THE T I IEATRES.
A Tricia seems to have fallen on the Theatres all of a sudden. On the heels of Drury's metamorphosis into a shilling concert—not that the entertainment is the worse for being cheap—the Lyceum, which had in vain tried a similar experiment to reinforce the feeble attraction of its dramatic performances, closes also : so that in one week two companies of actors are thrown on their own resources ; and a third—the best that has been got together for many a long day—is announced to he playing its last season, and the popular members of it are already taking their benefits. These coincident circumstances perhaps may have super- induced a feeling of languid indifference, that required something more stimulating than the two slight novelties of the week to dispel: at any rate, we are willing to give them the benefit of such a fancied condition. Agnes Bernauer, announced for this week at Covent Garden, is only produced to-night, and for Miss HORTON'S benefit; and the Devil and Doctor Faustus have not yet matured their scheme of diablerie with 0. SMITH and the Haymarket manager. Meanwhile, a petite comedy, called The Law of the Kiss, or Touch and Take, has been produced at the Haymarket by POWER, for POWER, who is the hero of the piece, and figures in a variety of picturesque dresses, making fools and tools of everybody else. The incident, span out into two rather tedious acts, is simply that of an impudent Irish- man snatching a kiss from a pretty girl, and when called upon to pay the penalty of a ceremonial marriage accompanied with a real dower, converting the mock formality into an actual one with the consent of the lady, who yields at discretion to a wooer with so many suits. Powna is a very pleasant fellow, but we fear he has been spoiled by too much petting ; for he certainly appeared upon too good terms both with him. self and the audience on this occasion, when, having it all so entirely his own way, he might have mitigated his self-complacency a little: we lost sight of the dramatic character, and saw nothing but Mr. POWER " doing the gallant," showing his superior breeding and manner, and at last condescending to make the (anemic honorable. This, however, as we premised, may have been the effect of a feeling of distaste ; and we shall be happy to find our palate restored to its healthy condition by the genuine flavour of Irish Powim in a more cordial medium. BtratsroNE's first appearance this season, on the same evening, as the country lout aping the airs of a town footman, in the not very agreeable farce of Rural Felicity, was but a slight mitigation of the nausea. Nor were the pedantic folly and ill-humour of Dr. Dilworth, as exhibited by FARREN at the Olympic, calculated to remove it alto- gether. The learned Doctor, in truth, is a bore. FARREN dresses him in true pedagogue style, with a mouldy face, mildewed hair, seedy black coat, corduroy knee-shorts, and dirt-coloured stockings, and a look as dry as a page of grammar—his ancestor in the spelling-hook was not more repulsive to schoolboy associations. The Doctor is afflicted with a vulgar Cockney wife, (too good for him,) who breaks Priscian's head. every sentence she utters, and a niece who talks French-English, and is made love to by an Irishman with a rich brogue and a profusion of slang phrases. Even his servant and disciple, who doats on Lindley Murray and venerates Dilworth, tortures his master's ears with vulgarisms that he never corrects till after he has used them KEELEY makes this character amusing ; and Mrs. °norm's hearty way of blurting out her Cockneyisms, Miss MrnnAv's French-English, and BROUGHAM'S brogue, relieve the dulness of Dilworth's social discomforts, The Two Figuros is to he revived ; but whether KEELEY or FARREN will play old Figaro, does not yet appear.
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