The Express.
London, England, 1856-08-13 00:00:00

LONDON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, AUGUST 13, 1858.

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TO ADVERTISERS.—STATE of the CROPS
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SKETCHES OF LONDON ACTORS.

WIGAN.

It is with acting es with the other fine arts; its
muterpinas give pleasure to all, but not in thecae»
degree, nor co the same grounds. Vehement bursts
et puska, indeed—sudden flashes of genius—touches
of nature "that make the whole world kin "—assert
their sway alike over the cultivated and the anal.
tivated ; bat in every performance that deserves the
high pram of artistic completeness there is a certain
harmony and doe co-ordination of parts, the percep-
tion of which regains • somewhat relined apprecia-
tion, and produces a conesponding pleasure. The
uncritical are delighted witk the perfection of the
result, the critical derive an additional gratification
/NM analysing the exquisitely concealed art which
hie produced it. Hence the eserat of Mr. Wigan's
want pinks with the play-going public. Ho is
the ampletest artist on the English stage. No
ester of our ,time is more gifted with the power of
paning the conception of a character in its fatality :
nose is mere masonsfully painstaking in working out
sessigiliss in its Wenn detail. To this sow
esseepties sari execution—the cm a gift
of gelds% the ethos the result of that eannientions
and watchful Jadedly which is frequently, but, alas!
not invariably, its sessomitant— rosy be traced
up all the varied excellences which
distin-
guish Mr. Wigan's setting. He... is derived
that intense power and wide range of per-
scuilleation, that all but absolute merger of per-
sonality,in which he is so noquatiosably preaminent.
His faculty of shedding himself, and becoming all
sorts of other people in succession—the faculty which
is above all others essential to the templets actor—
has rarely been possessed is greater perfection. If
this be doubted, let us ask, In what does the stmo
individuality of Wigan consist? By what infallible
token is he " marked, quoted, and signed P" What
is the mannerism that clings closest to him—the
intaastios be most affects—the trick of posture that
will always betray itself to observant eyes P Is there
any idiosyncrasy shoat his laugh P—does he pep
Wiganicall, P—has he a peculiar property in groans P
—does he die like nee other? In all then respects
famous actors have been unlike other men. Wigan has
no stereotyped originality of the kind. The whole man,
inward and outward, changes chameleon-like with
the changing some in which for the moment be
" lives, moves, and has his being." Nil /kit WirICUM
8:C impffr
Chemi st, modest, and undaunted, with the fever of
passionate love spas him and a certain fine tench of
noble savagery--the poetry of the forest—is all his
words and pistons, the young Orlando stands before
us as Shakespear created and Rosalind loved him.
The Pler-bill, with its prosaic truth of the footlights,
tells us it is Mr. Alfred Wigan, and we do not
of nurse dispute the play-bill. But who, thee,
is this shrunken, wiry, old emigre, with the stunted
stature, narrowed fortunes, unexhansted gaiety, and
noble devotion for his child P He W snuffy. and old,
and dirty—his broken English is as thank Bouffe
were speaking what Mathew bad written-and
yet this olds dirty, nay Frenchman, with the fir. in
his spend the ins is his heart, will moon take entire
=elpar whale Wog, absorb you to breath-
esekill nt in the noses el his lees-born ambition
—will dln year eyes with Mats—shake year sides
with y bony yea aloes with him into
a wry d enthesissm, wins, with shoats of joy
dinned reef. be attests sad shares in the triumph
ells shills W Pleat Nighil? And this, too, le Mr.
Alfred Wigan! The pley-bill payees. sad the play-
bill nen beaten. We sob remark that we have
set lint able, with the most rhea main of all
our critical faculties, to dimes a slope trace—a
faintest recninises.ae of the Orlando. But who is
this Nabob of the Nabobs—this incarnate liver
disease—this avatar in a human form of the Spirit of
Cayenne Pepper P His attitude is a half crouch, as
of a paralysed nutter stricken when in act towing ;
his brow works envolsinly his cheek-boom are
high; his beery jaws spread brad; his eyes
flesh furtive fire from under • mat af dense
white hair. What says the P—" The
Bengal Tiger, by Mr. Alfred Wigan." All right, no
doubt, but really somewhat extraordinary. How
perfect is the personation—how absolutely annihi-
lated is the personality. Remark the formidable
aid Tartar while Miss Yellosoleaf is making Ins to
him. Watch the grotesque growth of the alintbduieg
pubs over thaw grimly relaxing features. See the
red light in the eye fading and broadening into a
laik-instrems less. Observe the sodden revulsion of
hang whim he Inds he has been the dupe of a
spinster's wilee—and the final pathos of his conversion
from a furious nabob into an affectionate kinsman.
(Inc. more, take that which is, Perhan, of all
Mr.Wigen's personations the mast thoroughly nestle
—his great part in Still Wagers run Deep. What a
marvellous revolution in the whole manner ard sp.
puma of the actor—nay,what singular growth and
cheap within the limits of the piece itself! The art
of dramatis dovelepmeet was never carried to a
higher point. The character evolves itself before
you by a posses so apparently natural that it is
WOO time before you have power to refloat on the
Waits pain whin mast have been bedewed 51
its minutest details. The breakfast somas between
the strocresiaded aunt and the apparently submissive
nephew, and that with the military swindler,
where the quiet man, having made the bully craven
with guilty fear, mildly reminds him that he has
"let cut his sitar." are in the higheet style of the
best French school—tt at school in which the reserve
(Appleer is made so much men potent an instrument
fee moving the minds of cultivated asthma than
the most vehement parade of power.
Reserve of pew r, almost infinite versatility, an
extraordinary sheens of personality, great
intelli-
gesso in grasping the true esneeptin of a charseter,
aid consummate art in working it oat, we
regard as the principal excellences ef Mr.
Wigan's acting. His characteristic good muse has
taught him not to empire beyond that range—a very
need and ample oes—'er which he has bees best
fitted by nature and by stsdy. His mast ambitious
attempts, apart from some at the eseesdary Aster
tees of the:Shawl:win drama, in whisk his seems
has been complete, have been Joseph Serfage and Mr.
Oakley—the former one of his greatest perfensanaes.
the latter, as it has always appeared to se, sot quite
up to his anal mark. Let Mr. Wipe pannere 10
that Iles which is reenliarly his com—a line in
which he bee net English—and, with the sole
exception ef Boat, so European—rival. Let him
casserate the pleasant little theatre over which we
train he may long preside to the production of light,
streashil dramatic sketches, such as those is which
the &otter easel of Freon writers have succeeded
In presenting to cultivated and polished mantes a
transcript of what may really be essesivad te take
place in cultivated and polished life. Let him ears
fully eschew such morbid and gloomy " mysteries of
iniquity" se Retrelsotion, and de his beet to assume
us with WON such *tares of me and mamma as
were rosined in Pied and Assam sad dill
Waters nes Deep. His continued seams se a ma-
nager is sertain if he will only be true, as he hitherto
has been, to himself and to his art.

