The Sun.
London, England, 1841-08-10 00:00:00

THE THEATRES

ENGLISHOPERA HO USE.
An exceedingly amusing farce, or rather a burletta,
entitled A Lady and Gentleman in a Peculiarly Perplexing
Position," was produced at this theatre last night. It is
an adaptation from the French by Mr. Charles Selby,
who appears to have preserved the sparkling and pointed
dialogue which so eminently diStinguishes all the minor
entertainments produced upon the French stage. There
is scarcely the shadow of a plot ; but one scene through-
out ; and only three characters are introduced. -The
lady (Mrs. 'W aylett), an interesting widow, whose name
is not even mentioned, arrives at a village in France late
in the evening, on a journey which she has undertaken
to avoid the persecution of a troublesome suitor, who
admires her fortune quite as much as her person.
While waiting for a carriage which she has ordered to be
in readiness in a few minutes, the gentleman (Mr.
Keeley), a sentimental traveller, arrives, and engages the
apartment which she is occupying. As they meet in the
doorway their garments get entangled, so that their first
introduction to each other is sufficiently whimsical.
While the lady is preparing to depart, Madame Jobarde
the hostess of the inn, informs her that a gentleman is
inquiring after her, and supposing it to be one who had
annoyed her by his attentions on the road,
she expresses
some regret at being in so defenceless a condition. The
gentleman relieves her at once by proclaiming himself
her husband, which the hostess understands literally,
and after leaving them to dine together, she concludes by
locking them up-in the same apartment for the night.
Much of the drollery of the piece arises out of the
shifts and devices of the lady and gentleman to pass the
night with all becoming propriety in an apartment where
there is but one bed, which they mutualiy agree not to
occupy. In the morning the gentlernan's nephew and
the lady's rejected suitor is heard at the door ; conceal-
ment of the occurrences of the night is impossible, and
to rid the lady of a predicament so perplexing., the gen-
tleman makes her an offer of his heart and hand, and
both are promptly accepted. Such is the meagre out-
line of a little piece, which was received with the most
cordial applause by a very full house, and which we have
no doubt will have a very long run. The parts as-
signed to Mrs. Waylett and Mr. Keeley are admi-
rably calculated to display their respective styles of
acting to the best advantage. A Venetian can-
zonet, composed by Mr. Lee, called the " Gondolette,"
sung by Mrs._Waylettovas loudly encored. And indeed,
if the good humour of an audience be the best test of the
success of a farce, no performance of the kind has ap-
peared during the present season at the English Opera
House which seemed to have given so much pleasure as
the Lady and Gentleman in a Peculiarly Perplexing
Position. The other entertainments of the evening were
Barnaby _nudge and the Printer's Devil, which were re.
ceived with undiminished interest.

SURREY.
Throughout the whole range of metroplitan managers,
there are none more active or judicious in catering for
the amusement of their patrons than Messrs. Davidge
and Willis Jones. It was only on Friday last that we
were here, as in a temple dedicated to Polyhymnia,
listening with the most intense delight to the dulcet
strains of Miss Homer, and when, on Monday, we
enter the same building, it has undergone a harlequin-
like transformation. The pit is converted into a spacious
arena, the place assumes the appearance which it bore
"in days of auld lan syne," and.the Royal Circus re-
sumes, for a time, its station among the lions of
the metropolis. Taking advantage of the awful calamity
which levelled Astley s Amphitheatre with the ground,
the•management of the Surrey have entered into an en-
gagement with Mr. Ducrow and his magnificent stud of
horses, for a series of hippodramatic performances ; and,
last night, the first of the series commenced with, per-
haps, the most interesting spectacle ever produced,
" Mazeppa." We have frequently seen this spectacle at
almost every theatre (and their name is legion) at which
it has been produced, and we have no hesitation in
awarding the palm to the Surrey. The moving Pano-
rama of the course of the Dneiper was most magnifi-
cent, and may fearlessly challenge a comparison with
anything of the sort which has been produced at any
other theatre, major or minor. It was reported,
at the time that the Amphitheatre was burnt
down, that the celebrated horse Mazeppa had
perished in the flames. We know not whether this was
the case ; but if so, Mazeppa's horse at the surrey does
the highest credit to the judicious training of Ducrow,
for he is quite as admirable in his part as his predecessor.
The scenes in the circle followed, introducing the whole
of the highly trained stud ; and Madame Ducrow,
Signor Hillier, Mr. Stickney, and Mr. Ilicken, richly
merited the vociferous applause with which their exertions
were rewarded. Though least in stature, yet far from
least in merit, is le " Petit Ducrow.' This wonderful
child made us really feel quite nervous by his extraordi-
nary feats of horsemanship ; and the young rogue
seemed to enjoy the performance quite as much
as any of the spectators. The diminutives seem
in Mr. Ducrow's establishment to eclipse the great ones,
for the diminutive steed, " Fire Fly," in his perform-
ances, distances all his larger competitors. He is the
very " admirable Crichton" of horses. The theatre was
literally crammed. Long before four o'clock the gallery
and pit entrances were crowded by persons anxious to
secure places, and judging from appearances we should
say that at least as much money was sent away through
absolute inability to accommodate the applicants as was
taken at the doors. Never was management more suc-
cessful, and never did management more deserve it.

