The Press.
London, England, 1853-10-15 00:00:00

ADELPHI.

THE translator of /;liiirideFamille Las not even
attPmpted to acclimatise the drama. The version
wilieh, under the title of The Discarded Son, Ws.
1111411111 Cell 10 the Adelphi On Monday Hight 14 French,
without reserve or mitigation. It is French in elm
meter, French in construction, and French in senti-
ment. As the scene is laid iu France it may indeed
he said that this air of nationality i 4 11Hly tit and
appropriate. And so it may he. Rut, whatever con
sistency and rraiseaddaiice may thus he given to
the Piece lei a work of art, thene can lw no doubt
that it seriously mars the appreciation which a play
of such "powerful iuWrest "—as the bilk have it—

THE PRESS.

ought to receive at the hands of a metropolitan an
dienee. Among the II rams I permake, moreover,
all the chief male charilett.r. are military. Now, the
r retail army is s e essentially ditterent from oar own
in what we must call its domestie features—the free
Rnil easy intereibili'M` IWiWeell eflieers and env ales—
the iidmixture of sileial slants and regimental grade—
the system of discipline---even the "point of honour -
—vary so completely from anything which an English
barrack or a eleibliain camp eau show, that the
great mass of playgoers can hardly enjoy, or always
understand, the victim.. The faith lies not with the
author or the adapter ; nor even with andienees
exclusively ltritish. Any natural, unexaggerated
Englishman would be found quite as thin oarless ill a
Parisian theatre as the veritable Frenchman is in a
London one. As a drawback upon the etrectiveness
of the performance, this result is inevitable in all
translated plays. But then, the *babe manager
never produces translated plays. while his Anglican
confrere seldom produces anything else.
110. //Warded SOH sutrers, as we lmve already
hinted, to In re titan an average degree under this
intluence; all the e, heekeel, Peon its very ex-
cellences—from the ingenious simplicity of its you
struction, and the natural easy style ill whieli the
principal characters are performed by Miss Waolgar
and Mr. Leigh Murray. We have no space to detail
the plot. Its leading ;lent ;Meld Is elltnll4lo4l to the
discardea son,- who appears as a were private in a
regiment of %lowers quartered neat N alley. lie has
in Banner )ears indulged iu elissipul , run steeply in
debt, alai incurred llisgraee with his family. 111
despair he has enlisted, and makes it a point of
honour to sent. his moll time in the ranks, unless—as
he says—he van re-enter society with a Well bikini wife
Minn 1115 /11111. Such a spouse he fuels ill .I(b.liate
do
llelronte. whoite lie meets, disguised as a peasant girl,
in a suburban tavern ; falls billow with at first sight ;
and makes that love reciproeal to the point of distraie.
lion when again encountering the lady on the very
same evening in her own lady-diameter at cc found
ball. The colonel of the regiment is his rival ; a
duel ensues; and the " powerful interest " promised
in the playbill is wrought out of the danger which
the young lover runs sir being Awl, by seuteoce of a
court martial, for fighting with his superior oftieer.
Sotne fun of a rather laborious order is performed by
Messrs. Keeley and Paul Itisllord in the cliaraeters
of a silly drummer mud a tier el iermasier.
Mrs. Keeley figures as a military. lady, Mulatto,. it
General idfilri, the only eliaracier in the play that
is "adapted" liar the English audience. She' assigns 14 •
the French all the English victories at. the Nile, Alt
totia, or Waterloo ; transfers to the Emperor the
famous minimums, 0 guards, and at. then, I." MO
"WOll.l, "when any
41„.rvat, ‘orsion than her
111131 is suggested. The idea WWI good, lent is rather
overworked, both by the author and the performer.
A g other " French " attributes presented in
this pky we imist not omit to include the stage rue
striate, which rivals even the Boulevard ileaumarehais
in finish and propriety.
Another novelty, entitled //ad Charges, came Mil
on Thursday. It is a trifling paw de eireaullaure,
designed to turn to farrieal aroma the popular
outcry against hotel over charges. A Captain Fitz
chinle goes to an expensive le del, frightens the
landlord into the belief that lie is the principal
writer of " showing-up " letters in the newspapers,
and gets a siimpthous (limier for less than prime
cost. Mr. Selby is author of the fares., and plays the
captain. The fun is all practical, awl lust very lively.