The Sun.
London, England, 1848-04-25 00:00:00

HAYMARKET.

The Easter no;:elt-y;, at this theatre is " a grand
romantic extravaganza, founded on Horace Walpole's
" Castle of Otranto." That romance shot up into
popularity at once, and has always retained a good
place in the general esteem. It forms a very fair
subject for a burlesque, though we almost grudge
seeing the fool's cap put upon so many of the heroes
of our childhood. All our giants have shrunk up,
and as for ghosts, it is as much as a decent man's re-
putation is worth to mention such things with that
respect for them in which people were once brought
up. To think of a little fat man, with a fur tippet
round his neck, strutting out as Manfred, the stern
lord of Otranto! Ho wever, there is no help for it ;
the town must have its joke, and will take no
denial. And if it must be so, we are not at all
disposed to quarrel with the way in which
the work has been done in this instance.
At the opening of the piece we have Man-
fred (Mr. Keeley) in possession of Otranto
as heir of his grandfather, Ricardo, who had seized

. .
it under a forged will of its late lord, Alphonso.
Manfred lives in dread of the accomplishment of the
prophecy that the family of Ricardo should reign in
Otranto only until the rightful owner should be grown
too large to inhabit the castle, and as long as issue
male from Ricardo should remain to enjoy it. There
is already a claim put forward by the Marquis Vin-
cenza (Mr. J. Bland), as the nearest though a distant
relation of Alphonso. tut Manfred is expecting to
make safe his title by the marriage of his only son
Conrad with Isabella (Miss Reynolds), who is the
daughter and heiress of Vincenzo,. The bridal pro-
cession, waiting only to ascertain the presence of the
bridegroom, is disturbed by a noise in the castle
yard. Manfred calls on the whole company to join
in " a tremendous demonstration," to suppress what
he supposes to be some rioting, put constables' staves
into their hands, and appeals to them in mock-
heroic verse, parodying
the noble song that has so
often stirred the soul of the Scot, and beginning—
" Specials, who by me are led."
This was the first good point in the piece ; it told
well, put the house in right humour,
and seemed to
settle the question of success. The cause of the in-
terruption of the wedding is—as in the romance, the
main points of which are brought out—that Conrad
has been killed by the fall of an enormous helmet
which has suddenly been found in the castle. Of
course great lamentation is made over him, "poor
little chap beneath that great chapeau." To repair
his loss, Manfred determines to divorce his wife,
Hippolita, (Mrs. W. Clifford), or, as he is pleased to
term it, "pass her into private life,"
and himself to
marry Isabella. Hippolita most dutifully consents,
protesting that she would even lay down her life for
her lord, though, as Keeley remarks, one does not
see " where she could lay it." The young lady, how-
ever, has a will of her own, and her will is not to
marry the Baron. Resisting his advances, she is
pursued through the subterranean passages of the
castle, and escapes by the aid of a young peasant,
Theodore (Miss P. Horton). And now
and claims his daughter, bringing nowVincenza
match with the gigantic helmet, and,
an immense sword, which seems ominously to
with him
with an enor-
mous leg, which has also startled the inhabitants of
the castle by its appearance, gives token of some ap-
proaching fulfilment of the prophecy. Theodore
proves to be the true heir to Alphonso, and the lady
Isabella gives her band to him. The form of Al-
phonso appears dilated to a vast size, bursting through
the wall of the castle, and the lawful owners, we pre-
same, are thenceforth to possess it. The piece closes
with Keeley, reluctant to lay down his ducal crown,
declaring—
" E'en for my sovereignty I need not fear,
For loyalty is universal here;"
whereupon he breaks into—
" Here's a health to the Queen, God bless her,"
such a
and calls for cheers, presuming that there can be no
mistake about the company being " all charged," or
they could not have come into the house. This ap
peal and all the political allusions were met right
loyally ; and the National Anthem was sung amidst
great applause. But the political allusions were not
the happiest hits in the piece ; the most successful
parts of it were the parodies upon popular songs.
I n
taste.ee if there was
not something to suit everybody sWhen the
lAuluacnhtitoyf tohfeit,puitnnwinogulwdabsevehrayrdle,a.ldd; bdu t i n
was given in
from all sides, and there was not a. dissentient. voice.
and the piece will probably
have acting was very good,
y
have a run.
curtain fell, a sentence of approbation

and is one of
...----
ADELPHI.
ve v
at this snug little theatre.
rendezvous
The
A grand fairy spectacle formedlt thes Easterentitl entitled
it.,
women of the
ages, still
gorgeous scenic
a melange
sthosema Fountainrtrdo inallnoonfgtliiZnee,eailtjrsonorvr,adtgh:eint Childsituations,
i olny ofhs,i cahn,d Air,"
compounded
effects and tableaux, form not by any
means inharmonious, and, when welll got up, I :
—thetheearslaim"et --r, highly
entertaining. From the bills we earn that the scene
is laid in the beautiful island of Zea, celebrated by
Thomas Moore in his " Evenings in Greece." Au
existswere winonittsto
antique fountain, at which the nymphs of the island
island, who met there to dance and sing the ~ songs
of the Well," as they were called amongst the an_
as it was formerly for the young
cient Greeks. This fountain is regarded with pecu-
liar veneration by the inhabitants, who preserve as
OnriSgSPinrnall'iestiante
tradition, that—" Whatever good spirit touches its
water once, becomes subservient to the will ,
of tne
demon of evil; but that should the waters touch the
good spirit a second time, the evil one loses his power
and, in his turn, becomes the slave of the being he
sought to subdue." Operating upon the materials
thus set forth in the " legend," Mr. Stirling Coyne
who is the author of the piece, has strung together a'
series of scenes in which poetic justice is done to 1
Gnome King from whose unholy grasp Algea, the
Child of Air, 'represented with her usual grace and
vivacity by Madame Celeste, is in due course rescued
by the opportune touch of the sacred waters of Zea,
and all ends happily. The dialogue was pretty smart,
and, aided by the superb tableaux, the piece
passed off
very successfully.