The Sun.
London, England, 1864-08-16 00:00:00

THEATRE ROYAL, ADELPHI.

'Webster's Triplet is, in a single word, a masterpiece.
Throughout his impersonation of Triplet, whenever
he is before the footlights in ' Masks and Faces," he
does whatever he lists with us as part of his audience
—he is absolute master of our tears and of our
laughter, Often and often, during the two
acts, he is master of them (of our tears and of our
laughter) together—simultaneously / So wonder.
fully, indeed, are the pathetic and the ludicrous
mingled together in his performance of Triplet—in
the every tone of his voice, in the every glance of his
eye, in all the quivering nerves of his mobile counte-
nance—that, again and again, we are gazing at hitu—
witheyes—through our tears. hatever
we might laughingvvri W
write thus of Mr. Webster's Triplet could
not by any possibility be couched in words of
extravagance or exaggeration. And this, for the
simple reason, that the character of Triplet as repre-)
sented by Benjamin Webster could not, to our mind
by any possibility be portrayed by anyone with a

nearer approach to perfection—with an art so ex.
quisitely finished of its kind as to bear all the
semblance of the absolute artlessness of Nature. In
which of the principal scenes or situations of the
drama, the genius of the Actor appears the most
conspicuously, we should fiad it difficult indeed in
any way to decide. Whether in the opening scene
of the First Act, where Triplet, with his three
tragedies just returned upon his hands from Mr.

Rich, the manager, renews his forgotten acquaint-
ance with Peg Woffington —or in the banquet-
ting room at Mr. Vane's, where Mabel Vane
touches the poor starving Poet's very heart
with her kindness, plying him the while
with wine and biscuits—or (" last scene of
all" in this same "strange eventful" comedy of
"Masks and Faces"), in the wretched garret where
James Triplet, Poet, Playwright, Painter, Musi-
cian, Man of Arts, and Man of Letters, toils and
starves with his poor invalid wife and his hungry
little children ! Artistically viewed, perhaps
the scene of scenes in the whole drama, is
one last mentioned. Though the others,
the preceding scenes, are not one jot less
admirably, are not one jot less inimitably touched
into reality by the genius of the actor. Hogarth's
immortal picture of " The Poet's Cialrdt" is therein—
particularly in the opening part of the last
wonderful scene in "Masks and Faces"—Hogarth's
picture, is, as it were, now being nightly
realized upon the stage of the Adelphi ! And is
being realized,!oo, as (by the necessity of his dumb
art) the powers of the grtat national painter's
hand perforce failed to realise it I ft is now
virtually being realized, in other words, night
after night, at the Adelphi Theatre—it is being
realized there audibly as well as visibly—
thanks to the marvellous capabilities for realization
appertaining, among all the arts, alone to the his-

trionic art, as defined by Thomas Campbell, where
the Poet of Hope sings :
"Till by the mighty Actor wrought,
Illusions perfect triumphs come,
Verse ceases to be airy thought,
And sculpture--"
(he might also, as in this instance, have said
painting)

--" to ba dumb."
Here, in this last act of" Masks and Faces," now, for
at least every evening during this present week, it is
as if in Hogarth's "Poet's Garret," the affecting
drama of a real human life was being played out
nightly by a Poor Poet. Not (like Hogarth'o a mere
painted semblance of a Poet—but one living, moving,
breathing, toiling, weeping, laughing in our presence
--mastering all our tenderest emotions in turn
while we watch him—surrounded, now by his patien
Wife and prattling children, now by radiant, kindly
Peg Woffington and her entourage of wicked beaux
and cynical critics, Mr Snarl and Colley Cibber,
Ernest Vane, and Sir Charlea Pomander ! To see for
the first time Webster's Triplet, in "Masks and
Faces,"
is—we would here quite confidently assert it
—nothing less than an event in the life of the most
fastidious of playgoers—.and an event, too, that
that most fastidious of playgoers must ever after-
wards bear with delight among the very choicest of
his recollections.
/MOO
Death of Alexander Bogie, Esq.

