the worst of all others. There was none of this weight or energy in the way she did the scene the first time we saw her, twenty years ago. She glided on and off the stage almost like an apparition. In the close of the banquet scene,' Mrs. Siddons condescended to an imitation which we were sorry for. She said, "Go, go," in the hurried familiar tone of common life, in the manner of Mr. Kean, and without any of that sustained and graceful spirit of conciliation towards her guests, which used to characterize her mode of doing it. Lastly, if Mrs. Siddons has to leave the stage again, Mr. Horace Twiss will write another farewell address for her: if she continues on it, we shall have to criticize her performances. We know which of these two evils we shall think the greatest.

2

Too much praise cannot be given to Mr. Kemble's performance of Macbeth. He was "himself again," and more than himself. His action was decided, his voice audible. His tones had occasionally indeed a learned quaintness, like the colouring of Poussin; but the effect of the whole was fine. His action in delivering the speech, "To-morrow and to-morrow," was particularly striking and expressive, as if he had stumbled by an accident on fate, and was baffled by the impenetrable obscurity of the future. In that prodigious prosing paper, The Times, which seems to be written as well as printed by a steam-engine, Mr. Kemble is compared to the ruin of a magnificent temple, in which the divinity still resides.*. This is not the case. The temple is unimpaired; but the divinity is sometimes from home.

1 Macbeth, III, iv.

2 At Mrs. Siddons's farewell, June 29, 1812, she delivered an address, written by Horace Twiss (her nephew), which is printed in The European Magazine for July, 1812, pp. 45-6.

3 Macbeth, V, v, 19.

4 The Times, on June 10, said of Mr. Kemble: "His bodily strength, to a close observer, is impaired; but the divinity still reigns within its ruined temple."

NEW ENGLISH OPERA-HOUSE.

[New English Opera] June 23, 1816.

THE New English Opera-House (late the Lyceum Theatre)' in the Strand, opened on Saturday week. The carpenters are but just got out of it; and in our opinion they have made but an indifferent piece of work of it. It consists of lobbies and vacant spaces. The three tiers of boxes are raised so high above one another, that the house would look empty even if it were full, and at present it is not full, but empty. The second gallery, for fear of its crowding on the first, is thrown back to such an unconscionable height, that it seems like a balcony projecting from some other building, where the spectators do not pay for peeping. All this no doubt promotes the circulation of air, and keeps the Theatre cool and comfortable. Mr. Arnold's philosophy may be right, but our prejudices are strongly against it. summer theatre are, that it should look feel more like a warm bath than a well. summer theatre as crowded as a winter one, so that a breath of air is a luxury. We like to see the well-dressed company in the boxes languidly silent, and to hear the gods noisy and quarrelling for want of room and breath-the cries of "Throw him over!" becoming more loud and frequent as

Our notions of a smoking hot, and We like to see a

1 The English Opera House was rebuilt in 1816 from the designs of Samuel Beazley, and opened on June 15. It was destroyed by fire February 16, 1830. A previous building on the same site, called the Lyceum, was erected in 1765, and was used successively as a picture gallery, and an exhibition of conjuring and a puppet-show; and, after enlargement, for Astley's show, musical glasses, phantasmagoria, and again as a picture gallery. The Drury Lane company performed here, during the rebuilding after the fire of 1809, in 1809-10-11. The old theatre was called T. R. English Opera from August 4, 1815, until its closing on September 15.

the weather gets farther on into the dog-days. We like all this because we are used to it, and are as obstinately attached to old abuses in matters of amusement, as kings, judges, and legislators are in state affairs.

1

2

3

The new theatre opened with Up all Night; or, The Smugglers' Cave; a piece admirably well adapted as a succedaneum for keeping the house cool and airy. The third night there was nobody there. To say the truth, we never saw a duller performance. The Actors whom the Manager has got together, are both new and strange. They are most of them recruits from the country, and of that description which is known by the vulgar appellation of the awkward squad. Mr. Russell (from Edinburgh, not our old friend Jerry Sneak) is the only one amongst them who understands his exercise. Mr. Short and Mr. Isaacs are singers, and we fear not good ones. Mr. Short has white teeth, and Mr. Isaacs black eyes. We do not like the name of Mr. Huckel. There is also a Mrs. Henley, who plays the fat Landlady in The Beehive, of the size of life, Mr. Lancaster, who played Filch in The Beggar's Opera, and Mrs. W. Penson, who played the part of Lucy Lockitt tolerably, and looked it intolerably well. There is also Mr. Bartley, who is Stage-manager, and who threatens to be very prominent this season. There is also, from the old corps, Wrench, the easiest of actors; and there is Fanny Kelly, who after all, is not herself a whole

4

5

1 By S. J. Arnold, music by M. P. King, produced June 15.

2

James Russell; he was still described as "from Edinburgh" when he first appeared at the Haymarket, two years later.

