The National Register. — London, England, 1808-10-02 00:00:00

THE NATIONAL REGISTER. as thus: " What-can-de —lay his re—turn," which rendered her most serious speeches ludicrous. Mr. H. Siddons's pauses were of a different nature: they generally occurred when his conlocutor had finished what he had to say, and lasted till the loud voice of Old prompter recalled his wandering memory. Mr. Putnam's, though not quite so frequent, proved more fatal, for his last continued so long, that it outlived the patietice of the audience, who by a tremendous discharge of hisses and °ln, drowned the assistiugaccents of the prompter, and compelled the curtain to fall. In a few minutes Mr. Russell made his appearance to speak the epilogue. But neither his usual grin of unmeaning satisfac tion, nor the display of his white teeth could pacify the au dience. His countenance, at last, and we really believe for the first time on the stage, assumed a serious appearance, and an expression very different from coxcombical vanity. After some fruitless endeavours to he heard, he wisely retired in compliance to the reiterated committals of au irritated public. A Magician, ycleped lAliston, armed with more power, and commanding more spirits than Prospero in his enchanted Island, no sooner tame forward to speak the prologue to The There aml the Deuce, than the mighty storm of discootent instantly sub sided. Daring the course of this excellent afterpiece, in which Ae continued to prove himself far superior to all the comedians on all our country and London stages, the must perfect good humour reigned throughout the assembly, and loud bursts of ap plause and laughter alone disturbed the peace of the evening. We rejoice to see that the spark of taste and judicious severity which flashed forth on Tuesday last among the audience that crowded Drury Lane, was not a fleeting glean: of light extin guished as soma as perceived. It blazed anew with increased splendour on Thursday night, in the same house, when The Fortune Teller, a musical After-piece, was acted for the first time. Should it continue to display itself so appropriately, we may hope that in a short time managers will prefer real sense, genuine wit, morality, and interest, to the nonsense in the plays which: they bring; forward, and that the reproach of degeneracy 'A ill then be hur led against our stage, only by ill-founded dissa tisfaction, and disappointed imbecillity. The plot of the Parlieue Taler is uninteresting and improba ble. A young lady of fortune falls in love with a soldier, wins his affections under the garb of a person little above him in the scale of rank, and thus disguised, hires a lodging in his father's cottage, where his sister also lives, and which is situated on her nun estate, 'till then left to the care of an ambitious and unjust steward. There, learning,; that her soldier is coming with his regiment in the neighbou rhood, she disguises herself as a for tune teller, meets him on his way, and tells him that he is born 1 9 he rich ; mentions the name of Emma, under which he had known her, as that of his future wife, and leaves him in asto uishment. She then writes to her steward that she intends to 'Altair to her country seat that same evening. lie gives direc tions to his son (a country booby whom he had sent in vain to London to quicken his wit), to pot on his new suit of clothes, and exert all his faculties to please her, and try to obtain her hand. Instead of obeying his father's injunctions, the young man gets drunk, seeks the soldier's sister in her own cottage, and, whilst running after her to kiss her, is locked up in a room by her clouting,. The lady reaches her mansion; the steward looks in 1.-ain for his son, and sets out to seek him at night, with a ser vant. They hear him breaking a door, and meeting him, lead him home still intoxicated. The soldier returns, awl, with his sister, repairs to the lady of the manor, to complain of the steward's son's behaviour. There they find the latter in a net' snit of clothes, cursing the tightness or his hoots, and trying to recover from the embarra,•sment in which his introduction to his lady had plunged him. The soldier knows his Emma, who, we suppose, declares her intention of marrying him, for the hissing, s hitch we had long expected, at last horst forth with ten-fold loudness. The repeated cries of off! off! thundered incessantly till the curtain dropped, and the unabated tumult prevented us from heating whether it had been announced a second time for representation. The only claim which this after piece laid to public approba tion, was its music. Some of the songs were very pretty, but +could boast little novelty. Three of them brought French tunes to our remembrance too powerfully not to convince us we had beard them in their native land, and that they had beeu slily im ported here by Mr. Reeve. Mrs. Mountain sang delightfully, as well as