VICTORIA.
Though many years have fled since the committal
the Brownrigg atrocities, yet it is one of- those infamies
which the public memory seems undesirous to forget,
and which the theatrical art has tended more than all to
perpetuate. i'ossessing in themselves excellent materials
for dramatic effect in the heartless inhumanity of the mal-
treater of apprentices, and the sad and revolting cruel-
ties put upon tender esh and blood, the circumstances of
the reality are admirably adapted for representation, and
in Mary Clifford, or the Foundling Apprentice Girl, which
for the first time appeared yesterday evening at this
theatre, they were skilfully thrown together, and enacted,
in certain points, with adroitness and tragedial skill.
The simplicity of the plot makes it easy of unravel-
ment. Mrs. Brownrigg, at her house in Fetter-lane,
Holborn, had received beneath her roof several foundling
apprentices, comely and well-proportioned girls. Mrs.
Brownrigg's nature, however,
is so diametrically op-
posed to the human mood in general, that the " face
divine, instead of kindling in her kindness, seems
to have acted like a trodden snake in coil-
ing up to scourge those around her. Like the
serpents in the hair of Tisiphone, she hissed herself into
rages, and woe was it if her apprentices then came
athwart her path. Four of these poor girls, of whom
the chief is the heroine, Mary Clfford (Miss Vin-
cent) were day by day stung by her words and
bruised by her clenched buffets and flagellations,
till Mary, the youngest, mild as an tin el, finds
her lot insufferable. Attempts are made o escape
from this abominable house of misrule, but Jo n Brown-
rigg (Mr. Seaman), the fiendish abettor of his mother's
cruelties, counteracts the plans of escape. Then falls
the heavy vengeance of Mrs. Brownrigg on the at-
tempters at escape, and her direst punishment falls sorely
indeed upon Mary Clifford.. The scene which first in-
troduces this suffering heroine to our notice is a desolate
apartment. with a forlorn, broken skylight, through
which wind and rain have unopposed ingress. Central
on the stage, is discovered a figure, fair of form, but
fastened with triple links to a pallet of straw, in
a state of delirium, and almost exhausted. Miss
Vincent was admirable in this scene : the conflict
exhibited in her person between fainting nature and
trials to uphold her strength, along with her sad
pray ings to her torturing mistress not to strike her
more, were affectingly and well developed; and Mrs.
Lee made an excellent female Bellona with the Brown-
rigg-whip. Meanwhile, however, a side-plot has been
proceeding. Next door to Brownrigg's is Deacon (Mr.
Dale), a baker, and this portly master of the rolls has
held sundry communicatiops with a gabbling knave
in the evil house. Deacon, too, is a sweetheart of Mary's,
having been brought up with her at the Foundling, and
having learnt from his loquacious companion that, by
means of the above-mentioned skylight, he might gain
access to Mary, he accordingly bastes to that airy height.
His voice rouses the almost inanimate sufferer; she tells
him she is dying; he would leap from the roof in his
strong compunction, but she bids him not; he, however,
bidding her be of good heart, determines to summon jus-
tice to investigate this heinous case. Meanwhile it tran-
spires that she is no orphan ; her mother, having grown
rich, now re-seeks her whom she cast away in her days of
poverty. Her father, too, Richard Clifford (Mr.
Paul), after sixteen years' absence at sea, re-
turns home, has found his wife, and, flush of love
and money, they are bOth intent, for the completion of
their happiness, to disc Over their lost Mary. As may
be seen, all the circumstances of the drama are now
drawing together. The constabulary investigators forcibly
enter Brownrigg's house, while his wife and son are at
Greenwich; they demand Mary Clifford to be delivered up,
and, when she is drawn out of a black unseemly hole,
universal execration is heaped on the heartless
punisher. But the strong arm of the law is abroad
Mrs. Brownrigg and her son, after various elusions, are
at last gyved, and as the judge is then sitting, the
trial is sir. narily proceeded with. An affecting scene
is here adduced, and Miss Vincent again drew down
most merited applauses by the true and touching pathos
with which she invested her part. In white habi-
liments, she rests on a couch, with the pallor of death
on-her countenance, and only the faintest accents on her
lip. Sudden delirium comes over her,—she fancies
her torturer chaining and smiting her ; this beau-
tifully subsides into recognition of those around
her, father, mother, lover, her spirit filli
with so holy a calm, that she hymns a
songtbl ee
beckoning=—she
torturesilonfghappiness,—shesees an angel in white
sufferings of the world, and
true to the angel's beckoning she follows. Mrs.
BrOvnrigu now only has to be dealt with ; she is
.chst;for trial ; her cruelties stare her like Gorgons in the
face' a her sentence is for death ; and Newgate receives
her. We last see her in the condemned cell—the officers
demand her body, as is the custom—suddenly the execu-
tion bell peals—the gates open—the funeral cart and her
own coffin wait to carry her to the scaffold—she
turns, beholds them, and expires in a throe of agony.
Mrs. Lee throughout was forcible and energetic. Mr.
Gardner highly amused by his comicalities, and Miss 'Vin-
cent was greatly to be praised. The piece is very attractive,
arukso soon as, by further representations, a little of the
preont rigidity disappears, it will go off with great eclat,
andliwove no doubt a favourite. The old standard
•
'
arania of Black-eyed Susan
sfooremxetciluistihtee
a pisecondpiece
ofis
thisth e
ni
loog
ruh
.tki Et
nautical,
F.
Saville appeared to great advantage in One
o'Ciock, or the tdrearant
drama,
ex'
ye
ensere moist—some were flowing.
t that,s,,%
and
though unaided by T. P.
C
Knight and the Wood Demon,—a sort
a German operatic spectacle, with charms and spells,
salamander tongues, and flaming eyes. The scenery of
Cloudland, with its glittering heaps of star-strown
clouds, and the whole enchanting machinery of- the in.