MACREADY'S S'hyloel, (which the opening of Covent Garden prevented our
seeing on Monday) must be a remarkable personation. according to the panegyric in the _Ifornhey Cltroo;c/e; the able writer of which speaks of it as being " the .S'hy/ock of Shakspere, as delineated in the text." It ars to be a new reading, and is doubtless a finished studs- of the character : of its merits we shall form our own opinion mean- while, we quote the following striking remarks, the justness of which, go far as KEAN'S Shykrk is concerned, inclines us to trust the critic's judgmert of :11ACREAny's performance. " There has been no Shy lock on the stage worth criticism since the time of Edmund Kean ; and we write these remarks with a very vivid remembrance of' one of the last performances over which his genius, the genius of an impas- sioned temperament, sh,el its .ustre. His flashing eye, and tones of' indes.crib. able path04, or of inarticulate fury, who can ever forget? Yet, while they haunt WS, we cannot hesitate to say that Mr. Macready tnuch more really pre- sents the Shylock of Shaklere. Perhaps not at first, but when repetition has made its 'deep feeling at,d essential truth generally understood, such, we have no doubt, will be the fical verd:ct of successive audiences. In the first Scene, Kean,h.acic:r on hi staff, and gossiping about Laban and his flocks, was much more of the 'garrulous old man ; and that is not Shalo,pere's Shylock. Startling the andieere by the indications of vindictive purpose, he made telling Contrasts eith lik fawning upon Antonio, hut he sacrihced the plausibility which alone (Nat give verisimilitude to the plot. Ilis palpable perversion of the text, to exhibit a strong revulsion of emotion at the image of his daughter in her coffin, has often been noted. No stage-effect could render tolerable the mode in which he made the oppresied Jew take sovereign possession of a 'Vene- tian court, and render himself the lord of the scene. In all these points, and they penetrate to the he;o.t of the personation, Mr, Macrearly is preiiminent ; and the final exits are in eontrart. Kean left the stage with a malignant and contemptuous howl at the last taunt of Gratiano; last night the crushed Jew just felt it enough for one instant of the raised head and indignant glance, and then sank into the depths of final defeat and abasement. The impression of that exit is the true power of tragedy, to subdue the soul by the emotions of terror and pity.",
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