The National Register.
London, England, 1816-03-18 00:00:00

DRAMATIC REGISTER.

COVENT-6 IRD EN.

Miss O'NEIL gratified the London public, for the first
time, on Saturday, by dedicating to Thalia those talents,
which had hitherto been only applied on the metropo-
litan stage, in embodying the plaintive sorrows or fiery
passions of the Tragic Muse. She appeared as Ludy
Teazle, in Sheridan's excellent comedy of The Schou!fur
Scandal ; and the high bred elegance of fashionable man-
ners, the mixture of playfulness with satire and feeling,
which distinguish the part, never were displayed with
greater fidelity and skill. Her reception was rapturous.
—Besides the homage of an overflowing house, she was
greeted with shouts, peals of applause, and the waving of
hats; and those demonstrations of popular admiration
were frequently renewed throughout the piece, which
was announced for next Tuesday, in the midst of accla-
mations. We have r.o time or room, at this late hour, to
enlarge on the merits ofthe other performers. Suffice it
to say, that, although we have witnessed the representa-
tion of many plays, both at home and abroad, we had
never beheld such an assemblage of excellence, as last
night charmed our sight and our mind, in the perfrrmance
of the best production of our best comic poet.
Tuesday night a new musical Play in three Acts; in-
titled " Guy Mannering ; or, 7'/se Gipsey's Prophety,"
was brought forward at this Theatre. The plot is taken •
from the popular and much-admired novel of the name,
attributed, we know not how justly, to Mr. Walter
Scott. The piece itself is, we understand, from the pen
of Mr. Terry, the very respectable perfiirmer of this The-
atre, and in its plot follows, we believe, pretty closely the
fiction of' the poet. Hotly Bertram (Mr. SINCLAIR) is
stolen by gypsies in his infancy, and his father Sir
Bertram, dies, leaving a daughter (Miss STEPHENS), the
victim of the villainy of Gilbert Glossin, u lawyer (BLAN-
cutARD), who obtains possession of the family mansion
and paternal estate, and who wants to make her his wifr.
She, spurning affluence upon these terms, is retiring into
indigent obscurity, when, at an inn, she encounters Guy
Mannering (Ansorr), the former protege of her father,
whose interest sent him advantageously to India, whence
he had now returned a Colonel in the army, and in cir-
cumstances of the greatest affluence. At the inn he pro-
tects her from the advances of Gilbert Glossin; and, anxi-
ous to make a practical acknowkdgment to the daughter,
of the obligations which he owed her father, he introduces
her to his sister, who prevails upon her to accept an asy-
lum with them. Guy Manhering. fails in love with
and eventually marries her. Her brother, Henry Ber-
tram, though unknown as such, is the lover of Julia
Mannerly (Miss MATTHEWS), the Colonel's sister ; and,
in leaving the Colonel's house one evening, loses his way,
and, in company with u half-Lipsey companion (EMERY),
encounters the gipsies, through whom, in a train of in-
teresting incidents, which we have not room to follow,
the discovery is made of Henry lkrtram's identity. He
is restored to the family estates, married to Miss Men-
acting, and both sets of lovers are thus made happy : while
several wicked agents in the plot receive poetical jus-
tice. The scene, we hardly need say, is laid in Scotland.
• The new scenery is excellent and appropriate. The
8011;V are of a very superior order to those frequently
found in productions of this kind ; and though the piece
appeared to drag a little in the latter part of the first, and
earlier part of the second acts, it never lost its hold upon
the attention. It was received with unqualified applause,
and given out for repetition amid the warmest acclama-
tions. Bishop, Attwood, Davy, Whitaker, and T. Cooke,
have contributed to the music, most of which is unexcep-
tionably good. Several of the songs were encored ; par-
ticularly an exquisite one, composed by Bishop, to the
words of Miss Johann() Milk, in which the mellifluous
notes of Master Williams were heard with delightful ef-
fect. The performers exerted themselves much. ABBOT,
EMERY, LISTON, PI, ANCHARD, Mrs. DAVENPORT, :kil*S.
EGEnToN, and Mrs. GIBBS, did the piece justiee. The
House was crowded in every part.