The National Register.
London, England, 1816-01-14 00:00:00

,THE NATIONAL REGISTER:

E 4

=
DRAMATICREGHTER.

D RU RY-LAN E. •
Illness has prevented our Critic from witnessing the revival •f
4' A TIM irdy to Pay Old Debts." However, we shall avail our-
selves, for the present, of the labours of a brother Critic, and shall,.
hereafter, give full attention to it among the rest of MrsKEases•
character:; ttiho seems, with Miss O'Nsie, to divide, without tines-
Con, the imperial rank in the region of. the Drama. .Wi had in-
tended to have said something uptin Mr. Youan'a Rolla, which. we
think inferior to Mr.KEMBLE'S in all its most beautiful passages,.
and to have held up to just censure the unmeaning dulness of
harlequin and Fortuni•, which is defective, in all that constitutes
,•
the excellence of that capricious extravagance of scenical 'magic
called an English Pantomime. We are certain, the majority of boys
and girls at the Theatre would prefer such plays as Pizarro to any
Pantomime that has not the best qualities of a •13.4mtonlimo. This
class of the audience is' treated with too much contempt when they
are supposed to want taste, fveling, guodsense, and judgment. They
like Jun, but it must be gaud fun.
" A new Way to Pay Old Debts" was revived at Drury-lane Thea-
tre on 'Friday night. This play has re-appeared under such favour-
able circumstances as will ensure to. the London audience a long
course of rich and rational delight; and the name of MAsssas ER
a full measure of justice. Of Mr. KEAN'S performance of Sir Giles
Orerrcach, we have some fear of being charged with the ordinary
fault of exaggeration, if we attempt to convey to others our own
c inception of its excellence. We think it by many degrees his
grandest and noblest effort. The character, indeed, belongs, in
the strictest sense, to tragedy ; it is a vivid picture of terrific and
untameable passions, leading to the commission of the most odious
crimes. Shakspeare, perhaps, has scarcely ever sketched a more
daring l ortra.a. The split e, malignant, and ironical oppressor; the
hardy bravo, that maintains by his sword the wrongs he offers—the •
miser, loaded with the spoils of triumphant ararice, dressing up to
himself a second idol in ambition, that he may be refreshed by the
acquisition of a double stimulus to the accomplishment of further
wickedness ; all these are thrown together by a vigorous and lux
ttriant invention, and go to form, in the person of Sir Giles Over-
reach, a model which could only have sprung from a mind pin-
foundiy conversant in human nature, and gifted with an extraor-
dinary power of generalizing and combining its observations.
Mr. KERN gave to this character throughout, a complexion of the
of the deadliest hue. lie gate it all its subtlety, coarseness, and
ferocity. Tyrant and destroyer were written as legibly on his
brow, as ever they sat on the countenance of Richard. His occa-
sional relaxation into an assumed and designing levity was not the
least striking instance of skill, and was in frightful harmony with
tha schemes lie nu ditated, and passions he but half concealed.
His finest reenes were his first communication to his daughter of
her intended marriage with Lard Lovell—his avowal to that Noble-
man
of his disdain for every upright principle, and moral obliga-
iioll--Rna the last—in which his villainies were detected—his
schemes disappoiated— his nephew liberated from his gripe—and
his daashter niar, led, under the authority of his own signature, to
.Aliworth. The variety, and at the same time the intensity of pas-
Bios, w Lich burned within him throughout this high-wrought scene,
has never been' surpassed by any actor. The whirlwind of rage
and vengeance, sweeping; before it every creature within its
succeeded by despair so terrible—and concluded by a
to:por Fn fixed and shoel,ing, that the look which accompanied his
renoval from the stage bore no resemblance to any thing we ever
witnessed, es cept the expression which sometimes remains upon
the human countenance when a violent death lots imprinted there
the imase of its final agonies, As a proof of the force with which
this impression was communicated by Mr. KEAN to others besides
ourselves, Mrs. Geov En, who stood near him immediately before
1w was carried off, was so far overcome by it, as to sink into a
chair beside her. The other characters were respectably repre-
sented. Lady Allicorth did not admit of much exertion, but Mrs.
CLUVER gave it felly as much importance as belonged to it.
Alt sns:st's .littiastil was in his best stale of redondant, but irre-
sistible humour. HARLEY was the il'ellborn—witich he played
with less exuberance, and more like a gentleman, than we had ex-
pected. 1li.; replies to his uncle in the Concluding scene were de-
'livered with spirit and Iceli:tz. Oxnralty, iu Justice Gi•eedy, and

JAN. 14.

S. PENLEY, in Allworth, got through these subordinate parts with.
out offending. Mrs. Hoerr made up in loveliness of appearance
what she wanted in spirit; but the piece, played as it is altogether,
cannot but become a favourite.
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