The Express.
London, England, 1856-08-07 00:00:00

(Stamped id. AdditionaL) [TWOPENCE.

B.IrETCHRS OF LONDON ACTOR&

BOBSON.

Foremost amongst those who are labouring for oar
amassment in the London theatres we must name
Robson. We name him first because he is not like
any other actor on the stage, whether tragic or comic,
who may be compared with odar soars, from whom
be ally differs in degree. Robeon's acting differs
from all other sating on the English step, sot in de-
gree, but in kind. Liston occasionally developed a
few phase of character after the manner of Robson ;
be displayed some little appreciation of that sublimity
of biunique which combines the utmost extravagance
of faros with the highest altitudes of tragedy, bet he
never dared to trust himself in this region. Robson
le thoroughly at home in it. He gives a living testi-
meey in his acting to the fact that the proverb,
O from the sublime to the ridiculous is only one step,"
is a weak statement of a great truth. Heehaws that the
sherd of human nature, when at its uttermost tension,
is equally likely to give a sound of intense sublimity
oe wild buffoonery, and that it depends upon the
quarter from which the wind that wets it vibrating
comes, whether its tones will be the con or the other.
Robson's aiding differs from ordinary sale; in this,
that be recognises the complexity of plosions and
feelings bound up together in the heterogeneous
unity celled the human soul, and makes it manifest.
He 110011/11 to develop a feeling or a passion like one of
Resisek benne, who, as it were, makes an elegant
may upon a moral apophthegm, written in round text.
He dimply meta es the great masters of imaginative
Ilematems write. Homer brings the blundering,
steabling, facetious Vulcan in the midst of his gods
merged is lofty argument and dispute on the highest
Olympus. His imitator, Virgil, would have been
shocked to introduce anything like tun in the
" .Eusid." The best of the heroic poems in the
middle ages, the "Niebellingen Lied," for instance,
and those of Ariosto and Dante, abound in examples
where pathos and humour are combined. All great
writers, nay all the greatest men, have shown how
near was the grotesque to the terrible. Read
1 "Luther's Sermons and his "Table-talk" if you
wield me one example of this, and then call to your
mind Rabelais, Shskspeare, Cervantes, Ariosto, even
Byron, and last, bat not less?, Christopher North in
the "Nodes Ambrosianse," and marvel at the infi-
nitesimally slender line which separates sublimity
from buffoonery. If you are not convinced yet, read
one of the greatest and mcetneglected works of modern
times, " Tristram Shandy." Mr. Robson acts as thee.
men writs. While the drawing-room is brilliant
with light, radiant with loveliness, filled with undu-
lations of all that is beautiful in human or learn-
mental sound, he eoutrives to let yen me the skeleton
and mowing and rattling its bones in the
enpnitellirloa . Let the skeleton, nevertheless, dislocate
itself is the endeavour to attract attention, Mr. Rob.
sue will crown his hideous music by the jingle of the
fael's bells. It is this thorough appreciation of the
greatness and the complexity of human nature which
mikes Mr. Robson one of the first actors of the
day. If he has—which Is never has had yet—an
oppertenity of displaying his genius properly, wean
searesy se. say limit to the triumphs he may achieve.
He bee associated himself so indissolubly in
the minds of his admirers with comic parts that we
fear he ha himself placed ea insuperable obstacle in
the way of his being able to persuade the general
public that he could beam* a great tragic actor.
Judging, however, from various portions of his per-
formance in the bores& of Mistloek, in the Yellow
Dwarf, in Pled sod Pesesises.sad in Medea, we cannot
help *bides that Mr. Helm, if ast ha am, is nor-
." 1117 isPeor do Illutdrelth pies stems Garrick.
The objesiese against Me Aerspos hes bat little
weight. He is, we should think, as tall as Garrick,
and the ilimibility and power of his veneer* &mar-
passable.
Oilier editors are content to repruent on* phase
of
a passion or feeling with fielvoia Mr. Robson
sever forgets that the transient or feeling is
only one manifestation of the character itself, that
the " Man's a man for a' that." Look at hint it 21)
Mire Bosses. How irresistibly comic is his biped
How hard he labours, at the command el
wi e, to appear jealous of her ; bow complesendy
he sinks down into his pleasant poco-ewootiess whoa
the seesseity for personatica is pest. Watch him
whoa the form of circumstances 'stay him late the
shine mereet of real Jealousy. How ludicrous are
his stregglas at first—how terrible are his emotions
afterward.. How marvellous I. the play of the
features as the poor man gradually, with fa.
finite heart-broken earnestness' gives up every
food belief which would persuade him that
his wife is inflame. Again, look at his per-
forms's* to Ruth Mossy. We had all seen the
plow before, but we bad sever dreamed of the tem.
past erasion which slept the a moment ander details
which were supposed to be mole. Rehm anode the
part of a very silly fellow, who has reuse to believe
that he has been accidentally guilty of causing the
death of a girl whom be has jilted. How frantic is
the energy with which be bribes Tom Tiller, who he
believes was witness of the deed, to be silent. He
seems as if he was willing to pour out his breath and
bleed as well as his mousy. What intensity of horror
is visible in his haggard look, his hesitating footstep,
his snidest readiness to bolt wildly away at the fist
ref discovery. Then look at him after drinking
a or two of wine. What a triumphant leap he
from the lowest depths of fear to the highest
41.11 el daring. Can any one who has seen him
,
;idsilikedly forget the forty-husband power of
itteriemenemr with which he treats his newly married
1 wife. How unctuous is his language. How marvel-
lously uninterrupted is his pee. How he fidgets
about while his wife talks. How he repeats with
palpitating delight all her words. How he saws up
and down, pats her hand, imitates with comic tender-
ises. all her expressions, rushes off with the speed of
a race-horse to fulfil her wishes. All this is utterly
new. The audiences which have testified the ex-
tremity of their pleasure in seeing Robson's per-
formances ere infineeced doubtless by the feeling
that they have never seen anything like this before,
that never was there such largeness of interpretation,
such uslimited ornamentation given to parts which

