The National Register. — London, England, 1814-11-20 00:00:00

TUE NATIONAL iIIiIATI;TER. 1)R..131 . A1'1C REGISTER. DRURY•LANE. Miss Walstein, whose engagement had been announced with' all .that could enhance the expectations of 1 .4 public, and wtio came fro r m the Dublin stage, ( though, we under stand, not•a native of IrelarA,) honoured with the admira tion of the self-elected best judges in the world, made her rst appearance in the hart of Calista, at this theatre, last Tuesday. 'this lady, we are informed by persons who wit nessed her performances at the time, held a considerable rank on the Edinburgh theatre fourteen years ago, when youth gave an additional charm to her dramatic exhibition. She afterwards made the usual provincial tour, and, at last, settled in Ireland, where the friends of declamation granted leer a hearty welcome and a home. She has now been called from the seat of her fame to try whether it could be extem:ed to the British metropolis, and confied by them judgment of the first audience in the world. We cannot but observe, that the character which Miss "Walstein selected for her first appearance, betra)s sonic want of judgment. No play can be mole immoral and tirc some than the FairePeatitent , anol no part so unatniahle as that of Catista. , ,Theltiaces and sensibility of an actress might soften ruggedness, and render it more consonant with the title of Fail'. Peuitent which 'he piece unaccount ably beats : but those are not found either in the person or the mind of Miss Walstein. Nature has trot fitted het for the melting mood, or even to delineate the softer emotions of the proudest female bosoms. Her features are cast in almost a more than. manly mould. Compared with them, Mrs. Siddon's countenance would shrink into feminine softness.. But- it is only their outward shape that is so strongly marked ; the illuminatious of the soul, which give life and every variety and power of expression to milder and more beauteous faces, are completely wanting. The eyes are dark, but dart no piercing beams, and with all their loftiness of form, the features seem to possess hut one unvarying expression, which, though it might suit "Ri chard the Third " in the triumph of his villainy, is not suf. liciently subdued by the utmost eftbrts of the actress ever to sink into mere force and nobleness. Miss W.'s voice and deli very unfortunately yield her no assistance towards bringing he r ithin the i of fetninality. fler voice, without being re markable for strength, has a certain elevation and monotony of tune which fie igues the car, and her delivery is more like the studied declamation of a boy than the language of an able expounder of the passions. We have occasionally complained of Mr. Rae's manner of dividing his sentences, by which the sense is suspended and epithets divorced from their substantives so as to produce an unpleasant effect, What in him is only a peculiarity of babit, or pePhape -the consequence of a natural want of breath, seems in M E iss Walstein to be a fault of judgment it is not an occasienal, bat a constant blemish in her per formance, and is carried so far, as, by the length of her pauses., to destroy all expression of feeling and sometimes of sense. hence she abounds - with new readings, which form no beauties in themselves, and sometimes rob the author of his own. This erroneous division of periods, and inveterate habit of declamation certainly compose Miss Walstein's chief defect in tragedy, and are to a certain degree the sources of the rest. They banish nature.feom her performance Art alone is visible, but art misdirected and misapplied. Instead of t h e s:- Inodulations which awaken all the sensibilities of the heart, she has no other way of expressing a change of passion or sentiments than by an alteration in the degree of boldness of her intonations, so that in her animated and forcible -passages she rants, and in those of a milder character she is frequently pompous, cold, and uninteresting. Miss Walstein's action is generally good, though not very expressive always appro , priate. Its chief fault is a.want of en:emote.. She is too much in the habit of gesticulating with one arm at a titre, and when that is tired, with the other, so as to give them alternate rest. This may be comfortable, butthrows an appearance of stiffness into the whole of her deportment. There is also too much pomposity in her tread, and too studied and evident a desire of displaying her figur e. This is still elegant, and. when fuller, must have been remarkably handsome, but the twists of her body, intended for " graceful bendings," have something of aifectation which borders on the ridiculous. ;t was not by the curve of her back, or the artful disposi!ion of her shoulders, that Mrs. Siddons electrified thousand , in every character she assumed. Her soul identified itself w i t h the part, and her person and countenauwe following the im pulses of her mind, moved with grace and dignity, and beamed with matchless expression. Attitudes, like decla mation, may he studied, hot- even should they boast the perfeCtion of art, they would still he transcended b‘ a single look flatight with feeling, a !tingle no.e tiemolons with just expression, and the least trifling; action whi c h be trays the presence of unaffected nature. Exquisite sen sibility alone can reach those perfections. It is - the parent of taste, if not of j tl2.ment too, and wherever it is found to exist, denotes, if not actual Occellenne. at least a capability of attaining it. It is that, which we regret to state. Miss \Valstein's performance of Calistn, leads us to think she does not possess, and without which, it were ,grosi flattery to tell her, she could ever hope to gain the first rank in the drama. She is, however. highly respectable, and if she would correct the pruriency of her declamation, rein in her bursts of voice, refrain from injudicieusly dividing her sentences, and appear less occupied with her own person, she would certainly claim more applause than site has received, and would rise superior to the hisses with which. it was fic quently accompanied. In Ireland, we understand. she played second to Mies Smith (now Mrs. Bartley) during that Lady's excursion to Dublin. We do not see, why on the metropo litan theatre she should lye placed above her. She has not displayed any qualifications which entitle her to that honour. Elliston looked the " gallant gay Lothario" to admiration, but cast rather too deep a shade of seriousness into the man ners of the elegant and remorseless libertine. Rae was very impressivo in Horatio, and Waliack displayed considerable • feeling in Altamont. Pope in Sciolto gained great app!ausY, but the piece itself possesses no recommendation of interest or merit sufficient to render its revival a matter of satisfac tion to the public. We have entered, by a' a very pleasing exhibition, which we understood to have been established het very re cently in this metropolis. It is called a Picturesque and Mechanical Spectacle. and ;s exactly similar to that of Pierre at Paris, the Proprietor having been long one of that artist's principal assistants. In the difrerent views, boats, carriages, horses, men and women, and troops of military are intro duced moving in various directions, in a very natural and accurate manner. Among the places represented we dislm gnished the place Louis Quinze at Paris, (which seemed faithtu', b t ens confined me thought to rather too small a portion of that nobly square) and-the Cape of Good Hope, with Cape Town, the Table Mountain near it, and mer chantmen and ships of war sailing along the coast, some of OW • *lnt - . 774 _,_ • NOV. 2(. r