The Sun.
London, England, 1850-03-11 00:00:00

MR. LOVE, THE POLYPHONIST,
On Monday evening last, March the 4th, 1850,
we strolled into the Music-hall, Store-street, Bed-
ford-square, and we are thus precise in mentioning
the exact time and spot, for two reasons-Ist, that
our readers may not run the risk of supposing we
are discussing ancient times and manners-2dly, that
they who give us credit for good faith, may be in-
duced to follow our example, and go there to. Now,
we had heard much of Mr. Love, and, indulging, as
in duty bound, seeing that our years are many, and
our experience in accordance with our years, a cer-
tain disposition to be laudator temporis acts, as
Horace said, and therefore, to a , certain extent, no
flatterer of the time present, nurturing and fondling
sundry reminiscences of certain great ventriloquists
and mimics, it was our fortune to hear and witness
in our young time (for we will not follow Mr. Lore
in his deep conjectures about certain oracles, and
the means had recourse to by the ancients to effect
the laudable purpose of catching the ear and eye of
the willing multitude)—in other words, having, for
instance, heard the wonderful vocal deceptions
of Alexandre, and witnessed the equally admir-
able delusions of Charles Mathews, we were hardly
disposed to believe we could smile. Be it, however,
our task, as it was our fate, to admit we were mis-
taken ; we positively did smile, and what is more,
more than once, and were forced to acknowledge that
if Mr. Love's predecessors have left him little chance
of being strictly original, they could not deprive him
of the merit of being decidedly successful in his vocal
and comic attempts, to the exclusion of all servility
where he could not do otherwise than imitate. So
that if we cannot make up our minds to say he does
surpasi either Alexandre or Mathews in their separate
eminence, he seems to us to realise something like a
combination of their powers, and we deem this no
slight praise. Much as we liked his delineation of
various characters, much as we wondered at the
facility with which he assumes totally different in-
tonations, and the rapidity with which he changes his
outward appearance and very looks—much as we
enjoyed the humours of his dialogue, and the versatility
of his manner, particularly in the monologue which
concludes the entertainment, we deemed his forte to be
in the precise and most felicitous imitation of certain
sounds. We, being instinctively a little timorous,
almost shook when he chased and caught, and suffered
to escape, and again chased, caught, and finally
bottled up that frightful wasp or bee, we scarcely
know which, whose buzziag is even now in
our ears. A cold chill ran through our veins,
(of all diseases that the flesh is heir to,
we most dread hydrophobia) when he drove away
that dreadful dog—that cow—we could see and
almost feel her horns • indeed we were on the horns
of a dilemma more than once. We can scarcely say
more, unless it be to recommend all who have seen
either Alexandre or Mathews to hasten to Store-
street, or wherever they hear that Mr. Love is to be
heard and seen, if only to bear us out in our opinion
thus freely given ; and as for those who have heard
neither the one nor the other of these great vocalists,
the sooner they hear and see Mr. Love the sooner
they will retrieve their loss, and acquire a little wis-
dom in the confirmation of the fact long since pro-
mulgated and averred, that seeing is not always be-
lieving, and that the sense of hearing may be quite as
delusive; and, last of all, they will admit with Butler,
vide " Hudibras"

" Doubtless the pleasure is as great
Of being cheated as to cheat;
As lookers on feel most delight
That least perceive a juggler's sleight,
And still the lees they understand,
The more th' admire his sleight of hand."

MR. H. NICHOLL'S DRAMATIC
READINGS OF SIIAKSPERE.
(FROM A CORRESPONDENT.)
We have often wondered at the fact, that while the
true and legitimate drama oecasionally loses ground
with the public, while with the adjuncts of music,
scenery, dresser, pageants, &c., attempts at making the
realization of the dramas of Shakspere popular, have in
more than one instance proved futile and profitless, it
suffices that a man should be found who possesses a
good voice, a pleasing delivery, a sound judgment,
and just so much declamation as would fit him, and
hardly fit him, for an ordinary actor, to induce the
public to congregate, and what is more, to subscribe
for their admission, for the express purpose of hearing
those very plays read in an ordinary room, before a
simple desk, and without any of those adventitious
aids which are naturally supposed to enhance the
value of a dramatic work. Such a man as we have
supposed has recently read those very plays of Shak-
spere to numerous and admiring audiences, and what
strikes us more forcibly still, is that those plays
thus read are not attracted by novelty, for they
all know them, and could for the most part recite,
or at least quote them, but simply by the desire—a
very laudable one, no doubt—of ascertaining the real
tendency of certain passages, the touches of feeling,
the points which one fears may escape ordinary read-
ing, the true sense of certain parts, which may
require elucidation, owing to their antiquity, in other
words, of seeking the perfection of a most rational
s enjoyment. We are much indebted to Mr. henry
Nicholls for devoting his energies and natural taste
to a pursuit which, we hope, carries its own reward
with it, not only in the success which we trust will
attend his efforts, but in the satisfaction he must in-
wardly derive from the knowledge that be must both
improve the taste of his hearers and increase their
admiration for their favourite poet. Perhaps, in the
midst of much which we find to admire in his read-
ings of Shakspere, we may be permitted to recom
mend him to be on his guard against whet we con-
ceive a natural leaning to an excess of declamation,
which occasionally carries him beyond the bounds
that a reader should propose to himself; and we feel
the more impelled to offer this suggestion, as we ob-
serve such attempts are likely to earn for him much ap-
plause from those who, in time, map be indebted to him
for a nobler appreciation of his literary (for such we
consider them) efforts, and who will gain, en the score
of taste, what, for a time only, he will lose in noisy
tokens of their approbation. We admire him most,
we confess, in those sober-minded moments in which
he brings out, in bold, yet quiet relief, those forcible
characteristics which abound in every page and at
every line in Shakspere ; we commend him for
leaving out certain parts which may be requisite on
the stage, or may be effective there, but only retard
the action during a reading ; and, lastly, we antici-
pate as great a treat from hearing him in his forth-