The Sun.
London, England, 1858-12-20 00:00:00

PRINCESS'S THEATRE.

So successful a worshipper of Thalia did Mr. Charles
Kean prove when he recently appeared as Benedick in
0 Much Ado about Nothing," a character which he now
repeats twice every week—that he now takes in hand a
comedy of the more ordinary kind, the " Jealous Wife" of
Coleman the elder, wisely using the three act version,
which, while it retains all the droll situations of the original,
is free from a vast quantity of ineffective matter. The cha-
racters of Mr. and Mrs. Oakley are comic iikthe generally
accepted sense of the word ; they do not approach that ideal
region which gives a poetical, and therefore a semi-serious
hue, even to its gayest inhabitants; but they are decidedly
to be laughed at, or laughed with, whenever they appear
on the stage. Both,_ too, come in for their fair share of
active and passive mirth. At first the cause of hilarity is
the uncontrolled tyranny of the-lady and the abject humi-
liation of the gentleman. Afterwards the fun results from
that table-turning which need not be traced to supernatural
causes, but which shows how a petticoat government may
very naturally be overthrown if it becomes too oppressive.
When old comedies are revived in modern times the
young men of the day are often surprised to find so much
dulnes where their fathers found so much amusement.
Their disappointment arises in a great measure from the
inability of our actors to give the imaginary personages
they represent all that life and colour which readered them
so important in the "good old times." Hence, when two
thoroughly genial and thoroughly accomplished artists,
like Mr. and Mrs. Charles Kean, show their strength in
the lighter department of their art, the opportunity of wit-
nessing their performances ought to be seized with avidity.
Let it not be imagined for a moment that they are less at
home in comedy than in tragedy. So admirable are they
in "The Jealous Wife," that we are obliged to confess
that, if they had never been seen in a tragic part, the more
hilarious muse would, nevertheless, have rewarded them
with undying laairels.
Farcical huniour, and the power of representing the
more eccentric diversities of human nature, are by no means
uncommon at the present day ; but these have nothing in
common with such impersonations as the Mi. and Mrs.
Oakley of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Kean. The gentleman is
no rare avis, that might not be met with in ordinary social
circles. He is simply a rational, courteous, well-bred,
high-principled man, who, in an evil hour, has allowed the
reins of domestic government to slip into the hands of his
wife, who has been but too ready to take them up. Neither
is there anything exceptional in the lady. She is sus-
picious, quick to take offence, and to divine evil where
none exists; physically energetic when her temper is
roused, and, at such a juncture, not strictly regulated by
the laws of social decorum.

It is in their wondrous delineation of the extraordinary
emotions, that are produced in two ordinary individuals by
a concatenation of circumstances, that the genius of Mr.
and Mrs. Kean for comedy, in the best and highest sense of
the word, is displayed. The bland submission of Mr.
Kean, _the varied rage of Mrs. Kean, shadow forth th
vicissitudes to which many a household is subjected throng
the warring • elements of its interior. Caricatures, whil
they awaken a laugh, rarely convey instruction; but who
shall say that a lesson of self-control was not inculcated by
such a delineation of domestic uncomfortableness as was
effected on Saturday last by our .two great artists ? Many
a man, who kept his thoughts to himself, doubtless felt that
he had often been in the position of poor Mr. Oakley, and
concealed beneath a laugh at the mimic griefs, a sigh over
his own. Never did the two inimitable artists do them-
selves greater justice than in this most amusing comedy,
their performance in which may be regarded as the graceful
sport of the most exalted tragic genius.