The Press.
London, England, 1854-10-21 00:00:00

OCTOBER 21, 1854.

server of character; it is as a writer whose reputation has
perished with the personalities that alone gave it zest; it
is as a comedian who so exclusively addressed himself to
the audience of his theatre that posterity has been obliged
to decline having any business or concern with him.
Yet a careful examination of Foote's
. . . .
writings has satisfied us that they are not unworthy of a
very high place in literature . . . for it is not
because real characters are there occasionally introduced
that the verdict is at once to pass against him. In all
these cases the question still remains whether the indi-
vidual folly or vice obtruding itself on the public may not
so far represent a general defect as to justify public satire
for the sake of the warning it more widely conveys.
This may be true; but another question equally
remains as to whether "be who assumes is entitled
to exert a censorship over morals and manners;" and
whatever may be the advantages of personal satire
for the general benefit, yet it cannot be denied that
irreparable wrong is as often done to the " least
offending," as a wholesome correction is administered
to any prevailing vice. And it is upon this point
that the verdict of posterity is recorded against
Foote
It was less by h:s deliberate intention as a writer than
by the ready mimicry and humorous impromptu as an
actor that Foote gave mortal offence to so many of his
countrymen—began himself to pay the penalty in suffering
before he died, and is paying the penalty still in chai acter
and fame.
Of his quickness of repartee, his ready wit, and his
humorous resources, we have many amusing in
stances offered to us in the present review
Coming
Coming out of the "Bedford" one night, Foote dropped
a guinea from his purse : impatient at not finding it, he
exclaimed, " Where on earth can it have gone to?"
" Gone to the devil, I think," rejoined Garrick, who bad
OFO sought for it everywhere. " Well said, David," cried
Foote; " let you alone for making a guinea go farther than
any one else."
To put him out was not possible :
He was talking away one evening at the dinner-tahle of
a man of rank, wheu, at the point of one of his best stories,
one of the party interrupted him suddenly with an air of
most considerate apology, " I beg your pardon, Mr. Foote,
hut your handkerchief is half out of your pocket."
" Thank you, sir," said Foote, replacing it ; "you know
the company better than I do," and finished his joke. At
one of Macklin's absurd lectures on the ancients, the lec-
turer was solemnly composing himself to begin when a
buz of laughter from where Foote stood ran through the
room, and Macklin, thinking to throw the laugher off his
guard, and effectually for that night disarm his ridicule,
turned to him with this question. in his most severe and
pompous manner—" Well, sir, you seem to be very merry
there, but do you know what I am going to say now ?"
" No, sir," at once replied Foote ; "pray do you r' One
night at his friend Delayers, when the glass had been cir-
culating freely, one of the party would suddenly have fixed
a quarrel upon him for his indulgence of personal satire.
"Why, what would you have?" exclaimed Foote, good-
humouredly putting it aside ; "of course I take all my
friends off, but I use them no worse than myself,
take myself off." " G adso !" cried the malcontent, " that
I should like to see," upon which Foote took up his hat
and left the room.
The review comprises a good sketch of the leading
incidents of Foote's life, and an able defence of his
wit and works. This clever essay may probably be
referred to the pen of the present accomplished
editor. The other articles are upon the history and
office of church bells ; a short paper on " Law Amend-
ment," expressing great dissatisfaction at the manner
in which the House of Commons transacts its busi-
ness •, and a review of Mr. Rogers's " Eclipse of
Faith " and his " Defence," in which justice is done
to the merits of those original and eloquent works.

Fern Leaves from Fanny's Portfolio. London:
_ _ .

Ward and Lock.
A CHEAP and compact edition of these light and
lively sketches, comprising both series in one
volume. Fanny Fern will find many admirers among
her own sex.

BOOKS RECEIVED.

Palgrare's Poems. LV
Parker and Son.
A Plea fur Urania; or, a Sketch of Celestial Philosophy.
Piper and Co.
Chapman and Hall.

The Falcon Family.

PAIIIPHT.ETS.
The Book of the War. P. B. St. John. Ward and Lock.
Dates in Revelations. E. Eyton. Seeleys.
Sand and Shells. J. Hannay. Routledge.

ONE of the pleasantest of evening entertainments
in London is that given by Mr. Charles Cotton at the
Philharmonic Rooms, Newman street, Oxford-street.
Having fitted up the room like the quarterdeck of a
man-of war, Mr. Cotton takes his stand by the cap-
stan, and accompanies a moving panorama of the
various events of Nelson's life, with a series of sea
songs and anecdotes, sentimental and amusing. The
panoramic views are well painted, the songs admi-
rably well sung, the anecdotes well told, and the sub•
ject peculiarly suitable at the present moment. The
room is nightly crowded, and we have no doubt that
Mr. Cotton will meet with the success that his enter-
tuning talent deserves.