at first sight appeared to proigise little er nothing.
We Right go through the whole of Robson'e &mew
ters, end point out excelleeme of the nature of those
to which we have already alloded, but we will Wein'
ourselves to his latest representatioe. the Medea.
Every reader of the " Don Jame will remember the
ghastly effect which the abrupt transitions from the
height of imaginative misery to the lowest prosaic
depths of discomfort have upon the mind. The horror
of the one and the absurdity of the other stand out
in stronger relief on &soma of the contrast. For
example :
Oh I Jolla, Jells, how no still bessochhag
(Km ►a gnaw Martiealsts with reishisi) ;

They Waved for those who perished is the cutter,
Lad also teethe hissed seeks and butter ;

At kWh tbey essgbt two boobies and • said',
AN Nos they loft off sating the dead body.
- - - - - -- -

Three, s.d a hundred single: instances, are soar.
times tooted as examples of intensely bad taste.
This is a point which we do not intend to ere*.
Bat no one will deny that the ghsetlineaa of the
bowls sirsonstanses are brought oat Into stranply
abliest mild by their juxtaposition with the
Nob insbionts. Now it is this power of
}sluing imps of terror with tlrat in white
the grsisegne predominates—a rawer, he it es.
membered. that Aristsplisnes gielpidee die
played is several of their weer—that Modesties'
ke. Robson from Wise maw alga His intim in the
Mobs Is a psepstaal sesillekteehetweee the sob
ant* ridfesloss, betwrma the deepest pathos and
the stet sswitigated . We know nothing
ea Ingle sad so grotesque as hm soliloquy with the

dagger when be, u Medea, m meditating the murder.
The whirlwind of piston with which he intimates
his design was worthy of Ristori herself. The
gradual sliding down to commonplace bravado, the
quick yielding to rollicking fan as he dances out kiss.
mg the dagger, was unexpected and inimitable. It is
reported Met Ristori was delighted with Robson 's
performance. We can easily understand this. She
reeognlesd a kindred spirit. There was a largeness
of interpretation in the mock tragic portion, and an
intense eosin power in the simply burlesque part,
which coma not fail to be appreciated by one who
is equally perfect in her tragic and comic repreeen-
tations.

---
Highly u we think of Mr. Robson, we cannot
help expreoeing a fear lest he may prove prejudicial
to the present race of dramatic authors, who oeed
nothing to aid them in their " alacrity in sinking."
He fills up a mere sketch so completely, be colours it
so richly, that the writer is safe in his heads. The
1 author knows that if he invents a good &hoodoo,
Robson will do all the rest. This induces sloven&
nese, and it is bat a mild statement of the foot to say
that Mr. Robson hes acted but in very few pieces
that are worthy. a him. We trust that this will be
remedied, and that the only English actor who rivals
Frederick Lemaitre will be enabled to display his
powers in pieces equal in merit to those in which
Lemaitre has gained hie reputation.