The National Register.
London, England, 1814-04-03 00:00:00

TILE NATIONAL REGISTER.

DRAMATIC REGISTER.

AIR. KEAN'S HAMLET.

liakalet is the last character which has Teen se
kcted by Me. KLAN for the display of his.histrionic talents
to the metropolitan public, and we must express it too de-
eiciedly, the last in excellence. Not to lay any stress on the
physical deficiencies of person and voice under which .Mr.
VeRAN labours for the personation of such a character, and
Without insisting on the striking want of grace and of dig-
nity, both of port and action, which he evinced throughout,
our duty compels us to say, that Mr. K EAN'S performance
of the Danish Prince, viewed as a whole, fell as far below
what a London audience has been accustomed to see in the
part, as, it certainly did below his own efforts in other eha-
vacters. This gentleman seems designed indeed, both by
nature and study, for those parts only which arc strongly
vortrked, and which, like Richard and Shdotk, have a tone
of violence, sarcasm, and cunning. In Hamlet, therefore.
that wonderful and almost ethereal creation of our great
poet's brain—that man of mind alone, to whom the external'
world was " weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable,"—who,.
wrapped up in " that within," seemed to those around him,
as to himself, scarcely to belong to the earth he trod, and
who, while his soul was bent upon a jnst revenge, which he
wanted however the energy to exectue, would, instead of
taking the measures necessary to secure his purpose, fall
into himself, and now soliloquize npbn his after-being, now
inveigh against his own weakness and delays, wi!hout re-
medying them,—who word(' at one time defer his vengeance
till every scrup'c as to his victim's guilt was satisfied, and
at anothei put off the blow he meditated under the pretext
of rendering it more dreadful, Ana that it, might destroy trot
the life, atone, but also the soul's eternal hope of his father's
Inorderer—in such a character, whose prototype perhaps
revel` existed but in the " mind's eye" of tiltb poet, very
different qualities were required in the actor; and the con-
sequence was, that Mr. Keeit's attempt could lay claim to
none but the most negative praise ; his performance as
rarely rose above as it fell below mediocrity.

Much credit has been ascribed to Mr. KEAN for some
touches of originality which •he has thrown out in hamlet;
and in some instances this praise is merited. The pointing
Jis sword towards his friends, who. would deter him from
following his father's shade,_ instead of pointing it at the
ght;st itself, which he honoured and could not harm, is hap-
py and natural ; but whether, in the scene with Ophelia, his
returning to kiss her hand is strictly correct, we arc much
jnclincd to doubt, as the effect which the tenor of his con-
duct during the dialogue had upon the King and Polonius,
who saw and overheard him, (of which he was probably
aware) was to convince them that it was not love which bad
wrought iris supposed madness;' whereas had he given this
ktrong sign of lingiring fondness, and of his inability to
leave Ophetia, in anger, it appears to us that, notwithstanding
the reproaches 'he had just vented upon her, this single act
would have produced upon the minds of the concealed wit,
tresses an impression very different from that Ocpressed in
the text.

APRIL 3.

the performance, in every liberal mind caused, a sensation of
poignant !egret; and who indeed could but regret, that one
so young, so lovely and interesting, should -have been by
any circumstance, however adverse and pressitig, induced
to play a part on the same evening when the exhibition 'of
your wretched fooleries would be sure to place her in a si-
tuation where .even the abilities of a Siddons, Smith, or a
Jordan, would have availed but little to stop the torrent of
even more than Bacchanalian riot and disorder that usually
swells to inch a rapid height when a display is made of your
ludicrous theatrical efforts ? Such feeling in virtuous minds,
however, must give place to those of indignant resentment,
on learning that the well-known tale of
.Mrs. Bury, and the
401. douceur for your philanthropic aid, was not a singular
circumstance, but had many parells, and that 1001. was paid
for your services on this memorable night. I will not for a
single moment allow myself to believe, that you could have
been base and unmanly enough
.to make a young lady pay
yoti for any service you could render her. Your gallantry
and love of the fairer part of the creation is too notorious.
Yet, upon- indisputable authority, I find it but too true, that
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fir your *aid that evening, 1001. out of the receipts of-that
„night was paid to.scmeboely. " 0 shame, where is thy blush !"
To endeavour to cure you of the mania for acting,—to
call upon you to drop ►our assumed title of " Philanthropic
Amateur of Fashion," vrtvuld, 1 fear, be a futile attempt;
the disease has taken too deep root : but to call upon you,
before the curricle and gaudy attendant equipage is again
displayed in the pat k, honoutably to repair any wrong that
may have been done the fatherless orphan,—for such is ;his
young lady. By this undue use of your name, is a call,
trust, to you, will be irreistible ; and no sooner shall this
meet your eve, than you will make reparation to all who
may be thus sitaated. Slave, as you profess yourself to be,
to the fair sex, this appeal to your gallantry will not, cannot/
be made in vain. MENToa.

BLASPIIEMY.

GRAND NIANIFESTATION OF JOHANNA SOUTHCOTT

Within these last few days a pamphlet has made its ap-
pearance announcing nothing short of a new coming of the
Messiah, a second incarnation If the Son of God, and the fut.
fitment of the prophecies which Christ is accused of having
left imperfect—in fact, Shito4 is sent again ; and, in the
course of this year, 1814, shall be miraculously born and
brought forth by Mrs. Johanna Sotithcott, spinster, of St.
George's fields, in her Jirty-sixth year.—Fond of miracles, yet
much afraid of hoaxings and deceptions, we wish to give a
friendly advice to the followers, as they Fall themselves, of
.I"qhanna, Southcott, and take the liberty .of warning them
against doubts and suspicions wijich might, in these incre-
dulous times, eventually 'mar the grand oeuvre If the maul. •
4.4tation ; and, in order to ascettgin the truth and to have it
at opce incontroyertible, we would beg of then, to deliver
the revered lady into the hands of some disinterested people,
chosen by proper authorities, who would remove lier to a
place where this second birth of Christ might be, at least, as
comfortable as the.iirst.--And the better to fulfil the pro-
phecies again, we hope, most earnestly, that the place kl-
signeil for the Lady on the Sir aW'in her confinement, will be
BETHLEHEM HOSPITAL, vulgarly called Bedlam.—Oh
That in 9ur enlightened days a Single being should be found
weak enough to believe, or picked enough to Countenance,
such dangerous nonsentie! ! Yet we understand that the
adtairera of the presnant Lek are astonishingly. onmtkrous,

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