The Sun.
London, England, 1852-04-13 00:00:00

STRAND THEATRE.

A new piece, by Mr. C:PZeade---, ciescribed as " an
illustration of our country homes," and bearing the
title of a Village 7 ale, was the opening performance
here last evening. The Village Tale is in three acts,
and the scene laid in Berkshire. The incidents all
occur in the house of Farmer Hathorn (Mr. W. Att-
wood). In the reaping season, Corporal Patrick (Mr.
E. Stirling) and his daughter Rach-ell (Miss Alaskell)
are employed by the farmer
to assist in getting in the
harvest. When the reaping is all over, and the cor-
poral and his daughter are about to quit the farm, the
latter suddenly encounters Richard Hickman (Mr.
Moreland), a young farmer of somewhat idle and
roving habits, and between the two there appearsto be some mysterious connexion, of which all
that is learnt at first is, that Rachel had some
four years before become the mother of a child,
of which Hickman was the father. In the mean-
time the farmer's son, Robert Hathorn (Mr. J.
Rogers), becomes enamoured of Rachel, whose conduct
while reaping had pointed her out as a person supe-
rior to her occupation, and makes several overtures
to her, which she treats very slightingly. This at-
tachment is viewed with great dislike by the farmer,
but his wife, won by Rachel's behaviour (Mrs. Charles
Selby), is not so averse to it. In the development of
the plot appear two other characters, Mrs. Rose
Mayfield, a widow (Mrs. W. R. Copeland), and
Mr. A. Priori (Mr. Moore), a retired tradesman. The
former of these is a sort of village flirt, being alter-
nately
flaggedi()aslgn)gseedoa
mounpczii courtedetanrc;,
and for his son, by Farmer Hathorn. . Hickman
appears to have the best chance of winning her,
but she at length begins to look upon him with
distrust, and he, to spite Rachel for a supposed
disclosure to the widow of his real character, hastens
the denouement by asprsions on the latter. Such
being the relative positions of the several parties, the
corporal and his daughter are taunted by the farmer,
in order to break off the attachment of his son, with
1 a reference to Rachel's past history and implied mis-
swehiweeni,the corporal admits the birth of a
child, but defends his daughter's character by stating
that Hickman had married her, that she subsequently
discovered that he bad a wife living at the time, and
that in order to save him from the consequences, she
bad consented to conceal the fact. 'l'he widow
now generously renounces her pretensions ;
to Robert Hathorn, who had all along clung to the
notion of Rachel's innocence, and becomes a mediator
fur him to his father; Rachel rejects an offer of
marriage from Hickman, now a widower, and, to re-
move the lingering repugnance of old Hathorn, in
the very nick of time the maligned and virtuous suf-
ferer is discovered to be the owner under the will of
self-denying
f-ad
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3,drpselaueccncet,ledcieve Mayfieldoettphddt Cleopatra,
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biyo:tyl,:uif:
lea,tiairs:dmaebo:,:uaotililhcirieettcssiitgus:psiensd,i occupied
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t entitled La Vivandiere, and finally, by The
all of which met with a cordial re-
ception.