The Sun.
London, England, 1844-04-09 00:00:00

OLYMPIC.

The manager of this theatre has been happy this
year in catering for the amusement of his Easter pa-
trons.- Two entirely new pieces bear testimony to his
efforts to deserve support, and the unqualified approba-
tion, if not of a crowded, certainly of a delighted au-
dience, may be fairly taken as evidence of the merit of
the pieces themselves. The first is of a mixed melo-
dramatic and comic character, and is from the pen of
Mr. S. Coyne, a gentlemen already favourably known in
the theatrical world. The drama is called The Signal,
and its chief plot turns upon the historical incident of
the rising of the Tyrol in resistance to the tyrannic rule
of Bavaria. The machinery of this political struggle is
found in the domestic incidents of one Rezenvelt (Mr.
Laws), the widower of a murdered wife, and the father
of an only child, of course, a daughter, and the offspring
of his buried love. Stung by his own and his country's
wrongs, Rezenvelt becomes the leader of the Tyrolese
confederacy-, and has for his bosom confidant an
Italian, named Michael Bernard (Norman), who is
deeply enamoured of Dorothea, Rezenveles daughter,
whose hand he hopes to gain. Bernard has
neither personal nor patriotic sympathy in the
Tyrolean conspiracy, but has joined in it solely
with the hope of being united to Dorothea, in reward for
his services. As the plot thickens, and the time for the
rising approaches, Rezenvelt draws his dagger, and, in
presence of his Italian confederate, swears solemnly
never again to sheath it till his-own and his country's
wrongs are redressed. At sight of the dagger the
Italian wildly asks where it was obtained by Rezenvelt,
and, in his confusion, acknowledges that he lost it twenty
years before on that very spot. Rezenvelt declares that
the dagger then in his hand had been drawn by him from
his wife's murdered body at the period alluded to, when,
having refused the unmanly overtures of a marauding
soldier of fortune, he had plunged it, in disappointed
passion and revenge, into his victim's bosom. The
murderer thus stands confessed before Rkenvelt, who
(of course) rushes on him to consummate " the wild
justice of revenge ;" but the Italian, too quick for him,
commends the dagger to the husband's bosom, in pre-
ference to his own, and drives it pretty well into him,
but not with such instantly-fatal effect as when practis-
ing, some years previously, upon his wife. Bernard
now makes for the crag from which the beacon-fire.
" the signal" of the revolt, is to be fired,
and where he expects to find Dorothea, whose
hand is to fire the torch on the arrival of
her father and her lover. The Italian determines to
seize upon and take her to the first Bavarian post,
where, by giving notice of the intended revolt, he hopes,
after all, to secure her as his bride, steeped though his
hands are in her father's and her mother's blood, and to
have honours and riches heaped upon him. On his ar-
rival at the appointed rendezvous he feigns to her that
suspicion is rife as to the plot, and that he is commis-
sioned by her father to stay " the signal." Dorothea,
who had never liked or trusted him (and who, of
course, had another love of her own, and not her father's
selection), demands some token from her father
that he has really commissioned him (the
Italian) on this doubtful errand. He produces
the dagger which had previously been so very
useful to him, and she fur a moment is pacified, re-
collecting it well as having for years been carried by
her father. But her eye wanders from the well-known
handle to the blade, and on it she sees drops of blood,
scarce yet dried. A horrible thought is now awakened
in her mind, and she turns from her companion with
horror and shuddering. She wishes to make for the
crag to light " the signal," but the wily Italian detains
her. With the true quickness of woman she pretends
she has lost her cloak, only a few yards behind,
and sends him to discover it. No sooner do his
receding footsteps die away upon the ear, than she
mounts rapidly the mountain side to gain the beacon.
He returns, and seeing her design, rushes rapidly in pur-
suit of her. At this moment the wounded parent totters
in,.and, as the Italian is struggling with his intended
, victim, " the dying patriot" (for so the bills call him, and