THE THEATRES.
The managers of Sadler's Wells have taken considerable' pains with the revival of Beaumont and Fletcher's King and No King. It is evidently one of those pieces with which they intend to produce an uncommon effect; and the outlay upon the decorative part of the affair has been liberal. Their efforts have been crowned with success.
The play, perfectly well known to all students of the English drams, has long ceased to have a visible existence to the playgoer, since it has not been acted for more than half a century, and on the last occasion it was for one night only. To an audience partly influenced by modern refine- ment it can never fail to be in some degree repulsive; for even a hint at the crime of incest awakens a feeling of abhorrence, which is not consistent with the enjoyment of a work of art. We accept the sufferings of Eclipus as traditional, but we dare not follow the example which Sophocles has set us in the finest of his tragedies. The audiences of Sadler's Wells do not represent extreme fastidiousness, but even with them the removal of the apparent incest was like lifting off a heavy weight.
Arbaces, an imaginary King of the Asiatic Iberia, is the character the delineation of which constitutes the serious part of the play. It is a cha- racter finely conceived, and drawn with a bold, fearless hand, though not without a certain grandiloquence that sometimes borders on the grotesque. With a vulgar actor it might become one of the most ranting parts in the circle of dramatic literature. Still we must remember, that the language of Arbaces is confessedly intended to be bombastic, at least in the early part of the play; and even where the exaggerated style seems less volun- tary, passages of power are struck forth, which command admiration. The subject may be horrible, the words may transcend the modesty of nature; but there is nothing like weakness, and strength will inevitably secure respect. At the beginning of the play, Arbaces has just captured Tigranes, King of Armenia, whom be has vanquished ha single combat. On this occasion he indulges in a vaunting strain in the presence of his prisoner, which is offen- sive to the conquered man, and which, in modern language, would convict him of "bad taste." One of his captains, the sensible man of the piece, attempts to check the torrent of self-praise, and is useful in showing that the boasting style of Arbaces is meant to be ridiculous. Arbaces is deter- mined to pay every honour to his captive, and would marry him to his sister Panthea, whom he has not yet seen, even against his will; so that al- together he appears as a well-meaning sort of person, not over wise, but on the best possible terms with himself. The sight of Panthea brings about the important change in his feelings on which the whole action depends. Be is immediately smitten with love; but the sense that his passion is cri- minal rushes upon him with equal force; and the frightful struggle that is at once created in his bosom is finely wrought. At first he refuses to be- lieve that Panthea is his sister: he calls her, as she kneels before him, "that petitioning lady," and looks about for a real sister elsewhere. At last he breaks out, mournfully- " Why should there be such music in a voice, And sin for me to hear it? All the world May take delight in this; and 'tie damnation For me to do so. You are fair and wise, And virtuous, I think; and he is blest That is so near you as your brother is: But you are nought to me but a disease, Continual torment without hope of ease." So far does be bury all appearance of his love beneath his loathing of the horrible passion, that it appears to his sister, and the bystanders, a Wrong hatred. In a subsequent interview, he declares his love; and his misery is heightened by the hideous discovery that his passion is returned; though the criminal feeling in the lady is drawn with a much more deli- cate hand, and the transition from sisterly affection to another love is not so forcibly apparent. In the Sadler's Wells version of the play, the adapter seems to have felt the offensiveness of the lady's position, and has therefore made her express an abhorrence of the offers of Arbaces; which is not to be found in Beaumont and Fletcher. This is perhaps a judicious recognition of modern sentiments; but the new speeches do not harmonize 'with the general bearing of the character. A declaration of incestuous love is so abhorrent, that if it do not awaken a corresponding feeling in the person addressed, it must produce a sensation of absolute repugnance; and the business of the drama will not allow of Arbaces being repugnant to Panthea. The passion of the King prompts him to a detestation of the miles of society, and he madly wishes that all the limits imposed on human desires were abolished. The following lines are an exceedingly good spe- idinen of the tone of the whole play; showing giant strength wandering into thodomontade.
"Is there no stop To our full happiness, but the mere sounds Brother and sister? • • • • • I have lived To conquer men, and now am overthrown Only by words—brother and sister! Where Have these words dwelling ? I will find 'em out, And utterly destroy them. But they are Not to be grasp'd. Let them be men or beasts, And twill cut them from the earth; or towns, And I will raze them, and then blow them up. Let them be seas, and I will drink them off, And yet have unquench'd fire left in my breast Let them be anything but merely voice." 'he thought couched in the above passage, that the invisible laws upon which society is based are stronger than material ob:tacles, is profound,
said may remind us of the contrast which Antigone draws between lam; hu- Man and divine. At the end of the play, when Arbaces is found not to be the brother of Panthea, his joy is of course as boundless as were his pride and his despair; for it is the characteristic of this prince to be extravagant in all things. Releasing Tigranes, he says—
"He shall have chariots easier than air, That I will have invented; and ne'er think Be shall pay any ransom! And thyself, That art the messenger, shall ride before him On a horse cut out of an entire diamond, That shall be made to go with golden wheels, - I know not how yet."
The way in which Mr. Phelps played the character of Arbaces does him very great credit. He gave the different passions with force and discrimi- nation; and, though countless opportunities are presented for violent rant- ing, he resisted the temptation entirely. Panama was played in nice femi- aline style by Miss Laura Addison; and so Was Spaccmia, a lady of the second rank, in love with Tigranes, by Miss Cooper. Captain Bessus, who *supports the comic portion of the drama, and is one of those bragging de- scendants from the Pygopolinius of Plautus, of whom our early dramatists are so fond, is well acted by G. Bennet; whose bombast, by the way, is 'Somewhat of a burlesque upon his ordinary style of tragic acting.
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