The Sun.
London, England, 1844-03-18 00:00:00

HAYMARKET THEATRE.

The Haymarket play-bill, of Saturday, announced
that, on that evening would be revived, " with new
scenery, dresses, anedecorations, Shakspere's comedy
of the Taming of the Shrew, fro n the original text,
as acted divers times at the Globe and Blackfriars
Playhouses, 1606." The promise held forth in this
announcement was kept to the letter, and never,
during our memory, has there been so complete, and,
we may add, so successful a Shaksperian revival as
this of the Taming of the Shrew at the Haymarket.
After this glorious restoration of the original five-
act comedy of Shakspere, Garrick's three-act farce of
Katherine and Petruchio will no longer be tolerated.
All future representations of this comedy must be
from the original text, and to Mr. Webster is due the
honour of having restored this most amusing of
comedies to the stage. In the manner in which the
play has been put upon the stage, everything has
been done to convey us back to the days of Shak-
spere ; and the visitor to the Haymarket, who sees
the Taming of the Shrew, will have a more complete
idea of what a play really was in the days of Shak-
spere, of the state of the stage and of the drama in
the glorious days of good Queen Bess, than he could
possibly acquire by reading all the deep dissertations;
or listening to all the learned lectures that have ever
been written or delivered on the subject.
" Segnius irritant animos demissa per aurum,
Quam gum sunt oculis subjecta fidelibus, et qum
Ipse sibi tradit spectator."
The play was preceeded by a Shakesperian over-
ture, composed by Sir Henry R. Bishop in the true
Shaksperian spirit, and the entre act and incidental
music was selected from the works of Festa Wilbye,
and from popular melodies of the sixteenth century.
The whole of the musical arrangements reflect the
highest credit on the taste of Mr. T. German Reed,
to whose superintendence they were confided. Pre-
vious to the induction, a beautiful drop-scene from
the pencil of Mr. Charles Marshall was exhibited.
This scene is !an illustration of London in the olden
time, and is taken from Holla's celebrated print.
In the foreground we have the Bankside, with the
Globe, Rose, and Paris-garden Theatres, with the
Thames -crossed by Old London-bridge, and in the
back ground, on the other side of the river, we have
Old St. Paul's, the far-famed may-pole of St. Andrew
`Undershaft, and the Tower, surrounded by the houses
of the ancient city. This scene, a faithful represen-
tation of the London of Shakespere's time, is beautiful,
considered as a work of art, and curious as an antiquarian
illustration, and its exhibition is peculiarly appropriate
as carrying us back to the Globe Theatre, Shakes-
-peare's theatre, in which, under Shakespeare's own
superintendence, the Taming of the Shrew was origi-
nally represented, and of which original representa-
tion as near a fac-simile as possible was about to be
presented to an audience of the nineteenth century.
The scene rises.; we are introduced to Christopher
Sly; and the induction, one of the most delicious
pieces of Comedy that ever proceeded even from the
pen of Shakespeare, commences. Strickland was
the Christopher Sly, and never did this truly
Shakesperian actor appear to greater advan-
tage. He was the very Christopher Sly of
the Bard, and his bye-play during the acting of the
comedy, at which he sat as a spectator, was ad-
mirable. The players come in, and the room in the
Lord's house is fitted up to represent a theatre of the
sixteenth century—a framework is run across the
back of the stage, on each side of which is suspended
a piece of arras. The centre is occupied by a cur-
tain, thus forming the two wings and the centre door, in
modern parlance, through which the dramatis personce
"have their exits and entrances." An attendant
fixes on the curtain a label, bearing the inscription,
" A public place in Padua." Tranio and Lucentio
enter, and the comedy commences. When the scene
changes to an interior, a curtain falls, and an atten-
dant again enters, and fixes upon the curtain a label,
stating that the scene is intended to represent " A
roam in Baptista's house," or " A room in Petruchio's
country house," as the case may be ; and this is all
the change of scenery that takes place throughout,
the comedy. The success of this play, thus acted,''
proves the truth of an opinion which we have long
held, that, however necessary splendid scenery may
be to a kid play, cr to a good play badly acted, it is
worse than useless to a good play well represented
throughout. To a mere melodramatic actor, who
ishes to set up as an embodier of the marvellous
creations of Shakspeare, a strict attention to the
ministrie of local scenery and of local costume is
absolutely. necessary. It distracts the attention from
the creations of the poet to those of the scene-painter
and the tailor, thus rendering the audience less attentive
to the shori,-comings of the mime, and proving that
although he nay be no actor, he is at least a tolerable
antiquarian, and a most painfully accurate topogra-
pher and costumier; but when a sterling play is acted
throughout, in the sterling manner in which the Taming
of the Shrew was acted at the Haymarket on Saturday,
when all engaged in its production show themselves
artists in the strictest sense of the word, by giving to
each part its proper and just proportion, and seem to
vie with each other only in doing justice to their author
—not in rendering themselves individually the ob-
jects of attention—when a good play is excellently
acted as a whole, then the adjuncts of splendid scenery
and gorgeous costumes, are impertinent intrusions, and
the sooner they are relegated to the regions of spec-
tacle, melodrama, opera, and ballet, where, and
where alone, they are in their proper places, the
better will it be for the dramatic art, and for dramatic
artists—authors as well as actors. Mrs.Nisbett was
the Katherine, which is stating, in a word, that
Katherine was represented to the life. Webster's
Petrucio is by far the best since the days of Charles
Kemble. Buckstone's Grumio, although scarcely the
Grumio of Shakspere, was very laughter-moving,
and seemed highly relished by the gods, while the
Tai!or of Mr. Clarke was a delicious little bit of
genuine acting. In fact, all the characters were ex-
cellently represented; but we cannot close this
notice without mentioning the Pedant of Mr. Santer,
which was excellent. The change from the humble
pedant grateful to Tranio for his vouchsafed pro-
tection to the blustering old man, bullying the real
Vincentio out of his personal identity, and calling on
those around to lay hands on the villain as one who
means to cozen somebody under his countenance, was
admirable, and proves Mr. Santer to be an actor, in
the best sense of the word. At the fall of the curtain
there were kud calls for the manager, and Webster
came forward, and amidst the most rapturous cheer-
ing announced the play for repitition every evening.
He then led forward Mrs. Nisbett, who was received
with the usual honours. The house was crowded to
excess before the rising of the curtain.

FREE TRADE ENVELOPES.—We have this week
seen several specimens of an envelope for letters,designed to cir-
culate, without trouble, a constant remembrancer in favour of
free trade, and especially of unrestricted commerce in the first
necessary of life. The envelrfrpes themselves are very neat, and
the place for the direction is surrounded by ears of corn, en-
twined as a border, and bearing the motto " Free Trade."
They are issued of different sizes, and in some the corn wroath
Is gilt.—Leeds Times.