The Express.
London, England, 1857-12-28 00:00:00

PRINCESS'S.

The entertainments at this theatre consisted al the
Clornran BretAara nod the Christrom puktosnima, elikit wee
by Mr. J. M. Manes, and astitled HerMmin rid Ms WU*
ftr, the Aimless
.Blamehtlkarer sad Aar l'airy God
modem

The Cbrsinsa Broaors, though this (as we ware informed
by the bills) was its 207th nipeesontatkie, we acted with es
much spirit and received unix as touch applause as if It had
bent in the epting-ales et It. atratenos. This was the
more rentarkahla, as • bozing-night audience, attracted
by the levelly of the evesing, generally liana with impa-
tience to anything that goes Wont, as LI it weer
semathing that kept them out of their premised plmenve.
Bat the Corsican Brans's in • model piece of Its deem. Its
strong human interest; its mystic and supernatural tamer,
which acts strongly apart the imagination even while it does
net affect the raison ; its skilful construction and striking
manic illusions, have all concurred in a wonderful degree to
prom Its vitality and freshness.
The pantomime, as venal, consists of two distinct and
nacanmened parts. The first is • burientis of Ma-
dam D'Aulsoy's famous fairy tale of the " White
Cat ;" the other la the harbittuinade, made up of the
conventional materials common to every modern panto-
mime. We presume, therefore, that It is only kw the
first part that Mr. Morton is in any way responsible. And
certainly he ha. done his work very clevrrly, sad Is well
supported b 1 the performers, the scens-painter, and the ma.
chiniat. Their joint labours have produced a laughable bur-
lesque dnuna, which la at the mere time an emeadingly bill-
limit sad beautiful spectacle.

Of the harlequinade (or pantomime proper) we hare little
to say. Mr. Corms,* skipped and danced through the part
of Harlequin with ring great lightener sad *Oily. Mr.
Hahne, the Clown, la an admirable gymnast and posture-
mister, and some of his feats in this line were truly ear-
l:eking, but be showed little of the most esesetial attribute of
the down—humour. Miss CerolineAdanse, who was the

Columbine, is very handsome, and • first-rel. dancer . her
whole pedort oe was excellent. A. to the Own itself, it
was a of commonplace things: trazaformations,
tricks, dances, scuffle., kick., cuffs, and other jokes of •
similar kind, without coherence, and for the moat part en-
tirely without point. The only things like satire were, the
&Overdid.a of crinoline costumes as exhibited at • citizen'.
Twelfth-night party, and • street row, where • police.
ems show. OW valour by collaring • mile of a boy
and carrying his off in triumph to Bow-street.
In former days a pantomime had some dramatic unity and
purpose. Harlequin end columbine were • pair of lovers,
pursued by an uncouth ad bet and an absurd father, In the
persona of clown and pantaloon. The piece completed of
perilous adventures and narrow escapes effected by hark-
gain's magic wand ; and leery incident and transformation
was oolnetted with some ridiculous disaster esperienced by
the baitlod pureness. Now-a-days there is nothing of all this;
there is nothing of it in this pantomime, and it is probably
so worse than the others.

The theatre wee crowded to suffocation. This burlesque
was extremely well received. Dating its perfornuuice the
equation sod excitement of the audience were oompletely
kept op, but they seemed to be exhausted tom beton the end
of the barlequinada.