t will be to many a source of deep regret to learn
hat Glasgow has lost another of her public men in
,he death of Mr. A. Hastie, who for ten years repre-
sentedevent took place on the morning of Saturday last,
the city in Parliament. The melancholy
at 3.30 at Luskar House, near Dunfermline. Mr
Hastie had an attack of cerebral paralysis about
six months ago, from the effects of which he suf-
fered for some time, but he had so far recovered
as to be able partially to resume some of those
duties to which he has more or less devoted him-
self during
Glasgow. Last week he took his place as president
a pretty lengthened connection with
of the Chamber of Commerce and Manufactures, and
appeared to be a good deal recovered, although
still feeble-looking. Shortly before he had this
attack of paralysis,
he purchased the estate of Lus-
kar, near Damtermline, for we understand the sum
of £70,000 or £75,000. Some time was necessary
to prepare it for the residence of himself and family,
and last Thursday he left Glasgow, where, we
believe, he had been residing for the last few
months, to enter upon the possession of it. On that
occasion his health appeared to be considerably bet-
ter, and the announcement of his death only two
days afterwards came upon a few of his friends in
Glasgow somewhat suddenly. Mr Hastie has left
a widow (the daughter of Mr Napier of Shandon)
and twe daughters, girls of 812 E and nine years of
age, to mourn his lose, all of whom had the melan-
choly satisfaction of being with him in his dying
moments, having accompanied him from Glasgow
on Thursday. Mr Hastie was, we believe, in the
59th or 60th year of his age.—Mail.

-- TUE CONFEDERATE CRUISER FLORIDA.--Yester-
day a telegraphic message was received at Lloyd's,
dated Lisbon, Aug. 15, announcing that intelligence had
been received at that port, dated Bahia, July 23, that the
Confederate war steamer Florida, in company with the
steam cruiser Electric Spark, had just captured the Federal
merchant ship Irefican,
Captain Delills, bound from Call-
fermis to New York, having 70,000 dole in specie on board,
and an extremely valuable cargo. The Florida took out
the treasure and pertions of her cargo and her crew. The
vessel and her cargo, valued at £20,000, were then set fire
to and destroyed.

Admiral the Hon. Edward and Mr. Howard
have left Thom4B's Hotel, Berkeley square, for Woolbeding,
S aka,

Webster, as Triplet, in "Masks and Faces,"
All theatre-going Londoners, who may happen
to be still detained in town, are, at any rate in one
respect, in luck's way, for that precise reason—
because they yet happen to be Londoners ! If
they have but the smallest capacity for
appreciating what it is that constitutes the
true genius of acting, they may find, any evening
this week, upon the stage of the Adelphi
Theatre, far more than merely compensation for the
delay of their holidays, whether at the seaside or
upon the continent. In saying this we speak strictly
within the mark, feelingly, and from our own expe.
Hence. Announced for six representations (that is,
for the whole of this present week, beginning with
last evening), "Masks and Faces"—the celebrated
e4medy written conjointly, after the Beaumont and
Fletcher fashion, by Tom Taylor, Playwright, and
Charles Beide, Novelist—is now being nightly
enacted by the Adelphi Company I With Mrs.
Stirling—sparkling, perennial, sterling Mrs. Stir-
ling—as the Peg Woffington I With, alto-
gether, one of the very best casts, there
has ever yet been upon any boards, of
this exquisite Hale two-act drama I Above
all, with Mr. Benjamin Webster as Triplet—that
true Artist's Original Character ! Mr. Webster's

Triplet—we do not hesitate to pronounce (and
this without one single excepf.ion) the very
finest piece of acting that can any where now-a■
days Le witnessed. It is a truly noble and
effecting impersonation. For ourselves, we could
witness it any number of times, night after night,
and with increasing satisfaction. It is more than
simply a creation of consummate art. It has—besides
—thatone ineffable touch perfecting every truly great
work of art, that " one touch of nature," that not
only (as the greatest of poets says) "makes the whole
world kin," but that stamps the true metal of the
artist with the royal " hall mark" of Genius. Mr.