The Sun.
London, England, 1870-06-18 00:00:00

THE ROBUST INVALID.

The Adelphi Theatre is already famous for the bene-
volence it shows to modern authors by allowing them to
monopolise a whole evening's entertainment by their
plays. The rule is advantageous, inasmuch as the public
are well enabled thereby to test the ability of the owner
of the pieces performed. Mr. Charles Reade's modern
drama and ancient comedy allow that portion of the play-
going public who do not yet know Mr. Reade's capabilities
a fair opportunity of judging of them. We should, while
making this remark, impress upon our readers the fact,
that we only intend to include the audience who see the
plays to the end, as, under present arrangements, it is
rather difficult to do so. Last evening, for instance, the
curtain fell at seven minutes to 12 o'clock. A suggestion,
which perhaps Mr. Reade will moreover allow us to make,
is that the comedy should be ordered to come first in the
programme, for two reasons. First, and chiefly because
many people have already seen " Put Yourself in his
Place ;" and, those who visit the Adelphi to witness
clever adaptation of Moliere might not particularly
care to see the drama repeated. Our second reason is,
because Mr. Reade's originalpiece is so excessively modern
in its views that the change in goingback to the seventeenth
century in the comedy is too great to be suitable. The
plot of the "Robust Invalid," or as everyone will better
know it as the Malade Inuwinaire of Moliere, is founded
upon the extraordinary vagaries of a hypochondriacal old
man, who, in the French piece, plays a serious and comic
role combined, but who becomes rather a fool in the adap-
tation. This delinquent, the father of a young girl, on
becoming old, fancies that he labours under a series of
complaints, and he hits upon a plan of marrying
her to a medical man, by which means he will
manage to have a practitioner always near him
in case of seizure. Of course the daughter will not love
the doctor, but pledges her troth privately to a gen-
tleman named Cleantes (Mr. Ashley.) A pretty scheme
is devised, by which the old man is made to allow meet-
ings between his daughter and her lover. This consists
in Cleantes pretending to be a music-master, by which
arrangement he and she manage to sing several " lessons"
to each other actually before the unsuspecting father.
The bridegroom originally chosen by the father makes
himself detestable to the family by his absurd
but highly ludicrous attempts at sentiment and
oratory, and ultimately through the influence of
an open-hearted brother of the hypochondriac faith-
ful Cleantes is accepted as the son-in-law ; a state of
things which is rendered more agreeable to the father,
when the lover announces that he has become surgeon, and
that he means to cure all the patient's ills. The adapta-
tion has many faults. It is lengthened out in a positively
heartless manner, and although it embraces most of the
incidents and points made use of by its author, still a new
dialogue of an extraordinary character is introduced here
and there, and the happy ideas conveyed in the French
sentences are very scantily reproduced in those in our
own tongue. Mr. Reade in all his plays professes to know
a great deal of odd things well, and it is no discredit to
a man to try and know everything he can. It is, however,
absurd in the extreme to force his occasionally queer expe-
riences on the audience, especially if the experiences refer
to modern customs, and when the play that they occur in
is old. In " The Robust Invalid " a long discussion takes
place on the subject of equestrianism. This seems to have
been principally introduced in order that the public may
learn that " a horse never falls of his own accord ;
that it is his rider who causes him to do
Mr. Reade does not enter into the reasons why
a horse falls when being driven, under a 'buss for in-
stance ; probably in his next play he will enlighten the
public on this matter. High praise, however, cannot be
withheld from the adapter for having reproduced this
excellent piece. His work he has managed to imbue with
a fresh and lively spirit, which renders it exceedingly
acceptable, especially to those who think the re-
vivals of old dramas and comedies only can
be gloomy in their nature and deserving of con-
tempt. There are, moreover, two or three members of
the company who take part in the " Robust Invalid,"
who are of themselves capable by their impersonations of
doing full justice to any piece of average superiority. We
allude more especially to Mr. Vining, Miss Glover, and
Mrs. Seymour, whose activity and cheerful manner on
the stage fairly entitled her to the many expressions of
pleasure lavished upon her during the performance. Of
Miss Florence Terry's future acting we have every con-
fidence given us that it will be of a successful kind. She
comes before us almost a child, and the child-like charac-
ter that she represents even at this early period of her
stage experience is not at all ill-suited to her. The "Robust
Invalid" would probably be more welcome to us were we
to cease to remember that Moliere described in it a man
whose latter days contrasted in a very melancholy way
with his own. At the time that he was picturing a frivol-
ous and complaining hyponchondriac, the' author was
himself suffering from a painful and incurable, disease
which all the doctors of France failed to alleviate. This

reminiscence, however, will not, we conjecture, cause any
person to stay away from the theatre. Under all other
circumstances, we do not see why the revival should not
meet with every encouragement. The play is put upon
the stage with a large share of advantages and under very
happy auspices. During its performance last evening the
curtain was not once let down, the short intervals between
the acts being, according to French rule, distinctly marked
by musical selections from the band—a tolerably strong
one.

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