The Express.
London, England, 1860-04-10 00:00:00

PRINCESS'S.

Last night a house crammed to overflowing in
the gallery and pit, and fairly filled in the other portions,
was assembled to greet the re.appeurrame of Mr. Phelps,
after a long absence from the west end of Loudon, and the
thunders of •pplanse and affectionate welcome which he
received seemed to indicate that some of his northern con-
stituency had followed him to the far west, and sought to
imbue the somewhat apathetic audience with their own Ara-
' dim enthusiasm. The engagement of Mr. Phelpswrll very pro-
- be* prove a fortamite one for Mr. Harris, for though it is
only within the immediate neighbourhood of the New River
that he is believed to be the first tragedian of the day,
and though be ham made but little &drams in his conception
of greet characters since his old days at Covent-Garden,
with Mr. Mscrewly, he has very wisely hit upon a different
line of impersonation, and his delineations of eccentric
comedy are highly artistic, and very often coloured with
Wrong Musser end acute perception. Best of these is.
hie portraiture of Mir Portia's Macepoophant, in
Macklin's play of the Man of Me World, which, despite
the lack of interest in its plot, and the fact that
all the political allusions with which it teams, sod which
must have told so well at the time of its production in
1710, are now Oder, end almost unintelligible, yet keeps
occasional possession of the stage, on account of the shrewd
worldliness and cunning exhibited in the principal cha-
racter, and the opportunity which that character, in the
bands of a good actor, affords for artistic and telling ini-
palmation. Mr. Phelps' performance lest night was really
a great one ; so thoroughly does he imbue himself with the
small follies and mean vine of kis original that every look,
wary gesture, is pregnant with meaning—knavery is to
jet Snead in the wrinkle of kis nytkow, and chicaneryjn
Ws Interjectional cough. The first three acts went some-
what tamely, for even when /Air Perth= is on the dap
his speeches are wearisome sad void of humour, but in the
boa two Mr. Phelps worked up all the best bite of the cha-
racter, end climaxed in the scene with the chaplain, which
was most admirably noted, and crested a peat and legiti-
mate impression. Miss Atkinson played lady Rodolpha
with spirit, but it is • pert not at all imitable to ber, and
were there any Seotehmen present they must have been
highly horrified at her attempted assumption of the
northern accent. Mr. Shore was, as usual, gentlemanly
and effective.

The real Laster novelty is a burlesque by Mr. William
Brough, on that pretty story of which Mr. Barnett made an
opera, the Mountain Sylplt, and Taglioni a ballet, the
SpipAide, which latter name the extravaganza retains. It
is perfectly inoffensive (which in these days is not always to
be said of burlesques), is written with average smartness,
has two or three good parodies, and affords opportunity for
some espital ballet dancing. Mr. Harris hes the hand-
somest troop of eorypAers in London, and they are admirably
trained by Mr. Oen, Byrne.

The principal chanciers are well played by Mies Carlotta
Leclerq, who looks specially lovely as the Sylphide ; Miss
Louise Keeley, who rung a parody co "Farewell to the
Mountain" with tarte and feeling; Mr. Shore, and
Mr. Frank Matthews. The scenerl, and costumes deserve
an praise.