The Sun.
London, England, 1826-03-20 00:00:00

THE DRAMA.

The inhabitants of London;we believe we may
assert without much fear of contradiction, are the
best judges of acting in the kingdom. Their
acuteness and accuracy of judging springs very
obviously from their having infinitely more nume-
rous opportunities than their country neighbours.
The Scotch, who are a sound thinging people in
the main, (one 'pound non's. excepted) are very
good judges of plays, but very poor judges o!
' actors. The following critique is rather an amusing
specimen of this. The distinction is very nicely
drawn between. YOUNG and VANDENHOFF---
YOUNG has most talent, and VANDENHOFF has
most genius ! This is akin to Mr. HUME'S fine
difference between inconsistency with fact and

opposition to truth:--
" Young, even when his youth was in, all its vigour, and the
tide of his reputation full, was never looked upon as an actor of
overwhelming power in any one of his characters. His Brutus;
or Cato, or Coriolanus was never to be compared to John
Kemble's ; his lago, or Mallard the Third, could not enter
into competition with Cooke's, and his Macbeth or Othello,
was forced to yield the palm to Kean's. But he prided himself,
and justly too, upon the correctness of his taste, the elegance of
his manners, the perfection of his elocution, and the gentle-
manly ease and propriety of his whole demeanour. Though not
tall, his person is good, and his face is even yet one of the
finest to be seen upon the stage. His voice has always been
celebrated for its mellow richness, and though not so powerful
as it has been, it still continues in the highest degree musical
and expressive. It stands therefore thus with young ;--what he
wants in power he makei up in polish ; and if he is sometimes
worsted in his attempts to grapple with the stronger passions of
humanity, he atones for his weakness in the eye of judgment,
by never for a moment having recourse to trick, or " o'erstep-
ping the modesty of nature." Neither does there seem to be
any thing artificial or studied about Young's acting. Ile ap-
pears to enter almost intuitively into the feelings of the charac-
ter he is representing, and always to be aware of what ought
to be done, even where he himself cannot do it. In genteel
comedy we admire him much ; he is, we think, almost the
only actor we ever saw who retained upon the stage all
the grace and self-possession of the private gentleman. In
short, when we wish to be pleased with all that is correct in
style, appropriate in manner, beautiful in diction, and all that
is classical in conception and execution, we go to see Young.
Vandenhoff is, in many respects, widely different; and, in
almost all those respects to which we have alluded, greatly in-
ferior. He has but little idea of ease ; and though he is conti-
nually labouring to be graceful, the effect is sadly marred by
the ridicuous figure in comedy from Vandenhoff. He looks
somewhat as a Grand Inquisitor would do were he obliged to
dance a Scotch reel. He moves about his long arms, and looks
stately and dignified, as if a statue of Jupiter Ammon had sud-
denly been animated and introduced into a drawing room, for
the purpose of joining in a quadrille or playing cards. Even
in tragedy, when no strong emotion is to be expressed, there
is something about Vandenhoff, .which he ought, if possible,
to conquer; we cannot describe it better than by saving,
that it is a consciousness he is acting,
.and with him acting
is always acting. He forgets the maxim of artis est eclare
artenz ; and we suspect the forgetfulness is incurable ; it is in
his nature; neither birth nor education have given him the ease
of Young. But to make up the deficiency, Vandenhoff has
many excellencies. He often succeeds, just where Young fails.
II is forte consists in being able to seize successfully upon the
stormiest passions, and to delineate them with truth and effect.
His pictures arc far from being complete in their rnintitire,
but there is always about them some leading point of interest
that rivets the attention. lie can scarcely give you character
so well as Young, but he can bring out passion much better.
Young is all smoothness and beauty, Vandenhoff is rather.
rugged and grand. Young is a Claude Lorraine,—Vandenoff
a Salvator Rosa. Young is much more pleasing and uniform,
--Vandenhofrmore striking and unequal. Young has probably
et
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for what he has already done, the other for what he has done,
and for what hew ill yet do."

BENYOWSKY, the hero of the new piece at
Drury-lane, was one of those unquiet spirits, who fly repose,
and rush every moment into dangers from which nothing but
their own courage can rescue them. Ile was born in 1741, of a.
noble family at Werbna, in Hungary, and embraced in early
life tie professions of arms under the imperial banners; but
having afterwards taken up arms in some private feuds, he was
declared a rebel by the Court of Vienna, and his estates were
confiscated. In thit4 situation his natural impatience of rest in-
duced him to travel in Germany, Holland, and finally in Eng.
land, where he instructed himself in the art of navigation.
About the year 1768 he joined the Republican Confederacy in Po-
land, and was made a Quartermaster-General. lie defeated the
Russians at Ku men ka, but after a varietyofvicissitudes,was taken
prisoner, and treated with great rigour; escaped from his chins,
be lay concealed for some time in St. Petersburgh, but being
discovered he was sent to Kamschatka, and employed in severe
labour with the lowest malefactors. Benyowsky, however, was
a man of no ordinary boldness; he formed a conspiracy, sealed
the Russian fortress, made himself' master of it, and compelled
the inhabitants to take the oath of the Polish confederacy.—
Seeing, however, that he could not maintain himself in that si-
tuation, and incited by the perusal of Anson's voyages, he
conceived the bold idea of embarking with his accomplices in a
small corvette. „He accordingly set sail in 1771, carrying with
him the Russian archives of Kamschatky. He touched at
Japan, Formosa, and China, and discovering somesmall islands
in his way, reached' the European settlements in the East
Indies. Being brought back to Europe by a French vessel, he
was well received by the Court of Versailles, where he delivered
up all the manuscripts and archives he had carried with him.
Among these papers was a plan for the invasion of China by
the Russians, a copy of which was immediately dispatched to
the Emperor of China by the French King. The enterprising
character of Lienyowsky not permitting him to live at rest, he
projected the colonization of Madagascar under the protection
of the French. He remained, however, on the Island, and the
following year was shot in a skirmish with the French, after
having defended himself with great courage.