The Sun.
London, England, 1852-02-16 00:00:00

HAYMARKET T'HEAT'RE.
A new five-act ploy, entitled Woman's Heart, was
produced here on Saturday with no ordinary success.
The audience were tal:en by surprise at being informed.
when the curtain fell on the last scene, that it was the
production of Miss Vandenhoff. A perfectfurors was
the immecliete result, and a tempest o£
at
f autthhaesicaosmt.
greeted the authoress and personator of
vtolsenthdheeenrochiooir
nme,e)dayas
she was led on by her father. Thepilsost
f a
blindis n ota
girl o
complicated pl
unknownet ed one.
parentage, lsoli Isolina
is
a (m_
tage of an old Italian peasant (Mr. Rogers), Whose son
Angiolo (Mr. Barry Sullivan) devotes himself to the art
of sculpture. The old man has protected her from her
childhood, and the youth has become enamoured of her.
Nothing stands in the way of an union between the
lovers, till unluckily the artist's fame reaches the ears
of the Prince (Mr. Howe), who is a great patron of art,
end he is invited from the home cf his childhood to
mingle in the, splendour and the seductions of a Court.
The invitation he gladly accepts, not without fore-
bodings of ill on the putt of Isolina, and, as might
be expected, his heart is completely changed ;
erubition instead of love takes possession of his
soul, and ho feels that au union with Isolina
would be a fearful bar to his exalted prospects. Hence,
when the poor devoted girl visits him in his family re-
sidence, she is coldly received, and finally conducted
Vandenhoff;,
palaceat,
nmd etnhhebo; ol;nrwgbili
belonging
isnt stothfreuAcprkirgobluoydl o's servants. Exhausted
with grief and fatigue she falls senseless on the steps of
hMerarrqeusiesmAbilanbrciezzito(Mhirs.
deceased wits, and who, on conversing with the old pea-
sent, discovers her to be his own daughter, lost in in-
fancy at a period of civil discord. Two years elapse.
Isolina has been restored to sight, and is now the ac-
knowledged heiress of the Marquis; while Angiolo, con-
trite, and wishing to repair his fault, has anxiously but
vainly attemptly to find her. Of her early history
Albrizzi has inquired nothing, but tho emotions she
betrays when required to sit for her picture show that
some secret resides in her heart, and he
gradually learns the relation that has existed be-
tween herself and the sculptor. Hence, when
Angiolo is sent by the Prince, now a suitor for Isolina's
hand, to take her portrait (for he is a painter as well as
a sculptor), ho is required by her father not to utter a
syllable in her presence. Iselin', it will be remembered,
Was blind during the whole time of her acquaintance
with Angiolo, and hence the silence of the artist will, in
the belief of Albrizzi, surely prevent recognition. How-
ever, when Isolina enters, a sort of instinct, or rather
perhaps, an abnormal acuteness in those organs of sense
which do not pertain to vision, causes her to feel strange
emotions at the sight of the artist, and she cannot help
fancying that Angiolo would have looked just like him.
The painter preserves silence till an officer enters to
arrest him on the charge of having painted a seditious
picture, when his exclamation, "'Ls false!" reveals the
secret to the sensitive Isolina. This scene, which closes
the third act, is the great point of the play. The accu-
sation has been brought about by the machinations of
Count Zellamino (Mr. Stuart), a dissolute noble, who,
jealous of the predilection which a coquettish lady named
Giulia (Miss A. Vining) has shown for the artist
has prevailed upon ono of his pupils to imitate his
style and forgo his name, while painting the seditious
picture, which has afterwards been hung up in the mar-
ket-place. Augiolo is imprisoned, but Isolina obtains
money sufficient for his ransom, and sends it by Giulia,
iwnh
herom si
nhe
te
ry
ie w wrongly
with supposes
tphpeo ses afaithful
artist,
mak makes
friend,
s him
b and e
li wh
o
in
believe
ththat
t
she is principal, not agent, in the transaction. How-
ever, the former love for Isolina has revived in the
bosom of Angiolo, and though, to express his grati-
tude, be throws himself at the feet of Giulia, he rejects
together the love and the liberty she proffers. Isolina,
on her side, though she has caught a glimpse of the
genuflexion from a loophole in the prison, and though
she supposes that her own offer is rejected, shows
herself unshaken in constancy by her firm refusal of
the Prince's hand; and when the sculptor, who has
been released on proof of his innocence, reappears, the
two lovers are rewarded for their fidelity, the
pride of the Marquis being overcome by paternal affec-
tion and the generous representations of the Prince.
