably

well in Delaval, as did Dowton in the mock Governor, and Johnstone, in honest O'Clogharty, alias Grimgruffinhoff.

The music is by M. M. P. King, a young composer of excellent promise, if we may judge from this commencement. Mrs. Bland's two airs, which she

sung delightfully, are specimens of very neat and tasteful composition.

Though the contrivance of the plot, as far as respects the bringing the married people into the same prison, is sufficiently nouvelle, the idea has been somewhat forestalled by Dibdin, in his Jew and Doctor. It will remind many, also, of the scenes between Sir Robert and Lady Bramble, in Every one has his Fault, and Sir Charles and Lady Racket, in Three Weeks after Marriage.

COVENT-GARDEN.

SEPT. 24.-Mountaineers.—Mr. KEMBLE's Octavian attracted a splendid and crowded audience. His performance of this character was always a chef d'œuvre, but it never excited more general sympathy, or stronger testimonials of delight and approbation, than on this evening. The cast it somewhat improved since last season. Emery, on whom the rough honesty of Roque did not sit easily, is much more fortunate in Lope Tocko; and Chapman, who so well sustained the former character at the Haymarket, was very properly selected to represent it on this stage. WARE, the leader, has composed a new and most admirable and characteristic overture, which was honoured with the loudest applause. The Poor Soldier followed, in which Marshall, formerly of this theatre, and lately from Philadelphia, re-appeared in his favourite charatter of Bagatelle. The saying may be true that Cœlum, non animum, mutant qui trans mare currunt; but so much cannot be said of corporal stability, at least with respect to Mr. Marshall, whose personal appearance, and powers of acting, seem to have been very much affected by the Trans-atlantic climate. The audience welcomed him, as an old favourite, with their usual kindness,

26.-Rule a Wife.-Such a Leon and Michael Perez as Kemble and Lewis, must always, as it did this evening, prove a rich treat to the real judges of fine acting.

OCT. 1.-Review.---Phoebe Whitethorn by Miss Davies, a young lady who performed Floranthe at this theatre, for Miss Dixon's benefit, in 1802 ;* who was engaged in Mr. Colman's company the season before last; and who, during the past summer, performed at Birmingham. Miss Davies was very much alarmed on her appearance in Phoebe Whitethorn, a character which, in the acting, must suffer materially from a want of proper confidence; but she gave the song with taste and spirit, and, notwithstanding her alarm, displayed considerable capability as an actress, which we doubt not, with practice and encouragement, will shew itself much more conspicuously.

5.-COOKE made his first appearance, this season, was applauded to the very echo, that did applaud again!

in Sir Pertinax, and

8.---PIZARRO.---Mrs. Siddons also made her first appearance this season in Elvira, which she performed with unabated spirit, and in that inimitable style of grandeur which distinguishes all the performances of this consummate actress. KEMBLE'S Rolla stands, and we presume must ever stand alone---as a combination of grace, dignity, expression, and all the higher qualities of the

* See vol. xiji, p. 422.