THE THEATRES.
SINCE SHARSPERE, banished the metropolis of his native country, has found an asylum in France—his suburban retreat at Sadler's Wells being but a pis alley after all—we have been led to reflect upon the
obligations that the British stage is under to our Continental neigh- bours; obligations that have not received due acknowledgment. John Bull is apt to grumble at the Frenchification of English theatres, un- mindful of the fact that 'without the aid of the French stage his own 'would have afforded him but lenten entertainment. Nor is be alto- gether without excuse for his ingratitude ; for, until lately, the extent to which he is indebted to foreigners has been studiously concealed from his knowledge. But now that the same piece in various shapes is performed at half-a-dozen different theatres at once, and when the originals of some of his favourite pieces are performed in London by the 'very French actors who created the parts play ed by their English imitators, he awakes to the conviction that the British drama, like Bottom, is "translated." He finds that for years past dramatists have owed plots and situations—actors, characters and costumes—managers, stage- effects and full houses—and himself much of his amusement, to the French. Be sees with surprise English tragedians, 'who had been turned out of the patent theatres and discountenanced by the Court,
engaged to perform at the Salle Ventadour in Paris, under the patron- age of Louis PHILIPPE; and is startled at being told to look for a successor to Mrs. SIDDONS in the person of an actress from the Theatre Francais. Yet, while making these acknowledgments, we do not admit that there either was or is any necessity for the English stage reflecting the French stage instead of "holding the mirror up to nature." The most successful and agreeable productions of our stage have been original, and peculiar to this country : we allude to the elegant burlesque spec- tacles, which owe their popularity as much to the wit and humour of the dialogue as to the performance and scenic effects. In these pleasant entertainments, the dramatists, unfettered by rules and restrictions, gave free scope to their fancies, and invariably succeeded ; when trammelled by the obsolete forms of tragedy and comedy they have as invariably failed. The attempt to perpetuate the drama in the old shape is a hope- less absurdity : it must vary with the habits and tastes of the time, and the impulse of dramatic genius. The stage lives only in the present : when its images are no longer recognized as reflections of life, they cease to amuse. Hence comedy is less lasting than tragedy ; its cha- racters being more transient, because they embody fluctuating modes and fleeting aspects of human nature ; while the sources of tragic pas- sion are universal and permanent. There are certain principles of the dramatic art that must always be observed; consistency of character and incident, and action leading to result, being the most essential : but the form of development may -vary with the nature of the subject or the genius of the dramatist. We could enumerate a score of clever men, whose names will at once occur to the playgoer, as having con- tributed to public amusement in the lighter kinds of drama, though they have failed in the legitimate : but so long as translations from the French are preferred by managers and the public, there is small encou- ragement for them to tax their invention and skill to produce original pieces, with the chances of failure and but a faint prospect of remune- ration in the event of success. A new comedy is promised at the Hay- market, and a five-act play is in rehearsal at Sadler's Wells ; but it is too much to expect that either will be so popular as Don Cesar de Bazan, which is now playing at half-a-dozen theatres. Diablerie is again the rage, and the cloven hoof 'will probably go the round of the London boards.
From the Lyceum the Satanic influence has spread to the Adelphi; where, however, it is exhibited in a mimic shape only. The Myste- rious Stranger, as " Satan" is here called, in a clever adaptation by Mr. SELBY of i.e Diable en Paris, is only a love-sick girl, who assumes the modern attributes of the Devil, and seems to exercise his power, to save the man she loves from false friends and a mercenary rival. Madame CELESTE is the heroine ; who first appears as the "gentle- man in black," attired as an exquisite in evening dress, and after- wards in half-a-dozen other disguises male and female ; the prin- cipal object of the piece being to exhibit the actress in a variety of costumes. The process by ,which a young French Count is in twenty-four hours reduced to beggary and despair and restored to fortune again is sufficiently startling to seem the work of Satan ; and one feels something like disappointment at finding that the whole has been effected by human agency. This is indeed fatal to the pathetic senti- ment of the piece; but the comic incidents are so diverting that the serious business serves only as a foil to the drollery. HUDSON, as the Count, plays the lover and the gentleman admirably both in the gay and passionate scenes ; and he sings a drinking-song and a doleful ditty with equally good taste. But WRIGHT as the Count's Valet, in a perpetual state of apprehension at having sold himself to the Devil, is the life of the fun: whenever he is on the stage he keeps the house in a roar with his dry humour and quaint absurdity. 0. SMITH as the chief of a gang of passport-forgers—" artistes of society," as they call themselves— affects the air of a professor with a gravity highly diverting. Among hip comrogues are a vocalist and pantomimist, whose respective talents distinguish them from the rest. The scoundrels, it must be confessed, are better personated than the Count's friends : 'who, with the exception of SELBY, have the appearance of anything but gentlemen : the Polka- dancers, in particular, are a comical lot. Mrs. F. blerrnEws, as a buxom widow, leads a party of female scandal-mongers with emphatic volubility ; and Miss E. HARDING takes pains to personate the Count's false fair one. The piece is well put on the stage, and is likely to have
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Mr. MARBLE, the American comedian, has been playing at the Hay- market this week, in Yankee Land. . His delineation of the peculiarities of the backwoodsman, Lot Sap Sago, bears the stamp of truth, and shows him to possess comic talent that we shall be glad to see developed in a better drama. He is announced to appear as Sam .Patelt.
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