The Sun.
London, England, 1860-02-09 00:00:00

PRINCESS'S THEATRE.

A little play, new and original withal, by Mr.
H. 1011, called " Caught in a Trap," was produced
at this theatre last night, amid the hearty applause
of a numerous audience. The plot is of simple
structure, and may be described in few words. Tho
story is Spanish, and the scene is laid chiefly at
Toledo, where Donna Vittoria, a young and beautiful
widow, charmingly personated by Miss Carlotta Le-
clerq, lives in melancholy seclusion, the only com-
panions of her solitude being Marcella (Mrs. Weston),
a grim duenna of the most despotic disposition, and
Montafar (Mr. Graham), an old steward, who is as
liberal of his advice as faithful domestics usually
are, upon the stage. Attracted by the fame of the
lady's loveliness, Don Juan de Sylva (Mr. Melville)
a romantic and adventurous cavalier, devises a
scheme for procuring admission into her castle.
Under the pathetic disguise of a waylaid traveller,
wko has been shamefully maltreated by robbers,
he invokes the hospitality of Donna Vittoria,
who, struck by the noble air of the stranger, and
touched by his well-dissembled sorrows. is not long
in crossing the narrow boundary which divides the
domains of pity and love. Don Juan improves his
occasion with such rapidity and expertness that in
a few days he is the accepted suitor of the widow,
whose happiness, however, is suddenly over-
clouded by the unwelcome intelligence that
the gentleman who has taken such summitry
possession of her heart must proceed without de-
lay to Madrid upon some mysterious errand con-
nected with the Court. He departs vowing eternal
constancy, and promising a quick return. The
lady believss him with all the fond credulity of her
sex, and is only awakened to a sense of his perfidy
upon discovering a packet of letters which he has
forgotten behind him, and from which she learns the
true motive of his sudden departure, which is no
other than to marry another—a richly-dowered dam-
sel, whom he has never seen, but who has been chosen
for him by his father, who has enclosed her miniature
in one of the letters. The widow's heart is wrung
by this bitter revelation ; but her pride also is
piqued, and, plucking up courage, she determines
to foil the deceiver with his own weapons. In com-
pany with her faithful serving-man, she repairs
forthwith to Madrid, and there plays her cards with
such address as completely to out-manoeuvre her
antagonist at his game of false pretences. She takes
upon her the character of a duenna, and in this
unamiable disguise, which her grace and beauty
certainly render rather difficult of assumption, she
is employed by the father of Angelica (Miss
Clifford), the very lady to whom Don Juan is
about to be wedded, to keep a jealous watch over
his daughter, and especially to debar her from
all opportunities of communication with Don
Valdez (Mr. R. Cathcart), to whom she is de-
votedly attached and privately affianced. Of these
duties Donna Vittoria acquits herself with Punic
faith. She fosters Angelica's love for Valdez and
her aversion for Juan with equal zeal, and finally
denounces the latter as a married man with three
children, who is intent not on an honourable snit,
but simply on the offence of bigamy. .In the last
scene of all she undertakes to personate the apocry-
phal wife whom he has so heartlessly forsaken ; but
when she lifts her veil the sense of her beauty and of
his own perfidy is too much for her faithless lover,
who admits his folly—to call it by in harsher
name—and incontinently returns to his allegiance.
Thus diamond cuts diamond, and he who had set a
trap for another is caught in it himself. There is
a lively underplot, showing the rise and progress of
a passion, more ludicrous than tender, in the hearts
of Lopez (Mr. H. Saker), the cavalier's squire, and
the widow's own-woman.

Miss Leclercq's acting in this little piece is
marked by singular grace, delicacy, and refinement.
Mr. Melville, too, is seen to good advantage in the
hero, but the effect of his performance is, as usual,
greatly impaired by his unhappy habit of per-
petually tossing about his arms, and waiving them
circularly in the air like the sails of a windmill.
It is due to Mr. Harris to add a word of praise
of the misc en scene, which is very beautiful.