The Express.
London, England, 1868-07-27 00:00:00

NEW QUEEIVS.

The new five-act drama by Mr. H. J. Byron,
called The Leamehirs Lass, which was produced at the
Queen's Theatre last Friday night, belongs to the same
class of play as The Great City and The Streets of London.
The interest is domestic and criminal, the characters are
numerous, and there is much panoramic and familiar
scenery. The drama was originally written for a Liver-
pool audience, and produced at the Liverpool Amphi-
theatre last winter, and in transplanting it to
London the author has only altered the last act,
leaving in all the points of local interest The story
is full of incident, but the characters possess very unequal
merit, the villains being very commonplace and stagey.
The " Lancashire lass," a fickle village beauty, of • type
not altogether unknown in domestic drama ; her lover, an
ill-tempered, impulsive mechanic; and a wild, half-gipsy
girl, are the best drawn in the piece, though the language
solnetimee put into the mouths of the two former is • little
too refined for their station. The dramatic value of ,the
piece is far greater than its literary value, the author
having shown all his well-known stage tact in crest-
ing a number of parts that encourage effective
acting. The first act, called a prologue, introduces us to
a farmhouse in Lancashire, and to the farmer's daughter,
called the " Lancashire lam," who is hall inclined to give
up the sincere love of • young engineer, for the more
showy attentions of a reckless adventurer. Instigated by
a female companion, who is in some degree a discarded
sweetheart of the young engineer, the writes a letter
offering to leave her home with thisedventurer, and this
letter falls into the bands of her humble lover. Her
father' also discovers the letter, bat cannot reed it ;
and to save her from his wrath, her humble lover mis-
reads it, and then leaves bar in rage and despair. From
this point the "Lancashire lass" becomes a companion in
a merchant's family, and a secondary character in the
drama. The merchant is • millionaire, and a man of
apparently spotless reputation, but he has had criminal
antecedents, and these are known to a drunken scoundrel
named Johnson, who for a conaideratiee agrees to aid
the adventurer of the prologue in hi mat rinionial design,
upon the rich daughter of the merchant. Hovering be-
tween the "Lancashire lase" and the merchant's daughter
th 6 adventurer loses both, and is eventually arrested as a
thief, under the dies of Slippery Dick, while the
young engineer, falsely accused of murdering John-
ion by pushing him off the landing stage at
Fgremont, escapes from prison by the aid of the " Lanca-
shire lass," who hay seen the error of her early flirtation.
In the last act most of the characters turn up in Australia,
including Johnsen, who was saved from the water into
which he had been pushed by his unscrupulous Mend, the
merchant. The items has the defect of great length, but
many of the scenes are well written, and the great scene
of the Mersey with Liverpool in the distance and a solid
moving ferry steamer is well contrived, well painted,
and well worked. Similar somas have made the for.
tune of inferior dramas before now. The acting
throughout was excellent—rather broad in one or two
instances, but always effective. Mr. C. Wyndham milli..
bited strong dramatic power as the youngmechiunc, Miss
H. Hodson was excellent and forcible as the jealous, half.
savage country girl, and Mr. Henry Irving, who is evi-
dently to be our, future 0. Smith, was impressive as usual
as the stern adventurer. Mr. 8. Emery, specially '
engaged, gave a good broad comedy representation of
ibluison, and Mr. L. Brough had a slight amusing part
called Spotty, which he did full justice to. The " Lau-
cashire lass " was made very interesting in the bands of
Miss Nelly Moore, but either from nervousness or some
other cause she gulped a little too much for artistic effect.
The drama was well received, and the author with the
principal actors was called on at the concluaion.