The Sun.
London, England, 1866-11-13 00:00:00

THEATRE ROYAL PRINCESS'S.

New Dramatic Version of " Barn.aby Rudge."
The popularity of Charles Dickens—immense
though it has been during a period now of thirty
years [the serial publication of " Pickwick" was
completed in 1836]—has never been more conspi-
cuously manifest than it is at this present moment.
Are evidences of this wanting ? Circionspice ! They
are apparent in all directions. To begin with—it
was only the other day that one among his Five
charming Christmas Books, not by any means the
best amongst them, but still for all that, as might
readily enough be the case, a charming story in
itself, was nightly filling Sadler's Wells, under its
dramatic title as " Dot." In a totally opposite
direction, on the other side of the water, at the
other end of London, another theatre, Astley's to
wit, is at this present moment filling night after
night—the principal attraction there being a drama-
tised version of the last serial fiction of our great
novelist. The stage name assumed by " Our
Mutual Friend" being the local sobriquet of Mr.
Boffin—that is to say, " The Golden Dustman." At
the Olympic, " The Frozen Deep," which is there
the nightly attraction, while it owes its existence
originally to Mr. Wilkie Collins' skill as a dramatic
writer, mainly owes the prolongation until now
of that existence to the histrionic genius manifested
by Mr. Dickens in the impersonation of the prin-
cipal character hr that affecting melodrama. Alto-
gether, apart, of course, from any mere theatrical
evidences of the fact that Charles Dickens's popu-
larity is more conspicuously apparent, nowadays,
than it has ever been during all these thirty years
last past (that, instead of falling off in any way, it
is more than ever widening and deepening, as time
advances) there are noticeable in his regard such tes-
timonies of its being as we have said, as the following
sufficiently obvious ones,for example—That his works
are now publishing in four distinct editions without
the success of any one of those four editions inter-
fering with the success of the three others—
each new edition appearing to create a new reading
public of its own—the Original Edition, the Library
Edition, the Cheap Edition, and the People's
Edition. That wheresoever or whensoever he is an-
nounced for one of his Readings—in Paris, in London,
in Glasgow, no matter where—the places selected for
his so-called Readings (for, it is almost needless to
say, that they are something very far beyond sim-
ply Readings in their general character) are crowded
by audiences of the most varied kind imaginable,
literate and illiterate, and all of them apparently
equally enthusiastic in the evidence of their delight,
now by hearty applause, now by hushed silence,
now by bursts of laughter. To sum up all, how-
ever, by the mention of just one other very practical
token of the conspicuous magnitude (of the depth
and width) of this immense popularity—let us refer
simply, in passing, to the significant fact that, when-
ever the Christmas number of Mr. Dickens's weekly
periodical is issued from the press, it commands at
once a ready sale of 200,000 copies. Reverting,
however, to a consideration of the purely theatrical
evidences of his popularity, we have now to ap-
pend to what has already been said about the re-
cent production of " Dot" at Sadler's Wells, and of
the " Golden Dustman" at Astley's, to say nothing
more about his histrionic association with Wilkie
Collins' " Frozen Deep" at the Olympic—that last
evening witnessed the production, for the first time,
upon the stage of the Princess's, of a new dramatic
version of ono of the most enthrallingand picturesque
of our great novelist's romances, the historical
romance of " Burnaby Rudge."

A quarter of a century has elapsed since the
serial publication of the tale in "Master Humphrey's
Clock" was completed. More than one drama
foundedupon it has since then—within that interval
of five and twenty years—been produced. But the
version given last evening—the joint production, it
may here be added at once, of Mr. Watts Phillips
and Mr. George Vining--was an entirely new version
from beginning to end, the play being constructed
apparently mainly as a medium for the introduction
of a young American actress to the world of Lon-
don playgoers. An American Actress, and yet,
strange to say, an Englishwoman born and bred—
a daughter of Mr. Henry Vining, the actor, and
consequently a niece of Mr. George Vining, the
actor-manager. Whatever may be said or thought
about the success of the piece itself—this new dra-
matic version of Barnaby Rudge—about the success
of the young actress it was the means of in-
troducing to us, there can be no particle
of doubt whatever. It was complete and
unequivocal. And that we don't hesitate
in the least to assert, although at the end of the

third act there occurred the following incident—.
one reminding us, by the way, of the first night of
Mr. Charles Reade's " Never To 6 Late to Mend."
At the end of the third act Mr. Vining, as manager,
stepped on to the stage, and, standing between the
curtain and the footlights, thus addressed his
audience :•

" Ladies and gentlemen, on the present occasion I do
not appear before you as an actor. I have had an opportu-
nity of sitting in a private box, and from the commence-
ment of this evening I have seen one or two persons who
have come hero determined from the first to hiss. (Cries
of Turn them out.') Unfortunately I cannot point them
out. If I could point them out I would turn thorn out
myself. (Cheers, laughter, and cries of Shame.') The
hissing has not boon the fair expression of popular opinion.
(Cheers and slight dissent.) It began at an early pe-
riod of the piece, when there was not a pretext for it, to
the degradation of their manhood, against ono who is not
only a lady but a stranger. Ido not object to a fair ex-
pression of opinion. Ido not like people to come with a
determination to hiss ; but if we deserve it, hiss us with
all your might."

