The Sun.
London, England, 1868-10-05 00:00:00

Lord Lytton's New Play,

A NeW Play by a great author on Sattirday even-
ing filled.the Lyceum from floor to ceiling, The
weather, which was cold and. drizzly, went for
nothing. The deadness of the early autumn season,
when London is still faceVously spoken of as the
Deserted Village, went equally for nothing. Play-
goers, old and young, men of letters, artists, critics,
people of faehien .rn m ern]) er of the middle classesi
the`former in the dress-circle, the latter in the pit, or
whget our French neighbours' term. the parterre, the
polloi in the gallery, all thronged to witness. the
new piece which had for some time been announced
fur pepreee4 4ion. And no wonder. Fe.ir—ithat
new piece—was, it not from the hand of one of the
greatest authors and (he must forgive us the phrase)
unquestionably the most versatile genius of our age
—Bulwer the Novelist—Sir Edward the Poet of
King Arthur—Lord Lytton the Conservative Orator
and Statesman. Author and Administrator, Scholar
and Artist in the truest and fullest sense of the word
—Bulwer Lytton, already by right of five plays of
sustained celebrity, had long since secured to him-
self a high and, as it now happens (both Sheridan
Knowles and Douglas Jerroll being numbered
amongst the dead), a wholly unrivalled reputation
among living dramatists.
It is seventeen years since Lord Lytton's last
appearance before the public in that capacity,
namely, as a dramatist. And than, namely, in
1851, it was in furtherance of a benevolent design,
to wit the foundation of the Guild of Literature and
Art, that Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton, as our author
was then, built up, with admirable ingenuity, an
altogether exceptional drama in five acts, entitled
" Not so Bad as we Seem, or Many Sides to a
Character"—a drama in which the cause of those
typefied in the world of letters by the exquisite
creation of David Fallen was advocated with ini-
mitable persuasiveness, While at the same time
several more or less appropriate characters were
called into existence for the express purpose as it
seemed of distribution afterwards for impersonation
among an admirable groupe of amateur actors,
brother artists, and eminent centemporaries, several
among them also personal friends of the dramatist
—men of mark like Charles Dickens, Do ugl as Jerrold,
John Forster, Mark Lemon, Aegustus Egg, Charles
Knight, and one or two others. Strictly speaking,
it is now nearly thirty years, it is at least eight and
twenty years since a now play entrusted to a regu-
lar company of professional actors (tier Majesty's
servants as they were formerly called) was last
announced—in 1840—as forthcoming from the pen
of Bulwer. Then it was that there was repreeented
for the first tine, on the boards of the II Limarket,
the brilliant and now classic Coll3ly of " Money,"
a comely that has long since taken is place securely
among the masterpieces of the in olera dramatic
school, among the most fiaished performale es of
Wycherly, Sheridan, Murphy, Cohnan, Morton,
and bat one or two others of more recent date.
Within the year prior to the one which witnessed
the earliest impersonation of Alfred Evelyn by Mr.
Macready—(" Money" having been prod iced as we
have seen in 1810)—within the year 183 two of
Balwer's Five-act D. 73. 11:13 were brought out in
rapid succession —" Richelieu" and " Tee Sea
Captain." Only one year before that, viz., in
1838, "The Lady of Lyons"—struck off at a heat
in a fortnight—having signalized by an excep-
tionally brilliant success the protean adaptability of
its author's many-sided genius. Two years before
that, he had produced his earliest play—one as
charmingly written as anything his dexterous hand
as ever achieved, the historical play in five acts of
"The Duchess de la Valliere." Reverting, how-
ever, to what has just now been remarked of the
year 1839, namely, when we spoke of it as one
within which the indefatigable creator of so many
works of imagination, threw off rapidly one after
another "Richelieu" and " The Sea Captain"--in
that last-men tione 1 play it is now especially worthy
of note that the root-idea of the dra'natie ul tster-
piece produced an Satu:day evening is discoverable.
Not that "'rue Rightful heir" is, by any means,
a mere modification of " The Sea Captain."
From beginnin; to end the draml now pro laced is
a new work altogether. It is rewritten through mt.
And, but that the play of twenty-eight years ago
had merits of its own, which were, however,
anything but generally recognised at the time
of its production, the later work of art which
may be said to have now grown out of it, is so
vastly its superior in every particular, that we
might almost be tempted to echo, in regard to it,
the title of one of Lord Byron's least known dra-
matic effusions —" The Deformed Transformed."