3 Two brothers named Short, "from Dublin," were in the company. This one was T. Short, "Mr. Short" made his first appearance on June 19. J. Russell was Peter; T. Short, Young Heartwell; and J. Isaacs, Harry Blunt.

4 By J. G. Millingen, acted June 18, etc.; Mrs. Henley was Mrs. Mingle.

5

June 19 and 21. "Mr. Short" was Captain Macheath; Lancaster "from Newcastle" and Mrs. W. Penson "from Edinburgh" made their first London appearance.

company. We miss little Knight, and several other of our summer friends.

The Winter Theatres.

WE must, we suppose, for the present, take our leave of the winter performances. We lately saw at Covent-Garden Mr. Emery's Robert Tyke, in The School of Reform,1 of which we had heard a good deal, and which fully justified all that we had heard of its excellence. It is one of the most natural and powerful pieces of acting on the stage; it is the sublime of low tragedy. We should like to see any body do it better. The scene where, being brought before Lord Avondale as a robber, he discovers him to have been formerly an accomplice in villany;2 that in which he gives an account of the death of his father, and goes off the stage calling for "Brandy, brandy! "3 and that in which he finds this same father, whom he had supposed dead, alive again, are, in our judgment, master-pieces both of pathos and grandeur. We do not think all excellence is confined to walking upon stilts. We conceive that Mr. Emery showed about as much genius in this part, which he performed for his benefit, as Mr. Liston did afterwards in singing the song of Ti, tum, ti; we cannot say more of it. Genius appears to us to be a very unclassical quality. There is but a little of it in the world, but what there is, is always unlike itself and every thing else. Your imitators of the tragic, epic, and grand style, may be multiplied to any extent, as we raise regiments of grenadiers.

5

Mrs. Mardyn, after an absence of some weeks, has appeared again at Drury-Lane, in the new part of The Irish Widow, the charming Widow Brady; and a most delightful

6

1 By T. Morton. Revived June 14 for Emery's benefit. He was the original Tyke, January 15, 1805.

2 School of Reform, I, ii.

4 Ibid., III, iv.

3 Ibid., II, ii.

5 Liston appeared as Flourish, in Five Miles Off; or, The Finger Post, by T. Dibdin. His song is in the first act.

6

By D. Garrick, revived June 14, and repeated June 20.

representative she made of her-full of life and spirit, wellmade, handsome, and good-natured. If it is a fault to be handsome, Mrs. Mardyn certainly deserves to be hissed off the stage. [We believe there is not the smallest foundation besides for the scandals with which the Town have been lately amusing themselves1 to show their good-nature, and in which they would gladly persist to show their love of justice. To show ours, we shall insert the following letter, every word of which we shall believe to be true, till we have some reason for believing it to be otherwise; and we would advise every one, who is in our situation, to follow our example:— (Then followed a very long letter from Mrs. Mardyn, protesting against the scandals which had been circulated about Lord Byron and herself, and asserting that she had never met or spoken with him excepting in the green-room and in the presence of others.)]

THE JEALOUS WIFE.

[Drury Lane] June 30, 1816.

THE performances at Drury-Lane Theatre closed for the season on Friday evening last, with The Jealous Wife, Sylvester Daggerwood, and The Mayor of Garratt. After the play Mr. Rae came forward, and in a neat address, not ill delivered, returned thanks to the public, in the name of the managers and performers, for the success with which

1 Mrs. Mardyn was living apart from her worthless husband, whom she supported on the condition that he kept away from her. I. Nathan relates that Dowton told Lord Byron that his son-aged eighteen—was the gallant who eloped with Mrs. Mardyn (Fugitive Pieces, 110-4).

2 The Jealous Wife by G. Colman, Sylvester Daggerwood by G. Colman, Jun., and Foote's The Mayor of Garratt were given on June 28,