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THE BEGGAR'S OPERA.

[Drury Lane] November 5, 1815.

WE are glad to announce another interesting Polly at DruryLane Theatre, in the person of Miss Nash,1 from the TheatreRoyal, Bath. We are glad of every thing that facilitates the frequent representation of that inimitable play, The Beggar's Opera, which unites those two good things, sense and sound, in a higher degree than any other performance on the English or (or as far as we know) on any other stage. It is to us the best proof of the good sense as well as real delicacy of the British public, to see the most beautiful women in the boxes and the most veteran critics in the pit, whenever it is acted. All sense of humanity must be lost before The Beggar's Opera can cease to fill the mind with delight and admiration. [We are sorry we cannot go to see it again on Monday, when Miss Stephens appears in the part of Polly,2 as Mr. Kean comes out in Bajazet3 on that night.]

Miss Nash is tall, elegantly formed, in the bloom of youth, and with a very pretty face. Her voice has great sweetness, flexibility, and depth. Her execution is scientific, but gracefully simple; and she sang the several songs with equal taste and feeling. Her action, though sufficiently chaste and correct, wanted ease and spirit, so that the general impression left on the spectator's imagination was that of a very beautiful alabaster figure which had been taught to sing. She was greeted in the most encouraging manner on her first appearance, and rapturously applauded throughout. Indeed the songs and the music are so exquisite in themselves, that if Saturday, October 28.

1

2 Miss Stephens as Polly (see p. 128, post).

3 In Rowe's Tamerlane. See Hazlitt's article printed in the Appendix, p. 339, post.

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given with their genuine characteristic simplicity, they cannot fail to delight the most insensible ear. The songs to which she gave most sweetness and animation were those beginning, But he so teased me "Why how now, saucy Jade" and "Cease your funning." Her mode of executing the last was not certainly so delightful as the way in which Miss Stephens sings it, but it was still infinitely delightful. Her low notes are particularly fine. They have a deep, mellow richness, which we have never heard before in a female voice. The sound is like the murmuring of bees.

Miss Kelly played Lucy, and we need hardly add that she played it well. She is a charming little vixen; has the most agreeable pout in the world, and the best-humoured smile; shows all the insolence of lively satisfaction, and when she is in her airs, the blood seems to tingle at her fingers' ends. Her expression of triumph when Macheath goes up to her rival, singing "Tol de rol lol," and her vexation and astonishment when he turns round upon her in the same manner, were admirable. Her acting in this scene was encored; that is to say, Mr. Cooke's song was encored for the sake of the acting. She is the best Lucy we have seen, except Mrs. Charles Kemble," who, though she did not play the part more naturally, did it with a higher spirit and greater gusto.

Of Mr. T. Cooke's Macheath, we cannot say any thing favourable. Indeed, we do not know any actor on the stage who is enough of the fine gentleman to play it. Perhaps the elder Kemble might, but then he is no singer! It would be an experiment for Mr. Kean: but we don't think he could do it. This is a paradox; but we will explain. As close a resemblance, then, as the dress of the ladies in the private boxes bears to that of the ladies in the boxes which are not

1 Beggar's Opera, I, i.

3 Ibid., II, ii.

2 Ibid., II, ii.

4 Ibid., II, ii.

5 Miss De Camp (afterwards Mrs. Charles Kemble) appeared as Lucy Lockitt, at Drury Lane, February 6, 1795.

private, so nearly should the manners of Gay's Macheath resemble those of the fine gentleman. Mr. Harley's Filch is not good. Filch is a serious, contemplative, conscientious character. This Simmons perfectly understands, as he does every character that he plays. He sings the song, ""Tis woman that seduces all mankind," as if he had a pretty girl in one eye, and the gallows in the other. Mr. Harley makes a joke of it. Mrs. Sparks's Mrs. Peachum we hardly think so good as Mrs. Davenport's.2

1

Munden spoils Peachum, by lowering the character into broad farce. He does not utter a single word without a nasal twang, and a distortion of his face and body. Peachum is an old rogue, but not a buffoon. Mr. Dowton's Lockitt was good, but it is difficult to play this part after Emery, who in the hard, dry, and impenetrable, has no rival. The scene where Dowton and Munden quarrel, and exchange wigs in the scuffle, was the best. They were admirably dressed. A hearty old gentleman in the pit, one of the old school, enthusiastically called out, "Hogarth, by G-d!" The ladies in the scene at the tavern with Macheath were genteeler than usual. This we were pleased to see; for a great deal depends on the casting of that scene. How Gay must have chuckled, when he found it once fairly over, and the house in a roar! They leave it out at Covent-Garden, from the systematic attention which is paid there to the morals of the town!

