The Sun.
London, England, 1832-10-02 00:00:00

R O YAL LADY'S MA GAZINE•

A periodical which, though it cannot com-
pete either in its literary or pictorial department
with the " Court Magazine," is yet of very re-
spectable average merit. Its chief fault is, that
its columns are too exclusively devoted to tales,
which have a strong family resemblance to each
other.

POLONIA.
As this work is devoted to the best interests of
humanity, by furthering the cause of constitu-
tional freedom in Poland, we shall never speak
of it without respect. But, indeed, its literary
merits deserve this at our hands, without any
other considerations. It is a clever, well di-
gested work, containing much good prose and
poetry.

THE THEATRES.

DRURY-LANE.

Mr. SERLE'S new tragedy, the House of Colberg, was
brought out here last night. The plot is as follows

Colberg (Mr. MacaEanv), a, Pomeranian nobleman, has an
only daughter, Agnes Colberg (Miss Piftwes), whom he sends
to the Court of the Sovereign Prince of Eisbach (Mr. Coopita),
in order that she may represent in proper splendour the dignity
of her father's house. To deck her out, the father has been
obliged to mortgage the family estate to a Jew, Woorthmann
(Mr. MATHEWS). The Prince of Eisbach falls in love with
Agnes Colberg during her stay at his Court, and though he had
often before felt something bordering on the passion, this is the
first time that it will carry him so far as to propose matrimony.
In the mean time, Count Colberg has a Captain of his archers,
Frederick Rosen (Mr. STANLEY), who in some feud had saved the
life of his lord and master, and the gratitude of the daughter, as
usual, degenerates into love. All this is learnt in the first act. In
the second is found the Prince of Eisbach on a visit to Colberg's
mansion, to demand his daughter as his bride. Colberg is
flattered at the demand, and promises his daughter, more par-
ticularly for this reason, that her mother was beloved by the
Prince of Eisbach's father, and that he had generously given
her up to him the Count of Colberg. When Colberg has made
the promise, he calls for his daughter and tells her of it. She
declares that she is in love with the Captain of his archers,
Frederick Rosen ; but still, rather than break through the ties
of filial duty, she will consent to accept the hand of the
Prince. In another scene she goes to take farewell of Frederick
Rosen, to ask his forgiveness, and permission to fulfil the pro-
mise she has made to her father of espousing the Prince.
Frederick forgives and permits; but during the tenderness of
their eternal adieu, the Prince arrives, and hears enough to con-
vince him that the love of Agnes for him must be second hand.
An explanation, and a very sensible and prudent one, takes
place, after which the Prince engages that the loving couple
shall be married ; and through his instrumentality they are
married by his chaplain. He then waits upon Colberg, and after
some equivoque, tells him of the sacrifice he has made to his own
feelings in giving up the lady, and linking her with another.
llere comes the tragedy of the piece. Colberg draws his sword,
taunts, and challenges the Prince, who, seeing that no third
person is witness of the insult, puts up with it, and treats Col-
berg as if he were a madman, and below the notice of a ra-
tional being. The Prince retires, whereupon Colberg throws
down his sword, rails at his rashness, reflects a moment, and
then seizes his sword again, with which he hurries off the
stage. While he is absent he slays his daughter's lover Frede-
rick Rosen. The last act opens with a banquet scene in honour
of the Prince of Eisbach, who is about to depart from the Cas-
tle of Colberg, A number of persons have been invited, but
having learned that Rosen died by the hands of Colberg, not
one of them appear at the entertainment. Colberg, of course,
expresses his surprise, and while so doing is interrupted by the
Prince, who comes not to accept of the banquet, but to take
his farewell- While this ceremony is taking place, a servant
arrives, who announces to Colberg that his daughter has dis-
appeared from the Castle. He imagines her dead at first, but
his Steward comes and says she lives. She is introduced, and
her appearance makes the father instantly exclaim, " She's not
dead ; but, oh God ! 'tis madness." In reality the death of
her lover has made her mad, knowing as she does that her fa-
ttier was the cause of it. In her frenzy, she says, " I see the
deep wound; he lifts his gory finger and points it there,"
pointing at her father. She then falls upon the stage, recovers
for an instant from her madness, and then expires in the pre-
sence of her father. The piece terminates here. . _

