THE THEATRES.
The remarkable fulness and enthusiastic temper of the Haymarket au- dience on Wednesday last, showed the special importance that is attached to Macready's Lear. It is felt to be one of his best characters; and the tragedy has also this advantage, that it is not done to death every year, at all sorts of theatres.
From our remarks on the peculiarities of Mr. Macready, at the com- mencement of his present engagement, the excellence of his Lear may easily be deduced. Lear is one of the least abstract and most thoroughly human personages on the stage. When he is raised above the ordinary sphere, it is by the intensity of his woes; and no one can express a definite feeling with more force than Macready. Of those level portions that re- quire an elevated ideality, and impose by general appearance rather than by particular expression, there are none in Lear, unless the actor chooses to make them. An actor of minute detail, like Mr. Macready, can constantly find employment in representing the irritability and childish fondness of the old King; and thus the personation never seems to leave off. Remarkably powerful as he is in his curse, which is the most terrific thing on the modern stage, and beautifully pathetic as he is in the dying scene, the substratum, of characteristic peculiarity, which Mr. Macready lays at the foundation of these more salient displays, is perhaps the highest evidence of artistic talent in the whole performance.
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