Martin Chuzzlewit has commenced its theatrical career most auspiciously at
the Lyceum : the characters as they appear are welcomed with the cordiality of old acquaintance, and the fidelity of the stage-tableaux to the groups in the pictures is recognized by rounds of applause. Mr. DICKENS'S story has been dealt with according to the approved process of adapting popular fictions to the stage, facetiously termed dramatizing ; in which scissors and paste are substituted for pen and ink, and the skill of the playwright is shown by what he leaves out. Mr. EDWARD STIRLING, the operator in this case, is an adept in the art ; and, knowing that the interest taken in the performance is proportioned to the readiness with which the audience supplies connecting links be- tween detached incidents and forgotten traits of character, he has pro- vided people with plenty of such occupation. To any one unacquainted with the book itself, the representation would be unintelligible : it is a domestic spectacle with dialogue, in which the stage " holds as 'twere the mirror up to "—" Boz " and " Phiz," instead of " Nature." The leading characters are recognizable, though F. MA.TTHEWS is not sleek and oily enough for the glib-tongued and smooth-faced Pecksnijf, and hisaDows can only show Tom Pinch as a mere simpleton. But had the rest been less like the original, the mutual metamorphosis of Mr. and Mrs. KEELEY—he into that very dry-nurse Sairey Gamp, and she into that imp of impudence little Bailey of Todgers's — would have sufficed to make a success. KEELEY 'S Mother Gamp is prodi- gious : it is an embodied aggregate of the genus " nuss "—an incarna- tion of carney, cunning, and creature-comforts. What an edifice of gown and cap is that he wears !—a whole hospital-ward seems concen- trated in that bulk ; the contents of a cupboard are stowed away in those capacious pockets, into which he dives for the professional card ; and his face is a nosegay of grog-blossoms in full blow. His speech alternates between a snap of the teeth and smack of the lips ; and he sips tea and swigs gin with equal gusto. Mrs. KEELEY, as the brat Bailey, looks hardly grubby enough in the chrysalis state of the page ; but when the tiger-moth flutters forth in frock-coat, cockade, and top- boots, the effect is dazzling : her audacity is so lively, that this charac- teristic of the race, so far from being offensive, is agreeable; and even slang loses its vulgarity as it comes from her lips. The characters Mr. and Mrs. KEELEY personate are both intensely vulgar ; but this quality is im- plied humorously, instead of being coarsely copied; and hence the KEELEYS' acting is as free from taint as DICKENS'S descriptions. Mr. EMERY'S personation of the villain Jonas Chuzzlewit is true to the text, and highly effective: the heartless, sordid, brutal ruffian, haunted by the re- collection of his crimes but remorseless in the midst of his guilty terrors, is portrayed with skill and power. Mr. WIGAN assumes the swaggering self-complacency of he swindler, Mr. Montague Tigg, very successfully ; preserving the identity of the character both under the rags of the bor- rower and the fur and frogs of the lender. Miss FORTESCUE makes the heroine, Mary Graham, as interesting as a character so negative can be. Mrs. Lupin and Mark Tapley of the Blue Dragon are reduced to mere ciphers ; and neither young nor old Martin Chuzzlewit are noticeable personages. The scenes are well put upon the stage ; that of London Bridge wharf, with the steamers, in particular is very well managed.
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