The National Register. — London, England, 1809-12-24 00:00:00

82 ward. ebe, and the scenery, which are execrable in them selves; and more glaringly so, either from the ignorance or indolence of those entrusted with their arrangement. — They have at length condescended to offer us what they call 46 a new Comedy," and it is so long since any thing like a new o,matedy, or even the old ones, has been produced,' that we are not surprised at their imagining it possible to pass this thing off, as ans%% ering to its name. An intelligent dramatic Critic asks, " is it not surprising,' that in a nation which abounds with original characters, more than any other in the world, there should be so few good Comedies?" The question is casi!y auswered.—As long as it is easier to copy plays, than to copy characters, so long will plagiarism's take the lead of o riginality ! But to revert to this new Comedy, which on Tuesday evening made its appearance under the name of "Sudden drrivals, ur too Busy by Hay." DRAMATIS PERSON.II. • Old Transient 11r. Dowton. Young Transient Mr. Matthews. Baron Brandenberg .Mr. Raymond. Captain Alford Mr. W rough ton. Harry Torringham Mr. Wrench. Lord John Bauble Mr. Palmer. Patrick Ballymoony Mr. Johnstone. Countess Itw11ha.... Miss Torringham .Miss Ray. Katty M'Cleverty The Hon. Major Torringham and his friend Capt. .4lford, • pass over to flamburgh, dine together, get drunk together, quarrel and. light together; the Major falls, and .fjord supposing him dead, flies front the fatal spot. Afraid of . ~_ returning to England, he endeavours to evade detection bj changing his name to Sidney, and to evade reflection by rambling over the Continent. Still unable to quiet his conscience, and he,iring that the Major had left in Ireland an infa'it son and daughter unprotected, he remits large sums for their education and support, to his friend AI r. William Transient, a shopkeeper, at Wapping, who adding this to many of his other lucky hits, converts the greatest part of the remittances to his own purposes, but fulfils Capt. Al ford's wishes, so far as to send for the Young Torringhams and to place them in a cheap country retirement under the care of Patrick Ballymooney, and Katty M'Cleverty, two old and faithful dependants of the Torringham family. Young Torrio:cham having obtained a commission in the marines, has the good fortune, at Lisbon, to save the life of the Coantesi iiosalba, a young lady born in England, but the daughter of a Portuguese nobleman; and Patr:ck being presented by Mr. Transient with a situation ,in the • = excise, becomes Patrick Ballymoney, Eseuinr. In this stage of the business, the curtain rises, and transports the audience to an Inn at Hamburgh ; there, by the assistance of a Dutchman, a dinner, an English landlady, and the confessional questions of Mr. Sidney, we, are told, though in a very clumsy manner, such parts of the plot, as are necessary to be known; in fact, the first act drawls through a kind of business; which in SITAKESPE.',ZS time, was per formed by the chorusscs, and though much is done, such as .S'idne.y tossing and tumbling half asleep on a sofa, and afterwards, weeping and kneeling on the spot where he left Torringham for dead, yet asall this was done off the stage, but very obligingly tolit it; US by the landlady and thki Dutch man, ve would recommend to the author in his next pieces in order to save time and trouble, TO li.kirE IT rat N mu IN Ins PLAY srue ! 41r. Sidney set.s sail for England, and the act closes. EL; this time our readers may suspect that the author of this piece, is one who considers the unities of time and place, as nothing Inure than the vagaries of antiquity—SHAKESPCARE despised these rules—true—but SItAKESPEARE raised nature above art, as much as he him self sometimes soared above nature—the brilliancy and ra pidity of the electric coruscations of heaven, prevent the spectator from noticing the erratic motiims of :he o'er whehning flash, whilst the humbler sky-rocket way he trawl through all the meanders of its devious worse. THE NATIONAL REGISTER. nEc. N. On the opening of the second act, some very obliging domestics of sir. "t'ransient's household, inform us that their master having made his fortune, has retired to one or the modern fashionable squares, where amidst the noise of routs, drums, and hurricanes, and the din of fops, sharpers, and ladies of quality, he contrives to forgct his hini:bie origin; whilst his nephew, Mr. George Transient mixing in, and courted by fashionable society, is infected with a rage for being a man of business, and by dint of offers of pa tronage, and promises of assistance, continues to be followed by a crowd, and to have ten thousand things to do, whiiit doing nothing. - .41r. Transient, the vulgar imitator of high life, the deceitful friend, the treacherous guardian, the half formed villain, and the dupe of a sharping min nf quality, is here as ably pourfrayed by DowTos, as such a character will admit of, yet as what it wants of nature must be mae up of caricature, it fails to strike, teen in the hands o Mn. DowTos; a very short passa,?..e, brings Mr. Sidney to England, whose sudden arrival, induces Tran sient to hurry Young Torringham off, in order to join his ship for a foreign station ; but Miss forringham hastening to town, to take leave of her brother, is rescued by Sidney from he broken down stage-coach,whilst the ('ountess,whona from her deficiency of maiden bashfulties.s, we suppose, must )1m a youug widow, endeavours, by her marked encourage ment, to drawforth a declaration of love from the young sea 1 Soldier, and of course to delay his departure. With these ma ineuvres, the tricks of Old Transient to escape detection, and of the young one to deceive his uncle, the w itticisins of Balily moony, and some bungling attempts at situation, this and the third act lingered on the scene; but as George Tran sieni takes up the trade of fortune telling-, and thoreby de s elopes the whole of the little plot, if plot it can be cal led, " that shape had none," the spectator is left to won der at what can be found to fill up the measure of the acts. After many meagre attempts at bustle, Young fronsient by a violent exertion writes and seals five letiers, at a coffee-house, and then falls asleep, a opera Lon in which he would certainly base been joined by a :;1 e.: t pro portion of the audience, had ii not been for the loud his ses of the remainder. This doze, which lasts as long as Mr. Sidney's passage from Hamburgh, to England, is again exhibited at the opening of the fourth ;let ; and sonic un lucky wits observed, thai the author bad a happv knack at making his audience sleep during the acts, and his per formers between them. 'transient, however, directs his letters, and the expected equivoque from his blunder pro duces a scene which we presume the author considered as a finished one; happy indeed should we have been, if it had finished the piece. The fifth act presents us with Baron Brandenburg in all the Austrian costume of 1% iskers, tas sels, &c. &c. this part was performed by 11 A sisio sn, who towered so much above his fellow c, that on his first an nouncement, a wag in the pit, exclaimed " you are wrong, 'tic Baron Brobdignag !" Him we soon discover to be Major Torringham in disguise, but why or wherefore, would puzzle the EMPEROR OF THU CONJURORS to tell US ; 7ve find, indeed, that some clums)notions of the point of honour, prompt him 'o produce ~ i lfrrd who is now disco v;ered to be Mr. Sid:try, a determination which a:rords the author some very fine common place observations against duelling; so at last (as story-tellers say,) all is cleared up, the duelist and the roguish merchant are converted, and becorhe peaceable and honest members of society, the busy man of business is quieted by a wife, and the bashful ma rine officer is led to the altar by the civil Countess ! To sum up all in one sentence, the plot is trillitr;, and easily seen through, the business of the stage is spun out into tiresomeness, the language is humble, except where interlarded with commonplace and claptrap s, the s►tnations are forced, and the cquivoque is nothing more than elninsy blunders; in fact, we are fully convinced that nothing . 'Lved the piece hut the acting of MATTut.ws, much or which was overdone; nor do we think that it would have survived its autiouncemen! fur a st•cond represeutat►u►),