"Indeed, my brain felt so flaccid." it. Sir P. Sidney says, "this effeminate love of a woman doth womanise a man."

p. 182. This is perfect nonsense.

The deficiency is supplied by a rich cream, or milk with a fine head, which comes to table scalt." p. 281. Is the verb to scald an irregular one? and if not, why is the preterite participle irregular?

66

tion of trashy philosophy," &c. p. 380. There seems to be no small por

46

"It appears, however, from subsequent events, that the benefits of this constitution was intended," &c. p.342. There is a sort of selfishment in These will serve as land-marks to affection." p. 324. Mr. B. in his future literary efforts. "A girl, thus prematurely woman- They are not indeed all; nor have we ised" p. 326.-Mr. Burnett, having selected some ingenious metaphors, published some specimens of early (as at p. 32): but they are sufficient English writers, might have known to excite a more than ordinary vigithat the sense of this obsolete word is lance when next he sits down to precisely the reverse of what he gives compose.

ORIGINAL POETRY.

the beach

THOUGHTS IN A DOCK-YARD:-Building Seem'd some huge Sampson stalking o'er and Launch of a Man of War. NO sights of horror, nor her rocky shores Deform'd with naval spoils, dread monitors,

What dangers lurk beneath insidious seas!
Dismay Neptunian Britain. All around
What future navies rise! Norwegian pines
Here stretch their trunks gigantic; British

oaks

Steam to the skies; and ripening vessels
there,

Like the rude creatures on the delug'd bank
Of Nile, prolific flood, enrich the strand.
This, newly on its firm foundation fix'd,
Fatigues the gazer's eye, to comprehend
Her longitude immense. Another, boned
With surdy oak, expands her arching limbs
Stupendous, like th'inverted columns proud
Of some antique cathedral. That, behold!
Approaching to perfection, wide unfolds
Her spacious penetralia. Clinging boys,
Like ants supine, that creep beneath the
bough,

Hang on her sides, explore, and fortify
The secret chinks. Her ringing caverns,
hark!

Rebound the din of labour, hurling quick
The clatt'ring echo far. And now, behold!
The swelling shines consummate. Sym-

metry

Rules through her every part, and grandeur

With the vast gates of Gaza. See! she rears Her painted head; expands her sails; displays

Her crimson'd streamers to the wanton
wind,

And like some racer foaming for the course,
Presses amain. Promiscuous croods descend
Spectators of the launch. A tide of oil
Smooths her prone path; a sloping wat ry
bed,

Scooped from the sand, prepares to break

her fall

Serenely rapid, like some vulture pois'd,
That shoots the air, and never wants a wing,
The frighted sea recoils, and stands awhile
Collected. As when thundering at the door
Some din unusual frights the pack, con
fus'd

They roar aloof, till known, the huntsman's
voice,

And feeding hand, obsequious they ap pro-ch,

And hail his entrance with a choral peal; Thus, with tumultuous haste, the waves return'd

S

THEATRICAL RECORDER.

applauses: the fame " quæ terminet ATURDAY, Jan.So The Messiah. astris," has fixed its basis deeply, and To descant upon the merit and it is therefore commendable brevity, sublimity of Handel's Messiah, would to join the general voice by simple savour as much of judgment as to call acquiescence. Yet we may be allowed Shakspeare a fine writer. Of that to to say, that this divine Óratorio was which general admiration has been performed this evening with increased conceded, there remains nothing to be effect. Braham and Mrs. Dickons said that is not a repetition of former were themselves a tower of strength.

The latter was particularly fine in the triumphing, as it were, in his security, air " Rejoice greatly, O daughter of was a masterly conception. Zion," and in that of" I know that my In his first interview with Guilden Redeemer liveth." She executed these stern and Rosencranz, his eye spoke all with more judgment and skill than the the suspicion he felt of them; while. recitative There were shepherds abid- his conduct was open, courteous, and ing in the field," &c. Braham was most polite: and in the scene with the happy in the recitative " Thy rebuke players, his endeavours to recollect has broken his heart," &c. Besides the speech which he wishes to have these, there were Mrs. Blaud, Madame spoken, were in the happiest and most Dussek, Mr. Bellamy, Mr. Goss, &c. natural manner.

who severally distinguished themselves in the course of the evening.

