The Sun.
London, England, 1838-03-06 00:00:00

COVENT•GARDEN THEATRE.

We last night witnessed the fourteenth representation of Macbeth at
this Theatre during the present season. The tragedy has :been repre-
scnted, we believe, almost without intermission every Monday since the
commencement, with undiminished, nay increasing attraction ; and
notwithstanding the powerful counter-attraction of Kean in Richard the
Third at the rival house, it was performed on this occasion to a very
numerous audience—the pit being crowded, and the boxes, including
many of the private ones, nearly full at the rising of the curtain. We
hail this as indicating the revival of a taste for Shakspeare's glorious
dramas, for the restoration of which such noble efforts have been made
at this Theatre.

The great and almost unprecedented success which has followed the
production of Macbeth here, is fully merited by the splendid manner In
which it has been brought out. The accomplished artist who stands at
the head of this establishment, has combined the acquirements of the
scholar with the genius of the actor, and the taste and liberality of the
manager; in order to produce this magnificent tragedy in a style worthy
of itself and of its author, he has gathered around him the finest his-
trionic talent which the stage now affords ; to give the dramatis per_
eon their proper weight ; lie has called the aids and appliances of art,
and mechanical contrivance ; and
" Borrowed from each muse, and every grace,"

to assist him in embodying the conceptions of the poet ; and whether
in the acting of the principal characters, or in the careful tilling up •f
the subordinate parts—whether in tasteful costume, or picturesque
grouping or appropriate scenery—or, in a word, the attention to all those
minor details so necessary to the general effect of the whole, the tragedy
is presented in a manner unknown in modern times,
To take one instance, but that a most important one, we declare we
never before saw upon the stage, the witches—those dirk, unnatural
beings, who throw over the scene the spell of their unearthly mystery,
and seem as the portentous shadows of the mighty catastrophe which is
to follow. These marvellous creations of the poet's imaginations are
here beheld in actual embodiment. When upon

" The blasted heath"

they stop the Thanes with their

" Prophetic greeting,"

their supernatural appearance—in perfect keeping with the
wild gloomy aspect of the surrounding scenery—(on which the gradual
outbreaking of light, through the " curtain of the dark," is beautifully
represented)—gave a reality to the scene which we never before expe-
rienced. Not only was the fine old music of Locke performeffin a way
which would do credit to any orchestra, but there was preserved through.
out a dramatic illusion, as novel as it was striking. And in the incanta-
tion scene, the forms of Banquo's Royal successors flitted by with a
shadowy effect which truly surprised us.
Mr. Mactrady's personation of Macbeth Is too well known to need
remark. It is a fine portrait of a noble nature, hurried by the
impulse of a lofty ambition—first excited by the evil suggestions
of witchcraft, and tired to action by the promptings of a
sterner, though a female soul—to a course of blood and crime
from which there is no escape—exhibiting, in frightful and vivid
colours, the struggles of conscience with " the horrible imaginings" of
intended guilt—the torturing agonies of remorse—the horrors of a
mind " yet young in deed"—the hardening heart even to ruthless
cruelty, engendered by familiarity with crime—the affecting retro.
spections of forsaken age--the pathetic reflections of a spirit, left desolate
in its misery, and vainly yearning for human sympathy—and the bursting
forth of warlike energy, roused by approaching danger—darapon
fur a moment by the " equivocation of the juggling fiends"—
and then lashed to the fury
desperation. Perhaps, in one
or two isolated parts, some actors may bare surpassed Mr.
Macready ; for it is one of the merits of his performance that he
do,-,s not by strainings at effect endeavour to gaits a shallow* applause.
But, as a sustained, a true, a consist,nt impersonation, it may challenge
comparison with any of which living memory retains a record.
Lady Macbeth was admirably performed by Miss Huddart (now Mrs.
Warner). She is, in fact, the only representative of this grand incar-
nation of female crime which the stage now affords. Of the " sleeping
scene," as it is called, we can say, bol rowing the words of Hazlitt
applied to her great prototype in this character—the Queen Tsosedy
—Mrs. Siddons—" to have seen her in this scene ..i•ent in our life
never to be forgettql,i,"

41Pe,, Aw 44414111 Mr. Warde, as Ilanquo, and Mr. Anderson,
4,4 VOcolin, ably supported their respective characters. Tl.e tonchiiN
scene in which Macduff receives intelligence of the slaughtf4Q tips fa"
milt' was acted in a finer style than we
cygv betiekd Mr. Phelps
was Paturall "c;,l4'4o6...ettective. His eNktre,Bl.9u of the father's
gfigc ellti,iten. great applause.
We cannot.conelude without notickn,g that splenditl kkk. AvkltkOt
the Scottish Monarch so desperately dtifentl* hk' CWW". Mr.
Alecteatlyl \yah redly graynd. Ilia Attitudp, when confronted
thy, his 4yetsar, his staggerkng nac.kwards with wildly extended a.nis
when wounded, the summoning up of his fa6t expiring energies to tt,H,
final struggle, his sudden rising on one knee, in the posture
defiance undaunted even in death, we feel utterly