The Sun.
London, England, 1859-10-27 00:00:00

PRINCESS'S THEATRE.

The usual light performances of this theatre were
last night put aside, in order that the full tragedy
of " Hamlet" might be produced, to give Mr. George
Melville, an actor of consider, b:e provincial cele-
brity, the opportunity of testing his abilities as the
world-renowned Prince of Denmark. Mr. Melville
has several requisites for the highest grade of the
profession he has chosen, and nature, though not
completely bountiful, has furnished him with many
requisites of a first• class tragic actor. His stature,
though only just the middle height, is removed from
the insignificant, and is so moulded as to give him
a graceful and manly appearance. His face and
features are pleasing, and are capable of consider-
able expression ; and, above all, he has youth on
his side. lie is well acquainted with stage busi-
ness, walks, dresses, and looks well, and outwardly
has all the requisites of his art. He seems also to
be a scholar, and to read with much judgment and
taste. _ _ _

" Hamlet" has been so often and so variously in-
terpreted by the greatest commentators, and it has
been so often performed by the greatest actors, that
it beconfes the most difficult part a debutante can.
undertake. Mr. Melville's interpretation of the
chameleon-like character is, in the main, one we
think just. His principle is to bring out the youth,
tenderness, and melancholy of the Prince, and to
never lose sight that he was heir-apparent to the
Danish throne. He succeeded best, therefore, in
the colloquial and the didactic portions of the play;
and recited the hackneyed soliloquy of " To be, or
not to be," much better than he did the passionate
one of " Oh ! what a rogue and peasant slave am I,"
which Garrick held to be the touchstone of an
actor's capacity in the part. He recited the injunc-
tions to the actors, and expressed his regard for
Horatio, better than he gave the semi-madness of
his interview with the Ghost, or the frenzied
declaration of love for Ophelia over her grave.
Mr. Melville is not defieient,in energy, for, on
two or three occasions, he fairly roused the audience
to enthusiasm. He has excellent taste ; mimics no
celebrity ; hankers after no intent meanings or new
readings, and is always judicious and sensible. In
_ _

all this we thank him, for imitators and would-be-
profound interpreters have so long infested the
theatres, that it is much to get a sensible actor who
plays, at all events, from his own notions and his
own feelings.

The part of Hamlet is so long, so complicated,
and requires such sustained powers, that we recol-
lect no actor who fulfilled all its requisites; not
even the elder Kean, who in his prime vas the
nearest to a true delineation we have ever seen.
Mr. Melville is young, practised in, and• evidently
devoted to his art; and there can be no doubt will
prove a great acquisition to the metropolitan stage.

The house, which was well attended, was evi-
dently much interested in the performance, and ex-
pressed its frequent approbation very loudly. Mr.
Melville was called at the close of every act, and at
the conclusion of the play received the very cordial
approbation of the audience. A new drama is an-
nounced for Monday, in which he is to take the
principal character.

GREAT FIRE AT ANTWERP.—On Sunday a fire
burnt down ono of the wings of the Royal Arsenal, at Ant-
werp. One or two persons lost theirlives, and severalwere
injured, It is not known hew the fire was occasioned.

DEATH OF REAR-ADMIRAL TILE EARL
OF TVALDEG.RAVE.

We regret to have to announce the decease of Vice-Admi-
ral the Right Hon. William, eighth Earl of Waldegrave,
C. 8., which melancholy event took place on Monday night,
at his residence at Hastings.
The deceased William Waldegravo, eighth Earl of Wal-
degrave, and Viscount Chewton, Baron Waldegrave, and a
baronet of the United Kingdom, fourth son of the fourth
Earl of Waldegrave, was born at Navestock Hall, in Essex,
on October 27, 1788. He had the misfortune to lose his
father while yet in infancy—that nobleman dying while on
a visit to the Earl of Aylesford, in Warwickshire, leaving
his widow with four sons and one daughter, Lady Maria
Waldegrave, subsequently married to Mr. Micklethwait, of
Cossy Hall, Norfolk. Of the sons, George, the fifth earl,
was unfortunately drowned at Eton, and was succeeded by
John James, the sixth earl, who entered the army and
served in the Peninsular war, and also in the short cam-
paign ending with the battle of Waterloo. The third son,
Edward, also was in the military service, and after sharing
in the disastrous retreat of Sir John Moore, was drowned.in
the wreck of the transport in which he was returning to
England, on the Manacle Rocks, near Plymouth. William,
the fourth son—the subject of this memoir—was educated
at Eton, and chose thenavy for his profession. Mr. 0' Byrne,
in his " Naval Biography," gives the following account of
his career :—" Mr. Waldegrave entered as'a first-class boy
on board the Theseus, 74, Captain John Bligh, bearing the
flag of his uncle, Lord Radstock, and then fitting
at Spithead, August 11, 1801. Removing in January,
1802 (he had already attained the rating of midshipman),
to the Medusa, 32, commanded by Sir John Gore, he con-
tributed in that ship, after cruising in the Mediterranean,
to the capture of three Spanish frigates laden with treasure,
and the destruction of the fourth off Cape St. Mary, sth
Oct., 1804 ; and to the detention, in the ensuing November,
of the Matilda, 36, a ship laden with a cargo of quicksilver
worth £200,000. In the early part of 1805 the Medusa con-
veyed the Marquis Cornwallis, as Governor-General, to
India, whence she effected her passage home, a distance of
13,831 miles, in the wonderfully short period of 82 days.
Mr. Taldegrave served with Sir John for a few more
months in the Revenge, 74, in the Channel ; but in June,

