The new melodrama at the Lyceum, called The Poacher and
his Dog, (founded on a tale in " Three Courses and a Dessert,") is composed of such complex incidents and squalid horrors that a happy termination does not compensate for their disagreeableness. This piece not only illustrates the old proverb, "it's a wise child that knows its own father," but moreover goes to prove that " it must be a wise father that knows his own child." It appears to have been got up for the purpose of displaying RAYNER'S talent in rustic tragedy. He personates Saul Braintree, the Poacher; who having in self-defence killed a gamekeeper, suffers his son to be tried for the murder, supposing that he is really the son of' the Squire, upon whom lie seeks'to be revenged for some . wrong. Braintree had told his wife to change the two infants when they were at nurse ; but she had deceived him, and kept her own child : he finds out his mistake just in time to surrender himself to save his son ; and lie is in his turn saved by an unexpected witness of the affray coming forward to convert the murder into manslaughter. RAYNER'S acting is powerful and pathetic ; but his success in realizing the situations only served to make them more painful, not more pro- bable or less revolting. Miss RICHARDSON, as Braintree's wife, depicts the complicated distress of a woman under such circumstances with a modest truth that is really touching. There is a great dog introduced very needlessly ; and as he acts his part reluctantly, his docility does not compensate for the absurdity of giving a poacher a huge mastiff as his companion, or justify the introduction of the four- footed actor.
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