THE PRESS.

Ott prama.

PRINCESS'S THEATRE.
MR. CHARLES KEAN made his first appearance this
season on Wednesday evening in The Courier of
Lyons. His peculiar delineation of the characteristics
of two opposite men, his complete change of voice and
expression, and perfect transition of identity, were
faithfully exhibited in the characters of Dubose and
Lesurges on Wednesday evening. This drama has
lost nothing in the interest attached to it, and will yet
bear many repetitions. The house was crowded, and
Mr. Kean was enthusiastically received. The
Courier of Lyons has been repeated ou alternate
nights with The Heart of Gold.

ADELPHI.
ON Monday evening Mr. Morris Barnett took his
farewell benefit previous to his departure for America.
The performances consisted of Monsieur Jacques and
the short drama of The Old Guard. The house was
crowded, and Mr. Barnett was very warmly received,
and loudly applauded upon the conclusion of his
performances. On Thursday evening a new drama,
in four acts, The Summer Storm, was produced. We
have not space to enter into a minute description of
the plot, which is about as wildly improbable as any
plot that was ever devised for the Adelphi ; we
can merely refer to the principal characters, which
consisted of two mysterious young ladies, one who is
deserted by her father, and the other whose father is
a forger and a murderer; of a gentlemanly blackleg, a
faithless lover, a parish constable, a vagrant bird
catcher, and an energetic old maid. The forger is
the true Adelphi melodramatic villain, and the charac-
ter was excellently played by Mr. Leigh Murray.
Miss Woolgar played the villain's child with much
feeling and delicacy. M►s. Keeley was the old maid,
and Mr. Keeley the itinerant birdcatcher. The
acting throughout was effective, but the drama
itself was a chaotic complication of absurdities,
horrors, and mystifications. Everybody mistakes
everybody else, the wrong man is murdered, while
the intended victim is arrested for the murder, and the
murderer himself escapes, but breaks his neck as
retribution : both young ladies are arrested as acces-
sories to the crime, one dies, and the other dis-
covers her father in the sitting magistrate. Then
there are the usual thrilling situations, terrible con-
flagrations, bottomless pits, and false floors opening
out by secret springs, &c. &c. The dialogue is dull,
the action, such as it is, not even continuous through-
out the piece, and the result very unsatisfactory.
Considerable compression, and a better and more
connected arrangement of plot, might gain a
moderate degree of popularity for the piece, but
at present its success is very doubtful.
OLYMPIC.
THE first new piece for the season was produced at.
this theatre on Monday evening—an English ver-
sion of the French vaudeville line Existence Deco-
lerie, under the title of A Blighted Being. Job
Wort, the blighted being, is a young man with
literary aspirations but brewery duties. His uncle
the brewer sneers at the one and insists upon the
other, till Job in a fit of desperat on cuts the count-
ing-house and the mash-tub, and devotes himself and
his energies to an "Antediluvian Epic in Sixteen
Books." With the usual fate of great men who are
in advance of the world, Job finds his epic poem re-
jected by the publishers, his tragedies meet the same
fate, and his magazine articles are returned as "un-
suitable ;" the consequence of which is that Job
conceives himself to be the most injured individual
upon earth, and finally settles into a morbid melan-
choly, "refusing to he comforted." He comes
down to the seaside and determines at length to put
an end to his life, but, failing in pluck suff►cient
to do the deed himself, he gives his last hundred
pounds to an Irish toxicologist, who promises to
poison him without any pain. But meanwhile a
medical friend, suspecting something wrong, inter.
cepts Job's letter which asks for the deadly powder,
and, instead of the word " poison," substitutes
"blue pill," which is immediately sent by the
apothecary, and carefully administered in a cup
of tea by the waiter. However, no sooner has
Job Wort discovered a pleasant and painless
method "of shuffling off his mortal coil " than
his pretty landlady animates him with sensa-
tions of love, betrays her own affection for him, and
promises to confer upon him perpetual happiness by
becoming Mrs. Wort. Here is a dilemma. He has
written for poison, sought for death in an unknown
form, is ignorant how and when the fatal powder is
to be administered, and now be does not want to die
at all ! But the melancholy truth is broken to him
by the waiter, who solemnly informs him that the
powder from the apothecary's was administered in
the last cup of tea. Job, horrorstruck at his posi-
tion, faints, falls into paroxysms, and lays himself
out for death, entreating with his dying breath that
the apothecary and waiter be arrested for murder.
At this critical moment the medical friend arrives,
explains the joke, revives Job, and the curtain falls