The Sun.
London, England, 1845-10-04 00:00:00

HAYMARKET THEATRE..

Mrs. Inchbald's admirable comedy of Wives as they Were
and Maids as they Are, was revived here on Wednesday, for the
purpose of introducing Mrs. Seymour to a London audience
in the character of Miss Dorillon. She is stated in the bills to
be of provincial celebrity, and certes her celebrity is not ill
deserved. Her person is good, her features pretty and ex-
pressive, and she possesses a sweet and flexible voice—" an
exquisite thing in woman ;" her manners are refined, very
lady-like, and altogether her debitt was most successful. The
character of Miss Dorillon is one which gives full scope to
an actress to display her versatility, and Mrs. Seymour well
availed herself of the opportunities afforded-her. • Her first
great hit was in the pleading scene, in the second act, which
she gave with admirable archness, and which drew down
three rounds of applause. In the more serious scenes, too,
she was very 'beautiful. The library scene, in which she is
arrested, was given with great taste and judgment, and the
prison scene, in the last act, was given with exquisite feeling
and pathos. She was called for at the conclusion, and on
being led on by Farren, was greeted with shouts of applause
and showers of bouquets. The Lord Priory of Farren is well
known to every playgoer; it was perfect. Stuart's Sir
William Dorillon was a fine and earnest pieco.of acting, and
the Sir George Evelyn of Howe was excellent. Hudson, as
Bronzely, was spirited, and effervescent as a glass of cham-
pagne. Dirs. Edwin Yarnold, as Lady Priory, exhibited a
degree of quiet humour, for the possession of which we did
not before give her credit. Never bas the primness of demure
propriety been more excellently delineated. The gem of the
evening, however, was the Lady Mary Raffle of Mrs. Glover.
It was a bit of genuine comedy of the olden school, when
every playgoer was a critic who was intolerant of mere medi-
ocrity. It is, perhaps, the most finished piece of acting on
the stage, and all those who desire to know what acting was
in days gone by, ere mere glitter and noise had dethroned
the legitimate drama, should go to the Haymarket and see
Mrs. Glover's Lady Mary Raffle. The house was crowded,
and the audience were most attentive to, and delighted with,
the comedy. We augur from this that the day is not far dis—
tant when the.legitimate drama will resume its _sway, an
when the English nation will be, as it was in days of yore
proud of its national drama. Let those days come--let the
English public do its duty, and neither actors nor dramatists
will be wanting to dotheirs.

LYCEU

1 THEATRE.

Next Door is the title of an admirable farce, which
was produced here Thursday, and in which Mr. Alfred
Wigan acts the part of the hero, Jack Skylark, a medi-
cal student, who courts Jemima Evans, a pretty milliner,
for love, and pays his addresses at the same time to
Miss Emily Walker, the rich daughter of a rich old
papa, for her money. Jemima Evans lives next
door to the Walkers, and Jack, after having par-
taken of a magnificent dejeune a la fourclutte
at the Walkers, and been bored to death by the genteel
propriety of the establishment, adjourns to love and
liberty in the arms of Jemima Evans next door, with
whom and her friends he has sat down to a dinner of
sausages, which he cannot eat. Here all sorts of prac-
tical jokes are played off, which keep the house in a con-
tinued'roar. Emily Walker, however, makes her ap-
pearance, to inquire concerning a certain new,
bonnet, in the manufacture of which Jemima ought
to have been engaged, and Jack, to prevent
being discovered, appears with a face whiteneii with
flour, and growls like a bear with a 'violent cold. The
counterpart of this scene takes place when Jemima takes
home the bonnet, for Jack is then at the Walker's.
Here he has a sudden attack of tooth-ache, and com-
mits all sorts of vagaries to escape discovery. Jemima is
too shrewd to be deceived ; she slily cuts off the tail of
his coat, and in the pocket discovers a letter explain-
ing all. On his return to her she taxes him
with his perfidy, and Jack produces a pistol
with which he threatens to blow out his brains.
The terrified Jemina rushes on him to pre-
vent the commission of the rash act, and knocks him
through the partition into " next door," where he finds
Alfred Walker, a musical cousin, at the feet of the fair
Emily, to whose hand he immediately resigns all claim,
being determined to be happy with the kind-hearted
Jemima. - The whole burden of the farce fell upon
Wigan, who acted the roving, rollicking, kind-hearted
medical student to the life. The farce was announced
for repetition amidst enthusiastic applause: