The Sun.
London, England, 1849-12-27 00:00:00

HAY DIAXZETE.

SairrnvinLr).—Meadow Hay, 21 85 to 81. Ss; Clover
ditto, 31 04 to 41 7a ; and Straw, 11 2s to 11 85 per
load. Both Hay and Straw moved off slowly, at our
quotations.
C UNE E ALAND.—Meadow Hay, 2i ss to 31 10s; Clover
ditto, 31 05 to 41 6s; and Straw, 1/ 3s to 11 B.s per
load. Trade dull, at late rates.

V.TurrEcr.t.A.rEr..— Meadow Hay, 21 81 to 31 83 ;
Clover, ditto, 31 Os to 41 8s; and Straw, 1/ 2s to 1183 per
cad. Supply tolerably good, and trade dull.

CORN AVERA.CIES.
GENERAL AVERAGE PRICES OF BRITISH CORN
For the Week ended Dec. 20. 1849, made up from tilt Returns of the
inspectors in the different Cities and Towns in Eggland and Wales
per Imperial Quarter.
WHEAT. I BARLEY.' OATS. I RTE• BEANS. I PEA..
PRICE .. 1138 s 9d 25s 9d I 153 9d 22s 9d 273 5d 283 lld
DUTIES ON FOREIGN CORN.
WHEAT. 1 RABBET. I OATS. BM 1 BEANS. I PEAS.
is Od is 04 is 04 15 Od 18 04 is 04

CHRISTMAS FESTIVITIES.

DEURY-LANE THEATRE.

REVIVAL OF THE LEGITIMATE

DRAMA.

