The Sun.
London, England, 1835-12-10 00:00:00

COVENT-GARDEN THEATRE.

The first act of Mrs. Gore's new drama, King O'Neil,
was weary and flat, and promised that the piece would be
stale and unprofitable ; the second was as good and divert-
ing as the first had been dull and prosing ; and the third
was not far inferior to the second : thus the end made up
for the beginning, and left the audience in very good hu-
mour. It is decidedly better in all respects, than any pre-
vious novelty we have bad at this theatre. If it be, as
announced, " original," the better still, and we shall be glad
to enlist a woman of talents like Mrs. Gore among those
who can contribute to our pleasures of this kind, without
the imputation of being obliged for nearly every thing that
is good to a foreign source. We have metal and material
enough of our own, if we would but employ it ; and it
only wants a few wholesome condemnations of merely im-
ported imbecilities to animate our native authors to hazard
enterprises, to the success of which they only have contri-
buted. This is by no means Mrs. Gore's first " original"
effort, and we earnestly hope it may not be her last.
The main burden of the piece falls upon Power, the re-
presentative of King O'Neil. We have " him first, him
midst, him last ;" and if we had had only a little more of
him " first," we should not have had reason to complain of
the heaviness of the outset. We never saw him in better
spirits, in better humour with his part, and, what is still
more, better acquainted with it. He seemed to us un
usually perfect, and certainly made the most of all he had
to say and do. Mrs. Gore is not very felicitous in Irish
phraseology, or in the use of terms that show off what is
called brogue to advantage ; but we take it for granted
that the actor here and there supplied the defect from his
own abundant stores, though more might have been at-
tempted in this way with advantage. The fault of Mrs.
Gore's dramatic style in general is a want of pithiness,
point, and compression ; she is diffuse, and obviously writes
too easily, with too much confidence in the terms that first
flow from her pen. This error prevails in the production of
last night ; and we could name particular scenes where
perhaps half that is said might be pruned away with
advantage, not indeed by wholesale lopping, but by re-
moving certain redundanciei in every sentence. In this
respect she needs the aid of some practised dramatist before
her scenes are submitted to the public. The story of King
O'Neil is comparatively nothing, yet it is carried on well to
the conclusion, and, with the assistance of Power's acting,
is sufficient to keep up attention, and to excite a great deal
of laughter. Without Power'S performance, it would of
courss be nothing. His part is that of a Captain in the
Irish Brigade in the service of Louis XV., but he claims
to be a lined descendant of the Kings of Connaught, and
hence the title ; for when O'Neil is a little overtaken with
liquor, the royal fit comes on him, and he fancies himself as
real and legitimate a Monarch as any of those who fill the
thrones of Europe, and of a far more ancient and respectable
family. In this imagination his brother officers indulge him, '
and contribute to the droll delusion by paying him all kinds
of homage and observance. It forms a prominent portion of
the plot, that Louis V. himself falls into the project, and
O'Neil is absolutely enthroned, and all but crowned by
the Monarch of France. Much the same trick is played
with O'Neil as with the renowned Christopher° Sly. the
error, the unavoidable error of the piece here is, that
O'Neil, who ought to be the last, is the first 'intoxicated of
a whole mess of officers, and that during nearly the whole
of the two last acts he is in a state of partial inebriation,
though not so far beyond seas as not to be aware both of
his words and deeds. The King (not 0' Niel, but Louis)
has made• an appointment with the Marchioness de Cler-
nzont (Miss Taylor), in hopes of inducing her to take the
place of his discarded mistress, the Duchess de Madly ;
but instead of attending to it, himself (why he did not is
not stated), he scuds to her King O'Neil, whom she mis-
takes for Louis, and whom she petition's in favour of her
marriage with her cousin, Sir Henry Arundel (Webster).
The old father of the Marchioness, Count Dillon (11.
Walrack), hears of the assignation, and proceeds to the
palace to remonstrate against the insult and degradation
thus offered to an old soldier ; and after lie has drawn
his sword upon the Duke de Richelieu, and broken
it in the presence of Louis XV., he' finds that he has
acted under a mistake, and that only King O'Neil has
obtained the private and harmless interview with the Mar-
chioness. His wrath is thus at once terminated, and Louis
presents Dillon with hiS own sword instead of that the
Count had indignantly shivered. This, with the voluntary
abdication of King O'Neil, when he finds that a real Sove-'
reign had been a party to the trick played off upon him,
forms the whole substance of the piece ; for the jealousy
and banishment of the Duchess de the intrigues of
Richelieu, and the manoeuvres of the Countess Dillon (Mrs.
West) have, in truth, little to do with the story, and serve
principally to occupy time. Had the drama been in two
acts instead of three, or had the authoress contrived to give
Power more, and other actors less, to do in the beginning,
we should have had very little to complain of. As it is,
we can give the piece only qualified praise, though with
every disposition to bestow all the praise we can.
We heard no hisses in any part of the house during any
part of the performance, and while Power was on the
stage the laughter was abundant and genuine. What
pleases us most ire his acting, is not its breadth, for it is
never remarkable in that way, hut for the very easy and
natural mode in which he delivers everything, so as to
make highly arousing what would be insipid from anybody
else. Asa proof of it, we would refer to his speech last
night at the mess-table, when returning thanks for the
toast of Royalty ; nothing was set down for him that was
not of' the commonest description, but he kept not only the
table, but the audience in a roar. We do not like the
cosi 'ogle of the performers, however correct it may be;
particularly of the ladies ; and we never saw Miss Tailor
look so plain, or, to speak more gallantly, so little like her-
self- There is too strict an observance of costume,
French actresses, with all their apparent adherence to
it, arc well aware of it. They observe sufficient propriety
in this respect without making themselves spectacles, and
they accomplish it by a happy combination of ancient
habits and modern improvements. Wailack gave out the
piece for repetition, but the house would not be satisfied
without afterwards making Power walk before the cur-
tain from one end of the stage to the other.

A fire bro7:e oat on Sunday night on the farm of
Mr. Mills, of Lon!, MeWord.' Nearly all the stacks, chiefly
cons:sting of wheat, are reported to be destroyed. The
hoes; was saved. From what has transpired,. there is but
too mu74l reason to fear that the fire was the work of an in
cend:ary. The property is insured in the Suffolk Fire-office.
—Bury Paper.
At a recent meeting of the Architectural Soeatty a
paper was read, containingille results of expe.-I:n:mts made
by Mr. G. Rennie on the comparative .streng-ih of storre
generally used for flooring. It appears a slab of Welsh
slate,. One inch thick, is equ in strength to a piece of
Yorkshire stone six inches, or of the Caithness (Scotland)
or Va!enti.). (Ireland) of:two inches in thickness.