Although intensely and essentially a purely imagi-
native production, "The Rightful Heir?' is a roman-
tic drama, the very atmosphere of which is historical
and patriotic. Its incidents are recounted as oc-
curring in thereign of Queen Elizabeth. The precise
period is that, for ever memorable in our annals as the
epoch of the Spanish Armada. Referring as the plot
does to the almost startling abruptness of the final
descent upon our coasts of that great naval arma-
ment, popular remembrance has been recently
called, not injudiously, as wo conceive, t 3 a
passage in the " History of England," in which
are related the events immediately preceding
the actual arrival, all on a sudden (and the
signal defeat thereupon) of the Grand Armada
sent out for the subjugation of England by the
Spanish Government. First came the unlooked-for
fate of the Marquis of Santa Cruz, the Spanish
Admiral--seized with a fever and rapidly deceased.
Then followed the departure from Lisbon on the
29th of May, 1588, full of hope and alacrity,
of the magnificent armament which the very day
afterwards was scattered by a tempest and in
part destroyed. Consequent upon the tidings
received of those disastrous gales encountered by
the Spanish Armada in the English Channel—
compelling the remnants of the fleet to put back
for repairs into the harbour of Corunna —Lord
Howard of Effingham, then, in his capacity as Admi-
ral of England, Commander-in-Chief of the Eng-
lish Fleet, was ordered on July 8 to dismantle im-
mediately the four largest ships in the royal navy—
to wit, the Triumph, the White Bear, the Elizabeth
Jonas, and the Victory. Fortunately—as history
relates—he ventured to disobey, offering to beir the
expense out of his own private fortune. Hence—in
spite of the great Queen's ill-timed parsimony—
England, when at length the dire emergency occur-
red, found herself prepared to meet the foe at the
flash of the first signal gun, announcing the approach
of the invader. Under the Lord Admiral there were
then serving in the English fleet as volunteers the
Earl of Cumberland and the Lords Henry Seymour,
Thomas Howard, and Edmund Sheffield—Drake
being appointed Lieutenant of the Fleet, while
the best ships were, as is related on the autho-
rity of Murdin, allotted to Hawkins, Fro-
bisher, and other mariners, " who, in voyages
of commerce, or piracy, or discovery, had
acquired experience, and displayed that contempt
of danger, and that spirit of enterprise, which had
long been characteristic of the British sailor." Such
is the heroic situation in which, such are the heroic
contemporaries among whom, Lord Lytton has placed
the hero of his new romantic play, Vyvyan, Captain
of the Dreadnought, a privateer. The impersonation
of this fine chivalric character cannot fail very
materially to enhance the reputation already won
for himself daring the course of last season by Mr.
Bandmann, through his picturesque reading of the
central figure in the absurd drama of " Narcisse."
Before coarneating, however, any further upon the
performance of Saturday evening, it will be as well
to mention here at once that the following is the
cast of the principal characters in " The Rightful
Heir" :
Lord Bsaufort ••• ... Mr. G. F.

Sir Grey do MAlpas Mr. adrmAnn Vdzin.

Wreckliffa

Mr. Feauk Lawlor.

Sir Godfri'y Seymour ... Mr. Goorgo Pool.
Vyvyan ... Mr. BAndalann.

'aullmor Mr. Lin Rayne.
trarditi ~. Mr. T. Aa,l,.Tson.

Nlarsdon ~. ... Mr. Davi I EvAns.

