The proverb so useful to timid lovers, Faint Heart never
?con Fair Lady, is the title of a smart little piece, produced at the Olympic on Thursday ; wherein the success of a bold and determined suitor is set forth for the encouragement of bashful wooers. Buy Gomez, a young Spanish officer, has become enamoured of the young and lovely Dutchess of Torrenueva, who is betrothed to the Marquis of Santa Cruz, governor of the young King Charles the Second of Spain : he scales the garden-wall, adroitly converts a stately duenna into a messenger of love, climbs into the Dutchess's apartment through a window, and de- clares his passion, respectfully avowing his determination never to cease to hope, and his confidence of ultimate success. The Dutchess, piqued at his assurance and indignant at his presumption, determines to be married that day, to give the lie to the saucy cavalier's predic- tion; but the young king, who having attained his majority of fifteen, had escaped from his tutor, encounters Ray Gomez, and is persuaded to throw off restraint and declare himself the reigning. sovereign : the Marquis is sent on a mission to communicate the intelligence, and incurs the displeasure of the Dutchess by the ailing her purpose and after a little coquetting, the gallant Gomez triumphs, and is rewarded by the lady's hand and the King's favour.
VESTRIS, as the Dutchess, " who would be wooed and not by storm be won," shows the womanly spirit of opposition blended with maidenly pride, and that precursor of 'love an admiring dislike, in a very natural and piquante manner, and yields to the conqueror of her will with be- coming grace. CHARLES :11ATHEWS evinces the firmness of his reso- lution by his quiet self-possession ; and as his ardour clothes itself in the form of courteous deference, his coldness may be excused, since he expresses the chivalrous spirit and delicacy of his passion in his con- duct. He has now attained what was so much wanting in his acting— repose ; we may reasonably expect therefore that he will also acquire another desirable quality--earnestness. Miss Lee, as the boy King, has too much the look of a girl disguised as a " pretty page " she is too feminine in voice and manner for a male character. Miss Multiuse would have looked the royal truant better. Mrs. 3IACNANARA, as the starched lady duenna, seems as if the violation of one of the forms of court would he the death of her : and BLAND, as the Marquis, is brusquely obsequious. The dresses are superbly correct ; and the cha- racters, had they been ranged in frames, would have furnished a gallery of living Spanish pictures.
The amusing farce of Petticoat Government is running at this theatre. PARREN'S drollery in the part of Hectic is forced and exaggerated ; his humour is hard and practical, and though his grimaces had their effect, as compared with MUNDEN'S it is vinegar to oil. Mrs. Oatteat, as 111,.s. Carney, the canting housekeeper, is consummately artful ; and Miss MURRAY plays the vixen con amore : BLAND makes a jolly country- man ; and BROUGHAM, as the Irish corporal making cupboard love, is quite at home.
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