The National Register.
London, England, 1812-03-01 00:00:00

MARC!.

_THE NATION,

-'"VRAMATIC REGISTER.

LYCEUM THEATRE.

On Thursday last a new Drama, in five acts, called The House of
was performed at this Theatre.
This piece is evidently thepro ',action of a new dramatic Writer. His
ignorance of the stage reSfeals itself throughout,As well as his aberrations
from taste and interest. Scenes devoid of either the one or the other,
and totally foreign t.) the subject, are heaped up together to conceal the
poverty of the plot, without leading us to forget their intrusion by any
beauty of style, or theatrical effect. Attempts at wit. such as no man,
save the sensible author, could laic even conceited, had he not h.:ard.
.Item, form the chief excellencies of these extraneous scenes. In one of
them we are treated with the following. list of the articles rendered ne•
cessary by the arrival of visitors at a castle :•••••44 stables for the horses,
carrion for the dogs, burrows for the rabbits, styes for the pigs," &c. &c.
With this chosen dish, 'however, the audience were not satisfied, and
expressed their distaste rather significantly. But rathe. than curtail
'this elegant enumeration, Mr. Pa NUT bravely encountered -the hisses
of the whole house, whieh at last drOwned this brilliant specimen of the
author's wit, leaving him no cause of coMplaint against the actor.
The length of the piece causes the little interest which it contains to
dwindle away into insignificance. The plot is not well managed. We
are admitted from its very threshold Into its deepest mysteries, and
therefore have only to await whit we know for cert-in is coming. t'l,c
Nouse of MOrrillc is represented in the bills as a Play of which 44 the
Mat and characters are dr..wn in bumble imitation of the ancient Eng-
lish dramatist :.- The imitation, we must fairly own, is very humble;
but it is so frequent and so ill judged, that whilst it destroys the charm
of novelty, it does not redeem its loss by any of those attractions with
which the pieces of our ancient writers abound. We see an uncle (Mr.
I.VitovoitroN) poisoned by his nephew (4r. RAYMOND), after having
disinherited his son (Mr. DREAM. 11) because he had married an orphan
girl (Mrs. EDWIN) without name or fortune; but before the murderous
act is committed, we are cautioned by the leaned sage (Mr. tiOLLAND)
who supplied the poison, thht its effect is to lull life asleep without de-
stroying it, and that he will take care to relieve the buried Lord from
his gave before his mock dissolution should become real. This is an
imitation of Romeo and Juliet, snost skilfully divested of the little inte-
rest which it might retain. No sooner has the supposed murder been
rffected, than it is discovered by a faithful servant who comes to awake
his master; and, as in Macbeth, the assassin roars most loudly against
the deed, causes the alarum bell to be rung,.and, in virtue of his uncle's
succeeds quietly to his vast estates. The disinherited son has re-
course to the law to regain his patrimony, but is foiled by the bribes of
his enemy; and, on the point of lacing arrested for the costs of his suit,
runs away with his wife, and enlists in a regiment beating up for
recruits. I lere the malice of his foe pursues him : having obtained a
commission for one of his agents (Mr. PALMER), he instructs him, by
ill treatment, to induce the new recruit to desert. This plan succeeds; i
qud we have apathetic apology for, er rather encouragement to, deser-
tion, attended
-With patriotic reflections on the impolicy and cruelty of
compelling a soldier, by excess of severity, to abandon the service of
his King and Country. The wicked minister of Rodniond's vengeance,
thinking to profit by De Alorville's absence, brutally assaults his wife,
%% hill her husband hearing from his concealment what passes, rushes
°a the offender, and in the affray wounds him, as he thinks, mortally.
ile'then esaapes to'the Woods, pursued by a deAchinint of soldiers, as
the murderer of his officer, and is caught by the. Colonel of his own re-
giment, who, in De Morville's wife, had discovered his own long-lost
mere. lie, however, delivers him to be tried as an assassin,, and they
%pair to Rod/mold's castle, where, in consequence of the indisposition
•Lf the Judo, as we are told, in all the pomp of blank verse,

" The Judge is ill, and cannot sit in Court,"
the Usurper be, omens the sole arbiter of his cousin's fate. The trial pro-
ceeds, and be Norville is on the eve of being condemned, when all the
snrPosed dead revive. His father, still disguised, produces the Officer,
whom his son charged is with having murdered, and who had only
been severely wounded. He'then accuses liodnunid of having murdered
his uncle, and reveals himself, when the guilty is condemned, and the
innocent made happy.
Would the -Author condescend-to expunge at least two acts of -his
piece, it might then excite interest, and claim approbation. The begin-
:liog is intolerably dull. The end codains some scenes whichmight be