The National Register.
London, England, 1816-05-12 00:00:00

MAY 12.

REGISTER.

DRURY-LANE.

On Thursday night a new Tragedy was produced at
thi4 Theatre, candor the title of "Bertram; or, dig Cast!:
ft' M. Aldobrand." The following are the. Dramalit
Persona':—
count Bertram Mr. Kr..N
C.mat AlJubrao.l Nil-. Yore
Prior of yr. Atiscloseii NIr. HOLLAND

Monk* --l'iritte; under Ow command of BowAso --Knights—
Pe.tutot C.

'Gingen ny'fl YOUNG LADY,
( II i r firs( app. artistry oii ariq Mtge.)
(licr friend) Nlki Rom::
The . CARR.
The Scene k Ltiil on the rout of 'icily.

notenia, A popular and powei rid Noble•nan, was expelled
the kingilmn :or disloyal practices ; and Could A blabrand was
the principal author of his exile. Bertram then becalm, the
leader of a hand of pirates. The play opens with a violent
storm, w Inch destroys his vessel, and casts him ashore, almost
dew iveil of life, close under the walls of a monastery, conti-
guous to his enemy's castle. He is sheltered by the Nlonks, who
a,•iplaint him with the approach of Afete Liven by the Lady of
A:;/,brand, to which all strangers were freely invited. The
man whom .B..rtitos hates is tit in the wars; lie resolves,
therefore, to enter the defenceless castle, mattering some in_
slistinct threats of vengeance against tlw family of its owner.
In the mean time we are :.ronglit aemiainted with hon4en, the
lemutifill but wretched wife of Mitt/Vaud. She had given way
to an ardent passion fir one ( Bertram) who had long been
niiinbered with the dead ; and had sidea-ipiently been milted m
marriage with a Mistimed forced noon her by parental autho-
rity. She performs her ditties, but hew ails her miseries t and
daring the influx of strangers to her castle she meets with
&dram in a solitary walk. This scene, the finest in
the play, is wrought up with surpri•ing firer of genii's, and
intensity Of passim. The unfortunate 114.ring:a reeogoi,e, the
object of his earliest tender:les.. clan his life was gin .ens and
his heart was pure.—/seogrn, though she dreams not of Bar.
train's being alise, associates sonic unknown terror with the
outflow. He breathes her name, which dissolves the mystery,
and lays her ins-nsi isle sit his fei•t. Not t,li she aVOW.4 it, &CS
lie discover that she is the wife of his enemy : not till then does
he visit her with the dreadful (urse, which, in the tine concep-
tion and soletnu language of the poet, converts all her blessings
into mousers of deep and incurable renimse. The clam „t•
haves appearing, Bertram, in a plireury, seizes it. to revenge
all his wrongs by its destruction; but. intently gazing, on the
infant realms's, he finds ev..ry where the traces of her whom
be has the moment beforsesii Aercely execrated, and breaks out
into this affecting p rover —" Gut bless thy child!"—['Phis we
conceive to be a imister.piece both of driniatie painting and of
skill in human nature] -Bei-beta returns to his hospitable
inmks— inia;,^rll soon follows, to seek consolation from the hidy
Prior, and chances to meet again with Bertram. Her hus-
band's return is OilliOilliCed the lover, notwithstanding his
sleep despair and misanthropy, seems to feel, in some respects,
like cornice') lovers, and uhtabis from his mistress 4 promise to.
see him once more within the castle-walls, ere he departs for
ever. Comit lido...brawl arrives—Bertram ones to his appoint-
ment: %%hilt waiting for the expected interview, some of his
rival, having heard of return to
band inform him, that his I ltl
that roast, had set engines in motion to pursue mud destroy
him : this news banishes all farther scruple llama mind hither-
to balancing between shame and vengeance. lie forces his
way to the Count's apartment, attacks, and kills him. /not-, is
I, driven to inailliess—iiirtram surrenders without resistance -
his iialiai,py mistress expires on again beholding him—he stabs
himself, and dies beside her.

The Author seems not to have employed so much of
his power in strengthening the action of his plot, as in
developing the passions, meditating the sentiments, and
perfecting to the highest degree of which, perhaps, an
English poem is susceptible, the imagery and language
assigned to the characters in this drama. Nor is very
striking novelty of characters so much the attribute of
the tragedy of Bertram, as matchless force and ele-
gance of expression. The heroine is of a class from
which drainatie heroines have been must liberally and
most advantageously chosen—with enough of sensibility
to make her miserable, and enough of virtue to make us
compassionate her woe: robed in the richness of his own
imagination, the poet, perhaps, has left his heroine too
elosely shrouded within its draperies. She is (we sin-
cerely deprecate the charge of being uncandid) rather
too often and too long in the act of seeing invisible, and
addressing based to absent, objects. Her reception of
her husband, in the 4th act, ought to have awakened
sonic suspicion on his part that all was not right ; and
her nuttiness in the sth is too much protracted, and pain-
fully obtruded upon the audience; but these are partial ,
imperfections. There is a deep interest excited through- '
out : there is a display of vigorous intellect—of im-
pressive sentiments—of refined taste—of profuse imagi
nation—and of pathos the most exquisite and profound,
which we presume to say will render this tragedy a pre-
cious acquisition to the find of our dramatic literature.
If, moreover, a man of worth and genius should, to the
dishonour of an enlightened community, feel, as we are
afraid too many have felt, a want more pressing then
that of the dune which infallibly awaits him, we rejoice
in the prospects we with confidence anticipate for the
author of sue' a production.
The whole of the acting of this tragedy is admirable.
We never saw Mr. HOLLAND in a more impressive part:
the moral and eloquent sentiments of the Prior receive
additional force from the manner in which he delivers
them. The music also is pure and appropriate ; the
scenery picturesque ; and altogether, as a spectacle as
well as a drama, it is most creditable to the Theatre.

We have hardly room to say more of Miss SONlCR-
ritux, the debtrlaale of the night, than that she seems a
very lovely woman ; and that, under many obvious (Es-
advinttg,,s, she showed no ordinary talents. Her voice
in its natural key is mellow and musical, filling the
Theatre apparently without as effort. She lias not yet