The Sun.
London, England, 1852-06-03 00:00:00

ST. JANES'S THEATRE.

•Last night the series of German plays commenced
with the Egnwnt of GO dhe. The plot of this tra-
gedy may be thus briefly sketched. The Netherlands,
oppressed under the yoke of the bigoted Philip 11. ot
Spain, are ripe for eevolt. In some of the provinces
outbreaks have already taken place, and monasteries
and churches have been pillaged by the free-thinkers.
Philip resolves to put down all attempts at rebellion,
and maintain the Catholic faith with a hand of iron,
and appoints the cruel and bloodthirsty Duke of Alba
regent of Flanders, in the stead of Margaret of
Parma. Count Egmont, the idol of the people, is
suspected by Alba of secretly plotting against the
king, in concert with the Prince of Orange. With
machiavellian dissimulation he entices Egmont to the
palace, arrests him, and, in despite of Egmont's ap-
peal to be judged by his compeers as a knight of the
Golden Fleece, he is condemned by Alba, and exec
cuted. The Prince of Orange, who had in vain im-
plored his friend Egmont to fly from Brussels, escapes.
In the selection of so historical a personage as Eg-
mont for his hero, it is to be regretted that Gdathe
has not adhered more strictly to historical veracity.
Egmont is presented to us as a young unmarried
man, with unlimited enjoyment of the pleasures of life,
boundless self-reliance, a gift of drawing all men to
himself, even the son of his implacable enemy Alba.
His courage borders upon daring; he knows no dan-
ger, turns a deaf ear to the warnings of his friend,
and manfully advocates the cause of the people even
in Alba's presence. His personal courage is the
foundation upon which the whole character of Ega
moist rests. The design of Egmont is to show that
the most firmly established institutions cannot main-
tain themselves against a powerful and shrewdly cal-
culating despotism. The love of Egmont for Cliirchen
is entirely distinct from the plot of the drama. It is
a domestic tragedy in itself, subservient to the deve-
lopment of Egmont's character. C ii-chen, a lovely child
of nature, the daughter of an artizan, lives with her
aged mother. She is seer, courted, and won by
Egmont. Ciiirchen is one of those wonderful deli-
neations of character of which Gtiethe was so great a
master, and may take place by the side of Mignon,
his masterpiece. This gentle girl has one sole passion
—her love for her seducer. This love is so pure—
though so guilty—so beautiful in its devotion, so fond
in its expression—that to say one harsh word to the
fair girl in whose breast it dwells would need a heart
of stone ; hence the character or Brsckenburg—an
honest, bluff soldier, betrothed to her before Egmont
crossed her path, and who, though his heart is break-
ing, remains true to her to the last, and hovers near
her as a brother. On hearing of Egmont's arrest and
sentence, Ciiirchen loses her reason in vain attempts
to excite the people to deliver him, and poisons her-
self in despair. Egmont beholds her vision in a
dream, and the curtain falls on the appearance of the
soldiers who are to lead him to execution. Egmont
was first represented at Weimar (then the Athens of
Germany), in 1796; the original part of asinont
was taken by 'fluid, the most celebrated actor of
the day. Schiller helpsd Gti,the to pus it on
the stage. Last night the part was tsk:ra by Emile
Devrient, an actor who fully maintained the high re-
putation he enjoys in his own country. He personi-
fied admirably the noble bearing of Egmont, and in-
terpreted the true meaning of the author with a clas-
sical correctness and true delivery which elicited en-
thusiastic applause. His voice is manly and clear.
At the end ot the fourth act, when Alba demands his
sword, his simple exclamation of the name of his
friend embodied the whole story of warnings given
and rejected. Frau Stolte's personification of Citirchen
was in many respects an admirable piece of acting,
especially in the scene where, with childish joy, she
admires her lover, who, to please a whim of hers,
appears dressed as a Spanish grandee, in her humble
chamber—a scene which Sir Walter Scott has been
accused of borrowing in " Kenilworth," with what
justice we do not pretend to say. The corps is an
efficient one. Vansen (flerr Birnstill), a roué clerk
who urges the people to revolt, was well got up.
On the whole, the performance was most
successful, and the series of German dramas
promises to be one ot the greatest attrac-
tions of the season. The Queen and Prince
Albert, the Duchess of Kant, and a very large
number of the aristocracy, honoured the performance
with their presence, and the house was full to over-
flowing. Before the drama a prologue, expressly
written for the occasion by Dr. Kuenzsl, was deli-
vered by one of the corps, dressed as the Germanic
Muse, in a flowing robe of white and a wreath of oak
leaves in her hair. The prologue alludes to the
bonds of consanguinity by which England is allied to
Germany, a passing compliment to the " Bard of
Avon," and the influence of his works on the drama-
tic literature of Germany. The Muse then placed
the crown upon a bust of Shakspere. A compliment
is paid to the happy state of England in the midst of
European convulsions, and to Prince Albert, as the
originator of the Great Exhibition, es a step towards
the unity of nations. After the prologue the Na-
tional Anthem was played, the whole house rising.
The wise en scene was good—the music well adapted.

MR. ALBERT SMITH'S MONT BLANC.
Last night was the hundredth representation of this
Pntertainrnent at the Egyptian Hall, and Mr. Albert
Smith gracefully signalised the occasion by presenting
every lady present with a bouquet. The crowds of bold
adventurers who nightly stroll through the Alps—
encounter funny travelling countrymen and country •
women, aLd who finally and in the most dauntless
manner follow the lecturer up across the crevices,
past the Grand Mules, and to the very tip-top of the
monarch of mountains—continue unabated in eager-
ness or numbers ; and as Mr. Albert Smith has sig-
nalised his first hundredth night by a biuquet, his
second similar epoch will come handily in among the
peaches. If Even the " nights" go rolling on as un-
brokenly as the Arabian ones, we still trust in Mr.
Smith's inventive faculties to find out new modes of
celebrating his Hegirsv.