The Sun.
London, England, 1862-07-11 00:00:00

PRINCESS'S THEATRE.

REVIVAL OF " HENRY THE EIGHTH."

There are not a few people who maintain that
the modern sensation drama, which made its ap-
pearance in this country some 40 years ago, and
which has so recently and general,y been surfeiting
our visions, if not outraging our tastes, reached its
climax at the Princess's Theatre at the hands of
Mr. Kean. In that great system of "revivals"
which made his management so famous, and
which selected Shakespeare as their subject,
on the ground of giving the greatest dra-
matic productions the greatest amount of illustra-
tion, they detect the sensuous principle carried
out to its extreme audacity, in its most unscrupu-
lous subjection of the highest mind to the merest
show. Mr. Kean, according to their view, was
the most intense dramatic materialist, who, believ-
ing in form instead of spirit, erected means into
the place of ends, and enthroned , the
senses in that of the soul. He was a
sort of theatrical " Julian," who carried
the public back from the true faith,
the ennobling worship of the ideal—to the
old and worn-out paganism of spectacle and move-
ment. There is some excess in this opinion, but there
is also some little truth in it. In such revivals as
" The Tempest," the " Midsummer Night's Dream,"
and more especially "The Winter's Tale," we cer
tainly think that Mr. Kean was justly obnoxious to
these charges. IN hen under the plea of illustrating
the Poet, the latter was most unscrupulously muti-
lated—whole scenes being cut out in order to intro-
duse " effects"—such as the astronomical phe-
nomena, thrust into the " Winter's Tale," which it
would be as difficult to find in the play, as in the
entire history of the drama, down to the date of
their production, but one conclusion can be come to
—that the entire aim of such a revival war, in the
strictest sense, sensational. A great offence was
committed, in order to create a great excitement.
Shakespeare—who, of all writers, if only faithfully
interpreted, tends to purify the taste by his higher
impulse of the sympathies—was actually converted
into a stimulant of the verycraving he would restrain.
He was made the vehicle for promoting a state of
mind he is the most opposed to. Thus the double
offence was committed not only of pandering to the
lowest taste in mere spectacular display, but of
degrading to that purpose the highest and purest
instrumentality. On the other hand it is just as
true, that in his King John, his King Lear, and,
with some small exceptions, his Merchant of
Venice, Mr. Kean was entitled to the praise of
faithfully interpreting the poet, and rendering
him the entire homage which, in other instances,
had been denied. Here, true to his professed ob-
ject of simply illustrating the text, he was as honest
as he was reverent—subjecting means to ends—
placing the humanity in the foreground and its ac-
cessories in the back. Among the plays belonging
to this category we must include " Henry the
Eighth," with the one exception, however, of the
embodiment of Katherine's dream, which, however
beautiful, must be regarded as a mere sensation
incident. There can be little doubt that this is a
play well entitled to this homage. With the sole
exception of "King John," it is the most dramatic
of the historical plays, whilst it has the characteristic
of being also the most impressive and affecting.
Where else has Shakespeare so painted the great
moral of authority, the cares and dangers of domi-
nion, the gilded miseries of courts, the coroding
jealousies of rank, the fatal penalties of ambition ?
Sorrow and trial are here depicted as almost the
heritage of kings and nobles. The higher the rank
the sharper the pang, in the greater depth of its
deceptions. If its royalty has not, the cruelty or
craftiness of John's, scarcely less instructive is the
picture of its arrogant and unbridled selfishness
which consecrates sensuality by an abuse of the
holiest rites. Scarcely less affecting than the story
of either Margaret or Constance is that of the noble
Katherine, who, in the possession of all virtues, is
thrust away, in open shame, to die meekly of a
broken heart ; and descending lower, what is there
to parallel the courtier fate of Wolsey. So high,
aspiring, and so crushed—who points the moral of
all ambition in those memorable parting
words, which compose alike for priest
and layman the grandest warning upon record,
save by minds that were inspired. We think, there-
fore that Mr. Harris was well warranted in reliev-
ing the usual flow of Mr. Kean's performances,
which have been till now of the romantic drama,
by this Shakesperian revival, seeing that whilst it
contains so much that must attract our London
sight-seers, it presents also so much in substance as
well as exposition that must commend it to all
playgoers. As the revival is a fac simile of its
production by Mr. Kean some seven or eight years
ago, we can have no occasion to dilate on the truth
or beauty of its details, but may content ourselves
with saying that they present every attraction
which was felt on their first presentment—from the
striking reality of the trial and banquet scenes
to the picturesqueness of the descending angels.
It is only necessary to say that the play, for the
convenience of our country cousins, is made to con-
clude at the fourth act. We turn therefore to the
acting, which we can praise without reserve. Mr.
Kean's Wolsey is a much superior effort to its first
presentment. It had then a physical vigour
and a restlessness which were as much at variance
with its historical as they were opposed to its poetic
truth. It wanted relief and it wanted earnestness.
All these defects have disappeared, It is now
a very deep and a very genuine performance,
which impresses as much by its dignity as it moves
by its pathos. It is a conception which marks with
singular skill the expiring struggle in the states-
man's breast, in which ambition and compunction
strive to the last moment for mastery, and
does not fail by many natural touches to
excite the sympathies of the spectator, whilst in
its broad outline it presents much to act on the
imagination. Mrs. Kean's Katherine is also a per-
formance of the greatest merit. It is one of those
assumptions into which she has gradually ma-
tured with such perfection that we should vainly
seek for any rival to it, whether in perception or
in bearing. All the heroic spirit of the princess,
which the poet has so wonderfully mingled
with the loving soul of the woman, Mrs.
Kean presents in all their' vividness and with
a naturalness which evidences her rare amount of
art. The Buckingham of Mr. Jordan was also
very commendable, the great speech to the
people being very feelingly delivered. The house,
we need not say, was crowded to the roof by this
revival, and the applause was loud throughout, Mr.
and Mrs. Kean receiving their usual and well de-
served demonstrations.

