The Sun.
London, England, 1855-11-14 00:00:00

HAYMARKET.

There is now being nightly enacted at the little theatre
in the Haymarket one of those exquisite bijoux of dra-
matic composition and histrionic performance which
seem to us the very perfection of nature and art com-
bined. Last evening was the twenty-ninth time of its
representation. It is a sort of drawing-room vaudeville
or comedietta in two acts, written by A. Harris, Esq.,
a name to us as that of a total stranger, and is entitled
The Little Treasure. Gertrude—" the little treasure "
from whom the piece derives its title—being the sweetest
girl-like character imaginable, enacted in a manner the
most charming, delightful, captivating, bewitching—by
Miss Blanche Fane, a youthful debutante hitherto un-
known to London playgoers, but henceforth to be re-
garded by them as one of the most fascinating actresses
of our age. Those who have not themselves witnessed
The Little Treasure, as performed by the Haymarket
Company, cannot possibly form any adequate conjecture
as to the finished excellence of its nightly representation.
The whole thing is something quite refreshing,
and appears to us in every detail almost faultless
throughout. Every one who has seen it will recognise, in
these earnest words of ours, not one particle of exagge-
ration. The piece, in every particular, reflects the
highest credit, in the first place, upon the author him-
self, and after wards upon each of the actors indivi-
dually—not forgetting the distinguished merit due like-
wise in an especial manner to the whole stage manage-
ment. We do not think it would be in any way extra-
vagant to assert that the entire production, as placed
upon the boards of Mr. Buckstone's theatre, could not
be better performed by the most accomplished company
of French comedians, selected from the most exquisitely
appointed of the great Parisian establishments. Not a
single one out of the little group of the dramatis personce,
but fits the artiste to whom the part has been allotted
to a T—to a tittle—to a hair's breadth. The ex-
cessively acidulated and exceedingly shrewish Mrs.
Meddleton decidedly a woman of the strong-
minded genus— as portrayed by Mrs. Poynter,
is a bit of home-life that would hardly have
been surpassed in her best days by the late Mrs.
W. Clifford. Lady Howard, quiet, subdued, and lady-
like throughout, is precisely what the character ought
to be, and does honour to the tasteful discrimination in
such matters of Miss Swanborough. And so with the
male-characters one and all—they are acted with a
finished ease that would be the despair of most other
establishments. The Sir Charles Howard of Mr. Howe
is worthy of that old Haymarket favourite—replete as the
part is, in his hands, with gentlemanly feeling, pathos,
and dignity. Never before have we seen Mr. W. Farren
to such advantage as in the garb and situations of Cap-
tain Walter Maydenblush. To those who are acquainted
with this actor merely as he has appeared to them
for the most part hitherto namely, as the stiffest
and tamest of walking gentlemen, made up, for that ,
matter, almost entirely of rouge, boot-leather, and
tailoring—would doubtless be puzzled, if not filled with
genuine amazement, as we here acknow ledge ourselves
to have been, on witnessing the consummate histrionic
ability displayed by our youthful and (as we now regard
him) very promising artiste, Mr. W. Farren, in every
look, and phrase, and movement of his Captain Walter
Maydenblush. His byeplay, his self-possession, his gen-
tlemanly bearing throughout, are all capital. Let him
advance from this point, and his presence upon the me-
tropolitan boards will be regarded by those who have
hitherto only viewed it with indifference as a positive and
notable acquisition. As to Miss Blanche Fane—" Ger-
trude Howard"—The Little Treasure—what shall we
say, or rather what shall we not say, as expressive of
our sincere and unaffected admiration ? Her charming,
innocent, child-like face, her blue eyes, and her golden
hair, and her girlish figure, all are passports to the popu-
lar heart. But the exquisite naturalness of her acting
from first to last is more—it is that " touch of nature "
which, as the Master Dramatist has said, " makes the
whole world kin." It is something delicious, something
delightful, something (we are glad to think) not very
easily to be forgotten. Turning out of the roaring,
muddy, crowded streets of London into the little theatre
in the Haymarket, and witnessing The Little Treasure,
as she is there represented by Miss Blanche Fane—it is
(how shall we put it ?) like gathering a dewy primrose
budding up from the most unexpected place in the
world, say from some odd chink among the miry flagstones
of Cheapside. That we are not at this moment talking at
random, let those pronounce who have already, them-
selves, enjoyed the treat of witnessing the representa-
tion, by the Haymarket company, of this charming two-
act comedy of The Little Treasure—led off by Blanche
Fane as the girl-heroine. By her exquisite portraiture
of the sweet, and beautiful, and maidenly character of
Gertrude she is winning for herself the hearts of the
whole town, as is evidenced night after night by the
earnest and reiterated enthusiasm of her reception.

THE CROPS IN JAMAlCA.—Governor Barkly, in his
speech at the opening of the legislature, says :—" The
heavy rains which-prevailed throughout the greater part
°lithe crop season forbid our anticipating a continuous
increase in the staple exports reported last year ; but I
do not think that when the returns from the outports to
the 10th inst. will come in any serious deficiency will be
shown. It is gratifying to reflect that the recent ad-
vance in the value of sugar, eonjoined with the main-
tenance of high quotations for other descriptions of
tropical produce in the markets of Great Britain and
the United States, will reader the results far more re-
munerative to producers than they have lately continued
to hope for," -