The Sun.
London, England, 1836-11-05 00:00:00

...•-11C.....11.

D RURY-LANE THEATR

, The tragedy of King Lear—a play that shoulailiel,r4ls. f
not acted, as Charles Lamb observes in the beii
his criticisms—is that one in which Shakespeare sh ows hick-
self most in earnest. In this unequalled drama, the sole
interest of which is sustained by one character, aid that _
one " a foolish, fond, old man, four score and upwards,"
the author never once flags, never once grows weary of his
task—as Shakespeare was apt at times to do—but tasks
his gigantie powers throughout to the utmost, handling
the most difficult, and in other hands the most imprsee-
ticable subject in the world, with a force, a naturalness;
a directness of purpose, and uniform intensity of feeling
to which it were vain to seek a parallel. When it is borne
in mind that throughout the character of Lear the author
is dealing with no heroic passion, or such as from its nature
must command the ready sympathies of the readers, as
in Othello or Macbeth, or "fimon, but with dotage in its
most hopeless form ; with all, in short, which in another
author we should be inclined to look upon with a pity closely
bordering upon contempt, not to say disgust, some faint
idea may be formed of the herculean difficulties which
our great dramatist, in the full consciousness of suc-
cess, has surmounted. Nevertheless unrivalled as is his
execution of Lear ; exhaustless as are the stores of
thought, of imagination, of sensibility, that he has la,
yished upon it ; and direct and resistless as is the ap-
peal that he has made throughout it, to our common feel-
ings, the tragedy is one that can never inspire a profound
interest in the representation. The still seclusion of the
closet can alone do it justice. Such being our notion of
the play, such our firm conviction of its unfitness for the
stage, it was not without regret that we learned that
Mr. Forrest had resolved on enacting the chief character.
Our regrets, however, were superfluous, so far as this gen-
tleman is concerned, far all that could possibly be done for
Lear be did, and in the most superlative style of excel-
lence. His transitions from dotage to downright insanity
were marked by the subtlest and most delicate grada-
tions. Nothing was forced—nothing exaggerated. There
was no clap-trap—no hunting for applause by a violation
of propriety. Mr. Forrest trusted to his own impulses,
modified by a sound judgment, and they- never once led him
astray. His performance was net so much electrical in
parts, as impressive on the whole. It showed all the care-
ful study of a Kemble, but developed a power of pathos
which that great artist (from all we have heard or read of
him) could never attain. The delivery of the curse—
" -- Hear, Nature, hear ;
Dear goddess, hear ! Suspend thy purpose, if
Thou didst intend to make this creature fruitful !
Into her womb convey sterility !
Dry up in her the organs of increase ;
And from her derogate body never spring
A babe to honour her I If she must teem,
Create her child of spleen, that it may live,
And be a thwart disnatur'd torment to her !
Let it stamp wrinkles in her brow of youth !
With cadent tears fret channels in her cheeks ;
Turn all her mother's pains and benefits
To laughter and contempt; that she may feel
Flow sharper than a serpent's tooth it is
To have a thankless child I—Away, away !"
vas, we say it unhesitatingly, the most thrilling piece of
acting we ever witnessed. There was a deep-toned solem-
nity, a harrowing earnestness in this invocation, which ab-
solutely spell-bound the audience ; for an instant, there was
a hush so deep that you might almost have heard a pin
drop ; and then a tremendous burst of applause that had
not ceased even when the curtain drew up for the second
act. In the scene where Lear stands, unhoused in the
storm, and makes those sublime allusions to the elements,
identifying himself with them, we thought Mr. Forrest
somewhat too cold and measured in his delivery. The
high imagination of the passage did not sufficiently kindle
and elevate him. His judgment overlaid his sensibility.
There was also too much display of physical debility—
too constant a shaking of the head ; which, here at least,
we could have dispensed with ; for here the mind of Lear
is stretched to the highest point of tension, his nerves are
braced, his griefs have taken refuge for time moment in the
conjurings up of the imagination ; and in such a rapt state,
corporeal infirmities would to a great extent be subdued
and down-trodden. The vigour of the mind would bend,
and mould everything to its mighty will. In his return,
however, to more familiar humanity, when the recollection
of the old, heart-broken father thrust out from home, when
even a " dog" would be placed in shelter, stirred again within
the heart of Lear, nothing could be more earnest or touch-
ing than Mr. Forrest's acting. His delivery, however, of
the line—" Not earth, fire, air, nor water are my daugh-
ters," was erroneous. He laid no emphasis on the word
" my," whereas it is on this that the whole force of the line
depends. His " Aye, every inch a king," showed, as much
as anything in the play, his consummate judgment. In giv-
ing this passage, Kean used to produce an effect solely by
his melo-dramatic tact. He used to start up to his full
height, throwing off, at once, all the burden of four-score
years ; whereas Mr. Forrest's energy was strictly propor-
tionate to his age. He was dignified, w;thin the limits
of propriety. His death was painful—almost too much
so—though still full of the right sensibility. His meet-
ing with Cordelia, too, where he meekly bows his
head, and is going to fall on his knees—how irresisti-
bly touching was this silent grief!—but above all, his
falling back dead in the arms of his supporters, heav-
ing up the last deep sigh of a broken heart—these points
in his performance were such as never were, and never will
be, surpassed. But it is indeed in his pathos that Mr..
Forrest is most successful. He has fancy—uncommon and
unerring judgment—energy equal to any of his predecessors
—but it is for his tenderness, his manly unaffected tenderness,
that he is most indebted for his success. The audience
were not slow to perceive this. and accordingly, in many
places where they would have burst out into tumultuous
acclamations, they resisted the disposition, solely because they
were unwilling to lose any of those numerous touches of
pathos in which Lear abounds. Even in the best days of
Kean, we never saw a tragedy produce a greater effect, or
more profoundly move an audience, than did this, last night.
At its close Mr. Forrest was called for, amid waving of hats
in the pit and handkerchiefs in the bores, and a tumult of
applause that continued long after he had retired. Mr. Cooper
played Edgar with singular good taste : be had many
temptations to rant, but he wisely avoided them. Warde
made an exemplary Edmund—a sort of lago in his way—
and Miss Taylor showed more feeling than we had expected
in Cordelia. This is one of Shakspeare's most carefully
finished female characters, and moves about, like an angel of
light, amid the thick gloom that every where overhangs the
tragedy. A word to Mr. Forrest, and we have done. We
trust he will take an early opportunity of Peking his appear-
ance in Brutus. He need dread no failure now. He has proved
that he can play Shakspeare—and that in a ,style incompar-
ably superior to any living actor—and much indeed shall we
be surprised if he do not give us a Coriolanus, aye, and a
Hamlet too, equal in their way to his Othello and his
Lear. We would advise him also before he quits England,
to try an Edinburgh audience, for there his correct judg-
ment and manly feeling will be sure to carry all before them.

