The Sun.
London, England, 1863-08-22 00:00:00

ondon Play-goers in 1863 and 1802-3,

The very long " rune," as they are called (though
they might more properly be termed long still-standings),
tend (according to a Saturday Reviewer) to make the
Londoner forgetful of his theatres altogether. He saw the
" Duke's Motto" last January, and thus consumed the
Lyceum some seven months ago. Soon afterwards a ver-
sion of " Lady Audley's Secret" enabled him to make
short work of the St. James's. Lord Dundreary retired
from the Haymarket, to leave the world in uninterrupted
enjoyment of Finesse. The "Ticket-of-Leave" and the
" Haunted Man" become respectively fixtures at the
Olympic and the Adelphi; and Madlle. Stella Colas
had no sooner established herself at the Princess's than
" Romeo and Juliet" was stereotyped in the bills.
In striking contrast to the foregoing resume of the past sea-
son, the writer thus summarises the season of sixty years
ago at Old Drury and at Covent Garden :—With respect,
then, to the season 1802.3: Drury-lane opened on the 16th
September with Farquhar's "Inconstant," which was fol-
lowed by the " West Indian," the " Brothers," " Cymbe-
line," the " Jew," and the " Rivals"—a series showing that
Cumberland's works were at that time exceedingly popular.
On the 7th October, Stephen Kemble, famed for his obesity,
made his first appearance as Falstaff in " Henry 1V.," and
then came the " Winter's Tale," the " Gamester," the
"Castle Spectre," the "Jealous Wife," "Mary Queen of
Scots (a tragedy by the lion. John St. John), the " Merry
Wives of Windsor, the " Suspicious Husband," " Rule a
Wife and Have a Wife," the "Beggar's Opera," "Deaf
and Dumb," .g Douglas," " Twelfth Night," the " Beaux
Stratagem," " Lovers," ;he " Wonder," the "Busy-Body,"
" Venice Preserved," 6 Every Man in his Humour,"
" Bold Stroke for a Wife," " Trip to Scarborough," the
" Count of Narbonne" (a tragedy by Jephson), and the
" Orphan." None of th;se works were new, but, with such
a varied selection from the mass of , stock plays, no one
one could complain of monotony. However, OR the 29th
of January, a play by 11)1croft, entitled" Hear both Sides,"
was brought out, and it was followed in less than a month
by a tragedy written by Dimond on the subject of Gusta-
vus Vasa, and entitled she " Hero of the North." In the
beginning of March, an actor from America named Cooper
made his debut, and played a few Shakspearian characters ;
and in April came another new comedy, called the " Mar-
riage Promise," of which Allingham was the author. Of
the farces and other afterpieces, and of the benefits, we have
said nothing.

At Covent-garden, which opened on the 13th of Septem-
ber with " Folly as it plies''--a comedy by Reynolds, first
brought out in the preceding year—Cooke was the great
attraction, and went though a series of plays, which com-
prised " Richald " Hamlet," " Merchant of Venice,"
"Every Man in his Rumour," and tho "Man of the
World." These were alternated with others in which he
did not appear, and which comprised " Romeo and Juliet,"
" Henry IV." the "Suspicious Husband," the " Cure for
the Heart Ache," the" Way to Get Married" (a comedy
by Morton), and the "Beaux. Stratagem." All these pieces
were played in the interval between the opening and
the 30th of October, when a new comedy by Reynolds,
called " Delays and lunders," was brought out. Other
novelties were Holcrott's "Tale of Myststy," one of the
earliest and (in its day) most famous of melo-dramas ; the
younger Colman's "John Bull," of which it is recorded as
an event little short tf miraculous that it was played for 48
nights; and a version of Schiller's "Kabal and Liebe,"
entitled the "Harper's Daughter." Our list is by no means
complete, but, without lodking further, surely here was
enough for the inhabitants of a capital to talk about; and
it must be admitted that the doings of the numerous play-
houses of our own day, during a corresponding period of
time, furnish a chronicle meagre indeed as compared with
this moll of two the3tre2.