The Sun.
London, England, 1854-10-03 00:00:00

t. 40-1 TT rr 1"' t r "r 1
Trig ST47N, LONDON, TUESDAY EVE.NING, OCTOBER L Itls 4.

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DRUBTLANE THEATRE.

The enterprising and indefatigable lessee, Mr. E. T.
Smith, has again afforded the play-going public another
opportunity of witnessing the performance of Mr.
Brooke, in some of his principal parts, previous to his
leaving England for Australia. It behoves every lover
of acting to embrace the opportunity afforded him,
for without doubt he is as fine an actor as ever trod the
boards of old Drury. That Mr. Brooke is a great actor
no one can deny ; neither can it be controverted that
he is one of theslast, if not the very last, who represents
the poetic school of acting. Mr. Brooke has arrived at
the utmost nicety of his art, he produces his most
powerful effects by the utmost simplicity of style. He
is easy and natural in the different phases of the part ;
he also throws the light and shadow of the character of
Virginius into full relief. The happy host, the cheer-
ful, manly citizen, comes in fine contrast to the
father, so greatly injured and outraged as to
kill the being he adores, to save her from a fate too
dreadful to contemplate. The self-devotion of the
avenging justice carry the character off the common
stage of life into the region of pure passion, and the
actor rises with it ; the passions are poetry, and all
poetry has wings and soars " aloft incumbent on the
dusky air" above the prosaic earth. This it is that tests
the power of greatness, and herein Mr. Brooke excels.
The unsophistical heart feels it, the highest cultivated
minds acknowledge this just idealisation. Nothing
could equal the energy and force with which Mr. Brooke
delivered the following lines :

"---- Play not with me I
Provoke me not, ! Equivocate, and lo !
Thou sportest with fire !" 4S:,c.
The effect was tremendous. Then again, what in the
present day can we compare with the beauty, tender-
ness, and pathos of the following passage in the last

" Virginia !
Is it a ♦oice, or nothing, answers me ?
I hear a sound so fine, there's nothing lives
'Twixt it and silence."—
" Alas ! she is NOT here !"

- -
Were we to go on picking out passages we fear we
should extract the whole part ; we, therefore, say, in
conclusion, that the conception of the part was the
finest we have ever seen ; we say this with the full
recollection of all the actors who have played the part.
The play was acted fairly throughout. Miss Cath-
cart played Virginia very prettily ; Mrs. Belton did
ample justice to the small part of Servia ; and Appius
Claudius met with an efficient representative in Mr.
George Bennett. The house was filled in every part,
and at the rising of the curtain not a seat was vacant.
The interior of the theatre was very tastefully fitted up
with the flags of England, France, and Turkey. Pre-
viously to the tragedy, the National Anthem and the
" Marseillaise" were successively played, and encored
with enthusiasm, the audience all standing during the
execution of each national air. The words, " The foe !
the foe !—come on, charge on him !—drive him back, or
die !"—by Mr; Brooke as Virginias, produced another
tremendous anti-Russian demonstration.