The Sun.
London, England, 1857-04-04 00:00:00

THEATRE ROYAL, GLASGOW.

(Froin the North Britid6 Daily Mail )
MAD AIVIE CELESTE.
The pressure upon our space for some days past,
arising eAt of electioneering matters, has entirely
prevented us from giving that attention to the pet-
formances of this lady to which they are fairly en-
titled, not only from the undoubted ability dis-
played in whatever she undertakes, but from the
prominent position she has for many years occupied
upon the metropolitan boards.
Madame Celeste belongs to a school of actresses
less common upon the English than the French
stage, where comedic, vaudeville and the drama pro-
perly acquire a greater importance than with us
—a school uniting the great versatility of talent
an emotional power and refinement of manner not
usually possessed by the exponents, whether male
or female of melodrama, as we are accustomed to
see it in this country. "The Green Bushes" of Mr.
Buckstone, in which Madame Celeste made her
debut on Monday evening, is a striking instance of
this. There is nothing very remarkable about the
Green Bushes, eitherin a literary or dramatic sense,
yetthepicturesque manner in which Madame Celeste
performs the part of the Indian girl, Miami, has given
to this story of a hundred yearn ago a vitality posses-
sed by no piece of a similar kind within our remem-
brance. In the hands of a commonplace actress--and
many such have attempted it—the character of
Miami becomes insufferably dull and stupid, but
elaborated as it is, by the nice discrimination of
Madame Celeste, it becomes something more than
a merely clever bit of acting—it awakens a sympa-
thetic chord in the breasts of the audience which is
never suffered to relax during the entire time of
performance. We could point to particular pas-
sages in this play, as for example, where Miami
stands over the dead body of Connor O'Ken-
nedy, after she has fired the fatal shot, in which
are contained the elements of tragic power
of no common order, so int ense and nervous is the
utterance of the performer. Seeing an ordinary
actress in the part, one wanders bow the " Green
Bushes" should have ever become so popular ; seeing
Madame Celeste, the wonder ceases, an interest is
awakened, and the author shares the honours with
the performer. As a general rule, we are no ardent
admirers of the melo-dramatic in art ; but if any-
thing could reconcile us to it, the series of
intellectital effects produced by the acting of
Madame Celeste would go far to accomplish that
end. We have heard the French accent with
which Madame Celeste pronounces her English
words objected to by some. To our ears, on.the
contrary, the effect produced is rather pleasing than
otherwise, and gives a piquancy to her representa-
tions of French character which they would not
otherwise possess. To-night Madame Celeste takes
her benefit, when we hope to see a crowded
house. The pieces selected are the new drama
of "Like and Unlike," and. " The Mysterious
Stranger."

G INTELLIGENCE.

(Front the Mining Jourruzl of this day.)

Business this week has been dull and inactive, not
only in mining shares and on the Stock Exchange, but
generally ;an improvement is, however, looked for. A
few heavy shares—such as Devon Consols, 450 to 460,
ex div. ; Basset, 275 to 285 ; Buller, 360 to 370 ; South
Frances, 325 to 330—have been inquired after, though
very little business done. Margaret shares have been
largely dealt in, at prices varying from 75 to 80. In
Great Alfred shares a large speculative business has been
done, at prices from 7i to 81, and left off 81 to 9.