The Sun.
London, England, 1858-04-06 00:00:00

EASTER AMUSEMENTS.

PRINCESS'S.

The performances commenced last night with a
new farce, called "The Stock Exchange; or, the
Green Business," by Mr. Charles Dance, and
written with all that neatness of dialogue and
knowledge of stage requirements for which this
gentleman is renowned. The incidents are not
particularly new, but they were very mirth-provok-
ing ; and if the laughter which had rolled inces-
santly through twc-thirds of the piece rather flagged
towards the end, s. very slight curtailment will
bring the little piece to a sparkling termination, and
remove the anti-el max which appeared to us to
exist. The plot is laid in London, at the present
day. Mr. Theophilus Grasshopper (Mr. Walter
Lacy), a young stockbroker, with a very charming
wife, who believes him to be a pattern husband, has
become smitten with a Mrs. Early Free (Miss Mur-
ray), a widow, as heimagines, whomhe had met in the
street, followed, aceosted, and finally asked to din-
ner. His absence from home during the pursuit he
explains to his wife by saying that he is engaged in a
greet speculation, which occupies all his time and
though s, and which is known on 'Change as "the
Green Business." The widow—who is in reality no
widow, being married again to a Mr. Thomas
Gresham (Mr. Meadows), another stockbroker—de-
termines to teach her admirer a lesson, so invites
him to dinner, and to meet him asks her old school-
fellow Mrs. Grasshooper (Miss Heath), being en-
tirely
ignorant that Grasshopper, whom she has
never seen, is her impudent persecutor. Then be-
gins the imbroglio, Detected in a few shortcom-
ings, such as smoking and betting, Gras-hopper
fathers all his faults on old Gresham, who is intro-
-1 duced to Mrs. Grasshopper as the veritable Green,
the Great head of the Green Busine s, and who is
regarded as a perfect monsterof iniquity by the con-
fiding wife. Her suspicions are first aroused by
the defence which Mrs. Gresham—supposed to be
Mrs. Early Free—makes of her husband Mr.
Gresham, supposed to be Mr. Green ; and they are
confirmed by the dark hints dropped by a fourth
latockbroker, a Mr. Derby Oaks (Mr. D. Fisher), of ,
loose morals and sporting tastes, who himself
nourishes ulterior designs on Mrs. Grasshopper.
Placed at last in a ridiculous position and a serious
dilemma by his knowledge of Oaks's intentions, and
his inability to take proper notice of them for fear
of the disclosures that might ensue, Grasshopper
sees his folly, repents, and all ends happily.
This little piece, which was so admirably acted by
all concerned that it would be invidious to select
one character for particular approbation, was fol-
lowed by the revival of the magical drama of
" Faust and Marguerite," in which Mr. Charles
Kean appeared as Mephistopheles, and delighted the
audience by his admirable make up (looking the
very embodiment of Retsch's outlines), his quaint
sardonic &rusquerie, and his picturesque poses.
The final scene, too, the apotheosis of Marguerite,
created the usual enthusiasm.
The entertainments concluded with a farce, en-
titled " Samuel in Search of Himself," which pro-
bably is founded on " L'Homme qui se cherche,"
produced at the Vaudeville in 1848, but which, in
its English dress is full of the broadest situations,
is excellently acted by Messrs. Harley, Fisher, and
Saker, and was received with the greatest applause
and laughter threughoute