The Sun.
London, England, 1852-05-18 00:00:00

ADELPHI THEATRE.

Mr. Mark Lemon has contributed a piece to the reper-
toire of this establishment Which bids fair to rival in
longevity the moat popular of those celebrated produc-
tions which never appear to lose their charm over an
Adelphi audience. This interesting drama, produced
last evening, bears the title of Sea and Land, and the
plot rues thu- —The inhabitants of a village on the
English coast (time, the close of the last century) are
all smugglers, or friends of smugglers, in connexion
with a merchant named Crouch, the " bad man" of the
story. This Crouch is enabled to do a world of michiet
in all directions. Having failed in-a venture through
the untimely interference of the Government c ffieers, he
contrives to fix the failure upon Ned Bradley, a smuggler
just about to quit his profession, so that poor Ned is
not only imprisoned as a contrabandist, but runs
great ri,k of being torn to pieces by his
tellow-contrabandists as a traitor to their cause.
Then he manages to learn of a aceffla which occurred
some ten 3 ears back between Sir Thomas Burton,
the great gentleman of the place, and his own game-
keeper, and terminated in the death of the latter. The
scuffle loses nothing in the hands of Mr. Crouch, for
though the gamekeeper was killed by the accidental dis-
charge of his fowling-piece, the ingenious merchant
twists the story into a case of murder, which be is able
to employ in terrorem against Sir Thomas, thus making
the worthy Baronet look very ill and careworn, and
almost obtaining the hand of his daughter, Miss Burton,
notwithstanding that young lady has bestowed her
affections on a well-looking young gentleman named
Major Brownlee/. However, with all bis faults, Mr.
Crouch has one being in the world to love him. He
employs as a sort of spy a ragged girl, called Wild Meg,
whom in the largeness of his munificence he rewards
with an occasional shilling or sixpence, at last extending
his bounty to a donation of some tawdry clothes.
Nleg, who is only knocked about at home by her father,
Shambling Will, and has never met with aught but rough
usage from her companions, regards with posittve ado-
retion the ono creature who has given her a kind word.
When she hears that Crouch is likely to marry Miss
Burton she flies into an agony of jealousy, and frustrates
his plan by giving a faithful account of the gamekeeper's
death, which she witnessed in her childhood, and when
at last he is led off to justice to receive the reward of his
misdeeds she falls dead upon the stage. Mrs. Keeley's
performance of Wild Meg was stamped with ex-
traordinary talent. The part is not what may
be termed a gracious one. It is the delinea-
tion of a semi-savage, being ragged, halfwitted,
yet with fleshes of natural feeling occasionally illuming
the gloom, but it gives Mrs. Keeley occasion for a thril-
ling display of artistic skill. Mr. Emery acted the
young smuggler, Ned Bradley, with admirable propriety,
and Mr. Hughes and 0. Smith, as Sir Thomas Burton
and Crouch were, what they always are, excellent. Mr.
Worrell and Mr. C. Smith satisfactorily sustained the
characters of Major Browelow and Shambling Will.
The comic element consists of a group, formed of
Mr. Wright, a retired ccckney, who indulges in a yacht,
and engages Paul Bedford and Mr. Cullenford, two
Greenwich pensioners, whom be designates his cook and
housekeeper. How Mr. Wright enacts a cockney who
goes to sea, how he translates the nautical terms, how
he ultimately becomes very ill, and is at last seen only in
a rear view, with bis legs up in the air, and his poor
head over the side of the heaving vessel, he himself
being in an equally heaving state, must be seer to be en-
joyed. It keeps the house in a perpetual roar for a long
scene, and he never makes his appearance after but the
laugh is renewed. Mr. Bedford, as a boatswain, also
obtains his share of the approbation, and this part of
the drama was singularly felicitous. Miss Kathleen
Fitawilliam sang with great applause a pretty ballad
composed by Mr. Mellon. "A thunder of applause,"
says the Times' critic, " and an universal shout for the
author marked the conclusion of a piece which promises
to rival Green Bushes in popularity. Wild Meg, as
played by Mrs. Keeley, is just one of those creations
which are likely to become a town-talk." The house
was crowded.