The Press.
London, England, 1854-02-18 00:00:00

HAYMARKET.

CROWDED boxes and scant standing room in the pit
attest the attraction of Miss Cushman as Meg
Merrilies in the revival of Guy Mannering. This
part gives an opportunity for the display of all the
merits, and but few of the demerits, that we have
already indicated in the persouations of this eminent
artist. [PitEfts, ante p. 92.] Stamped with distinc-
tive originality, the Meg Merrilies of Miss Cushman
is elevated beyond its melodramatic rank, and is in.
vested with the fierce intensity of an unearthly crea-
tion. The gipsy of Ellengowan presented by this ac-
tress startles us as a supernatural visitant, and, though
sometimes trembling on the verge of the grotesque,
the volition of the actress, and ber sustained force,
carry her triumphantly through difficulties before
which a less-gifted performer would have failed.
That there is genius in this portraiture of Meg
Merrilies cannot be denied ; yet the part would be
more affecting if its mad laughs were now and again
mingled with the womanly sobs suggestive of the
anguish of the human heart. Our readers will have
to remember that it is the Meg Merrilies of Miss
Cushman, not that of the great novelist, or the feeble
playwright (Terry), which they admire; and they will
agree with us that the actress has done wonders in
raising the histrionic rank of the part, and that it
would be hypercritical to ask that the tender should
be mingled with the terrible. Some no doubt will
also protest against her physical portraiture of
death. Her being slowly dragged from the stage,
with stiffened arms, was one of those coarse
effects in literally personifying the horrible for
the modern introduction of which into high
tragedy Mademoiselle Rachel is responsible. We
were diaappcinted with the Dominic Sampson
of Mr. Compton. It was too wooden and deficient
in fun. Dressing the part like a seedy member of
the Society of Friends, instead of the dry-as dust
Dominic, he reminded us of Solomon in The Quaker.
Some unlooked for comic effects were produced by
the Dandie Dinmont of the night, Mr. Rogers, whose
voice was wonderfully Hibernian for honest Douche,
who was a borderer. The new scenery, by Mr.
W. H. Callcott, is highly creditable to the painter.
Some of the Highland views are painted with aerial
lightness and dewy freshness, and are both pictu-
resque and well composed.
Want of space leaves us no room to notice
Ranelagh at length ; nor is there occasion for
doing so. On its second performance on Tuesday
the house was not well filled, and the curtain fell
amongst mingled applause and hissing. The piece
(taken from the French) was well acted, and the
view of Ranelagh Hardens very striking ; but the
Haymarket audiences are too accustomed to Mr.
Buckstone and Mrs. Fitzwilliam mistaking each
other for some one else, and the merits of the writing
are not sullcient to atone for the recourse to such
stock artifices.

164

the semblance of a run by dint of new scenery, deco-
rations, and newspaper puffs. We will not barrow
the feelings of our readers by any description of the
play or its plot, but content ourselves with stating
that we fully agree in the sentence pronounced by the
public, and that we can only wonder Mr. Wigan should
ever have accepted a piece of such moderate pretensions.
From this unpleasant portion of our task let us turn
to one far more agreeable—namely, to bestow the
highest praise upon the manner in which the play
was acted and put upon the stage. Mr. Wigan, in
the long and arduous part of the hero, displayed an
amount of tragic power which the majonty of the
audience in all probability never gave him credit for
possessing. He traced the character from the
flower of youth to the decrepitude of body and intel-
lect with the hand of a master, and, no. withstanding
the constant interruptions of the audience, caused
by the excessive imbecility of the piece, he never for
one moment either forgot himself or flinched from his
task. Miss P. Horton, Mr. Emery, Mr. Robson, Miss
E. Turner, and, last but not least, Mrs. Wigan, dis
charged their respective parts with great ability, and
satisfactorily proved by their exertions that, even in
these days, it is by no means impossible to see a play
almost perfectly acted. The scenery and dresses were
conceived in good taste and beautifully executed. In
another theatre, where less high expectations were
entertained on the part of the audience, it is not
improbable that the acting, combined with the acces-
sories, would have carried the piece through.