But the climax of this evening's performance was the scene of the Saturday, Feb. 6. Hamlet (first mock play. Mr. Kemble has so deeply time this season)-We fly by Night-studied the character of Hamlet, that Of this evening's performance we there is not a look, a breathing, which might justly repeat what we have said does not correspond with the business above of the Messiah. The excellent of the moment. His easy, unaffected performance of Mr. Kemble places manner, while lying at the feet of such a picture before the mind, as is Ophelia, his eyes from time to time intensely felt but cannot be described. rivetted upon the countenance of the The peculiar beauties of the character, king, and, as the plot advances, the as acted by him, have been repeatedly pointed out; yet it is a justice which we owe both to our readers and to that gentleman to mention here a few of those which particularly struck us ou this evening.

he

In the first soliloquy,

"O that this too too solid flesh," &c.

was

absorbed in grief; his eye, his countenance, spoke the settled melancholy of his heart; and his musings upon the strange depravity of the queen in wedding with his uncle were admirably pourtrayed. The line

"Frailty-thy name is woman," was delivered in an excellent manner: the pause after the word "frailty"as if to collect in his own mind its worst character-and the under tone, full of inveteracy, with which he uttered "thy name is woman," were altogether admirable. In the subsequent scene with Horatio, he was equally excellent in his interrogative anxiety.

In the scene with his father's ghost, we admired very much the manner in which he repelled the fears of his companions, as to what the spirit might do, if he followed it.

"Why, what should be the fear? I value not my life at a pin's fee, And for my soul, what can it do to that, Being a thing immortal as itself?" The glow of exultation with which he spoke the line

"Being a thing immortal as itself;"

eager agitation of his frame to note its
effect upon his couscience, by which
he writhes himself as it were half across
the stage, formed altogether so fine a
piece of acting, that the audience
seemed transported beyond themselves
in their reiterated plaudits. Nor ought
we to forget the closet-scene with the
Queen; and the manner in which he
"Is it the king?"
a revengeful joy flashed across his
as he anticipated so
hoped a sacrifice to his revenge.

exclaimed

countenance

The character of Hamlet requires, unquestionably, the most rare com bination of talents in an actor, of any other in the whole English drama. He must be alternately grave, philosophic, sorrowful, kind, courteous, playful, severe, moralizing, incoherent: and transitions from one to the other of these must often be rapid, and frequent in the same speech. Hence so few who have attempted Hamlet have succeeded: hence it has been considered as the utmost reach of the scenic art. Of Garrick we can only talk as others have talked before us, praise by rote, for we never saw him; but of present actors, we may say, and it is indeed no great compliment to Mr.Kemble to say it, that his Hamlet remains even unapproached by any of them.

The other characters this evening were performed with their usual mediocrity. What could be the reason that Mrs.Dickons, who played Ophelia.

and very badly too, was allowed to in-
troduce Purcell's long, tedious, mourn-
ful, ditty of Mad Bess! With as
much propriety Mr. Kemble might
have introduced into his own charac-
ter Dryden's song
"Of a Scholar
and his Mistress," when he sees
Ophelia.

"Look! look! I see-I see my love ap-
pear! &c."

Mrs. Dickons is, indeed, very unfit for Ophelia. Her singing was too artificial to be plaintive and melancholy and when mad, she skipped about, and prated with as much pertness of manner as a lively chamber

maid would do.

DRURY-LANE.

Friday, Jan. 22.-Something to Do, (first time)-Furibond. We merely mention this play, to say that it was hooted off the stage. De mortuis nil nisi bonum.

Wednesday, Jan. 27.-The Rivals-Matrimony. This excellent comedy of our modern Congreve, without his grossness, was performed in a capital manner this evening. Mr. Elliston was every thing we could wish in Faulkland, that most delicate yet true lover: he pourtrayed most hap pily the quick sensibility of real and dignified love, and all the thousand inconsistencies which accompany that passion. Faulkland is not an ordinary lover: he is precisely that man whom a woman of feeling would wish to captivate. The sentiments he utters are those of a delicate and refined mind; and they were delivered by Mr. Elliston in a manner that delighted us.

Tuesday, Feb. 9.-Begone dull Care; or, How will it end? `(first time)The Padlock. This comedy is the production of Mr. Reynolds. Its plot is nothing: it consists rather of a series of disjointed scenes, and the denouement happens nobody knows how. The situations are some of them Mr. Russell made his first appear. comic, and the language passes off ance in Captain Absolute; but a genvery well, when assisted with grimace tleman's character sits aukwardly upon and action. The best drawn charac- him: and for a gentleman to say ter in the play is that of Emery's, an stoopid for stupid is quite unpardona honest, manly, feeling rustic; and it ble, though we do not deny that a prefound in Mr. Emery a most able re- cedent might be found for it: but the presentative. We presume it was stage should amend, not countenance some motive of friendship that in- error. Of Dowton's Sir Anthony Abduced Mr. C. Kemble to take a part solute, we can only speak in terms so utterly unworthy of his abilities: and as Mr. Pope is intended to be a modern gentleman, we think it would be as well if he dressed like one, and ordered his taylor to cut off the fine embossed steel buttons upon his coat. The letter which Miss Norton writes in the second act savoured something of the ridiculous: she should have Thursday, Jan. 28.-Love for Love written it first, and then read it, as to Furibond. "The characters of Conherself, and not pronounce each line greve," said Dr. Johnson, before she writes it, that the audience of intellectual gladiators;" a remark may know what it is about. She that may most justly apply to the premust be a most excellent scribe, if sent play, in which there is such a pershe write half as quickly as she is here petual scintillation of wit, that the made to do. There are some good al- mind becomes almost surfeited. Que lusions to existing follies, which were thing is certain, that Congreve has very well received. The prologue forgotten, in all his dramas, a just rewas miserably stupid and imperti- lative proportion: all his characters, nent: and it lost nothing of its former from the master down to the lacquey, quality in the hands of Mr. Brunton. cannot open their mouths but out The epilogue was spoken by Miss flies some shrewd remark, Smith; it had something more of merit, and was well delivered.

