The National Register.
London, England, 1809-12-31 00:00:00

THE NATIONAL REGISTER.

Bs7

minds; and even ilte pl•ttui atiagivattuus 01 are
soon tired of an eternal round ut prancing and Tering
without incident, of transforinAtinns without apparent ire-
tenuity, and of the gew-gaws and meretricious glittci of
phittip figurantes, though testoirned•With' ruses, aim
titin'd with all the signs bl the zodiac. ' • '
''Tis with some diffidence we have entered on these ani.!
madversions, as the entertamehts Of the liolkday Week,
are iii general Considered as beinic either` aboveabove or below
Criticism t• yet this' is, perhaps, 'liking for granted, that
which. yet remains' to be proved; nor can we' see any
reason why even the amtiseMents'Of the chearful grouper
in the scholastic recess, should not be subservient to theii
• . •
mental improvement. .
' Tki-Pantomime we may, indeed, allow a more eiten.?vo
field; there are children of g larger grtiwth4ho eel
the lash of the Satirist. *hen sentimental truisms would
pass unnoticed; 'tisthe duty of the Stage, " to spew vice
her own im;i4e," 'although we-cannot, perhapi; refiittn
the wicked, we may still render the frivolous ashhuted tof
their folly, and *even prompt to at: e:xercise of the' minor
virtues, by a whimsical display of tire Absurdities or thou.
oppdstte,
In short, PANTqIIIIII is tpe CAIIICATURIC of Dranilitie
Poetry; the figures ut both, either in whole or in part, nay
he' drawn beyond the ilattral proportion, yet • a likelass
must still lie preserved, otherivise the effect is destroyed'
We are sorry to say 'that the application of thiip•siase •
rules, has been- very little attended to, 'in the liiii/cqvie
Pedlar of this season, so pompously announced' as the pr_o•
duction'of intense • Study and great 'preparation I-01 the
one, indeed, we see but little evitience in 'the jumfilini, ut
not combining, a fesi whimsiCal mcidentii—and as to the
other, it surely could notite traced in machipery, which
mew; off at half, cock, or in the blunders of the wadi/risk
which would' have disgraced a 'rehcarsul. It would be un=
just, however, to apply indiseriMinate 'censure; for much
of the scenery is elegantly picturesque, and the'performers
did their hest, though their antic evolution's Were marred
by the necessity which they were often under of regulat-
ing their motions by the discordant motions <the scene-
shifters, for Whose egregious errors there can possibly be
no mow. the transformations might have had a good
elect, had their heel& any story to connect them in the
but'lhe Onl mark of intellect we could perceive
in the ei)::struction of the 'piece, was the ignorant vanity
mid stupid ignorance of the Clown, who having broken all
the strings of t.is imagined himself playing, whilst
going through the motions, 'because Harlequin was playing
behind him, a trait out inapplicable in the ordinary inter.
course of life.

Of the earlier evening entertainments, the less is said the
better; the IVheel of Fortune Was perfortnend on Wednes-
day night. having been brought forward for the first time
this season on the second night of the reconciliation; but to
compare the Penruddork of the former to that of Christmas
week.—Oh Hyperion to a Satyr 1" Ought those things
to be sot • •

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