The National Register.
London, England, 1808-12-04 00:00:00

7SO

THE 4T'AtiOlgAt RPGISTEII.

• THE THELAT4E. •'
r
DHU • .• .. •
On Thursday night a new drama, its three acts, untitled
renott4 or the ogice of St. Mark, was acted for the first
time at Drury Lane. • •
Promotion Is no where become. solrequent, sulks° fa.
sbionable as on the Stage. The promotion of which we in-
tend to s e
peak is not of m.., and st ill less of merit and talents,
but that of Mein-arenas ! ! Humble throt‘h necessity, they
formerly crawled oaseq..iously, ilioneh not without betray-
ing great symptoms of self colleen, and a bustling dispost-
titbit, at the heels of our first rate tragedies and comedies. But
of late, they have been raised to an equably with the first-
born of the tragic and comic muse. They now impu-
dently rear their beatta as soon as the curtain is drawn, the
nightly monarchs of the scenic. boards arrayed in the
borrowed majes!y of their betters, which but ill 0-
guises their native servility. Like an Eton boy, when
after having long obeyed the commands of his feflow stu-
dents, he not only starts at once into the fifth class and out
of his jaleship, but becomes the prond imperious Master of
a fag; a melo.drama struts, sings, and dances on the stage,
atietated by a lowly but good humonred mcival, who, by
and bye, itithe present system of promotion continees, will
limo his way to precedence, apd most probably claim the
pantortinne for his follower.
Accordi,',g to the present system, therefore, if it be per-
sisted in, and anilines and mowers suffer themselves to be
carried away by the current of noorky, the theatrical pro-
apeci soi- the ensuing generation are theses tragedies, as being
100 iet...oes and too long, and comedies, a* requiring too.
a study, and too exact a display of nature, are "now
*• • ely ever ante pted bythe authors of acting plays----
1.,!), will be tolally ha ished from the futnre stage, Melo-
er .illas,!t.ioipz.,h they have not only usurped the place, hut
tne serf moire of regular dramas. now enjoy but a fleeting
.hoor eov-er; :nd will *ken seldom dare to show their
; toe more ''re iently, at !emit, than new tragedies
dug! flow do. Farces will long reign supreme
nail t....e.p:eint, for the uni:iher of Langton fools is always
sa.z;reat, t itat sure eat Pantomimes to attack them with
.tepre powerful weapons of zrosser and more sense-
sway would be endless. Broad grins,
the inblings of a clown, the leaps of an Hark-
selin, led fairy trippings of a Columbine, will then be the
*-3,4 pertermances aline ed on the stage, which will then
IndanbictllN • great ends of its creation, the
iraiirovemeot of publio +9,4lllers by the correction of prirat,
vtut.et 37;4 failings. Bey owl this aegradation of one of the
11,iiricrt es! iblishments formed by man, the stage, even
imierinatiott dreads to pierce.
Tae Scene lies at Messina. retest/an, the Prior of the
Cml•e::, of St. Mark is a common character enough, an
bypecrje. Josephn, dloghter to a weak woman, the
',liar-chin/fess (Oprnna, is his victim, anti torn by his artifice
from the arras of renoni, a young nobleman, still
sc‘Aker than the Marchionexs, whom she was about to
marry, in order to be made an Urimline mm, or rather to
be forcei! to gratify Cele Vino's passion. On her refusal, she
• is planged into a vault, where, ys hen the piece opens, she has
atewitly resided more than a year. She is reported to have
*Led, and Vrnoni, deprived of all sense, but that of grief,
resolves to become a monk, and begins his noviciate at the
Convent of Mark, which is separated from that of the
irsAines by a party-wall only. The Viceroy of Sicily,
,unt ienvor,ro, undertakes in vain to combat his resolu-
ail, at the moment when he has conquered almost all his
bjections, the Prior mimes Joscpha and points to her
rave, and Felton; becomes his again. Father
,tsever, a young and beuevolent monk, who during tke
Oict destroyed a wing of the Convent some
nor hAnre, tuts dewovered written proof's of the Prior's
!nit, !indA means to them before Venoni, and presses
t0,:44 Vihigeance and not safety, is now the only