Mrs. Bland. Mr. Bannister, Mr. Mathews, %Veal,- :ter, and Peoley, exerted all their abilities in support of this after-piece ; but to the honour of the public be it said, that the display of so much talent, however brilliant, did not dazzle their e).c; , , and blind them to the imperfections of the piece. OCT. _A The author, whoever he be, cannot lay his condemnation to the charge of the performers. Had his plot been novel, the inci. dents interesting, the language, if not elegant, at least good, he, might have experienced a different fate. In the present case, it is the rider who could not keep his seat through his total igno rance of horsemanship, and not his beast that fell through stub bornness or restiveness. KINGS THEATRH. Last Monday evening. the Covent-garden Company mule their appearance at this Theatre. The house was filled rather than crowded ; and although the boxes had been dismantled of their drapery, so as in a great measure to connect the compa ny in each circle, the house did not, and perhaps from the very nakedness consequent upon this disrobing what was never in tended to be disrobed, assume that brilliancy which it might halve been expected to display. The performances were ushered in by the tune of Gud save the King', which was played while the whole audience stood ; and immediately after this, the curtain rose, when in came Mr. tiemble in a Court-dress, awl made an introductory speech, of which the following is the substance : I. l lougs AND GrNTLEMCN, " I know not how to express the very sincere feelings with which I stand before you upon the present occasion; and I alit equally ignorant how to thank you for the very flattering marks of your favour. with which I am now, and have long been, honoured. I feel I shall not be able to state, in the collected manner I could ►wish. the object for which I at present stand before you; and I beg you to impute that failure to any other cause, than a want of respect to those whom I have the honour of addressing. " Ladies and Gentlemen —Immediately after the It:te destruc tion of the Theatre !loyal in Covent-garden, I trust the Pro prietors paid that humane attention to its workmen and de pendents to which they were justly entitled : and I also trust they have lust no time in preparing to resume their share of contribution to the amusements of this Metropolis, by engaging and fitting up for your reception the house in which we arc now assembled. We have, however, to ask great indulgences at your hands ; and we must be forgiven if we do not represent the productions of our Poets with all those illusions of scenery, hat►its, and decorations, ix hich the Proprietors formerly spared no expellee to provide, and no occasion to brim:forward. In the Theatre of the Italian Opera, to which we have been co►npelled to have recourse, we are naturally not so well provided to giro life to the works of our native Poets ; and we must make large drafts upon your indulgence. Permit me, however, to state, that we shall make daily progress in bettering our present pro vision, and shall immediately set about to erect a new Theatre, such as we think will be worthy of the Metropolis where it is situated, and in which we hope to be able to receive you by next September." The performance followed, and only proved how unfit sa large a Theatre is for the representation of any thin; w urth hearing. FAILURE IN THE CITY. - -- - Wednesday one of the greatest failures that has occurred for some time took place at the-Stock-Exchange. Messrs. Walsh and Nesbitt declared themselves unable to answer the tlemandi on them. They were the Contractors for the two last Lotteries, for the. City Lottery, and were bidders also for the Lottery that was contracted for the other day. The property involved in their failure is immense. Thursday, Mr. Lapel and Mr. Wilson, two gentlemen of great respectability, at the Stock Exchange, waited, at the requesten of the creditors, on Messrs. I Valsh and N esbitt, at (laptop, nh the lter gentleman made a thorough confession of the state of their at affairs. Their creditors tire chiefly persons in the Stock Exchange, to the amount of snore than 200,0001. The assets to pay these debts consist chiefly in the houses which fell to the lot of the City Tickets ; some few thou sand p ounds owing by two Noble Lords; 10,0001. in the Chamber of the City h of London. which was left as a deposit on the third C it y Lottery, hut whic w k now relinquished; a few thousand p ounds owing by perso for Tickets; their own two houses at Clapton, valued at I 0,000!. and a seat in a certain House, estimated at 30001. amountind at g the whole to about 15 0 , 600 /. if t he Cit y Houses, value 102,0001. shall fetch the st u n they are estimated at. They also confessed, that about 60 or 10,0001. of the Subscribers to the Lottery's money had been expended in what is kno wn b y the oamc of Gobbling Tickets in the late Lottery. What brought -.•••11 r