The Sun.
London, England, 1851-10-14 00:00:00

A DELPHI THEATRE.

LYCEUM THEATRE.

This theatre closed its doors last night, the occasion
being the benefit of Madame Vestris. No official
speech was delivered, but Mr. Charles Mathews was
called before the curtain at the end of the Game of
Speculation, and was loudly and enthusiastically
cheered. The Lyceum, we have reason to believe,
has profited, as well as other establishments devoted
to the public amusement, by the inordinate influx
of strangers into the metropolis. The nightly
attendances have been large to a degree, and upon
many occasions numbers of individuals were turned
away from the doors. The reputation that the
management of Madame Vestris enjoyed brought
forth its legitimate fruit, and the elegance and taste
which have always identified her managerial sway in
former times were more than exemplified by the
aspect and sentiment of the pieces which
have been played. Madame Vestris has in-
variably been celebrated for care and libe-
rality in carrying out the duties of a lesseesbip,
and her past career at the Lyceum is but an additional
instance of the delicacy of artistic feeling by which
she has ever been animated. Wherever she sets foot
as a manager, there do we find improvement in all
that appertains to ensemble and embellishment.
Presses, scenery, and appointments, alike bear witness
to the sensitiveness of her taste, the shrewdness of her
judgment, and the freedom of her expenditure. The
King of the Peacocks and King Charming have in
particular memorably demonstrated these qualities,
and we need hardly point to them as unrivalled spe-
cimens of spectacular decorations. This has been
universally allowed, and their popularity, conse-
quently, has been unbounded. But the same types
of brilliant and alluring completeness have marked all
the holiday productions at the Lyceum, and it is
unfair to make exceptions. The vaudevilles which
have from time to time appeared in 1851 have been
adaptations from the French, and, prepared chiefly
with a view to illustrate the elastic and vivacious
gaieties of Mr. Charles Mathews, they have worn a
special and inviting peculiarity.

OLYMPIC THEATRE.

A comedietta, from the pen of Mr. Banks, who is,
we believe, a 'new aspirant for fame, was produced
here last evening, under the title of Caught in his
own Trap. The story is based upon the assumption
of the existence, in some unnamed country, of a
law, rendering marriage—should the lady choose—
compulsory on a gentleman seen by witnesses any
four times in conversation with any member of the
fair sex. An old bachelor lawyer (Mr. Farren) has
a wild young nephew (Mr. Kinloch). The nephew
wishes to marry ; the uncle refuses permission, unless
the nephew obtains a wife with twenty thousand
francs, undertaking, for his own part, to give that, or
a larger sum, to his nephew, if the nephew ever finds
him, the uncle, ever married. The nephew seeks the
aid of the step-mother (Mrs. Phillips) of the lady
with whom be is in love. ; and the step-mother being
the widow of a lawyer, and cognizant of the apocry-
phal "statute," contrives to be seen four different
times in the company, and once, when fainting, in the
arms of the unsuspecting old bachelor. He all the
time had been advising the lady to seek matrimony
with an imaginary party, described to him by this
method ; and hence the title Caught in his own Trap.
The usual compromise ensues at the denouement, and
both uncle and nephew marry. The trifle is busy
and pleasant enough, and gets through half an hour
easily, with the busy assistance of Mr. Sbalders, who
acts the part of a lawyer's clerk, idiotic but cunning,
with great cleverness and originality. The
make-up of Mr. Farren as the old lawyer was
perfect. After this a new burlesque, Azael the Pro-
digal, was produced, in which all the points of the
original are very cleverly parodied, the impression.
able hero being converted into a Jew gipsy, who is
enticed to town by a pair of strolling mountebanks.
He is introduced to Vauxhall during a masquerade,
and, in the costume of a "gent" of the most alarm-
ing water, soon finds himself in the toils of a girl as
light in her heels as in her morals; and finally, hav-
ing been cleared out by experiments at thimble-rig, is
reduced to the low extremity of tending donkeys on
Hampstead-heath. The repentant youth is refreshed
with visions of the domestic comforts which he has
sacrificed, and he straightway wends his path back
to the paternal tent, where he is received with appro-
priate welcome and rejoicing. One of its best points,
is a burlesque version of the " Pas de Poignards,,
now executed with knives and forks, and the offer-
ings tributary to the Crystal Palace afford good op-
portunity for some national satire, though the repre-
sentative of Mr. Paxton last night was not clever
enough to escape hissing. The doggrel dialogue is
smartly written, and some of the puns are whimsical.
Mr. Compton clothed the part of Ariel with as much
broad absurdity as he could, and he provoked fre-
quent peals of laughter. His coadjutors were Mr.
bhalders, Mr. Norton, Mrs. Phillips, and Miss Field-
ing. The songs, which are thickly strewed over the
text, are gathered from various sources, and the words
to which they are united are by no means wanting in
comicality.

