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    Untitled Article

    A . great dramatic event lias taken place this week ^ -Mr . John A . Heraud has appealed to the poetic sympathies of Portman Market . On Monday evening last -was produced at the Marylebone Theatre , in five acts , VIBEIA :

    OK , THE MOTHER ' S TRAGEDY . A LEGESD OF EARLY BRITAIN . The poetry by Mr . Heraud , the scenery by Mr . Shalders , the properties by Mr . Lightfoot , the music by Mr . Cohen , the costumes by Mr . ( Joombes , the machinery by Mr . Mathews , the incidental statues by Mr . Patten , the two principal characters by Mr . William Wallack and IVtrs . '" William Wallack , the original story by Geoffrey of Monmouth , the original drama founded upon the original story in the year 1561 , by Lord Buckhurst , Lord Dorset , and Thomas " Norton . For further preliminary information , not compressible

    within the limits of the present notice , see bill of the performance , and book of the play . Throughout the forenoon of Monday the attitude of the neighbourhood was singularly composed . Lisson-grove and Church-streefc bore the prospect of the approaching dramatic solemnity with stolid resignation . Towards evening , however , symptoms of national convulsion began to he apparent . Groups of costermongers formed to discuss Early British topics in the neighbourhood of the theatre— -the memory of Geoffrey of Monmouth was drunk in solemn silence at innumerable bars—and Mr . Heraud's

    autographs were in . prodigious request . Soon , a stream of male and female Poets poured continuously into Church-street amid the cheers of the local population—the Drama ' patrons rushed , in fustian jacket clad , to the gallery door—the small tradesman cast his apron to the winds , and sprang joyous from the counter to the pit . The breeze was from the Nor ' -JSTor ' - West— -the night -was starlight—the atmosphere frosty—the hour seven o ' clock—when the curtain rose , and Videna began . At ten minutes past eleven , Mr . Heraud -was bowing from a private box ; Mr . Wallack was too ill with excessive acting to appear before the curtain ; tlie male and female poets were clapping their hands , the costermongers were whistling with the tragic passion of Terror , and the small tradesmen in the pit were languishing with the other tragic passion of Pity . Videna was played out . And what was Videna like ? More like King Lear than we r ^ milri nwvinilil v Viil . VA t . finiinrht . nnwitilo TCimit fJrmVMi * lr \/> fhrnaVmn / i r \ f Diroan

    Videna ) falls down on , his knees and curses his disobedient child . King Gorbudoc ' s intellect is unsettled . King Gorbudoc is very forlorn , and has nobody to take pity on him . but his " fool . " In these respects he seems to bear some distant resemblance to King Lear . In other respects , however , he is ori g inal—especially in the matter of hard dying . We have seen ( with tears ) many stage deaths , but King Gorbudoo , as impersonated by Mr . Wallack , has a persistent vitality in him that exceeds all our former experience . The manner of this sturdy monarch ' s death—by drinking from a poisoned ¦ well—suggests a word of reference to the story of the p lay , so far as we could understand it from Mr . Heraud ' s not very intelligible method of dramatically relating Geoffrey of Monmouth ' s narrative . Two brothers arc rivalsfor power , and rivals for the affections of one lady . They fight , and / "kft 4 "k II" 11 lo + nr » /\ f nan Irtfk ? ivmri imn It ¦ - «¦ % £ •«*»! i- 4 > i-hll « Vt in vvn * % fw \ 4-c * 4-It n 4 < It s ** ? n a kiub oi survivor nimseu tens nis parents tnac is

    ou « we . u « r » xuu ne a fratricide , but ho does not add that he has poisoned all the wells to help him in defeating his brother ' s army . His father curses him , goes out , drinks at one of the poisoned wells , and dies . His mother kills him , appoints a respectable successor to the crown , and dies also . If any Frenchman , writing in plain prose , and intent only on telling an interesting story , had taken such a subject as this for a drama , critical gentlemen of u sterling" principles and " healthy" propensities would have boon ready enough to cry : Fie upon It ! Morbid I Morbid 1 But when a drama , founded on the same horrible subject , is called a Tragedy—when the story is badl y told—when the dialogue is not in prose , but in long tirades of fierce blank verse—then the qntical gentlemen aforesaid smile upon it quite complacently , and call it tho fine , sterling , moral , old English drama , —tine right sort of thing for putting ctawn your French horrors—the legitimate attraction of the English stagewill for it