,

DEC. 4.

wish of the youth; his loud exclamations put Luther
to flight, and bring the Prior, whom he 11 preaches with
hes guilt, and ill whose hands he impradeutly places the
letVr-vilVeh Nickel !Ms left. His death or captivity be.
conies necessary for the'seeurity of the criminals, and he
is fermi down some secret steps, into a vault, „!here a
monk, after twenty yea's spent in captivity, had lately ex.
Aired. Here we sec the. party. wall that separates Ow Ise
Convent RI and a dungeon- on each side of it. .1 he one con-
tains the falsely thought dead Jo*epha ; and in [tie other
renoni is placed. Yielding to despair, he is about to dz!s!,
his head against the wall, when he perceives these words,
hope and search," written upon ,it. Ile. seaiclics
dungeon, finds a scroll written with blood, which tells hint
that the wall is hollow, and an iroa In:, with which, is
hew minutes, he overthrows the barrier that divided him
from Jescpha, still unc.nseious of her exieence. They
Icno,y each other, and at that moment hear approaching
voices. Venoni grasps his iron bar for defence, Jostling
clings to him, and the dungeon is entered by the good
Father Michael, the Viceroy, the Marchioness and at-
tendants, whom he had informed of the danger of their
fl iend. .1 tremendous shower of hisses caused the etutaia
to drop soddenly, and thus screened the wicked Prior from
the punishment which he so highly deserved, and which
but for this would have certainly proved unavoidable.
Any man who vents his contempt against a coward, when
placed .at the head of an army, would find no fault with
him, were he to confine himself to the faithful discharge
of his family duties or to industrious pursuits. By the
same reason, although we protest against the promotion of
meld-dramas to the first rank of the drama, we do not ob-
ject to these in their proper place. /'ennui, or the .Verire
of SI. Mark, is partly taken from a French piece, entitled
Les fietimes (loilrhs, which was first. represented at Parie
but during the latter part of the first act, and the whole of
the second, far surpasses its original. It teems with inte-
rest, amid, although nut free from numerous defect,:, also
abounds with beauties. The style is chaste and animated,
natural. and elegant ; the sentiments are all good ;
were it not for the ridiculous masquerade introduced at
the beginning of the third act, and which interrupts unne-
cessarily the course of the action, no objection could be
made to the conduct of the piece. Were something like
comic spirit infused through the ensile parts of this drama ;
were the Prior's libidinous speech reduced within the
hounds of modesty; were the masquerade suppressed, the
whole of the last Act moulded anew into a less reprehen-
sible shape, and the character of the Here throughout
raised above the weakness of despondency, feneni,
Novice of .Si. Mark, would become, and deservedly so,
of the most popular pieces of the or
one
gilt
No play ever receivetl a more powerful assistance from
the talents of performers than Venon delinea-
tion of melancholy despair was, as all his performance.,
masterly. Brooding incessantly on the loss of his bride,
the luminous faculties of his mind are obscured, but not
extinguished. Fret,nent gleams of thought and memory
dash across his gloomy sorrow, and to catch the fleeting
expresaiou of the soul in its momentary emersion from de-
lair. is perhaps one of the most difficult imitations of
na-
ture which the mimic art can give. Kinston, whose gen
seems to rise with diffieultiea,-- displayed su deep a know-
ledge of the human heart, so exact a portraiture of the
play of human passions, that we think he has never be-
trayed more excellence in any of his former characters.—
' Wrouaihton, in Celestine, depicted hypocrisy with fidelity:,
especially its assumed mildness and humility, below
superiors, or those whom he has selected fur his victims,
and its burstiug exultation in secret self twatcongraions or
the success of his plans. Mr. H. Siddonsosho, enoerl s
,
is so unequal in his performance, was here unifm
great. He surpassed our warmest hopes, and in histin-
ter% icw with Perron'', in the convent, burst in all the
dour of truly Siddonian genius. De Camp, in Father
cite 1, displayed real excellence; as well as Mrs. 11.. i•