THE THEATRES.
COVENT GARDEN and the HAYMARKET have commenced running the race of competition in revivals and novelties ; but, happily for the play- goers, not with the same pieces. Riches, or the Wife and Widow, MASSINGER'S powerful play of The City Madam cut down to a three-act melodrama, was produced for the first time, -It the Haymarket, on Thursday. MACREADY plays the prin- cipal character, Luke, the spendthrift brother of a rich City merchant ; who in his beggary fawns upon and flatters his wealthy brother and gains golden opinions by his meekness and kindheartedness; but when suddenly enriched, shows himself grasping, cruel, and sensual. The sudden and violent transitions of character in Luke, startling as they are in the play, appear unnatural from the want of that semblance of hypocrisy in MACREADY'S profession of goodness and generosity which should make clear to the audience the artful insincerity of his con- duct. MACREADY pleads for the debtors with the fervour of real benevolence, and a boldness and vehemence alike inconsistent with his dissimulation and a deferential humility towards his brother. The intense eagerness with which he gloats over the will by which he is made his brother's heir, as if his face was sharpened by sordid exulta- tion, is a fine piece of by-play ; but his outbreak of tyrannical power Jacks the gusto and wild flush of an unbounded wilfulness, stimulated by revenge for past insults, to colour with the bright hues of imagina- tion the grimness of his ferocity and selfishness. Mrs. Smitixo, as Lady Traffic, the termagant "City Madam," though deficient in per- sonal force and amplitude to give due effect to the full-blown pomposity and furious passion of the character, entered so heartily into its humours as to convey a lively idea in little of the gusts of rage and vexation that raise a perpetual whirlwind in the house of Sir John Traffic : the cant- ing tone of grateful sorrow with which she veils her eager delight at the prospect of being left a rich widow, and the incontinent burst of chagrin with which she receives the news of her disappointment, are in the true spirit of comedy. The masculine force of the dialogue, and the strong markings of the characters, bespeak the power and mastery of the elder dramatists; but the performance did not produce an answer- able impression.
COLLEY CIBBER'S comedy, She Would and She Would Not, was re- vived at Covent Garden last night, with as much success as its slender merits deserved. It is one of those Spanish plots of intrigue in which incident and situation are all in :11, and character and dialogue are of no account ; the vivacity being of that fatiguing sort that tantalizes by its emptiness, and nc:t unfrequently offends by its coarseness : disguises, bribes, threats, and trickery, constitute the business of the play. Mes- dames NESBIT and WALTER LACY dressed en cavalier, FARREN SS the old dupe, Miss COOPER as his daughter, and Mrs. °BOER and HARLEY as a pair of' roguish servants, kept up the ball with spirit : they all played capitally, FARREN especially ; and the elegant costumes and scenery supplied what was wanting in externals. Yet it was hardly worth the pains bestowed upon its production.
A new five-act comedy, with the title of Vanity, or What will the World Say? is announced for Saturday next at Covent Garden : Mr. MARK LEMON is reported to be the author. At the Hay-market, SHERI- DAN KNOWLES'S feeble and forgotten play, The Beggar's Daughter of Bethnal Green, is to be revived on Tuesday.
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