The Queen of Cyprus was crowned with success at the
Adelphi on Monday. Not only is the pageantry of truly (stage) regal splendour, brit the royal heroine is an object of interest ; for her story is a sad one, and Mrs. YATES is her representative. Lest her sorrows should be too much for the sensibilities of the audience, Messrs. BEDFORD, WRIGHT, and WILKINSON checker the pathos with drolleries, each after his pecu- liar fashion ; and the dramatist has so contrived the tragical incidents that they/ also involuntarily furnish their quota of merriment. In the first act, Catarina Corner°, the daughter of a Venetian noble—old Louis Corner°, the valetudinarian long-liver himself perchance—is about to be married to the Chevalier de Courcy, when the Council of Ten forbid the banns, and command poor Catarina to renounce her lover and espouse the King of Cyprus. In the second act, the unwilling bride arrives at Cyprus in the Bucentaur, and is married to the King, in pre- sence of her lover, who is nigh killing the royal bridegroom ; and in the third, the Queen loses her husband by poison—too late to console her widowhood by marrying De Courcy, who has just before taken monas- tic vows. She is very nearly losing her son too ; for the tithe part of the Council of Ten, who dosed her husband ii-la-Laffarge, flings the child into the castle-moat ; but the boy floats like a buoy, head and shoulders out of the water, and is picked up by a man on horseback. This dashing and splashing exploit, in which a real horse plunges into real water to rescue a sham child, amidst showers of spray, clouds of red fire, and peals of laughter and applause, concludes the piece: which really exhibits some striking scenic effects by Messrs. TELBIN and Prrr ; and is enlivened by some sprightly music by Mr. RODWELL, and a "pas seductive" by a bevy of " Cyprian courtesans" in gilt bodices. MTS. GRATTAN and Messrs. BEDFORD and BINGE are the principal vocalists ; and, as may be supposed, both they and the chorus are more at home in Mr. RODWELL'S compositions than in the two elaborate con- certed pieces from HALEVY'S opera. Mr. LYON, as .De Courcy, and Mr. MAYNARD, as Moncenigo, the Venetian Councillor, become their pic- turesque costumes, and act well up to Mrs. Verne—who wears three different dresses of the most superb description. The accessories, if not always in correct taste, are showy ; and the whole spectacle is got up in an attractive style of splendour.
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