WORKS OF THE

• sem arida' eat ef the larepretatiaa of the will of the
late iselebrated Abbe Larmemais, sad relaelsg te the publics-
tier of his reassess weeks sad eorreependr co, sum oat
to be tried ea iletarday, betsee the Civil Tribeeel of the
Seine. The question has suited immense tuner is the
literary world. Tim bus, shectly stated, was whether the
Jeuita,wbo, as it Is alleged, have enthesffed the Waded the
tostatees aloes sad unreel legatee, should sussed la
patellar( the ewers of the fell pure which N. LIMOS"
sale, est of aa 'speared fear of their seachinatiews,l
had rained apes hie literary ureter, IL B.
Fagan. It will be ma that the J 4401111 have
bra defeated. By his last will aid testament,
dated the 28th Dumber, 1853, K. Larva/ars left all his
papers sad letters, exrpt tome relative to burrs mar
serous, the amasser* of aa unpublished week, called
"Dillaillitille, Critiques, et Puree Diverse' us la iteligien
et la rbileeephis," and On relates be bad pabileheiljg
newsmen and perlobeeds, to Y. B. Forgoes, with full
power to publish them, and to rake each alterations is this
as be right think Bh—eatdest, however, to the ouditioa of
hie giviag half of the perks to the tertatoem aka, Modem
de Kaftans!, to Uses, however, he was not to be bead
le reader ay actuate. In order to make as templets a
sauna of Y. de Limners' sonespeadeue as possible
Y. Ferries determined es eallerieg all the letters mitre;
by him te different persons ; but Male. des Hertangei mar-
tared that ke had ae right ate de, bat meet smiles the
serrespeadenes to esters beadles of letup whisk Y. de La-
urier' himself bad elamided,ead had specially 'imbued is
kis will. As, however, N. Finer persisted la his detonates-
tie e, she, ea flatarday, applied to the Civil Tribualte inter-
dict his from szentiag it. N. Fergus mortared that set
oily bra the terms of his will, bat hem verbal instesedeme
give& him, Y. in Laureate rear him le lave all kb
paws of whatever triad, with the exeepeke of those ft-
WOW, *roved is the will, sad to make muds use of them
as be thought fit. He, moreover, represented tied N. de
Laminar. was partienelarly sashimi that Madame de Ku
Maar sad bie ether nisei's. 'koala bare seeking what-
ever to do with the pabliesUea of his works sad pe pen, in-
semeab as le feared that from their fervent catkolieism, sad
from their brag completely la the beads of the Jesuits, they
would be tempted to suppress sad modify parts of his
weitlys sad letters so as to same the operate he enter-
tained as relision ;ad politics in the latter yeses of his 118 e
to be mierepreiseated. The tribunal declared that N. For-
ger' view of the west toafided is his by the deemed was
server, beldiag that the need& referrer to the battik, of
papers made la rte will was isellastive sad sot restrictive.
sad it seseediagly dismilasklladante de Wanglers do-
ssed with cub.

DANOEIL OF

—Os Batereley

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