The Sun.
London, England, 1859-11-11 00:00:00

ADELPHI THEATRE.

" The Dead Heart," a drama of more weight and
more pretension to sustained interest than has been
witnessed for a long time at any theatre, was pro-
duced last night with distinguished success. Long
beyond the ordinary measure, it is evidently built
on the model of those vast plays that occupy the
whole of an entire evening at the Porte Saint Mar-
tin or the Ambigu Comique ; its catastrophe, as well
as its general complexion, will probably awaken
reminiscences of "Le Chevalier de la, Maison Rouge.'
But we believe that it is original in the accepted
sense of the word, by which we mean that the
author, Mr. Watts Phillips, has himself constructed
its framework, and that there is no single foreign
drama to which its origin Ca% be traced.
Like many pieces of the modern French school,
" The Dead Heart" commences with an act which,
occurring several years before the commencement
of the main story, and, as it were, preparing the
spectators for what is to follow, is called by the
name of " prologue," though it differs alike from
the opening speech of old Greek tragedy, and from
the flippant series of couplets spoken before the rise
of the curtain in the last century. This " prologue',
shows us how the Count St. Valerie (Mr. Billing-
ton) falls in love with a Catherine Duval (Miss
Woolgar), a girl of humble extraction, betrothed to
Robert Landry (Mr. Webster), a young sculptor,
and how the Abbe Latour, his friend and ad-
viser, locks up the inconvenient rival in the Bas-
tille, by means of that invaluable instrument, the
lettre de cachet. All this takes place in 1771, but
when the curtain rises for the first act we find our-
selves in the year 1789, when the Bastille has just
fallen into the hands of the Parisian populace, who
release the unfortunate sculptor after a confinement
of 18 years.. The return of Robert to consciousness
from a state of torpor affords room for one of those
elaborate pSychological delineations in which Mr.
Webster so greatly excels. When he has fully-
recovered his wits, he resolves to devote
them to purposes of vengeance, his projected vic-
tims being the Abbe Latour and Arthur St.
Valerie (Mr. Billington), son of the Count, who
is now deceased, leaving as his widow the former
Catherine Duval. The profligacy into which the
young Count plunges headlong under the
auspices of his Wicked adviser, the Abbe Latour,
seems to afford grim delight to Robert, who loses
no time in revealing himself to the anxious mother,
and thwarts her attemps to save her son from ruin.
In the year 1794 (the date of the second act) Robert,
secure in his possession of a " dead heart," can be-
come more direct in his vindictive operations. He
is now a leading man in the revolution, with almost
absolute power over the Conciergerie, in which he
holds his two victims both under sentence of death.
The young Count he reserves for execution, in spite
of the agonising entreaties of his mother the Coun-
tess. The Abbe he releases that he may delibe-
rately kill him in one of those single combats that
were first brought into fashion by the " Corsican
Brothers." However, in the course of the third act, a
change is wrought in his mind by the discovery
of a pocket-book, which once belonged to the slain
Abbe, and which contains a letter, showing that the
conduct of the deceased Count and his widow was
not so reprehensible as he had imagined. His old
devotion to Catherine, the beloved of his youth.
return 3, and he resolves to save her son. However,
the morning appointed for the execution has arrived,
and his only course is to thrust the prisoner aside
and to take his place in the tumbril when the
muster-roll is called over. With tiie appearance of
Robert on the guillotine, following the dictates of a
renewed heart, and ready to lose a weary head, the
entire piece concludes.
The play was received with rapturous applause,
and its success is brilliant and genuine. The house
was crowded in every part.