    and so forth . Wo answer , that tho small minority of moral protestors against tho Corsican Brothers will be also the small minority whose voices will applaud Videna as an irreproachable play , with no taint of ' Melodrama" hanging about it at all . Of the poetry of tho tragedy wo will say nothing critical . Wo heard here and there some good linos mixed up with a considerable quantity of hazardous eloquence ( to use the nuildest possible term ) in tho more ambitious passages . But we have not read [ idena , and on tlio subject of Mr . Ilcraud'a poetry we will modestly aud impartially hold our tongues . As to the play , it has been carefully got up . The scene-painting is always good in intention , and lroquontly good also in execution . Tho acting ia the loudest no huvo heacu for some time ; but tho audience applauded it , and we are willing ( modestly and impartially avgain ) ta consider that our ours were too sensitive , and that Mr . \ Y illiam Walluck , and his company , know

    better than we do what will please the public of Portman Market . Having arrived by this time at as mild and diffident an expression of opinion as ca » be expected from any critics , and having no means of reporting on the aspect of Lisson-grove the morning after the play , we will lay aside the pen here , sink back in the easy chair , and , in silence and solitude " meditate" Videna for the rest of the day .

    Untitled Article

    The new two-act drama at the Olymtic Theatbe , is adapted from L ^ Depositaire , and is presented to the English public under the title of

    THE TRUSTEE . The story of this play is founded on so original and so happy an idea , £ s told with such exquisite skill , and excites such intense interest and suspense , from first to last , that we should be defrauding our readers of a genuine dramatic treat , if we even so much as hinted at the nature of the plot . "We will only venture to say that it has the rare merit of being perfectly natural , perfectly original ^ and perfectly irresistible in its power of enchaining tire sympathy and exciting the expectation of the audience . N " o one previously unacquainted with the nature of the story in the French original , could possibly guess how The Trustee will end , until the author chooses to show them . This is a hazardous assertion ; but when our readers see the play , they will find that we have not made it on insufficient grounds . Whil < 3 paying our tribute to the dramatic excellence of the piece , we must not

    orget to add that it is also morally irreproachable . The most pitiless persecutor of French literature , on the highest Puritan principles , may goto the Olympic and behold the most amazing of theatrical prodigies—a Frencli play with which it would be impossible for him to find any fault . The acting was worthy of the drama . Mr . Wigan played the principal character nobly . The part—that of an old man—was ; fuLl of temptations to exaggeration , by which an inferior actor would have allowed himself to be led astray . Mr . Wigan never once forgot himself—or , in other words , never once forgot what was due to his Art . He was rigidly and admirably tru « to nature from first to last . The simple pathos , the quiet , fearful power of the performance at the end of the first act , and throughout the grand and arduous scene which solves the mystery of the story , in the second , thoroughly and honourably earned the unanimous applause which called . Mr . Wigan before the curtain at the end of the play . Nor must the Other actors be forgotten . They contributed all that could be desired from them

    towards the complete representation of the drama . Mr . F . Vining showed that he thoroughly understood nis part , as a Prench nobleman of the old , graceful , gallant , highly-cultivated , and utterly heartless school . Mr . Jimery /' s quaint humour of look and gesture , and easy , hearty manner of speaking his dialogue , made quite a character of the rough and ready " cavalry officer ; and Miss Maskell , in a small , but by no means easy , part , cted with such good taste and intelligence as materially aided the effect on the audience of many of the best scenes in the play . We hope that the production of The Trustee is the pi-elude to the appearance of other dramas of high and genuine interest on the stage of the Olympic . With such a company as Mr . Wigan ' s , farces and little comedies , however amusing , should never form the staple of the' evening ' s entertainment . The sense of humour in an audience is an excellent thing to address , "but there are higher senses still to which really good actors may appeal with far more advantage to themselves and to their hearers—the sense of pathos and the sense of beauty .