It will be seen from this analysis that the plot has few
or no pretensions to originality, being merely the thou-
sandth illustration of the old truism, that " the course of
true love never did run smooth." Still it interests from
its simplicity, and because, except in one or twc trivial
incidents, it does not drag its weary length along, as was
the case with the Merchant of London. The character
of Agnes Colberg opened in a very promising manner,
but did not improve as it grew upon us. Miss PHILLIPS
did her best for the part ; and in her closing scene, where
madness darkens over her intellects, was impressive in an
eminent degree. We never saw any thing finer, never
saw any thing that produced a more electrical effect on an
audience, than the scene between her and her father,
where she approaches close up to him, and where, struck
to the soul with the sudden conviction that she is hopelessly
mad, he exclaims, after gazing intently on her countenance,
"Oh God, 'tis madness." The whole of this scene was
in the truest but most painful spirit of tragedy; the alter-
nations of hate—remorse—pride—hope—and final despair,
as they chased one another, like clouds, over the brain of Col-
berg, were powerfully pourtrayed, without the slightest at-
tempt toexaggerate,and convince usth ItIir.SERLE is imbued
with the real, earnest tragic spirit, though he has not yet
been able to work out the tich ore as fully and successfully
as could have been desired. MACREADY performed with
his usual earnestness and feeling, and not a little of his
usual caprice and mannerism. One trait of character,
which proves Mr. SEALE to be a keen observant judge of
nature, was wholly spoiled by Mr. MACREADY'S affecta-
tion. " Why do you fix your eye on that window so ;
shut it and draw the curtains," says he to a servant,
whose gaze is accidentally directed to that quarter of the
room. Mr. MACREADY gave this passage in a tone of
peevish captiousness, as if he were an invalid desirous of
having the window shut, lest he should increase a sore-
throat or tooth-ache, whereas it is manifestly a sudden
burst of intense feeling, springing from the recollection
that it was out of that window that he had so lately
rushed to murder his daughter's husband, and should have
been delivered with corresponding emotion. The great
defect of the character of Colliery is, that it has
been written, not to produce a natural effect by na-
tural means, but to show off Mr. Macraxarry's
own peculiarities. Hence it wants uniformity and
keeping. The last half gives the lie direct to the
first half. For instance, at the opening of the drama
Colberg is represented as chivalrous, brave, and full
of feeling and generosity ; at the close he degenerates
into a mere creature of selfishness and low ambi-
tion. There was no eirthly reason, drawing one's
inferences from the earlier portions of the character, why
he should have murdered the preserver of his own life,
and his daughter's chosen husband (especially as that hus-
band had been ennobled and made wealthy), simply be-
cause he was not a Sovereign Prince. But then Mr.
MAcitEADv's starts, and affectations, and inconsistencies,
would not have been sufficiently developed. This, we
suspect, is the sole reason of the want of uniformity that
pervades the character of Colberg. Mr. MACREADY is
great—we might almost add unequaled—in portions of a
character ; but he never yet produced a finished, consistent
whole, like KE3IBLE'S Coriolanus, KEAN'S Othello,
or Dow'roN's Cantu:fit. His genius has nothing
grasping, nothing continuous about it ; it splits a cha-
racter into petty sections and fragments, but does
not boldly grapple with it as a whole. He deals
with tragedy as POPE dealt with poetry; that is to say,
makes it a matter of point and epigram ; but what was
consistent with propriety in a prolessed satirist, is sadly
out of place in a first-rate tragedian. We remember, and
shall ion.' remetnber,—for his voice is yet ringing in our
ears, his look, his manner, are yet before our eyes,—.Mr.
Mncarapy's first burst of agony at the discovery
of his daughter'o madness ; but, as a whole, we
shall soon forget his Colbery, .49 we have already for-
gotten every other character—with :he exception
of Virginias, which is also full of the defects tg
which sve have just alluded—that he has yet attempted
to play. Shalt wp do so with KEAN's Sir Giles or
Othello ? Never. An why Because the one obeys
the tit cerring impulse!if nature, and giyep her fair play ;
while the other ip pot satisfied unlash he overlays iia4-r
affectation--unless, in short, fie can make her subservient ti
his own strange theories, It is but tit wry aF9bitiop

an actor to desire to differ from all the rest of the world ;
to be the head of a pedantic school of tragedy, half-
nature, half-affectation. But MA CREADY will mellow
as he grows older, and enlarge his notions of humanity,
which is all that is wanting to make him the first actor of
his day. COOPER played the discarded suitor with much
judgment, but be lacked the high tone of romance and
sentiment of which the character is made up. STANLEY
made a respectable lover, but he had many irrelevant te-
dious speeches to make to Agnes in the third act, which
very nearly swamped both him and the tragedy. Alto.
gether, the play was favourably received ; nor should we
have ventured to speak so freely of it as we have
done, were we not firmly convinced that Mr. SEALE
has dramatic genius of the first order ; and that,
therefore, a little honest plain speaking will do him
fir more good than harm. He conceives a character,
or rather a point of character, admirably ; but it is a hard
thing that his intellect should be cramped by being ob-
liged to take measure of any one particular performer ; that
he should be obliged to say, when the free spirit is at work
within him, not, "Is this natural ? Is this the true ex-
pression of passion?'' but "Is this in MACREADY'S style?
Does this square with Mit CREADY'S theories ?" We shall
look eagerly forward to SEALE'S next attempt.