The Sun.
London, England, 1855-04-10 00:00:00

EASTER AMUSEMENTS.

HAYMARKET.

Last evening the successful stni practised pen of Planehe
aas again nailed into requisition by the talented lessee of
this favourite place of entertainment, to provide an Easter
offering for the entertainment of the holiday folks of London.
This time he has not taken his extravaganza from the
Countess D'Aubnoy, but has chosen rather to depend upon
his own fertile imagination, and last night added another
to the many triumphs he has already achieved," the piece
being decidedly good, and affording the highest gra-
tification to one of the most crowded audiences ever con-
gregated within the walls of the Haymarket Theatre. The
extravaganza, which is entitled The New. Haymarket
Spring Meeting, commences in the interior of Guildhall, in
which London (Mrs. Caroline White) is aroused from
slumber by an early morning call from Time (Mr. Chippen-
dale), who, after showing her'the error of her ways, and re-
marking the advisability of mending them, takes his depar-
tare. Landon, in her difficulty, appeals in vain to Gog and
Magog for assistance, when the Lord Mayor's Fool (Mr.
Buckstone) comes to the rescue, and, as London may not
have another opportunity, he shows her a " City Dagger-o'-
type" of the Lord Mayor's Show by land and water. Hein-
troduces the procession in a fog, and, that it may be better
seen and appreciated, suggests that it should for the future
take place on the Ist of April, instead of the 9th of Ne-
i+ vembar. The kindly influence of " Lord Moon" is invoked,
and he recommends London to apply for aid to her sister,
Westminster (Miss Harriett Gordon), who shortly after-
wards makes her appearance, and lectures London on
the necessity of reforming. Belgravia and Ty'burnia, the
adopted daughters of Westminster, are then introduced to
their aunt London, when the whole party agree to visit the
New Haymarket Spring Meeting, but first adjourn to
" Architectural Elevations of the Extramural City of Lon-
don and Standard Theatres, and Britannia and Grecian
Saloons," the attractions of which places of amusement are
-duly sung by their respective representatives, while their
peculiarities are significantly remarked upon by the Lord
Mayor's Fool. The grand stand "on Ups and Downs" is
then the scene of attraction, and after Janet Pride, the
Yellow Dwarf, Louis XL, and other old favourites, trotted
out by time, have been introduced, all the various amuse-
ments entered for the London and Westminster Easter
Stakes are led in by their respective jockeys. After their
points have bean duly descanted upon, they take a "pre-
liminary galope," made the start, but leave time and the
public to decide who is the winner. The extravaganza is
throughout exceedingly well written, and renders any hint
as to judicious punning quite unnecessary. The jokes all
told, were in the best of taste, and recalled no mournful
recollections of departed Joe Millers; and, judging from
the unqualified approbation bestowed on the piece, and the
efforts of all concerned in it, by a crowded audience, Mr.
Buckstone may make no doubt as to success backing his
" extravaganza" almost to any amount for the London and
Westminster Easter Stakes.

THE PRINCESS'S.

A romance in two acts, entitled The Muleteer of Toledo,
or King, Queen, and Knave, adapted from an opera with a
similar title lately produced at the Theatre Lyrique, was
tho piece de resistance provided at the Princess's last night.
The plot of this romantic drama is not easily described
within moderate compass. The young Queen of Murcia
(Miss Carlotta Leclercq) is a young lady who is more given
to liberty and masquerading than to the confinement of a
court and the solemn duties of state. She takes it into her
royal head to make a matutinal excursion, disguised as a
peasant girl, and accompanied by her confidential lady in
waiting, the Donna Carmen (Miss Murray), habited as a
masculine rustic, for the purpose of making a personal ac-
quaintance with her cousin, Don Sancho, brother of the
King of Castile, to whom she is to be married, in accord-
ance with the desire of her father, the late King of Murcia.
Don Sancho, she is informed, is also for some reason tra-
velling incog., under the undignified name, and supporting
the character, of one Manuel the Muleteer. The adven-
turous sovereign is about to be subjected to the rough salu-
tations of a posses of muleteers and villagers at the coun-
try posado where she has gone, when she purchases ex-
emption from the kissing tax by dancing a fandango, which
she does to ravishment. Manuel the Muleteer (Mr. Walter
Lacy) then appears, and , saves her from further molesta-
tion of the rustics; and love at first sight is the natural
consequence of the personal acquaintance thus auspiciously
begun between her Majesty and the person she believes to
be the disguised Don Sancho of Castile. But another per-
son arrives on the scene, Don Pedro (Mr. James Vining),
the pretender to the throne, and he, struck with the re-
markable likeness of the young country girl to the queen,
is sorely puzzled to know whether she is the real sovereign
or not. Now, he inclines to the first opinion, and frames
a plot to have her arrested on her return to her capital;
and then, believing she is only 'what she seems, he lays a
scheme to have her produced before her court, and to get
her to make a declaration of abdication in his favour, while
the real queen shall be conveyedprivately to a convent. In
these schemes the traitorous Don Pedro is assisted by Count
Torribio de Pompolo (Mr. Harley), the most amusingly
sagacious of Cabinet Ministers, and by Don Scipio (Mr.
G. Everett). But the plotters find that the little queen,
young as she is, is more than a match for all their crafty
plots and stratagems. She dresses tilt) magnificent Coim-
tess de Pompolo (Mrs. Winstanley) in the royal robes, and
this august representative of majesty, at least six yards in
circumference, is arrested, instead of the slim and sylph
like monarch. She escapes from the custody of her gaoler,
the Count de Pompolo, who thereby forfeits his head to
his master, Don Pedro. She alternately plays the Queen
and the peasant to aduntration. She outwits all the con-
spirators, marries the muleteer, refuses to abdicate on any
pretence ; and completes her triumph by discovering that
the man of her choice is no other than Sebastian, King of
Castile, in propria persona. It is unnecessary to say that
Miss Leclercq was the soul of the piece, and a most en-
chanting soul she was.. She danced, shp sang, she co-
quetted, she filled the throne, and she eiatertained her
princely and rustic admirers with equal graco and vivacity.
Mr. Harley also infused a large share of comic humour into
the piece, and Miss Murray and Mrs. Winstanley con-
tributed, the latter in an immense degree, to its success.
The scenery introduced was very pretty, and a tambourine
dance by the ladies of the corps de ballet was beautifully
arranged, and is likely to become very popular. Altogether
the Muleteer of Toledo was a decided hit, and was an-
nounced for repetition amidst enthusiastic applause. The