Alton ...

Mr. Basil Putter.

Lady Montroville Mrs. llormana Vezin.
Eveline Miss Milly Palmer.

The subjoined, by the way, it may be interesting
to add here, was the cast of " The Sea Captain." iu

r -M.; i

1839,when originally producel on the boards of the
Haymarket : •

Lord Ashdale... ~, Mr. J. Webster.
Sir Maurice Beevor ... Mr. Strickland.
Norman „, Mr. Macready.
Faulkner ~, Mr. Howe.
Onslow .„ Mr. Phelps.
Gaussen .„ Mr. 0. Smith.
Luko Mr. Gaßot.
Lady Arundel ... Mrs. Warner.
Violet
... Miss 11. Faucit.
Mrs. Prudence Mrs. W. Clifford.
While the actors evidently vied with each Qther yu
Saturday in tl4;Fe-4-,dflav9ur tq cle full tistioe so far as
lay wit lam their capacities to the imaginings of the dra-
matist, it should 1:4 SIN at q1:40.0, that three of them
in particular aro entitled to the highest commenda-
tion ; these three being, it need hardly be said, Mr,
and Mrs. Hermann Vezin and Mr. Bamdmann, What-
ever the part may b 3 that is allotted to him, Mr.
Hermann Vezin always shows hiuself to be a true
and sterling artist. Ms itudersmatiou of Sir Grey
de Malpas was in many portions of it very flue in-
deed, was here and there startlingly effective, and
was certainly myst thoughtfully and conscien-
tiously renderel throughout. As to Mrs. Hermann.
Vezin's L tdy Montreville—the true heroine of the
piece—it was from first to last a charming represen-
tation. Several of the seen cc between herself and
Vyvyan, more particularly the great scene of all,
the one towards the close of which her eldeit-born,
with his foot planted upon his ancestral hearth,
claims his birthright, and bids his anther if she
lists command her menials to expel him by force
from the home of his forefathers, proved to be not
only effective in the highest degree but exquisitely
affecting. The only noticeable hitch of any kind
occurring on 'Saturday evening was in the repre-
sentation of the fourth act, which—having (on the
first night) in parts been bungled through—comes,
as we cannot but think, to a conclusion so abrupt
as to be almost bewildering. The staggering of
Vyvyan backwards down the precipitous pass
looked more like an accidental stumble than
an intended catastrophe. Mr. Neville's inadequate
expresssion of anything like dismay at what thus
happens probably tended most effectually to bring
about this intolerable anti-climax ; but in this
the actor may be presumed to have been at least
consistent, seeing that his embodiment of the cha-
racter of Lord Beaufort was throughout chiefly re-
markable for its feebleness.

The plot, or story, of this new romantic play of
"The Rightful Heir "is, as we have already observed,
nearly identical with that of " 121-_e Sea Capt tin.."
But the structure of the piece, the structure of the
verse, the incidents, the dialogue, have 'been one
and all of then most carefully re-conceived and re-
modelled—have, in point of fact, with inimitable
skill and admirable dexterity, been re-elaborated
throughout. Touches of nature, there ar e scattered
lavishly through this minutely prepared master-
piece: but in reference to those spontaneous evidences
of genius, we might say, in allu.,ion to the author of
this drama Thy art"—(as Ben Jonson said of
Shakspere's when apostrophizing the great Poet
in immortal words)--" must enjoy a part"—
" For though the poet's matter ueturo be
His art deth make the fashion; and that he
Who casts to write a living line must sweat
(Such as thine are), and strik.o the second heat
Upon the 111130.3 anvil ; to :u the sane,
And himself with it that he thinks to frame ;
Or for the laurel he may gain a scorn ;
For a good poet's male, as well as born."