1806,:he joined,: at Plymouth, the Royal George, 100,
flag-ship of Sir John Duckworth. On 29th July following
he was made lieutenant of the Sirius, 36, Captain
William Prows°, on his former station, the Mediterranean,
where he was appointed 12th Dec., 1808, and 11th April,
1809, to the Ocean, 98, and Vile de Paris, 110, bearing
each the flag of Lord Collingwood. On the night of the
31st October in the latter year we find him serving with
the boats of a squadron under Lieutenant John Tailour
at the capture and destruction of the French armed
store-ship Lamproie, of 16 guns and 116 men, bombards
Victoire and Grondeur, armed Xeber, Normande, and
several merchant vessels, defended by numerous strong
batteries in the Bay of Rosas, after a desperate struggle
and a loss to the British of 15 killed and 55 wounded. As
we learn from Lord Collingwood's public letter, he dis-
played on that occasion the spirit which was inherent in
him, and having been the first volunteer on the service, he
was sent home by his lordship with his despatches. He
arrived at the Admiralty 29th of November following, and
three days afterwards was promoted to the rank of com-
mander. He was next, 6th of July, 1810, appointed to the
Melpomene, which, after Gen. Massena's retreat from be-
fore Torres Vedras, assisted in carrying the British army,
under Gen. Hill, across the Tagus, and with a post cap-
tain's commission, dated Bth Mareh, 1811, he was appointed
to the. Macedonia, also on the Lisbon station, which he left
on the 7th June, 1811, returning to England."
On the 10th August, 1812,, Captain Waldegrave married

Elizabeth, eldest daughter of Mr. Samuel Whitbread, by
the Lady Elizabeth Grey. This introduced him at once
into the politics of the day, and the character of that inde-
pendent statesman gave the bias to his mind which ever
after remained with him, namely, a general determination
to support Whig measures, but not to be a party man. On
Mr. Whitbread's untimely death he was unanimously
elected to fill the vacant seat as member of Parliament for
Bedford during the minority of his brother-in-law, which
he held till the dissolution of that Parliament in 1818. His
noble mother, who, in the course of a long widowhood, had
administered her son's property in the most exemplary
manner, being now dead, Captain Waldegrave, about the
year 1821, settled in Somersetshire, as agent to his brother
under trustees, and in this county he is remembered with
respect by his fellow-magistrates for his unwearied at-
tention to his duties as a justice of the peace, and with
affection by the poor for his unfailing readiness to hear and
redress their grievances. The colliers speak of him
as the first gentleman who made himself personally ac..
quainted with their mode of life by descending their pits
and endeavouring to improve their condition. On the 7th
of Feb., 1829, Captain Waldegrave was appointed to H.M.S.
Seringapatam, 46, on the South American station, and was
sent by the Admiralty to investigate the state of the islands
of the South Pacific, and report upon their conversion to
Christianity. Subsequently he acted as senior officer in
the Pacific from May, 1830, till April, 1832. The imme-
diate result of this voyage showed itself in his settling down
in London on his return to England, and devoting his
energies to the promotion of the temporal and spiritual in-
terests of seamen, and the spread of the Gospel among the
heathen, whether at home or abroad, and he became an
active member of societies formed for these purposes. At
the end of seven years he was appointed to the command of
the Revenge, 74 (May, 1839), and took a distinguished
part in the bombardment of St. Jean d'Acre, under the
Hon. Sir Robert Stopford and Sir Charles Napier. The
latter he assisted in concluding the peace by which the war
between Turkey and Egypt was ended. On the 18th Dec.,
1840, he was nominated, with the rest of the captains in
the Syrian war, a Companion of the Bath. In Sept. and
Oct., 1841, ho was senior official officer in the Bay of Tunis,
with the Ganges, 84, and the Implacable, 74, under his
orders. He obtained the captain's good service pension in
1842, and returned to England in March of the same
year. On the Ist Oct., 1846, he acceptea the rank ur
lo-
tired rear-admiral, in accordance with his long-expressed
opinion that older though still vigorous men should make
room for younger men in the service. In the same year he
succeeded to the family dignity as eighth Earl of Walde-
grave on the death of his nephew, and having been a
widower since 1843, married Mrs. Milward, of Hastings,
which place became henceforward his principal residence.
The loss of his eldest son, Viscount Chewton, who died on
the Bth of October, 1854, of wounds received at the battle of
the Alma, was a blow to his health from which he never re-
covered. The Queen expressed her most gracious and
deep-felt sympathy at the death of Lord Chewton, in a
letter which was most graciously worded and most grate-
fully received. Gradually and most reluctantly one active
pursuit after another was relinquished, till in 1866 he was
unable to attend in the House of Lords.

The late Viscount Chew ton left Ekt his death (by his wife,
daughter of Captain Bastard, R.N., of Sharpham, Devon-
shire), one son, William Frederick, born on the 2d March,
1851; and another son, Henry Noel, born on the 14th Oc-
tober, 1851, a few days after the death of his noble father.
Tho late earl is succeeded in his title and honours by his
grandson, the above William Frederick, now ninth Earl of
Waldegrave, born on the 2d of March, 1851.