The National Register.
London, England, 1808-05-08 00:00:00

THE NATIONAL. REGISTER

COI RNT-OARDEN.
Boadicea, a play of Beaumont and Fletcher, was acted on
Tuesday night, for the benefit of Mr. Cooke, and repeated on
Thursday night for the injury of the Theatre. This very ill-
constrncted and very harshly written drama, is thus cast in it*
principal characters :
Caratach Mr. Cooke..
liengo ...Miss M. Bristow.
Suctonius .Mr. Murray.
Pcnius
Pelillius Mr. Pope.
Junius ...Mr. Brunton.
Judas Mr. ;Vanden.
Bonduca Mrs. St. Leger;
.Pirt Daughter -.Mrs. H. Johnston'.
Second Daughter .Miss Bristow.
The story is very nearly the same as that of the Drury Lane
Ballet, to which it has served as a model. The Romans under
tinetorcius have invaded England. They engage and conquer the
Britons. Punius, who, in consequence of a quarrel with the
General, has refused to light against.the Britons, kills himself in
remorse on learning the glory that his Roman fellow-soldiers
have gained. Caraench. the British chief, being defeated, flies-
among the rocks with the boy llengu ; Bonduca, and her two
daughters, poison themselves. Jiang() is shot by Judas, whom
Carotach kills for the deed : the Romans offer hoixsarable
burial for the child, and Caraturl. surrenders.
All these incidents happen with an abrupt and almost rldien
lons rapidity. We hardly know who the people are, certainly
we have no time to contract any regard for them, when suddenly
they kill themselves, or perform some such act, which must at-
ways he the more ludicrous when improbably managed, in pro-
portion as it is affecting when naturally introduced.
The poetry of this Play is almost universally flat and tame,
or stubborn and quaint : perhaps the only passage of merit is
that in which the High Priest of the Britons, describing the
march of Death, utters this most striking line—
W ide waves his bickering blade, and tires the fields of air.

However, the Play is certainly not without discrimination of
character. Caratueh is open and generous; the only fault of his
dramatic temper is his want of gallantry to the women, whom
he never addresses hut in objurgatory terms. Penius is a plain
rough soldier; proud, brave, and gloomy. Petillius is a plain
rough soldier; easy, thoughtless, and gay. Junius is a soldier
in love. Judas is a soldier, with a touch of cowardice, and a
great propensity for eating: this character has a good deal of
humour. Bunduca is a bully. in petticoats; a personage cer-
tainly not agreeable, but if married men tell truth, not quite
out of nature.
Mrs. St. Leger's figure is rather too large for the Fort of dress
which she wears in Bunduca. She would do well to be less
fiery in the colours of her attire, and in the tones of her voice.
At present she seems a caricature of the Britannias that one sees
pAnted upon sign-posts. Mr. Pope's Petillius needs no emen-
dation: it is at once a spirited and a correct performance. Nor
can we too highly praise the Judas of that admirably humonrous
actor, Mr. Mundell. His hunger, his drunkenness, his impu-
dence, his fear, are all equally entertaining and equally true.
The other parts are none of them worth much notice, except
the Caratach of Mr. Cooke; and the notice that Mr. Cooke re-
quires in this part, is the notice of his " bad eminence." Hard,
harsh, uninterestin7, where he ought to lie generous, afectirg,
and noble; he confounded all the principles of his art, and
pla)ed ill by the very means that in other parts have caused
him to play well. In short, he forgot that Caratach lifting his
sword for the safety of his country, was not Shylock sharpening
his knife for the execution of the merchant. One instance of
this kind of error will suffice; we select the concluding passage
of the play, which Mr. Cooke delivers with all the rage of
vengeance. The reader needs peruse it but once to
perceive that it ought to be delivered with serene magnanimity
—" Rome shall know
6‘ The firmness of a Briton's soul ; shall know
" Britons can brave the chance of war ! If Fortune

" Smile on their arms, they spare the vanquisb'd fve ;
" Vatiquish'd themselves, in naked majesty,
" Like tatir own knotted oak, by thunder blasted,
" Nobl y they stand the tempest of their fate.
" No s, Roman, lam thine. Set on, I follow.
The only object which we can guess to have existed in the re-
vival of this Play, appears to have been the injury of the Ballet
at Drury-Line. it that were the ;motive, lit. is jibtly

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