of the most unqualified commendation: it was chaste and natural. Mr. Bannister and Mr. Johnstone were equally excellent in Acres and Sir Lucius O'Trigger; and the sweet simplicity of Mrs. II. Siddons was admi rably calculated to give effect to the tender and interesting Julia.

66

are a sort

some hu

morous interpretation, or some display of wit; and as this lavish distribution of such a precious quality is not always accompanied with a corre.

sponding importance of character, the "They say they come but to, &q.” consequence is, that we must submit "They call upon us to barter, &c." to lose much of its excellence on the and so on through the whole speech. stage from the mouthings of inferior Now, as there is no parallel in this actors. Of this, Mr. Eyre in Scandal, address between what one offers and Mr. De Camp in Jeremy, and Mr. what another offers, it is evident that Purser in Trapland, made us fully this emphasis is misplaced, and that it sensible. Mr. Elliston in Valentine should be transferred to the verb. was but indifferent: he did clearly But Mr. Elliston is culpably lax in bis conceive the character: not so Mrs. application of emphasis, and seems to Jordan: her Miss Prue still shines have an undue partiality for little forth with undiminished excellence words.

soul."

in all the coarse simplicity of untamed «His monosyllables like thunder roll, nature. Mr. Bannister, in Ben, was, And he, she, we, ye, it, they, fright the as usual, a faithful delineator of a CHURCHILL. character badly drawn by the author; Rolla, in fact, is one of those chasailors, in Congreve's time, were a less racters which Mr. Kemble has so inknown and less accurate portrait. We dividualized, (pour ainsi dire, and we were surprised to hear Mr. Bannister, have Boileau's authority) that there however, speak of "contrary winds." is little chance of pleasing, unless his Monday, Feb. 1.--Pizarro-Furi- manner be closely imitated: and even bond. To say that we were utterly then, such is the fastidiousness of displeased this evening will be easily man, we should be disgusted, because credited, when we present the followan imitation. ing comparative cast of characters, as played at Covent-garden and this theatre:

Rolla

Al Pizarro

Elira

Covent-garden.

Mr. Kemble
Mr C. Kemble
Mr. Cooke

Drury-lane.

Mr. Elliston!
Mr. H. Siddons.
Mr Raymond!

Mrs. Siddons A Young Lady!

"I hate e'en Garrick thus at second hand."

Mr. Elliston, however, wants dignity for this character; in short, Mr. Elliston is not a tragedian, however much the applause of the galleries mav tempt him to think so.

Thursday, Feb. 11.-Kais; or, Love in the Deserts, (first time)-Virgin Unmasked. This four-act opera is the And first of the Young Lady. What production of a Mr. Brandon, a genthe managers could mean by suffering tleman, we are informed, of the Jewsuch an attempt to be made upon the ish persuasion. The story is taken boards of a London theatre we know from a well known eastern tale, but not. This Young Lady, whose name it is here wrought up with little skill. we have not heard, was never designed The language is below mediocrity; by nature, cither in person, counte- and some aukward attempts to praise nance, or mind, (if we may judge of the English by au Egyptian storythe latter from her conception of El- telier (Bannister) were received with tira) for any thing beyond a walking hisses. The plot is meagre and uninlady on the stage, or a waiting lady off. teresting; the dialogue most scantily To criticise her acting would be a diffused, so that it is but a word and Mr. Elliston in Rolla bellowed most old: we recognised stolen goods in ala song. All the music is pretty, but furiously. In the speech to his sol- most every part of it. Two or three diers, be "tore it to very rags," and of Braham's songs, who plays Kais, might, for aught we have heard to the contrary, "have split the ears" of that in the fourth act. Mrs. Mounwere delightfully sung, particularly the "groundlings." Nor is this the tain and Signora Storace also had only fault we have to find. His con- some very charming airs allotted to ception of that speech was radically them. The scenery, decorations, prowrong: so absurdly wrong indeed, cessions, &c. have been got up with that it is wonderful to us how he much magnificence: yet we are concould have erred so. Proclaiming to vinced that it will never be popular, his army what might be expected from the Peruvians, Mr. Elliston said, "They offer us their protection, Se."

waste of time.

such is its intrinsic demerit in incident and dialogue. Some judicious alterations were made after the first