The National Register. — London, England, 1812-08-09 00:00:00

7 THE NATIONAT, REGISTER.. 4 DRAMATIC REGISTER. . HAYMARKET THEATRE. On Mondav the Bold Stroke for a Wifi , :was performed. Mathews . undei took the part of Feic,, , -!ri..e/!, and went through it a manner generally sathlactory to the audience. lie, however, did not give us any thing like a pet fek:t delinea tion of the charak-ter. In some parts it wa• an incorrect and miserably meagre sketch, in others an accurate and finished picture. The canvas was bad, hut sonic of the figures were entitled to warm admit ation. In the characters lYhich the Colonel is made to assun e, MA Timws wtts gene rally at home ; in the old steward and the quaker he was excellent, but when be appeared as the hero of the piece and as the lover, it was ditEcutt to refrain from law.thing, not at the humour and vivacity which he displayed, but at the groesque figure he exhibited, and at the odd effect given to love and sentiment by his rough glatint , ; voice. \Vhenever Feignwell was to appear as 11;111 , dt*, the (+a lai:AT was as completely burlesqued, as if it had had the benefit of the acting of Mr. CoAT ES. In the parts to which lye have before alluded he was etnintut!v successful, but, altogether he CCt taint v is not compelent to act the chatacter as it ought to he pei formed, •to satisfy those who have seen BAN is VER in it. We arc, neverthele-s, certain that if be gives it proper attention he will succeed in it much better thaw fie did on Monday. _ _ On Wednesday a Mr. TA I.Brrr made his appearance on this stage as RanrYcr in Tie Stivicious Ibt , band. This Gen tleman performed at Di urv-lane some twelve years. ago (if we mistake not, about the time of the SbakesTGrianfw , tcr”. We do not recollect his merits as an actor at that time, so as to compare what he is with what he was, but certainly if he has Much improved since that 17eriod, to become what h e is at the present dav, be must have been very bad them His performance on Wednesday, instead of affording pleasure, was in many parts disgusting and tiresome to the last degree. It had extravagance without vivacity, affecta tion without elegance, and almost all the absurdities of a down in a pantomime without one spark of true humour. An actor is sometimes placed in a situation in which it is impossible (however g eat his merit) for his exertions in that particular lint., to gain him that applause which natural talents might be expected to insure. Such is the case of Mr. MAT II EWS, 111 Coidnet re/ant/ell; and, on such an occasion, the candid critic will feel disposed to blame nature, and not the man. The lash ofcriticism ought not to be severely applied to a person thus situated ; but when a man offends, i)y the affectation and presumption with which he conies forward, the critic has a very different duty to perform. He is not then to comment on the defects in the exertions of genius labouring under natural disadvantages, but to be stow the chastisement due to impertinence and folly. In saying this we do not wish to be unde!'stood to accuse Mr. TALBOT with having, by his want of taste and judg ment, made extraordinary natural powers of no avail. We readily (lo him the justice to acknowledge that his good sense appears equal to his .talents, and ft eely admit that throughout his pet forniance we have no reason to mourn • that false taste and affectation, in any instance, obscured or detracted from tho splendour of original genius. Ilappily • no such regrets prevented our enjoyisag the play, for really we could not discover that Mr. Tatawr possessed any thing from nature that was likely to suffer from art or from time unless, indeed, we except his confidence which public scorn may have the art to put out of countenance, and time prove useless. ALT -T. ;7 . ...____ Extravagant action and ridiculous contortions of counte nance ate the leNling characteristics of Mr. TALBOT. The fnriner he cart ied to such an excess that we could almost conceive he was ambitious of imitating Mr. PACK, the postal e master, and his partiality for the latter was so great, that L i d „ e only seen his face, without knowing, what character he pretend. eel to sustain, we should have thought, either that he was pre paying to pin through a hare-collar at a country f a i r , or that he w.s rehearsing " .The liltlr,fi rthing Rushlied." Mr. T.'s figure is not had.; but the unseemly attitudes int o which he is constantly throwing, himself, make it im ot ,,ibi e for us to say one word in praise of his elel;ance. Ills face, even if it were not uniformly distorted Sy a g' in, wo u ld not make very much in his favour ; and his voice, even it he could get rid of his brogue, would not make ei forget his other defects. From the little we have seen of him we areirndly prepared to say what range of characters lie ought .to sustz:n, but if he is not disposed to part with his Po-H&J graces (grimaces), we would recommend him to take the Cirimpin :cc line in London. Upon the whole we feel it to be our painful duty to say, that to us Mr. TALBOT does not appear at all qualified to take the leading, business in comedy. To pronounce se»• tence on him altogether t'rom one of his performances might perl:aps he premature. Our present strictires apply only to his Rawrer. If hereafter in that or in any other character he Atould acquit himself in a more creditable mintier it wi:i our pi hie as it w iii be our duty to make a more favuulable report than we can possibly give of him at present. BIUGIIrON, Auorsr S. The news of Lord IV rt ttNOTOres victory, in the di , coailiture of Win mos:T, %%hie!, Te us yesterday, can , ed a general sentimeLt or rap.urous deli,:ht at the tweet Sc of British valour; we solichousiy arc waiti.:g the arrival of the official account. Sim:. the Races the rte partures Lave',Ceti railuir in Number than in Consequence, and *Alb the arlival of the Pi-t , RI G r.NT, which it is , :oid will he about tie firth, "C expect a ' , mat inlinx iii comp;nv. I.!)! d MouNt.loy ail Sir itou LI! Is lln rivvv are daily expected. At our Theatre, on Wtihto . day, T hr It I7Ji<ni atiraetvii elegant ainfienee. NVit rvco, who , e gentlemanlr appearance and so eminently fit lion I r the !cad in elegant Comedy, Waved reicoar, and obtained and ileserlrd entire approbati .n and a l iplauie. Pori s, 111 (.)' Fhberip, quite at home ; in the other characters we seen him play, he 1%4 first!' ves the estinittiun he is held in. Pow F 1.1., Ow r. sr, and Hoer; n- To N , by their exertion,, contributed to the eclat the piece went 1 0. with. AI rs. Ow i•IN and Mrs. Bit vuvrot4, in Ch.irlette and Ludu Hui port, wet e truly exccllent ; and Lowsa Dudley found, in Mks S‘ N V, an admirable representative; she is an inwommunly intere,ralz young w - ounin. and has withal an air of so much native mailcoy ax qualitie% her more eminently for this line of dramatic hu , iness t h an any actress we have seen. either on or off the Engt.sh Boards. V.ACCEVATION. The friends of humanity will peruse with great interest the lnst Report of the National Vaccine Establishm ent, which is of the satisfactory nature. This document was drawn on the 9,h of March, and transmitted to the home Secretary of state at the usual time; but in conse quence of the melancholy event, which for a period totally engrossed the attention of Parliament and of the nation at lege, it remained unnoticed until the nth of last month' when it was ordered by the House Aq . COM inOnS to be pinned. It has now been a few days in circulation, and affords a tri umphant reply to the opponents of this salutary practice,whn, growing confident from the delay in the appearance of the Report, fancied that their arts and misrepresentations bad succeeded in silencing its supporters. Already had their exultation in the anticipated downfal of vaccination dis played their disregard of humanity ; for why should tuco 21J rejoice from I had ti reveal :---.~ found of th nists. skilfu The 1 Fort: By Tespt alma thou that in pl lion rao sine GL of the im YR , ra 12(1