It should be here mentioned, as affording
conclusive evidence of the triumphant success of
Lord Lytton's new play, that the noble author
was summoned to the front of his box at the
end of the second act to ackao \,vledg 3 the
plaudits of the audience, pl au lits water w ore
accorded to him by acclamation. The inci-
dent of so early a call for the author is certainly
most 111111311a1, if it be not in leel altogether unex-
ampled. It could hardly be wo idere I at, however,
seeiag the enthusiasm that
oa Saturday eveaing,
was awakened at the close of that S3.:):11 act by the
reading of (4 leen Elizaboth's heart-stirring procla-
mation to her people oa the annyan3anum.; of the
approach of the Ar.o ti t— t p:oolam ation ad-
mirably declaimed in every syllable of it by the
skilled voice of Mr. Baalmann. Tae call for
Lord Lyttoa's appearance at se early a period of
the eveaiag was so unexpec':,ed of its kind that it
was for a long time unanswered. The summons
however, became almost, one might say, imperative;
and when the author had at last bowed his acknow-
ledgments, it was significant of the patriotic ardour
the above mentioned " situation" of his contrivance
had awakened, that one enthusiastic voice was heard
calling to the orchestra for "Rule Britannia."
Again, at the conclusion of the piece, upon the fall
of the curtain at the close of the fifth act,
after the principal performers had been called be-
fore the footlights to receive the approbation to
which they were entitled, another unanimous and
long sustained call for the author, constrained
Lord Lytton—after some considerable interval had
elapsed consequent we believe upon his having
already quitted his box—to return to it aul
thence bow h's acknowledgments once more to the
applause of the crowded and delighted house. Suc-
cess was never more legitimately achieved by a
dramatist, and could not certainly have been more
enthusiastically manifested. Everything that could
in reason have been done beforehand to ensure
the efficient production of the piece upon the
boards of the Lyceum—in the way, that is, of
scenery, costumes, and general appointments—was
done, and that, too, thoroughly well, under Mr.
E. T. Smith's enterprising management, and it
was therefore because of their recognition of all
this that the audience before their dispersal sum-
moned that gentleman, in his turn, before the
footlights to receive the evidence of their approba-
tion.

As showing the unanimous recognition of the
triumph achieved by Lord Lytton's new play on
Saturday the following extracts are taken from the
chief of our contemporaries :
The Times re narks that " The Rightful Heir is
not a work written for the sake of scenery, but
essentially a drama, admirably constructed and
beautifully written, with a view to the employment
of strictly dramatic means." Adding that " the
SUCCES3 of the piece was proclaim3d with boisterous
vehemence."

The Morning Post, after observing that in his
new play Lord Lytton " has achieved a triumph
which is worthy of the author of Richelieu' and
' The Lady of Lyons,'" aids that " the presence of
his lordship in one of the proscenium boxes was a
most welcome sight to the audience, and the en.
thusiastic cheering he received at the end of the
second act, and at the terminatioa of the play,
afforded the most gratifying assurance that the
poetical drama, of which he is one of the very few
exponents, still finds abundant favour in their
eyes."

- The Star speaks of " The Rightful ILir" having
produced, at any rate up to the eal of the third
act, an extraordinary impression ; aid remarks
upon Lord Lytton having at the termination of it
received a second enthusiastic roar of wsilcom. 3.

The Standard says that "it is no great venture
to predict, that in both England and Atnerica ' The
Rightful Heir' will become as popular as any of
the other plays with which its author's natro is
associated."

The Telegraph, in its closing sentence, thus em-
phatically proclaims the triumphant success achieved
on Saturdty by the author and impersonators of the
new drama—" The play," it says, " was throughout
hailed with continuous plaulits, the recalls
were numerous throughout the evening ; and both
at the termination of the second act and at the
close of the play the &maul for the appearance of
the author was so vehemently raised that on each
030.13i011 Lord Lytton ha l to bow fro.n his private
box amidst a roar of acclamations."

The Daily News in the same way makes mention
of the principal actors having been received with
great enthusiasm by a full house, au I Lard Lytton
having t.) Low from his box more then once in the
course of the evening.

