The National Register. — London, England, 1812-08-23 00:00:00

Pow- .59.4 DRAMATIC REGISTER. TAT EI 'II. An Opera was last night produced at this Theatre, entitled The Privateer, founded on CutvinEnLA ND'S comedy of T/i Brothers. The principal features of that play ate preserved, and the dialogue is genetallv the same. Some of the songs were very much apl►hooled, and the piece altogether was vet y favourably received. The perti►rmers exerted themselves with great effect. FA WCET T, 111 Old Ironside, though occa sionally he appeared to have a pair of young legs attached to a❑ aged body, gave a highly entertaining delineation of tic rough tar. LOVEGROVE, in Sir Boi.jamin Dove-, was very happy; and Miss KEE V . , in Sophia, de,erved the author's best thanks. In the third act a song was introduced, the subject of which was the late victory. As a literary pet formanee it appeared to us very deficient in merit; and popular as was its theme, it was hissed by many, when son►c of the audience called for it again. Finally, it seemed to he the feeling of the house, that on such an occasion the will should he taken fur the deed, and it was suffered to be repeated. THE N4TIONAL REGISTER. ILIYNIARKEI THEATRE. On the I.sth a new Play, in three acts, was produced at this Theatre, under the title of Look at fromc. This piece is written by Mr. Er RE; the performer. It is founded on the Zeduco a Dr. Moorm. Our limits will not allow us to point out the various deviations from the original story which appear in Look at Jfonw ; nor to offer any length ened strictures on the effect produced by the alterations made. We shall perhaps best consult the wishes of our readers by shortly describing the manner in which the story is here told, leaving them to compare it with the novel from which it is professedly taken. ('snot Salerno, is represented as neuleciing, his wife for a miss tress, who exerts all her arts to make him suspect the viitue of his wifu ; and lie in consequence becomes e‘cessively jea'ous of while he is giving her the best reasiui in the woild to I.),:j..idoas of him. lie is led to believe that the brother of his lady is her paramour, and that loss own son is the olf•piin:z of an adulterous intercourse between Pn'cwit: (the brother) and the Cou u t&ss. Incidents occur which kgrengthen this suspici,n, and his thirst for vengeance subsequently prompts itini to destroy I ()lewd:: and the cl»Itl. Pclewitz unexpectedly disappears, and it is given out that the child died suddenly. The Countrss conies forward in frantic agony, and laments the loss of her infant, who it appears had bern tons Irons Item arms by ruffians, whose only object could be minder. Iler ravings determine the Count to remove her, in order to silecce her complainti for ever. The villains whom the Count hikes to seize her, by mistake seize his mistress instead of his wife. The captain of the vessel which was to convey her from Naples proves to be Poleuits in disguise, who having out-blibed the Count, thins the instruments of his vengeance ag,ainst him. By these pleans the hfe of the infant has been saved, and the Count baffled by the treachery of his agin:s, attempts to murder P.gewita with his own hand. Foiled in this attempt, and his intentions defeated at all points, fine finally retires, raging with despair, his wile having previously been divorced from bins by the authority of the Pope. Such are the leading features of this Play. Of the manner in which the outline has been filled up, we cannot say much in the way of praise. The intention of the author to:relieve the serious parts of the piece, by occasionally throwing in scenes of a light description, is not very successfully carried into execution. • The comic characters introduced are, with th'e exception of the part of La Tour, miserable non-entities ; and the busi ness in which they are engaged is very awkwardly attached to the main story, if, indeed, it may be said to be attached to it at all. It boasts, however, some pleasantry, and obtained applause, though a few of the audience were so absurdly fas tidious as to hiss one part where their delicacy was shocked, AUG. 23. by an equivoque, in which a lady talked of locking a door and letting down a blind, as if these were things which could not be introduced on the stage with a proper regard to deco. rum. If this preposterous squeamishness he carried much farther, it will soon he thought indecent for a Dramatic make use of the word Mom& r, and obscene to allow a sofa to appear on the stage. We cannot give Mr. F; v RE much credit for comic contriv. avec, llis attempts in this way do little honour to his inge. nuity, and a' c, in fact, intolerably clumsy. We will Lring an instance La Tour, an intriguing Frenchman, sk ishing to hide himself, lies dowu on a sVii in the apartment which S,- terno is about to enter. and on which the Count might be ex. pected to sit. here La lour thinks he is concealed by a black cloak which he throws over him. This is something 'like the ostrich, who hides his head in the rushes to elude his put suers. After such a contrivance we sliou'd not be sur prised if Mr. EYRE, in one of his' future pieces, should make his hero hide himself in an apartment which those he would avoid are about to cuter, by standing on the table with his (yes shut. The characters, generally speaking, arc but feebly drawn. Those of Cameron and Signora Clementi are, in themselves, singularly inconsi t9nt. The former at fist appears to he a mean, pusillanimous, servile booing Scoichman, and after wal ds a man of surprising honesty and courage, and possess ing withal a very independent spirit ;—the latter is in the cat ly part of the play a silly chattet ing old woman, not much burthened with principle, but happily becomes, in the third act, a'woman of great penetration and an object of admiration for firmness and for f. iendship. The language is very frequently entitled to praise, and there arc thoughts both in the comic and in tie serious scenes, which are given with such felicity of expiession, that we could almost regret, on their account, the probable short life of the piece. There ate, however, many parts, in which Mr. Eyar. would have done well to have called in more of re flection to his aid. lie makes one of his ruffians wish the night were darker, and stigmatise the moon as a sad twiny to gentlemen of their profession. To this, his fellow replie , :, so much the better, for it will light us to our prey. The first of these speeches, it must be admitted, is very characteristic of the bravo, according to all the representations the stage has furnished for the last century, but it is rather too ridiculous to make the second ruffian answer in reference to the asser tion of the first, that the moon was an enemu " so much the better I" We would, moreover, advise Mr. Eyne, if a speech, which •he thinks remarkably good, should again occur to him when writing, not to let it 1 e repeated half a dozen times in the same piece, lest the Critics should say, " Too much of a good thing is good for nothing." It may be, that " Your triumph will be short" is a very good phrase, and Mr. EYRE may be entitled to public thanks for being the first to hit upon it, but we do not see the propriety of making the Count repeat it, towards the end of the play, every dine he speaks, till it has the effect of, 011apod's "Thank'ye, I owe you one." The title " Look at Home," in itself a good one, is not applied with effect in any part of the play. It, of course, refers to the suspicions of the Count as compared with his con duct, but it does not tell well. Neither does the piece end well; indeed, we could hardly help exclaiming, at the fall of the curtain, " Oh, most lame conclusion'." With all its faults, however, the actors gave it some eclat ; but we cannot say Mr. EYRE is very much indebted to the scene painters, or to the artists who contrived the last scene, which, it should seem, was intended to be very grand, as Vesuvius is seen is k blazing with all the awful magnificence of a till kiln!