A fresh piece of pleasantry (from the French, of course)
was pro- duced at the Haymarket on Thursday, under the title of Grist to the
A miserly Marquis is surprised in his dilapidated chateau by a royal visiter, who rates him for his avarice, and threatens him with disgrace ; but he is saved from the punishment of his penuriousness by the intervention of a miller's daughter, who pretends to t e his wife, and, by her ready wit and personal charms, averts the Prince's displeasure : she metamorphoses the stately starvation of the Marquis's menage into a noble hospitality, and secures a legal right to her assumed title of Marchioness by winning the heart of the parsimonious peer. The Marquis breakfasting in seignorial state in his cobwebbed saloon off a single egg, attended by three famished footmen in mouldy liveries, is the sublime of pauperized pomp ; and had FARREN personated the aristocratic save-all instead of CHARLES MATHEWS, whom the part does not suit, the farce would have been perfect. But Madame VESTRIS, as the Mill-flour Marchioness, is the life and soul of the merriment : her gayety and spirit animate every scene ; address and cleverness carrying her triumphantly through the most critical dilemmas. The situations are boldly conceived and artfully contrived ; but they require an adroit stage-tactician to render them piquant and diverting. Mrs. W. CLIFFORD, too, as an elderly spinster urgent for matrimonial reparation of an accidental outrage on her maiden modesty, is a majestic incarnation of aristocratic prudery: she seems in a perpe- tual state of swoon at the shock her delicacy has received : her indig- nation explodes in sonorous exclamations, like minute-guns from a ship in distress. The gusto with which this excellent actress enters into the fan of grotesque parts such as this—preserving an air of grave earnest- ness throughout the most ludicrous extravagances—renders her inva- luable in farce : STRICKLAND'S acting as a manceuvering and meddle- some functionary, is buffoonery in comparison. The piece was an- nounced for performance nightly ; and it will bring " grist to the mill" of the manager.
Previous page