THE JAMAICA COTTON.—The cotton now being
spun by Messrs. Dobson and Barlow, in the Western Annex,
International Exhibition, was grown by the Jamaica Cotton
Company, at Manchioneal, Jamaica. The seed of some of
it was planted in th© fall of last year, and picked from the
trees in April and May of this year. The finest kind is from
the green seed, common in the island ; the other from
Egyptian seed, sent from this country. One has been valued
at Liverpool, on the 4th inst., by Messrs. Stead Brothers,
at 2s. 3d. to 2s. 6d. per lb., and the other at ls. 6d. per lb.
The trees from which it is picked will, as they progress,
give more and stronger cotton. They are perennial, and
after the first planting will be attended with much less ex-
pense for cultivation than at first. Trees are now in bear-
ing in the island which were planted 40 years ago. The
cost of labour is at the least from 30 to 50 per cent. less
than that of slave labour in Cuba, New Or.eans, or Porto
Rico ; and though there may, in a few districts of Jamaica,
be a scarcity of labourers fit for the hard work of the cane
field, in many parts of the island the women and children,
who are well suited for cotton picking, have literally no-
thing to do, and consider the employment furnished by the
company quite a providence. It being so, and millions of
acres of the finest cotton land lying waste in Jamaica whilst
our manufacturers are in a state of most distressing desti-
tution for want of cotton, there seems no reason why a
vigorous and united effort should not now be made to supply
the need of our manufacturers from our own colonies, and
thus to assist the West Indian landed proprietors, by giving
a value to their land, as well as the emancipated peasantry,
by affording a demand for their labour.

The Archaeological Institute of Great Britain
and Ireland hold their annual meeting this year at Wor-
cester, commencing, on Tuesday, the 22d inst. The details
of the programme are not yet &fined, but it is under-
stood they will embrace visits to the various archaeological
remains in the neighbourhood, with meetings, a temporary
museum, and other means of furthering the objects of the
society,