The Sun.
London, England, 1836-05-27 00:00:00

COVENT-GARDEN THEATRE.

Mr. Macready took his benefit here last night, on which oc-
casion Mr. Sergeant Talfourd's tragedy of lon was repre-
sented for the first time, to one of the most crowded and select
audiences we have ever witnessed. lon is a play of very su-
perior merit, though we question much whether it is one likely
to retain possession of the stage. It is deficient in the two
main requisites of tragedy—passion, and incident; the plot too
creeps along heavily, instead of making sensible progress in
every scene; and the one prominent character is too much
given to reflection, when he should be busy with ac-
tion. He is, in fact, a closet hero, not a dramatic one.
The elements of his nature are too etherial—too unworldly
for the stage ; and even his love is less that of the heart than
of the imagination. Hence we admire him, but we do not
sympathize with him, for there can he no sympathy with one
who is not merely unimpassioned, but above all human in-
firmity. This, however, applies only to lon on the stage.
lon in the closet is without a blemish, being one of the corn•
pletest poetic creations that modern times have witnessed.
Moreover, the character is to a certain-extent original ; nor—
if we except Professor Wilson, who has not a few points in
common with Mr. Talfourd—do we believe that there is a
single living author of a sufficiently pure and high-toned order
of imagination to have conceived it. We have observed that
lon is throughout unimpassioned. We should perhaps have
qualified this assertion; for it just occurs to us that there is
one burst of human passion in the character—that, we mean,
where taking his last leave of Clemanthe, the young Per-
fection says :
" If for thy brother's and thy father's sake
Thou art content to live, the healer Time
Will reconcile thee to the lovely things
Of this delightful world—and if another,
A happier—no, I canna bid thee love
Another ! I did think I could have said it,
But 'tis in vain."
This beautiful touch of feeling was received quite as a God-
send by the audience, and given by Macready with a truth,
force, and beauty, that being evidently unstudied, produced
quite an electrical effect. In every instance but this, lon, we
repeat, is cold, though graceful and even majestic, as a piece
of Phidian sculpture ; for his soliloquy, when about to murder
Adrastus—

" Shall I falter now
While every moment that he breathes, may crush
Some life else happy ?—Can I be deceived
By some foul passion, crouching in my soul,
Which takes a radiant form to hire me on?
Assure me, Gods—yes, I have heard your voices;
For I dare pray ye now to nerve my arm
And see me strike—he's smiling in his slumber,
As if some happy thought of innocent days
Played at his heart-strings; must I scare it thence
With death's sharp agony ?"
is touching rather from poetic tenderness of expression, than
from strength of natural feeling. Translate the last lines we
have marked in italics into the homely vernacular, and this
will at once be evident. Clemanthe is compounded of the
same etherial essence as lon. She is not so much a woman
as an angel, in everything save wings. Her love for lon is
that of a brother for a sister of congenial nature. Yet the
character is exquisitely conceived—the dream of a poet in his
loftiest and most imaginative mood—and is nearly equal in
delicate and minute finish of execution, to Magdalen, in that
magnificent drama, the City of the Plague. .What can be
more elevated in its tone of sentiment than the following?—
" No, 'tis never woman's part
Out of her fond misgivings to perplex
The fortunes of the man to whom she cleaves ;
'Tis her's to weave all that she has of fair
And bright in the dark meshes of their web
Inseparate from their windings."
Macready's lon was admirable. We never saw him to such
advantage, or enjoy, with so thorough a relish, the dainty
poetic morceaus which were set before him. He spoke not
coldly by rote from the mere understanding, but warmly and
freshly from the heart. We wish Mr. Dale had taken a hint
from him in this respect, for he made sad work of the author's
full and melodious blank verse. As he delivered it, it sounded
like " sweet bells jangled, out of tune and harsh." We hope
he will henceforth stick to the exaggerated declamation of
melo-drama. It is not for him to give " fit utterance" to the
subtle and delicate fancies of the poet. Noisy rant by no
means shows energy ; and still less does undue emphasis betray
a keen apprehension o the imaginative. Miss Tree's Clemanthe
was just such as we were prepared to expect from her—graceful,
unforced, and exquisitely refined in manner. She too, equally
with Macready, felt the beauty of the poet, and gave it ade-
quate expression. A Morning contemporary, we perceive,
asserts that Mr. Talfourd has taken as his model " Xschylus
and Euripides." Now this is just as absurd as to say that he
has imitated Milton and Pope, for no two dramatists were
ever more unlike each other than these two ; and the
author who should attempt to copy both in the same
play. would produce a phenomenon as remarkable as one of
Lord Londonderry's speeches. fEschylus is wild—sublime
—obscure—and notorious for the rugged vigour of his
language ; Euripides is all polish and tenderness—addicted
to aphorisms, and the undue exercise of the reflective faculties.
Doubtless in this respect, Sergeant Talfourd makes no very
distant approach to him, but to say that he imitates lEschylus also.
is to say that which ignorance alone can excuse. But in truth,
the author of lon imitates no one, but draws from the
promptings of his own prolific imagination. If in the
structure of his versification he has taken any one as his
model, it is Wordsworth, in some of his minor blank verse
poems—such, for instance, as the lines written " On the
Banks of Wye," which have evidently made a deep impression
on Mr. Talfourd's mind. One word before we conclude. As
real, stirring, legitimate tragedy is now pretty nearly extinct
among us, why not let the ''Dramatic poem" supply its place ?
From the favour with which lon was received last night,
and Manfred a few years since, there is clearly a
growing taste for this species of theatrical repre-
sentation, which, if it do not stir the passions, will at
least have this advantage—namely, that it will refine and ele-
vate the taste of the audience. We would give worlds to see
the City of the Plague performed ; " Phillip Van Arte-
velde," too, judiciously curtailed, would no doubt make a hit.
We may possibly take an early opportunity of reviewing lon
as a poem.

The Echo de la Fantire, of Valenciennes, of
Thursday, states that, in consequence of the breakingc, in of
the waters at a coal mine, at Quicvrain, near Douay, 90 out
100 workmen, employed in the pit, were drowned.
About half-past ten o'clock last night an alarming
and extensive fire broke out on the premises of Mr. Roberts,
timber-merchant, Bateman's-row, Shoreditch. The fire com-
menced in the timber-yard, and in a few minutes the whole of
the extensive premises were one entire mass of flames. The
fire then communicated to the adjoining houses in New Inc-
square, and Bateman's-row. Four houses in the latter place
were entirely consumed, and, as far as it was possible to ascer-
tain, sixteen or seventeen very seriously damaged. A large
number of the police of the G, H, and N divisions were imme-
diately upon the spot, and rendered very great and praise-
worthy assistance in removing the property of the poor peo-
ple in the neighbourhood. Two elderly ladies, both of whom
were bedridden, were carried out in safety by the police t and
one of the police (G 130), at the imminent risk of his own life,
went into the house of a Mr, Loch, which at that time was
burning furiously, and brought out a child, which it was con-
sidered impossible to save. We arc happy to say there were
no lives lost, A very line Newfoundland dog, on the pre-
mises of Mr. Roberts, was burnt. Tho amount of property
destroyed was very great, but how the fire originated is not
known. We understand Mr. Roberts is insured in the Sun
and Royal Exchange offices, but whether to the full amount we
could not learn, nor whether any of the other premises were
insured.