The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1825-09-14 00:00:00

PLITMARKAT THFATRE.

This house has old and pleasant recollections about it,
together with some advantages and diadvantages, which
are peculiar to itself. Among the latter we reckon the side
boxes. No small item in the roll of its merits is, that it
possesses Fatten and Liston, and puts one in mind of Foote
and the Colmr.ns, bYlth fttther and son—the latter loti,„
he was licenser. Indeed, it is the only place in which to
enjoy Liston and a comedy, when we can get one (which
has been seldom of late), for the humour is brought home
to you, and the spirit of it not suffered to evaporate, as jft
the great houses. It is joke light ! One comes in bodily
contact with the rig cornice of the author, without the aid of
, an car trumpet and the phyz cofnica of Liston is visible,
Ito the naked eye. It is dte real presence of the man of
fun that salutes your ravished sight, and you luxuriate
in all the " quips and cranks" nature has played in his
physiognomy. At Drury one sees him through a glass
(a Dollond) darkly, but here face to face; and 'every par.
tide in his neves-to-be-forgotten countenance it Impressed
upon the visual organ with tenfold vividness. We know
every Listonian grin intimately—in cute VI it were-Land
got his face by heart. This is no trifling advantage to both
authors and auditors, for it disposes the one party to IA
pleaSed, hod,rentiers the other more .pleasing than they
could generally be without such assistance.
A five-act comedy is a thing,Mit of the tluettion--not to
be thought of at dais time of day, and both play-writers
and play-goers appear to have given up the idea as imprao.
ticable. For our part we are incredulous on the subject
too, and Would as soon expect the discovery of the North-
west passage as the composition of another John Bull, or
Sc/v! for Scandal. But if our comic writers dread to
send their wits on a voyage through five tedious acts on
the unpacffic ocean of a play-hoese;• thej have latterly
attempted shorter trips with some share of success. Thrf
have occasionally} made a cruise to France, and introduced
foreign CoMmot!ities as well as cultivated inland navigation
and home produce. • We have no quarrel with this—DO
disposition to diminish the quantity of mirth and good
humour, whencesoever or howsoever it may come. Whit
of no country ! We are always ready to welcome It with-
out reference to its birth-place.
" Tros Tyriusve mrdi nun." tiffscrtmisie agetur."
Mr. Poole, the author of the new piece represented at
this house last night, has been very successful in the lite-
rary intercourse with our French neighbours to which we
have alluded, but whether Paul Pry is another fruit of his
traffic with that nation we are not prepared to lay, sod are,
indeed, quite indifferent upon the subject. It ii enough the
piece is a good one, and we are content.

„ -
In it Liston and Farren are, as usual, the oil and vinegar;
and a very pleasant Ballad they composed between them,
aided by the other characters and performers. It is just
the dish for the season, cool, piquante, and stimulating.
Enough of laughter is excited, considering the heat of the
weather, and that there is no safety valve as yet invented,
whereby superfluous cachinations can escape without blow.
ing the roof off the hduse in their egress. The dialogue
of the piece is smooth if not sparkling, and there are few
bad verbal jokes, because few have been attempted, and
the humour of the drama is permitted to rest upon the in.
nite drollery of the characters and situations. Of the
latter some are very good—none bad--and all bustling and
animated, with an occasional share of pleasant equivoque
and laughable blunders. Among the characters, Paul
Pry is the most conspicuous, and was performed with
ini-
mitable drollery by Liston.
The plot of the piece, though sufficiently varied and
busy for the purposes of stage effect, is soon told—
Colonel Hardy (Farren) has a daughter whom he is desirous
of uniting in marriage with an old acquaintahce whom he has not
seen for many years. IVhen the piece opens, he is expect.
ing the arrival of his friend's son and his own nephew, with
the persons of neither of whom he is acquainted. Meanwhile
his daughter Eliza (Miss Glover) has formed an attachment for
Harry (Mrs. iVavlett), a bouncing little beau, whom she has seen
while at a boarding-school. Of course she is hostile to the match
proposed by her father, with a man she has never seen, and whose
name she does not even know, but is too apprehensive of the
consequences likely to result from the disappointment of his favorite
scheme to remonstrate with her positive paps. Harry arrives, and
through the inquisitive disposition of Mr. Paul Pry, and the active
jealousy of the Colonel, he is discovered. To avert the effects
of her master's anger from her young mistress, Phoebe (31adame
Vestris) represents to Colonel Hardy, that this is his fondly ex.
pected nephew. The old man is deceived—the young couple re-
joice—Harry relates that he has fled his father's house so
avoid a match with a woman of whom he knows nothing, except
that the old gentleman has determined he shall marry her. The
lovers are now alarmed by the arrival of the true Simon Pure In
the person of Frank Hardy (Raymond), the real nephew of the
Colonel. However, he is apprised of their situation, and agrees to
keep the secret, and co-operate with them.. Colonel Hardy take&
his nephew for the son of his old friend Stanley, and the intended
husband of hia daughter, come incognito to examine into the state
of affairs. Some farther difficulties and mistakes occur, which are
all finally set at rest by the discovery that Ihrry, the lover of Eliza,
is the identical Harry Stanley, intended to be her husband by her
father and his old friend. As soon as it is disclosed that this wits
the match in contemplation by all parties, every thing is aecommo.
dated, and the aforesaid Harry Stanley and Eliza Hardy &remarried
accordingly.
There is a kind of underplot, consisting of the adven-
tures of a certain old bachelor of 6a, named tiriilierton
(Mr. Pope), who is robbed and led by the nose by a certain
roguish steward and housekeeper. The latter is also en-
deavouring to marry him with the view of mote effectually
accomplishing her double purpose. Witherton has' a
nephew (Somers), Mr. W. Johnson who, together with
his wife Marian (Miss A. Jones), has been estranged from
the old gentleman by the trickery of the two worthy do.
medics already mentioned, Grasp, (Mr. Younger), and
Mrs. Subtle (Mrs. Glover). Through the exertions of
Colonel Hardy, and the busy interference of Paul Pry,
the housekeeper. is disappointed in her matrimonial specu-
lation, the steward discarded, the master emancipated
from the tyranny of his own domestics, and his ill-used
nephew and niece restored to a share of his favour and
fortunes.