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    On the departure of that excellent actor , Mr . Morris Barn ett , the manager of the Ax > eu ? hi Theatre has endeavoured to supply play-goers with a fres-U attraction in the shape of a four-act play , from the pen of Mr . Tom Parry ,

    called—THE SUMMEU STORM . We have not much to say about this drama . If the playbills had not told us that it was '' New and Original , " we should have ventured to describe it as an old story , very carelessly and vaguely related . We are afraid that our readers will hardly believe us when we inform them that there 5 s actually another ADEwm felon at large ia this " New" play!—who is obliged to secure the silence , by money , or murder , of another Adelphi accomplice 1 ! Of course , our old , old . friend the " felon , " his old , old frienvd the " accomplice , " are located , for the time being , in a rural district of England . Of course , this circumstance authorises the introduction of that startling novelty which we never remember to have seen before in the whole course of our lives on tho English stage—a country-dance of happy peatsOf Adeimii effects itall

    san . course , there are * ' - " cap y produced—a burning hayrick , to end a perfectly incomprehensible first act with something that everybody can understand—a sliding floor ( wonderfully managed by the carpent er * and turned to the least possible dramatic account by tho play-writer ) , which precipitates a gentleman into unfathomable lower regions—and a " chalk-pit , " into which several important characters of the drama come to soliloquize . Profusion of soliloquy is indeed the speciail characteristic of the Summer Storm , throughout . Mr , Leigh Murray suffered particularly from this peculiarity , and boro his affliction admirably . In tho course of the three first acts , he had only two scenes in wliich ho enjoyed the happiness of talking to any purpose with anybody but hinnsclf . The only " parts in the play which afford opportunities for good acting are tho comic parts . Three of them are admirably performed . Mrs . Keoley was delightfully hearty and natural in the charactor of Bessy Busyby .

    Mr . Rogers acted tho country lout Simon Poat , with tho quaintest truth and humour ; and Mr . Kecley , as the Uirdcatcher , was , in one wordperfect . Never was this admirable actor shown to greater advantage , as a master of his art , than in tho third net of tho Summer Storm . His representation of stolid , cunning , conceited dmukonuoss , is too subtle and delioa-to in its truth and humour to bo described—our readers must go and see It . Let them imagine Kouloy drunk all over—a drunken slouch in his ehouldors , a drunken lungour in his logs , a drunken staro in his eyes , a drunken composure in his utterance , and , above all , Jin unutterable overflowing <> f drunkenness in every lino of hit ) mouth—lot them imagines this , nnd they wSll take our word for it , thiit dull as tho play is , it is well worth sitting througU for tho beery Birdoatchor ' s sake !

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    for the rendering of feeling . Piccini appeared to have the advantage , and to carry general opinion with him , but Gliick had planted the standard of a principle which was destined to be triumphant . In the mean time Rossini appeared like a meteor , and won all sympathies , especially those of the elegant world , to the old form of opera . Then at a moment when the melodic and declamatory style stood , in opposition , came Meyerbeer and combined the two ; without rejecting melody , he gave declamation an important share in the merit of his works , w agner has gone a step further , and so far from making melody an object , he rather rejoices when the melodic motives , which are treated by him in a declamatory and specially dramatic manner , are denied the name of melodies .

    This is Liszt ' s point of view , which , in the historic scheme he sets forth , gives to Meyerbeer a far higher significance than I am disposed to grant . But for the present you may content yourself with Liszt ' s ingenious history , and the position which , according to him , Wagner is to fill in the history of art . In some future letter I may be able to say more of Wagner .

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    1028 THE LEADER . [ Saturday ,

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 28, 1854, page 1028, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2062/page/20/