3

[A new farce has been brought out at Drury Lane in the course of the week, called Twenty per Cent. It has succeeded very well. A voluble lying knave of a servant in it

1 Beggar's Opera, 1, i.

2 Mrs. Sparks played Mrs. Peachum at Drury Lane on October 28, and at Covent Garden-by permission-on November 6. Mrs. Davenport was the representative of this part at Covent Garden in 1814 (May 9 and September 19) with Emery as Lockitt.

3 Beggar's Opera, II, i.

4 By T. Dibdin; produced November 2-Harley was Timothy.

by Mr. Harley, who plays this class of characters well, is its chief attraction. It is deficient in plot, but not without pleasantry. It is improbable, lively, and short.]

MISS O'NEILL'S ELWINA.

[Covent Garden] November 19, 1815.

DURING the last week Miss O'Neill has condescended to play the character of Elwina, in Miss Hannah More's tragedy of Percy. "Although this production," says a critic in The Times," "like every other of the excellent and enlightened author, affords equal pleasure and instruction in the perusal, we are not sure that it was ever calculated to obtain very eminent success upon the stage. The language is undoubtedly classical and flowing the sentiment characteristically natural and pure-the fable uninterrupted-the catastrophe mournful—and the moral of unquestionable utility and truth. With all these requisites to dramatic fortune, the tragedy of Percy does not so strongly rivet the attention, as some other plays less free from striking faults, and composed by writers of far less distinguished talent. Though the versification be sufficiently musical, and in many passages conspicuous for nerve as well as cadence, there is no splendid burst of imagery, nor lofty strain of poetical inspiration. Taste and intelligence have decked their lines in every grace of sculptured beauty: we miss but the presence of that Promethean fire, which could bid the statue 'speak.' It may be objected, moreover, to this drama, that its incidents are too few, and too little diversified. The grand interest which belongs to the unlooked-for preservation of Percy's life, is, perhaps, too soon elicited and expended: and if we mistake not, there is room for doubting 2 November 13.

1 Revived November II.

whether, at length, he fairly met his death, or was ensnared once more by some unworthy treachery of Douglas. Neither do we think the passions which are called into play by the solemn events of a history so calamitous, have been very minutely traced, intensely coloured, or powerfully illustrated. We have a general impression that Douglas is racked by jealousy-Elwina by grief-and Percy by disappointment. But we fain would have the home touches of Shakespeare." Thus far the Times critic: from all which it appears that Miss Hannah More is not like Shakespeare. The writer afterwards tries his hand at a comparison between Miss More and Virgil; and the result, after due deliberation, is, that Virgil was the wiser man. The part, however, to which the learned commentator has the most decided objection, is that where Elwina steps out of her way to "preach rather a lengthy sermon to her father against war in general, as offensive to the Prince of Peace."-Now if this writer had thought proper, he might have discovered that the whole play is "a lengthy sermon," without poetry or interest, and equally deficient in "sculptured grace" and "Promethean fire."-We should not have made these remarks, but that the writers in the above paper have a greater knack than any others, of putting a parcel of tall opaque words before them, to blind the eyes of their readers, and hoodwink their own understandings. There is one short word which might be aptly inscribed on its swelling columns-it is the word which Burchell applies to the conversation of some highflown female critics in The Vicar of Wakefield.

But to have done with this subject. We shall not readily forgive Miss Hannah More's heroine Elwina, for having made us perceive what we had not felt before, that there is a considerable degree of manner and monotony in Miss O'Neill's acting. The peculiar excellence which has been ascribed to Miss O'Neill (indeed over every other actress) is that of 1 Percy, II, i.

2 "Fudge!"-Vicar of Wakefield, chap. xi.

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