The Sun.
London, England, 1858-11-22 00:00:00

ROYAL PRINCESS'S THEATRE.

Our readers may secure to themselves a comic treat of no
ordinary excellence—and, what is more, of a highly intel-
lectual kind—if they will only take the pleasing trouble of
visiting the Princess's Theatre on an evening when
Much Ado about Nothing" is performed. The comedy
was revived on Saturday night with such decided success
that its repetition twice a-week maybe judiciously continued
for .an indefinitely long period. Nevertheless, as this is Mr.
Charles Kean's farewell season, and he intends to go
through many characters before he gives up the reins of
management, he may change his bills more rapidly than
under ordinary circumstances, and hence every opportunity
that offers for seeing him in a new part should be seized by
the forelock without hesitation or delay. England is not
the " murk England" of the olden time, and it would be
almost sinful to miss such an occasion as is presented by the
revival of "Much Ado about Nothing." _ _

A few young men of the present day have imbibed the
heretical notion that Shakespeare less agreeably fills up a
leisure hour than the more frivolous productions of the
French stage ; in other words, to use a vile modern expres-
sion, that the great national poet is rather " slow." Ono
might fancy that it is for the sake of refuting this egregious
fallacy that Mr. Charles Kean now revives " Much Ado
about Nothing"; at all events he has repeated it most
effectually. Save in the serious scenes, which
are the shortest, the play caused one uninterrupted flow
of merriment from the beginning to the end I—lndeed
those who had only seen our great tragedian absorbed
in the melancholy of Hamlet or wrapped in all the mys-
terious terrors of Macbeth, could not suppose he had such
"fun" in him as he disylayed in his Benedick--certainly one
of the most genial creations ever witnessed on any stage.
Let it not be imagined that he merely elicited that calm
mode of approval which has satirically been called a " legiti-
mate smile." The audience did not smile—they "roared,"
as Benedick's resolution to die a bachelor broke ignobly
down, and he fell head over ears in love, without power of
self-preservation. They roared at his woe-stricken coun-
tenance, they jumped with his resolution to woo boldly;
he was a "pet" with whose hearty delights and ludicrous
woes every body took an interest, so very real did they look.
And the Beatrice of Mrs. Charles Kean—how completely
was she made for such a Benedick I how well did the arch-
ness on the one side correspond to the somewhat soldierly
bluntness on the other. Truly that Benedick and that
Beatrice were born for the express purpose of wearing in
partnership the yoke of holy wedlock, and even if there had
not been half-a-dozen conspirators, male and female, to
entrap them into a belief of mutual affection, some fate or
other would have brought them together. The tableaux
which they formed in the end, when each held up the
other's poem, was an admirable symbol of the relation in
which they had stood throughout the entire play. Some
artist should copy it accurately, and it should serve as the
frontispiece to " Much Ado About Nothing" in the next
illustrated edition of Shakespeare.
But if our great artists, relieving themselves from the
sublime horrors of "Macbeth," by an abandonment to the
mirth that prevailed at Messina, when Don Pedro of Anti-
gen visited Leonata, the governor, it should be observed that
their mirth is always within the limits of the most polished
refinement. The Benedick of Mr. Charles Kean is no vul-
gar ribald, but it is only when he himself chooses that 1 e
can be regarded a merely jocose subject. He can put aside
' the motley as easily as he can gracefully wear it ; and
when he is inspired by a solemn sense of duty, he is not to
be trifled with, even by the Prince. There is something
grand in the change, when the man, who has made us
laugh so heartily by his soliliquy in the second act, puts on
the grave dignified demeanour that accompanies the chal-
lenge to Claudio. And so also with the Beatrice of Mrs.
Charles Kean. Overflowing as she is with native gaiety,
she is always the wit of the aristocratic drawing room.
• Our two great actors are now to be seen every evening/
_ _ _

in the highest walk either of tragedy or comedy—c, Mac-
beth," " King John," and "Much Ado About Nothing."
Such is the intellectual weekly fare offered to the LondQl
public at the Princess's Theatre.

THE ANAMULLY HILLS.—An important expedi-
tion has been carried out in the Coimbatore collectorate by
Mr. J. W. Cherry, the collector, and ten Other gentlemen/
who have explored the hitherto nknown region of the Ana"
mully hills, on which great expectations have been justly
formed. They started from Coimbatore on the 12th
September, were absent ten days, and ascended to the
height of six thousand or seven thousand feet. Their
report is said to be in every way satisfactory, 88
they consider these hills, almost equal to the the Neil-
ghenies, and every way suitable for English settlement/
with abundant of forest land, well adapted for coffee,, while
the upper ranges of these hills are entirely unoccupied by
the natives. The Government will be strongly urged to
open up the district by roads, &c., so that we hope soon to
report another successful colony.. It is to be hoped the
home Government will stir up the Madras authorities, for
the establishment of these settlements is a matter of primal,'
importance,--Leader.