The Sun.
London, England, 1815-01-03 00:00:00

SCOTS BANKRUPTS.

SEQUESTRATIONS. •
D. and A. Munro, merchants in Glasgow—Creditors meet in
the Pi ince of Wales Tavern. there, 4tli and 18th january,
twelve o'clock.
Andrew Smith, builder at Woodmire, near Burn, in Kincar-
dineshire,dreditors meet at Sur eon's Hall, near Fetter-
cairn, Gth and 2oth January, one
o'clock.
Peter Simpson, currier, Dalki-ith, in the county of Edin-
burgh—Creditors meet in Morrison's inn, Dalkeith, ;31st
Dec. and *2l stJanuary, 11 o'clock.
James Fergu%son, cattle-dealer in Anobinhlain, Kirkoswaidt'
Ayrshire—Creditors meet in.tlic King's Arms ion,
and 23d January, one- o'clock. Ayr, 4th

We are informed, that the -bill lately brought
into tire souse of Lords for establig a new
Court for the,trial of certain civil
cli mshins b lies 'Tory,
Was taken into consideration by the Faculty
of
Advocates, at a very full inceGag held esterda
It was resolved without a vote to approve of they. principle of the bill, and to appoint a Committee
to go through the different clauses, and to report
to the Faculty their opinion thereon,—(Caledonian
Mercury, Dec. 294

THE THEATIIES.

MR. KEAN's ROMEO.

DRURY-LANE. The announcement of Mr.
KEA:4 fOr Romeo, excited a considerable stir in
the theutrical,world, anti Drury-lane was well at-
,tended at 'an -early hour last night.. The best
-thing that could happen to an Actor, his happen-
ed to this Performer;—the opinion of the Public
is divided to tille utmost points of difference upon
the subject of his merits ; one Party extolling him
to the very echo, and another maintaining that his:
extraordinary popularity is the result of sas gross
and ttmporary a delusion as that which made the•
boy BETTY a man of fortune.—Probably the tinth,
as it generally does, lies somewhere between these
e;tremes but nevertheless, the contention has-
been most fortunate for Mr. KEAN, as the zeal
of •admiration versus the heat of disapprobation,
is always sure to elevate the person who is the
object of
.both ;; for one side showers applause on
their favourite, to counteract what they deem to
be persecution, while the other -side only con-
demns the more loudly, in order to justify the
soundness of their, judgment—and between them,
the person in dispute•is raiseil to notoriety, con-
sequence, and fortune.

There are two ways by which an Actor affects
the jmlgnient of an audience—by their eyes, and
by then• ears ; but we may distingu►sh a third
mode of operation,which, though received through
these argans,depends more -exclusively upon the
►nine!, and refers to the 'gratification or distaste
experienced from the idea formed of the concep-
tion,. skill, and mental energies evinced by the
Player—an appeal, iii shot•t, front mind to mind,
and so forcible, that though the'physieal powers
of the Actor tail hint, the spectator• gives him
• credit for the possession of internal resources,
which nature only denies hint the means Of ex-
hibitingy. with the greatest effect. In the wide
range-of'the drama, though perhaps the character
of Liamlet demands these. three requisites in the
highest degree, the part of Romeo co:nes so near
it in a similar claim, that it may, without hesita-
tion, be.classed as only second toHamkt in thoSe
respects. . To charm the eye, a fine figure and
gracef►tl action are necessary; to delight the ear,
we ask a good voice and appropriate modulation ;.
and to' have the understanding pleased, we.
must discern a judicious conception of charac-
ter, and at least an attempt which cannot be
mistaken, to develope that conception in execu-

tton.
Upon these critcrea we . proceed to. examine
the personation of the youthful Montague by Mr.
KEAN. In tlu tiist pLice, be is deficient in per-
son,• and his action possesses neither digo,ity
*grace. )0-the second place, his voice is harsh
and discordant, and altogether incapable of those
intonations 'which touch the soul. Did he then
exhibit that mastery in the idea which he farius
of the part,, and that transcendent ability in -em-
bodying it, which would force.us to forget all his
physical imperfections and obvious onfitnes3 to
sustain it ? Did he display those talents before
which

All objections fly, • -
PRITcHARD's genteel, and G.t3Fuch: six feet. high ?

In mir opinion he did not. Through- the early
scenes, instead of the buoyant and hopeful Lover,
he was uniformly serious and saturnine :—it ap-
peared as if the play had opened with the Tomb,
instead of being to close with it, and that Romeo
had been. so infected with the dankness of the
'‘,Storehotre of the ,CApfLETs," as never after-
wards to be able to recover any elasticity of spi,
rit. Romeo- is a desponding Swain, hut not a
gloomy Ascetic--he ought to he mebneholy, if
you will, but not sepulchral, and Mr. KEAN chose
to make him the latter.-.---Thus the Play proceeded,
cheerios as uniform dullness could render it, to the
scene in which 'Friar Lawrence announces ...his
sentence of banisinnemt, for which Mr. KEAN
had evidently reserved himself. Here the ap-
plause, Vhieh had hitherto been butseantily sup-
plied, was, lavished with tinhoUnded profusion.
The million clapped the distraught lover, while the
judicious few -were lost in an endeavour to ascer-
tain. What it was that excited -this prodigious and
irrational shouting. We candidly confess, that
to us the seene,seemed., to be greatly overdone;
and though there- were points in it that might
justly have been noticed with approbation, yet it
is remarkable, that 'the very worst parts were the
very most huzzaed to. Of these we shall only
cite one example : in the lines,,