A poetical conception is apparent throughout; and, if
the bold and vigorous touches which genius alone can
give are wanting in this dramatic picture, there is, at
least, sufficient sentiment, lofty enthusiasm, and warm
sympathy with the pure and beautiful, simply and grace-
fully expressed, to render it universally interesting.
There as great beauty in the language of this play,
which demonstrates the authoress to possess sensitive-
ness and imagination in a high degree. The fault of
Woman's Heart,' as it now stands, is undue expansion
by means of poetic speeches and sublimated disquisitions.
which, however pleasing in the closet, tend to produce
weariness when enunciated from the stage. We are
firmly of opinion that the day of five-act pieces is gone
by, and that no matter how copious and various the in-
cidents may be, how sustained the interest, and how
well diseriniinated and prominent the characters, three
acts are full, sufficient to do full justice to the plot and
the parts, and quite as much as au English audience of
the present period can digest satisfactorily. Had Miss
Vandenhoff's comedy been reduced within tboae limits,
it would have proved far more effective, and, consider-
ing the simplicity of its plot, it would not be
difficult to reduce it forthwith within eligible compass.
It ought to be condensed and expurgated to hold pos-
session of the stage. There is too much " talk,"
graceful, eloquent, as the language is throughout. As
regards the acting, the personation of the heroine, by
the accomplished young cuthoress, was replete eith
grace and sweetness; tied she delivered her own smooth
and neatly-turned sentences with cherming tact and de-
licacy. Her ecting in the first and second acts, when
!showing under the infirmity of blindness, wlis charac-
terised by a repose the tranquillity of which was emi-
nently touching; for it implied a pious and resigned feel-
ing, even in the midst of doubt, anxiety, and affliction. In
the latter scenes, when tho more tragic sentiment of
the play is brought into activity, she was scarcely so
suce2ssfu!, though the maiden purity of a gentle nature
shruee through al/, and created a personal interest which
remained undisturbed to the end. The situation to which
we have alluded, that in the third act, in which while
sitting for her portrait she is agitated by now-born
hopes, and is enveloped in the memories of the past,
could not have been delineated with greater
finesse, nor its points both histrionic and senti-
mental brought more vividly out. Mr. Barry Sullivan
declaimed the speeches belonging to the Angiolo with
secondv assumptionith especial
care and discretion, those relating to the triumpa and
prospects of
vehemence
this gentleman, it may be remarked, gave signs of a
nndthee emphasis.
In eingthdiseliered with
management under which he serves. He is painstaking
violent general ability which cannot fail to be useful to the
or laborious,
is wanted. Mr.
Vandenhoff sustained the small and
Rives prominence where prominence
uninviting
and intelligent; and without being

of_ the marquis, chitfly, it may be presumed, on his
daughter's account, for such concessions on the part of
actors of his reputation aro anything but common. Mr.
Howe was the prince, and Mr. Sruart , Mr. Parselle, Mr.
Rogers, and Miss Amelia Vining wore his coadjutors in
taflorreat"i ythrielle-
the remaining branches of the dramatis persona. The
it
tereenq paiurtez.pnn the stage
ae
tCelmaenyalteewdah,i dicsh
wellt hh
received; eiv e d ; and
welcomed with reiterated cheers from all
times is each successive week" by Mr. Vandenhoff,
was
parts of the
house.