ACTRESSES RAISED BY 411ARRLIGE.
The first person among " the gentry" who chose a
wife from the stage was Martin Fulkes, the antiquary,
a man of fortune, who, about the year 1718, married
Lucretia Bradshaw, the representative of Farquhar's
heroines. A contemporary writer styles her "one of
the greatest and most promising genii of her time," and
assigns her " prudent and exemplary conduct" as the
attraction that won the learned antiquary. The next
actress whose husband moved in an elevated rank, was
Anastasia Robinson, the singer. Tho great Lord Pe-
terborough, the hero of the Spanish war, the friend of
Pope and Swift, publicly honoured Anastasia as his
Countess in 1735. In lour years after the Lady Hen-
rietta Herbert, daughter of James, first Earl of Walde-
grave, and widow of Lord Edward Herbert, bestowed
her hand on James Beard, the performer. Subsequently,
about the middle of the 18th century, Lavinia Beswick,
the original Polly Peachum, bicame Duchess of Bol-
ton. The next on record was Miss Linley's mar-
riage with Sheridan, one of the most romantic
episodes in theatrical unions; and before the eighteenth
century closed, Elizabeth Farren, a perfect gentlewoman,
became Countess of the proudest Earl in England, the re-
presentative of the illustrious Stanleys. She was Lord
Derby's second consort, and motbet' of the present
Countess of Wilton. In 1807 the beautiful Miss Searle
became the wife of R. Heathcote, Esq., brother of Sir
Gilbert Heatbcote, Bart.; and in the same year Louisa
Brunton was married to the late Earl of Craven. Her
son is now Earl Craven, and her niece, Mrs. Yates, the
actress, still exhibits the dramatic genius of the Brun-
ton family. The Beggars Opera agon conferred a co-
ronet; Mary Catherine Bolton'simpersonation of Polly
Peach urn captivated Lord Thurlow. She was married to
his. Lordship in 1813. In more recent times the most
fascinating of our actresses, Miss O'Neil, wedded Sir
William Wrixon Beecher, Bart.; Miss Foote, the Earl
of Harrington; Miss Stephens, the Earl of Essex; and
Irs. Nisbet, Sir William Bootbby, Bart. It has been
remarked, that the conduct of each of these ladies in her
wedded life has been unexceptionable.—Burhes Anec-
dotes of the Aristocracy.

SOUTH-EASTERN RAILWAY.
Gross traffic receipts for passengers
and goods, week ending Oct. 11,
1831 £30,415 2
Ditto, Oct. 12, 1850 15,114 7 8

Increase in 1851 ...
London Terminus, Oct. 13, 1851.

... £5,300 14 11

The recent alteration of the evening posts!, com-
munication from Dublin to England places the Liverpool
route for passengers at an unfair disadvantage, rs far as i
London and the south of England are concerned, inasmuch
PS a passenger who leaves Kingstown for Liverpool at six
o'clock in the evening cannot arrive in London before four
o'clock the following afternoon ; whereas a passenger leaving
Kingstown b,y t.he boat for Holyhead at half•past seven m
the evening, in
.London the following morning at eleven
o'clock; thereby givir:g him a clear advantage of six hours
and a over the passenger who preArs the Liverpool
route.

DEATH OF AN OLD OFFICER.--011 Thursday even-
ing, about nine o'clock, Philip Webster, who had been about
eleven years under usher at Westminster and Queen-square
Police-court, died suddenly at his residence, No. 19, Pul-
ford-street. He was at the court on Saturday last, but on
the following Monday was unable to attend. He was pre-
viously, for nearly seventeen years, attackied to the Maryle-
bone Police-court, and before that appointment was a Bow-
street officer. He was about 70 years of age.
According to an official report, there are twenty
out of the thirty-four parochial burial-grounds in the city of
Norwich in such a state, that arrangements ate indispensable
f.: 09§ut 00114 1%4411'14 AlAilleX illtenilelitg.

The performances at this theatre last evening were
for the benefit of that useful actor, Mr. James Wor-
rell, whose friends mustered around him in great
force. The house was crowded in every part.