We have experienced more than ordinary gratifica-
tion in the official announcement of the cornl2letion of the sur-
veys for the London, Exeter, and Falmouth Railway, and
we look forward to the accomplishment of the work with
more than ordinary anxiety. It is the charaett-sristie of
the present era, that the attention of our capitalizts has
been directed to the internal improvement of the country, in
preference to mere foreign adventures ; and we consider the
perfection of the new system of inter-communication as
a project which peculiarly demands the encouragement of
the Government, and the consideration of the Legislature.
The public owe a debt of gratitude to the promoters of
The Great Western Railway " for the steadiness and
perseverance which marked the progress of their labours ;
but the recognition of the principle for which that
Company contended, must be carried out upon a more
enlarged scale than its Managers may feel disposed to concede.
The south-western counties of the kingdom, must have the same
advantages that have been conferred upon the north-western
district ; the traffic of the country ought not to be diverted
to unnatural and foreign channels ; consequently, the ge-
neral interests of the empire demand, that the coasting
lines of communication should have the same facilities
afforded to them that have been conferred upon other
portions of the country. The North of Devon and Corn-
wall have hitherto been an isolated district—its inhabitants
have not bad the power of competing with the more favoured
portions of the empire. By the construction of the London,
Exeter and Falmouth Railway, Devon and Cornwall would
be brought into immediate communication with the metropolis
—the agricultural and:commercial capabilities of the West of
England will be developed; our intercourse with distant nations
will be facilitated; and a general national benefit will be con-
ferred. We heartily desire success to the promoters of the
measure ; and we shall notice the progress of their labours
with that interest which a great national object demands.

A black swan was shot on Wednesday last, by Mr.
Bloodsworth, Upper Mill, near Loughborough, weighing
181 b.; length from the end of the beak to the feet, 4 ft. 6
in., and expansion of the wings 6 ft. 6 in.—Nottingham
Review.

At Liverpool and Manchester the weather has
greatly changed within the last few days. On Monday the
cold was very [severe, and the snow was so deep on the
roads, that the coaches were in consequence greatly de-
layed. On Tuesday the weather became milder, and rain,
occasionally accompanied with sleet, fell in great abundance.
On Wednesday and Thursday the weather was the same in,
Liverpool and Manchester, and the neighbourhoods. A
good deal of corn is still out in the neighbourhood of Ha-
lifax and Huddersfield, and on Monday presented the sin-
gular appearance of being covered with snow.
Lucien Bonaparte's Memoirs are advertised in the
New York papers (Oct. 1), and at 37} cents. Quick work
and cheap. How much do they pay for the copyright
Princess Nicholas Esterhazy, son of his Excel-
lencywk
r
the Ambassador from Austria, and the Count Zichy,
are going to make a tour of visits in the country.