then might'st thou tear thy hair,
And fall upon the ground, m I do now,
Taking the measure of an unmade grave;'.
Mr. KEAN, after the prepOSition "of," made.one
of the longest, and we will add most unneces-
sary, pauSes we ever witnessed upon the Stage.—
We know that this species of ornament, rightly and
timeouslyemployed, is of powerful efficacy,thelook,
the action, nay, the very absence ofeither, may fill up
the gap in a manner beyond the sphere of utterance;
but surely it is equally clear that -these injudi-.
cious and unnatural stoppages, where the-sense of
the author and the dictates of miturt disoA them,
are alike destructive of every thing which can he
thought to raise a Rerforniance above the lowest
grade. From this period, Mr. BEAN, having broken
from his torpor, appeared anxious to throw as much
violent, gesticulation into the last half of the play
as would compensate for his want of anima:ion in
the first half. lie exaggerated every passion, and
tore them to very tatters, to split the cars of the
groundlings. A rotatory motion of the baud, as
if describing the revolution of a spinning Jenny
multiplied slaps upon his forehead, and manual
elevation of his " fell of hair;" repeated knockings
upon his own breast, and occasional rappiugs'
at the chests of others; •the ofiening ofhis ruffles,
like a school-boy run riot from the play-ground,
and a strange •indistinct groping on the inside
of his shirt, as if. in search of something uncom-
monly minute, filled up the round of hiS action,
while a voice most umntistcal, exerted to .a harsh
and painful sctwech, affoided the finishing touch
to a Romeo, 'decidedly the worst we ever wit-
nessed upon the London boards.
I-Living :4C/tie so ruttch into detail upon the
chief attraction of the night, we shall he as brief
as possible in our remarks uptin the other cha-
racters.

Any Actress. with youth, simplicity,-and feeling
upon her side may personate Juliet very satisfae,
tcray. Such a Character, performed with an or-

dindry li,tre of gentleness and sensibility, is
of awaking responsive sensations not only among
the fair damsels in the upper regions, hut in the
barer bosoms which adorn the boxes—and if a
little pathos is added, Oren matrons of a certain
'age aild greybeards may be tempted to acknow-
ledge, that love is not so unpardonable a frailty
as, for some feu years past, they have con-
sidered it. Juliet is somewhat froward, but not
O. wanton ; she is artless, but not childish ; play-
ful, but not hoydenish ; and when the master-chord
of her heart is struck, energetic and passionate,
but never masculine and boisterous. Airs. I.IAnT-
LEY sustained this part, and furnished no apology
for Romeo's romantic attachment. Nothing of-
fends- more in 'private life than to see elderly fe-
males aping girliShness, and even upon the, Stage
it is more apt to disgust than to please. Mrs.
BARTLEY really tried -to play the characttr. well,
but she is so utterly unfit for it that bet most suc-
cessful attempts only demonstrated the fact more
palpably.

I _
W. _
hen the superior parts of a drama displease -
us, we are perhaps, not so likely to do common
justice to the inferior cast. Weknow not whether
this oblique sentiment or
.candour compels us to,
say, .that 'altogether-, the Play of last: night was
-giit up in-- a. style which would not stand high i '
comparison above that ,of a second-.rate itinerant
Company.. With the latter, the choice of_a, heroine
would have fallen upon the youngest and prettiest
votary of illelponione among them ; and tor their
hero, they would have selected the handsomest
aud most lover-like of their body. But at
Drury-lane, the Juliet, except in dress, look-
ed as old as her Mother ; and the Romeo
so mean, that every - Mercurio shoved more like a
gentleman than a French hair-dresser beside him;
and Denuolio, in• spite of his everlasting display of.
denticulation„ was absolutely genteel. Tybalt. ivas
bravo, instead of an impetuous nobleman, and the
rest of the Company were so congenial with their
chiefs, that if this had been Mr..KEAN's debut, and,
the first night of Romeo and Juliet, the former
would never hare appeared again before a London
audience, and the latter would infallibly have been
condemned.

COVENT GARDEN.—The play of The Tempest,
not as written by SHAKSPEAHE, but as mangled
and disfigured by I)IIYDEN, was represented last
night at this Theatre before a very numerous au-
dience. The Tempest, in its original State, is tine
of the most beautiful, as Nvell as the most regular,
of the great Author's dramatic productiOns, and,
within our remembrance, Was among• the chief
stock-pieces of Dry. .7-lane Theatre in the time of
GAlltucK. We are, therefore,_surprised that so
bad a taste has been sheWn by- our dramatic
caterers, as to throw aside that admirable •
play, and revive the. clumsy distortion of DRY-.
DEN.. The charater of I'rospero was, as usual,
well sustained by YOUNG. Miss FOOTE made
her first appearance in Miranda,. -in which she
'displayed an interesting simplicity.— The part
of Ariel was assigned to Miss MAiirEws, but
she. was by no means happy in representing
the light and sportive movements of this interest-
ing Sylph. %The act ion of Miss MATlmws seemed
to be throughout too studied and affected, and
partook more of the manners of this' world than.
what May be conceived" of the airy sprite which
the author has so admirably,designed. The rest
of the characters were so well supported as to 'calt,
for no- additional comment, and the play ailtoge-
ther was favourably received, bat we hope the
Managers \Yin retrieve their credit for critical
judgment, by restoring the piece as it came front
the creative and unrivalled imagination of its im-
.
-mortal Author.