At length Old Drury is itself again. The stage
which Kemble, and Siddons, and Kean trod, is no
longer desecrated by wild beasts, or tame horses, or
foreign danccrs. Old Drury is no longer either a
menagerie, or a circus, or a casino, or a place of even
more questionable character. The intruders who had
for a while polluted the shrine by their presence have
been ejected--the temple of the drama has been
purified, and is now restored to the worship of
Shekespere—and the public gratitude is in an especial
manner due to Mr. James Anderson for the spirited
manner in which he has come forward to restore
to the legitimate drama this, its legitimate
home. Mr. Anderson commenced his managerial
career last evening, and so crowded an audience has
seldom been assembled within the walls of old Drury
as met together there last night to give Mr. Ander-
son a housewarming. Long before the doors were
opened a crowd was assembled at each of them,
which reminded us of the palmy days of the drama,
and within ten minutes after the doors were opened
the theatre was crammed to :suffocation in every part,
and several hundreds were sent away from the doors
unable to obtain admission. The play chosen for the
opening night was the Merchant of Venice, in which
Mr. Anderson appeared as Shylcck and. Miss Laura
Addison as Portia; but no sooner had the curtain
dra.,vn up than " the gods" commenced " a dreadful
pother o'er our heads," by stamping, whist-
ling, and vociferating with Stentorian lungs,
" Pantomime, pantomime." It was in vain that the
performers attempted to make themselves heard. Even
that always distinct and most audible of actors, John
Cooper, failed on this occasion to make
himself heard, and the first act of the play
was mere dumb show. The noise seemed
somewhat to lull when Mr. Anderson came
forward to address the audience, and he was listened
to with something like attention. He thanked them
for the magnificent housewarming they had given
him, regretted that they should have experienced any
inconvenience from the crowded state of the house,
and offered to return the money or to give tickets for
another night to those who suffered - inconve-
nience. He wes applauded, but the vocifera-
tions of "Pantomime, pantomime," were resumed
with greater energy than ever, and the play itself
for the first three acts was, in consequence, panto-
mime and pantomime merely. It was in vain that
Mr. Anderson repeatedly addressed the disturbers,
sometimes in deprecatory, sometimes in commanding
mood, the only effect produced was to render the
gods mischievous, and they tore down the
draperies of the lower gallery and threw them into
the pit. At length the drop drew up for the fourth
act, it was the trial scene during the earlier
portion the uproar continued, but when Portia com-
menced the mercy speech the noise was stilled ; by the
magic of Miss Laura Addison's acting ; the rioters
were fascinated into silence, and richly were they
rewarded for that silence. Never have we heard this
celebrated speech so beautifully, so perfectly de-
cl.4imed as it was _by Miss Laura Addison—never
have we seen the trial scene so excellently acted.
There was a majesty, awl at the same time a womanly
feeling about the acting of Miss Laura Addison in this
scene which we have never seen surpassed, it was the
perfect union of "dignity and love." The scene
ended, the uproar was renewed, and continued
throughout ebe.whole of the fifth act, and at the
conclusion Mr. Anderson again came forward to
address the audience, andos the pantomime was new
within sight he was listened. to with attention. I-1*
thanked the crowded audience for their support, re-
gretted the unpleasantness which, had occurred, and
declared his object of giving the drama a central home
while he admitted the merits of the suburban direc-
tors. In managing the noisy holiday folks Mr.
Anderson had a difficult task to perform, and he cer-
tainly got through it with much firmness and also with
much good humour. The pantomine, one of the beet
that has been produced for years, is from the pen
of the author of Bluff' King Hal, and
is entitled Harlequin and Good queen Bess.
The opening scene is admirable, Old Father Christ-
mas applies to the spirit of John Rich the origiral
inventor of pantomimes, for a pantomime to celebrate
the re-opening of Drury, The genius of tragedy, or,
more property speaking, the genius of the great
unacted, presents a tragedy on the subject of Queen
Bess to Rich, who forthwith puts it into his pantomini,e,
cauldron and therefrom issues " the pantomime.
The opening scenes were full.of rich exaggerated fills-
We have the dressing, the dancing, the flirting, and
the courting of Good Queen Bess, who found a
most grotesque representative in Mr. R. Romer ; the
extravagant dandyism of Leicester, acted by M. Deulin
with a true Payneish spirit; the deep, deep woe of
Amy Robsart, and the dancing and squalling of her
" beautiful babby," the rage of the rejected suitors of
Queen Bess, and the rage of the Queen when she finds
that she herself is rejected, that Amy is the wife of
Leicester—the whole winds up, like the tragedy of
Mr. Puff, with the destruction of the Spanish
Armade, after which the transformations take
place, and the harlequinade commences, and.
certainly Mr. Anderson has secured the ser-
vices of the most agile Harlequin (M. Deulin)
the most graceful Columbine (Miss Theodore), the
most lively and active Clown (Mr. C. Stilt), and the
best Pantaloon (Mr. J. Deulin), that we have seen
for many seasons past. Mr. Seymour, who acted the
part of a sprite, is one of the most suprising of posture
masters, and little Stilt, who appeared as the juvenile
Clown, and went through a series of wonderful
performances with his father, will rival the
Risleys in popularity, as he does already in
gracefulness and activity. The tricks were all ad'.
mirable, the harlequinade never flagged, and the hi"
at the follies of the day were excellent, and told most
effectively. The whole concluded with a grand moving
Diorama (painted by Brunning) of the voyage of Her
Majesty from the Isle of Wight to Cork, which
is one of the most beautiful ever exhibited, r
calling to the memory of the old playgoer the day
when Stanfield lent the magic of his pencil to the
lustration of the Old Drury pantomime.
(From the Times.)
Mr. Anderson, who comes forward to restore Old
Drury to its pristine glories, was honoured last night
with a real boxing-night audience of the old school
—a set of jovial souls, determined not to hear a word
of the play, but to reserve all their attention for the
pantomime. At first Mr. Anderson, finding that
not a syllable of his Shylock could reach any ear,
,
came forward, and taking a good-humoured view a
the case, said he was pleased at the " house-warm'
ing." Then, observing the crowded condition of the
gods—indeed the whole house was crammed to suffo-
cation—he stated that the numbers of his supporters
showed they meant him well, though, he added,
they had rather an odd way of showing it'
The occupants of the galleries continued their
vociferations, expressing, by divers idiomatic remarks,
their belief that they were too densely thronged, and
adding practical force to those remarks by tearing
down the drapery within their reach and pitching it
into the pit. The noise at last became tiresome, and
elicited two more speeches from Mr... Anderson, in
which he stated that he had given orders to return the.
admission money to the inconvenienced, and protested
that he would raise his prices if the gentry in the
gallery did not reform their manners. The only pan"
in the uproar was in the trial scene, when Miss
Laura Addison, who played the character of Port
carne forward as the advocate of the oppressed Antonin'
The audience gave her a round of applause, and con-
sented to hear this principal scene of the play. When
the curtain had fallen Mr. Anderson re-appeared in
plain clothes, and in a very good spirit settled all the
differences of the evening.
(From the Chronicle.)
Mr. James Anderson, the tragic actor, has taken
Drury-lane Theatre for a period of three years, that
he may make one effort more to reinstate the British
drama in this its ancient sanctuary. Remembering
the diseouraging, and sometimes disastrous results
that have attended former attempts in this direction,
and looking at the vastness of the undertaking, tbese
cannot be a doubt that Mr. Anderson, were it for Wel
boldness and enterprising spirit alone, deserves every
possible and reasonable encouragement from the,
theatre-going public. Nor do we entertain the slightest
doubt that Mr. Anderson will receive this support'
notwithstanding a certain querulousness of tone
observable in the advocates of a restoration of the,
legitimate drama, as if they thought that it 1)0
been treated with an undeserved neglect. If we may
judge by the few words addressed by Mr. Andersen
to the audience at the close of the play last night'
he does not himself participate in any such feeling'
On the contrary, after a very handsome acknowlel
rnent of the enterprise of other managers, he expresee
his conviction that the other theatres now open ter
the "legitimate" drama did not • afford enough pc,:
commodation for the public, which does not 10°'
very like a want of patronage. If any confirmation
of this hopeful view of the prospects of the new ne:
de rtaking were required, ,it certainly was to be
found in the aspect of Drury-lane Theatre long
,he'
core the drawing up of the curtain last evening'
crammed as it was to the ceiling. It would at
present be pre mature to offer any opinie. n
On the probabilities of Mr. Anderson's it
mate success, because he has not yet 13`'
forth the full strength of his present company
and, as he stated last night to the audience'
the present arrangements of other establi'et
ments precluded his availing himself of much Wei!.
now otherwise engaged. But allowing for the;
difficulties the dramatic portion of last night's enter
tainment, as far as the noise made from first to last '4
the " gods"—according to their prescriptive right "