Taking him at his word, the isolated dissentients
thus referred to by the manager greeted his depar-
ture froM the stage with one or two very distinct
hisses, which were audible even through the hurri-
cane of applause that greeted him from the rest of
the house. IVhile we would deprecate the wisdom
of any interference on the part of a manager with
the expression of the opinion of even one solitary
individual in an audience, we must at the same time
add that the entirely unprovoked sibilations which
greeted the new actress almost immediately upon
her first appearance and repeatedly afterwards,
were naturally enough to Mr. Vining an immense
and evidently an irresistible provocation. Besides,
the dissentients were unmistakeably not simply in a
minority, they were absolutely isolated. All the
rest of the house, the whole bulk of the audience
being manifestly delighted, as was evidenced again
and again by the enthusiasm of their acclamations.
Altogether the cast of the piece was respectably good,
but nothing more. It might certainly have been
better in several particulars. For example, the ma-
nager himself might have appeared in one or other
of the characters with obvious advantage in the
way of strengthening the cast as a whole. -The
Miss Miggs of the new actress (Mrs. John Wood)
was, beyond a doubt, the impersonation of the
night—though her appearance is entirely against her
—for it is charming A pretty Miggs being quite
manifestly an anomaly ! Not less so than it
would have been had we had to witness (which for-
tunately we had not) a plain Dolly Varden ! " A
charming, surprised-looking, capital face" (so far,
just like Scrooge's niece) she has—this young soi-
disant American actress (English born and English
bred, as already hinted)—but (unlike, if we re-
member rightly, Scrooge's niece aforesaid) Mrs.
John Wood possesses the prettiest nez retroussee now
anywhere to be seen on the London boards,
a feature that lends a perfecting piquancy to the
frolicsome fun of her espieglerie, to the every toss
of her graceful head and the vis comica visible in
the mobile lines of her pretty face. Judging her
merely from this one impersonation of Miss Miggs
we cannot hesitate to pronounce her at once an un-
questionable acquisition to the London stage. Miss
Augusta Thomson made up and acted prettily enough
as charming little Dolly Varden. Mr. Chas. Hors-
man's Maypole Hugh was thoroughly good and
admirably picturesque also in the make up, be-
sides being cleverly acted throughout. Very fair,
too, both in dress and deportment, was the Sir
John Chester of Mr. J. G. Shore. Poor daft
Barnaty Rudge—the one only really loveable
idiot surely that any great author ever depicted!
found a most graceful and seeming-real representa-
tive in Miss Katherine Rodgers. As for Mr. H. Mel-
lon's John Willett, it would have been a tolerably
passable impersonation of that immortal au, if only

the old Maypole landlord's countenance had not been
so distressingly uncomely. Perhaps with a view to
keep him " in countenance" by a distortion of visage
preternaturally hideous and ridiculous in its effect--
one of old John's tap-room cronies (we are in doubt
whether Mr. Chapman's Parkes or Mr. Robins
Cobb) had his face made up for all the world like 3
pantomime mask, only more hideous than anY
pantomime mask that was ever contrived—effecting
this transformation apparently by swelling bis dice;
out with a couple of plutnpers and by flattening hi
nose down with a horsehair ! By all means het us
entreat the manager to see that that horse hair anu
those plumpers are henceforth dispensed with. Mr'
Calhaem's Simon Tappertit would have left D°l-1
thing wanting had only his spindle legs and shrld
voice and struttingly consequential gait been eetWjie
all of them with a visage just a trifle, let us sal;
less old, snaggle-toothed, and wizzened. As for 3
E. Shepherd's Gabriel Varden, nothing could weLi,
have been worse. The glorious, burly old locksnlit'l
one of the most delightful characters in the origti
story has (thanks to Mr. Shepherd) disappeared fr°l;
the scene altogether. There is an insignitica%
somebody calling himself Gabriel Varden—but there
is no Gabriel Varden in the form, in the flesh, inre
voice, in the whole demeanour ! Deficiences there
are, in fact, one way or another all througb m
piece—deficiences many of which are only too str'ts
ingly apparent. The Lord George (Jordon
are no doubt, for example, displayed to view Yer)
vividly in several particulars, but Lord Ge°rger,
Gordon himself only once makes his LIPP°,
ante for a moment, by stalking across the stshoe
but never once opening his lips. Then, again, :°
of the most loquacious characters in the origlliof
tale—dear, delightful, old, Grip, the raven--11°'
course, to be dispensed with—appearing only as
stuffed crow (apparently) in the basket strapPed
to Barnaby's shoulders. The whole plot of the st°r"
again hinges upon the "No Popery" clisturbance'e
but—throughout this dramatic version—net °lle
is the "No Popery " cry anywhere articulated
As for the scenery it is admirable. Mr. I,lom 5
and Mr. Hann having surpassed theniserh'bee
—in the Maypole, inside and outside,—in 'et
Warren in flames, a spectacle equalling if /it
surpassing that of the burning house in the " Strees
of London"—and afterwards in The Warr
in ruins, as seen by moonlight. One other seell,;
perhaps the loveliest of them all, that of the wicl°Wa
cottage at sunset, has yet to be particularised, an,
it is one that cannot be viewed without adillit3t;
tion. The whole play ends as some plays do (for )
own part we cannot but think most preposteronsuis
with a General Dance of the Characters—Mirg!
and Dolly, Gabriel and Sim, Joe Willett and 14'
Varden, footing it together, in a sort of a last ten'
tury breakdown. Altogether, on the fall of theca°.
the few dissentient sounds which had been n°4ice'
able at rare intervals as the evening went
were, on being renewed, drowned in the genet
g
applause announcing the play to be sucees;
ful. Whatever success it has achieved
n'uero
however, be attributed to the comic ro;
evidenced by Mrs. John Wood, in her We
sonation of Miggs, to the skill of the two acc°4i.:
1);
plished scene-painters, and last, not least, t°
vivifying influence of the rare genius, the MP' t
humorous and pathetic genius of our Great is.tovelis