The Sun.
London, England, 1827-06-06 00:00:00

• called the
the rua doe
National coppip.,..:!,.
ht liti extraorffinarY
repre-
Condos, gale het nig
her Royal
the recovery of
sentation to celebrate
pieces were produced on,
Highness. Two new
Garden of Pallas;
caned the "
the occasion, one
LlsrtON
-saran withCAlt ceremony-
4111 :tait
y."
And
de
tihorem9etrliCwrastwhat the French call.a:Tic. aC''
" ~
circonitance, and related entirely to the late
danger and subsequent recovery of the Infanta,
or, as was expressed in the bills, " a dramatic
eulogium alluding to the desired amelioration of
the health of our Incomparable Regent." This
piece, and the manner in which it was acted,
would have appeared ludicrous enough, had not
the party which occupied the house been too
loyal and patriotic to laugh at a well-intentioned
absurdity in honour of their Princess and their
Charter. First, Minerva, armed cap-a-pied,
with her lance and helmet, appeared on the scene,
in the person of a stupid overgrown fellow, with
a hoarse voice, as fat as Sir William Curtis,
(seeming to be an immortal eater of turtle-soup
instead of ambrosia), accompanied by Religion,
dressed in white, represented by the best actress
of the troop. Inconsistently enough with the
heathen part of the allegory, this Religion seemed
to be of tke Catholic kind—an'incongruous mix-
ture of two systems, for which-the author of the
piece might plead the authority of Cam oens. These
two personages have a long conversation about the
Infanta's state of health, and the means of avert-
ing the dire calamity with which Lusitania is
menaced by her premature; death. Pallas, as
might be expected, contends for the powers of
science, and Religion for the influence of prayers.
At last, the farce of their respective prescrip-
tions is put to the test by the appearance of
Destiny with his urn (in the habit of an astro-
loger), who relbses to listen to either, and treats
both with equal rudeness, Mercury then de-
scends to join the party, and takes the side of the
intercessors for the Princess, displaying the
winged cap, the talaria, and the caduceus of that
divinity, without any of his eloquence. He first
intercedes with Destiny ; and when prayers and,
representations fail, produces the fiat of ,Tnpite-7,
which he was commissioned to convey. Desalny
at this loses his temper, and swears that l'Ae don't
care one straw for Jupiter or the whole. of Olym-
pus. On this, in steps Jupiter person, ap-
propriately accoutred ; but, whether frightened
by his own thunder (a peal of which accompanies
his approach), or from whatever other cause I
don't know, he had forgotten what he had to say,
either in reproof of insolent Destiny or in assent to
suppliant Religion. When the prompter had,
given him his cue, from a machine like the end,
of a barrel or cask, placed at the front of the
stage, he soon adjusts the matter, dismisses
Destiny, gratifies Religion by a favourable
answer to her suit, and thus fulfils the vows of all
gods and men except Portuguese Corcundas, in
preserving the precious life of her Royal High-
ness. The scene immediately changes, the
stage is converted into a bright dazzling hall,
at the end of which appears the portrait of the
Infanta; with her left hand resting upon the
Charter, surrounded on each side with copies of
verses in honour of herself, the Constitution, her
brother Don Pedro, and her niece Maria ll.
These verses, which were probably composed by
the scene-painter, and of which the _following
specimen will perhaps be sufficient
e Viva Isabel,
" A 'tibia Regeatet
" Rae faz a Gloria
• "Da Lusa gente"—
were followed by the Constitutional ilynan, in
which Jupiter and Mercury took part. I shall
not waste your tune in offering any criticism on
this piece, or on one which followed it, though,
in the latter, two or three of the actors really
performed
r an
lileodw well.iorothers must say whether they
The fact is, the Portuguese
n
allow it or not), that if they are to have a na-
tional drama worthy of the name, it has yet to
come, along with their other rights promised by
the Charter. The chief theatre for native plays,
in Lisbon, and in the kingdom, where the abase
medley was exhibited, would disgrace an' pro-
vincial town in England, Trance, Gelanany, or
Italy, by the state of the arts and accommodations
which it displays. The boxes are supported
upon wooden props, which have not the appear-
ance of pillars ; and all the decorations are con-
formable. I observed the musicians, when they
entered the orchestra, dusting their seats with
their handkerchiefs, and lighting the candle-
ends, which they took from their pockets, to en-
able them to see their books. The consequence
is, that all the nobility and people of better con,
dition, who desire to be genteelly amused, pa-
tronize the opera, which would not disgraCe any
other European capital, and keep away from the
national drama. The poetry and scenic decora-
tions of the pieces acted are unhappily not the
only fine arts in which the Portuguese are defi-
cient,—having remained stationary, by the in-
fluence of a brutish superstition and a despotic
government, when their neighbours advanced.
There is scarcely a building in Lisbon, when
examined in detail, however glorious the general
appearance of the city, which display's any archi-
tectural skill or taste. The numerous pictures in,
the churches are for the most part mere daubs ;
and you scarcely see a piece of sculpture which
might not have been executed by a stone-ma!,on.
The equestrian statue of Joseph in the Praca do
Commercio, and the aqueduct over the valley ofthe
Alcantara, are the only two publ_:e works of which.
the nation has any right to IP-, proud, since the ac-
cession of the House of, Ttiraanza. Respecting the
latter work, I heart), 'in passing it the other day,
a conversation between two of our soldiers, which
shows the estimation in which the least cultivated
of our countrymen hold the civilization of our
allies. " Jack, Jack, (said one guardsman to
another), I'll lay my life on't, no Portuguese
never built this arqueduct." " Who the d-1.
then built it ?" " Why, you know, there be
always plenty of English here, and I think they
must have built it." " No, no, they have other
things to do than build arqueducts for the Por-
tuguese. Besides, it may be that the Portuguese
about two centuries ago, when I conceives this-
here work to have been contructed, were not
more ignorant than other people." These twcs
honest guardsmen differed in their architectP;ral
opinions and historical fact, and were wring iu
both ; but they seemed to agree in taking it for
granted that the Portuguese were far less culti-
vated than their neighbours. Were they-wrong
in this?---Tintes„

A few weeks ago, the skeleton of a child was
found in the attic storey of a house near Forfar.
Last week, the present tenant of the house had
occasion to repair some part of the kitchen floor;
and, on raising one of the stone flags, found the,
skeleton of another child. John Lunan, noes
under sentence of banishment from the county,
for various acts of theft, was the previous tenant
of the prerruses.—Abercken Clvonic/e.