The National Register. — London, England, 1814-04-03 00:00:00

TILE NATIONAL REGISTER. DRAMATIC REGISTER. AIR. KEAN'S HAMLET. liakalet is the last character which has Teen se kcted by Me. KLAN for the display of his.histrionic talents to the metropolitan public, and we must express it too de eiciedly, the last in excellence. Not to lay any stress on the physical deficiencies of person and voice under which .Mr. VeRAN labours for the personation of such a character, and Without insisting on the striking want of grace and of dig nity, both of port and action, which he evinced throughout, our duty compels us to say, that Mr. K EAN'S performance of the Danish Prince, viewed as a whole, fell as far below what a London audience has been accustomed to see in the part, as, it certainly did below his own efforts in other eha vacters. This gentleman seems designed indeed, both by nature and study, for those parts only which arc strongly vortrked, and which, like Richard and Shdotk, have a tone of violence, sarcasm, and cunning. In Hamlet, therefore. that wonderful and almost ethereal creation of our great poet's brain—that man of mind alone, to whom the external' world was " weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable,"—who,. wrapped up in " that within," seemed to those around him, as to himself, scarcely to belong to the earth he trod, and who, while his soul was bent upon a jnst revenge, which he wanted however the energy to exectue, would, instead of taking the measures necessary to secure his purpose, fall into himself, and now soliloquize npbn his after-being, now inveigh against his own weakness and delays, wi!hout re medying them,—who word(' at one time defer his vengeance till every scrup'c as to his victim's guilt was satisfied, and at anothei put off the blow he meditated under the pretext of rendering it more dreadful, Ana that it, might destroy trot the life, atone, but also the soul's eternal hope of his father's Inorderer—in such a character, whose prototype perhaps revel` existed but in the " mind's eye" of tiltb poet, very different qualities were required in the actor; and the con sequence was, that Mr. Keeit's attempt could lay claim to none but the most negative praise ; his performance as rarely rose above as it fell below mediocrity. Much credit has been ascribed to Mr. KEAN for some touches of originality which •he has thrown out in hamlet; and in some instances this praise is merited. The pointing Jis sword towards his friends, who. would deter him from following his father's shade,_ instead of pointing it at the ght;st itself, which he honoured and could not harm, is hap py and natural ; but whether, in the scene with Ophelia, his returning to kiss her hand is strictly correct, we arc much jnclincd to doubt, as the effect which the tenor of his con duct during the dialogue had upon the King and Polonius, who saw and overheard him, (of which he was probably aware) was to convince them that it was not love which bad wrought iris supposed madness;' whereas had he given this ktrong sign of lingiring fondness, and of his inability to leave Ophetia, in anger, it appears to us that, notwithstanding the reproaches 'he had just vented upon her, this single act would have produced upon the minds of the concealed wit, tresses an impression very different from that Ocpressed in the text. APRIL 3. the performance, in every liberal mind caused, a sensation of poignant !egret; and who indeed could but regret, that one so young, so lovely and interesting, should -have been by any circumstance, however adverse and pressitig, induced to play a part on the same evening when the exhibition 'of your wretched fooleries would be sure to place her in a si tuation where .even the abilities of a Siddons, Smith, or a Jordan, would have availed but little to stop the torrent of even more than Bacchanalian riot and disorder that usually swells to inch a rapid height when a display is made of your ludicrous theatrical efforts ? Such feeling in virtuous minds, however, must give place to those of indignant resentment, on learning that the well-known tale of .Mrs. Bury, and the 401. douceur for your philanthropic aid, was not a singular circumstance, but had many parells, and that 1001. was paid for your services on this memorable night. I will not for a single moment allow myself to believe, that you could have been base and unmanly enough . to make a young lady pay yoti for any service you could render her. Your gallantry and love of the fairer part of the creation is too notorious. Yet, upon- indisputable authority, I find it but too true, that • fir your *aid that evening, 1001. out of the receipts of-that „night was paid to . scmeboely. " 0 shame, where is thy blush !" To endeavour to cure you of the mania for acting,—to call upon you to drop ►our assumed title of " Philanthropic Amateur of Fashion," vrtvuld, 1 fear, be a futile attempt; the disease has taken too deep root : but to call upon you, before the curricle and gaudy attendant equipage is again displayed in the pat k, honoutably to repair any wrong that may have been done the fatherless orphan,—for such is ;his young lady. By this undue use of your name, is a call, trust, to you, will be irreistible ; and no sooner shall this meet your eve, than you will make reparation to all who may be thus sitaated. Slave, as you profess yourself to be, to the fair sex, this appeal to your gallantry will not, cannot/ be made in vain. MENToa. BLASPIIEMY. GRAND NIANIFESTATION OF JOHANNA SOUTHCOTT Within these last few days a pamphlet has made its ap pearance announcing nothing short of a new coming of the Messiah, a second incarnation If the Son of God, and the fut. fitment of the prophecies which Christ is accused of having left imperfect—in fact, Shito4 is sent again ; and, in the course of this year, 1814, shall be miraculously born and brought forth by Mrs. Johanna Sotithcott, spinster, of St. George's fields, in her Jirty-sixth year.—Fond of miracles, yet much afraid of hoaxings and deceptions, we wish to give a friendly advice to the followers, as they Fall themselves, of .I"qhanna, Southcott, and take the liberty .of warning them against doubts and suspicions wijich might, in these incre dulous times, eventually 'mar the grand oeuvre If the maul. • 4.4tation ; and, in order to ascettgin the truth and to have it at opce incontroyertible, we would beg of then, to deliver the revered lady into the hands of some disinterested people, chosen by proper authorities, who would remove lier to a place where this second birth of Christ might be, at least, as comfortable as the.iirst.--And the better to fulfil the pro- phecies again, we hope, most earnestly, that the place kl signeil for the Lady on the Sir aW'in her confinement, will be BETHLEHEM HOSPITAL, vulgarly called Bedlam.—Oh That in 9ur enlightened days a Single being should be found weak enough to believe, or picked enough to Countenance, such dangerous nonsentie! ! Yet we understand that the adtairera of the presnant Lek are astonishingly. onmtkrous, •., _ TO THE SUI DISANT 44IATpR OF FAgnippT. Stn,—When you enacted, about two years sin*, at the Tbeatte-Royal, Hay-Market, for the hitne4t sf Miss Fitz henry, the character of the gentle lore-sick Romeo, tZie op irobrium and ill-treatnunt that young lady was exposed to, n the general ferment that prevailed during the whole of JO