After our already copious remarks, it is only necessary to
add, that all the performers exerted themselves in a manner
that contriouted not a little to the favourable reception of
the piece. We have already mentioned Liston, Nilo was
the prop of the play in the character of the curious imper-
tinent. Paul Pry is a sketch, of which we doubt not there
exist many prototypes in real life. He is one of those
curious personages so frequently to be met with in country
villages, who, having no affairs of their own to trouble
them, graciously and gratuitously trouble themselves about
the affairs of every other human being within the scope of
their acquaintance and the sphere of their activity. Paul s
fingers are in every man's pottage, and, as might bo ex-
pected, be gets them burned pretty often. With the ben
intentions, as lie says himself, but rather as we should say,
without any intentions at all, be is always doing some par-
ticular piece of mischief, and is a kind of modern Ma,/ kt
in real life.

Farren's cue, as Colonel Hardy, was to be dogmatic and
positive, and he was bath to some purpose. The vacil-
lating character of Witherton was not ill-suited to the
helpless inanity of Mr. Pope's style of acting, and as such
he was accordingly tolerably successful, except in the
recognition of his nephew and niece, which is a note be-
yond "the top of his bent." Mr. Younger's Grasp was a
most commendable piece of villany.
With respect to the ladies, they were adequately repro-
sented by Misses Glover and Jones, and the ladies' maids
were efficiently performed by Madame Vestris and Mrs.
Glover. The former was the queen of intriguing chamber-
maids, and sung two introduced songs delightfully twice
over, each time more delightful than the former. 11
regard to Mrs. Clover, she is the seine of all that is portly
and termagant in housekeepers, and in her last scene was s
perfect Sir Giles Over reach in petticoats.

A Commission of Lunacy has decided that Jamea White,
Esq. of Dublin, whose Counsel pleaded insanity on a
charge of murder against Mr. White, at the late Mat!,
borough Assizes, " was aflected with mania since the 4th
April, 1825:1

CURE or OPPITIIALMTA.—We have already given some
details relative to a specific against the ophthalmia, disco-
covered by an inhabitant of this city, and an experiment
has lately been tried on some soldiers in garrison here,
which perfectly succeeded. It apprars, however, that a
great deal of reluctanc,2 exists, to say the least of it, to a..-
low decidedly that the remedy is efficacious. We are Ent
at all the partisans of occult specifics, but if the results are
incontestible, why should we shut our eyes to the evidene:;
if the cure is not complete, why not establish that fact di
anitively, or show by impartial experiments that a delusion
was practised? It should be recellxtcd that our arm"
again afflicted with this cruel disorder,
and that a prompt
and efficacious remedy for it would be an inestimable th:.-
1 envoy,—lirtwels Yung.