The [horning 2deertiser—after referring to
Tnackeray's ant Tom Ingoldsby's caricatures of the
" Sca Captain" nearly thirty years ago as having
seemed, until now, almost to verify the French
maxiai that le ridicule tue--asserts positively
enough that the event has proved quite

4
otherwise : " for," it says, '1- the author has
in The Rightful Heir,' produced on Satur-
day evening at the Lyceum, rewritten, re-
modelled, and recast the drama, and, most assuredly,
obtained a revision and reversal of the verdict of
30 years ago—' The Rightful Heir' establishing
his claim and title to the inheritance of honour and
fame on his renewed dramatic trial."
The Era of yesterday records that " On the fall
of the curtain the applause was spontaneous and
enthusiastic. First the curtain was raised to re-
veal once more upon the stage the principal per-
formers. Then arose a vehement demand for the
author, who had already complied with a similar
dmonstration at the end of the second act,
and who now, after a brief delay, reap-
peared in his private box, and thrice courteously
acknowledged the recognition which burst from
all parts of the house." Oar contemporary the
Era—speaking with all the authority of the
theatrical organ—remarks in another part of its
elaborate notice of the new play —" That the result
was altogether as satisfactory as the illustrious
author, the actors, and the manager could desire
may be at once freely acknowledged, and the
Lyceum is evidently now in possession of an attrac-
tion which will carry the season most triumphantly
on to Christmas." More probably carry it on (we
are tempted to add) beyond iChristmas, and far on
into the season of 1869, when London shall have
refilled after the meeting of the new Parliament.

Cour
lato
eiragat
'44

HER MAJESTY.

BALMORAL CASTLE, Oct. 2.
The Queen, accompanied by Princess Louise,
and attended by Lady Churchill, went to the
Glassalt Shiel yesterday.

Oct. 3.

Prince Arthur arrived from London.
Prince and Princess Christian returned to Bal-
moral from Dankeld yesterday.

LATEST INTELLEGENCE.

(REUTER'S TELEGRAMS.)

SPAIN.

MADRID, Oct. 3, Noon.
Queen Isabella has sent from Pau a violent pro-
test against the overthrow of her Government.

Count de Cheste has embarked for a foreign

country.
A grand civic fete and a review were held here

to -day.

The garrison and national militia defiled before
the Junta. Marsh tl Serrano afterwards entered the
capital, and was received with immense enthusiasm.

WALLA CHIA.
BUCHAREST, Oct. 4.

Perfect order has been restored in Galatz by the
energetic intervention of the military. Twenty per-
sons were wounded.

MALTA, Oct. 4.

Her Majesty's Indian troopship Serapis arrived
here yesterday from Cork with the 52d Regiment,
and will leave on the 10th inst. for Alexandria with
the Bth Regitnent.
A charred floating wreck was seen on the 27th
ultimo about 100 miles S.W. of Passaro in Sicily.

COMPLETION OF THE MALTA AND
ALEXANDRIA TELEGRAPH.
ALEXANDRIA, Oct. 4, 8 p.m.
The laying of the new Malta and Alexandria
cable was most successfully
_completed this after-

noon.
(This message is forwarded through it.)
OUTWARD INDIA AND CHINA. MAILS,
19-25 SEP MBER.
SUEZ, Oct. 4.
The Peninsular and Orieatal Company's steamer
Sumatra sailed at 5 p.m. and the Mooltan at 9 p.m.
yesterday, for Bombay and Calcutta respectively,
clearing off all cargo.

QUEENSTOWN, OCt. 5.
The Inman Royal Mail steamer City of Cork,
from New York and Halifax, arrived at 3.30 a.m.
to-day, with $5,100 in specie. She landed mails
and passengers, and proceeded immediately for
Liverpool. All well.

PLYMOUTH, Oct. 5.
The Swedish screw frigate Vanadis and the screw*
corvette Gefle arrived here this morning from
Sweden, outward bound.