Star.
London, England, 1814-11-07 00:00:00

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r • SUAKESPRAROS Tragedy Of Aire the which has
been for some time in preparation, was brought for-
ward on Saturday night, in a superior style of excel-
lence. In the musical department, the talents of Mr.
BELLAMY, Mrs. DINCONS, Mrs. BLAND, Ntr. PHIL-
LIPS, Mr. NNE, Mr. Salem, and indeed. of the whole
lyric power of the hoeve, are combined ; and, under
the care of Mr. KELLY, the chnrusses were executed
with an harmony, spirit, and effect, that we never
befrre witnessed. The overture and musical inter-
jections are also very honourable to Mr. Hogan, the
composer. The contrivance by which the ielusion
of the flight of Hecate, the appearance of the mary-
coloured spirits in the air, and the rising of the
nal powers to deliver their mysterious oracles to Mac-
kilt, is truly ingenious, and strikes the spectator by
its magnificence, as much as by its novelty. It seetus
to realize the fiction of the Poet : the infernal btit:gs
prove themselves to be spiritual, by rising up thri..ugh
the cauldron, surrounded by flame, without being
singed by it ; and Hecate rises on the clouds which
obey her mandate.
What would have been the effect on the bewil Jered
eyes of the contemporaries of SHAKESPEARE, if his
imaginations had been thusembodied and represented?
At a time when the doctrine of witchcraft was not
merely established by common belief, but enforced by
law—and when it was criminal to disbelieve in it—
' such an exhibition as was seen on Saturday night,
would have made an impression never to be effaced.
But here let us observe, that when the witches and
cauldron disappeared, the furnace ought to disappear
also. This, we suppose, was a mere oversight ; for in
fact the manner in which this play has been gut up
proves that at no former time was the conduct and
display of theatrical representations in any degre:
equal to those we have now the pleasure to enjoy.
But all that the painter, the musician, the machi-
nist, and the habit-maker have done, would be tri-
fling as to intellectual enjoyment (for all this
might have been employed on a ballet or a panto-
mime), if they had not been brought to illustrate the
grandest acting play of the immortal Bard. Here,
however grand, they are all secondary. It is the
play itself that rouses the attention, engages the pas-
sions, informs the mind and meliorates the heart of
every auditor. As it was acted on Saturday it pos-
sesses an influence which no sermon, no lecture on
morality, no example, even of legal punishment,
could impress on the multitude—tor of all the in-
structive exhibitions ever given to an audience, the
acting of Mr. KEAN on coming forth from the cham-
ber, after the assassination "of the King, is the most
impressive lesson to humanity we ever saw. The
convulsions of his frame, the agony of his feelings,
as his conscience brought to his mind the images of
the horrors he had left within—the glare of his eye,
the chocked utterance of " God bless us," and
" Amen," were altogether such an animated and
striking delineation of the soul of a murderer, as no
actor ever so truly and so emphatically presented to
our senses. It exceeds every former effort of las ai t,
and yet it was seemingly done without effort. it was
not by strained and struggling gestures—not by hur-
ried changes of attitude—not by boisterous or vehe-
ment expression that he conveyed the terrible emotion
by which he wits agitated, to the heart of the spec-
tators ; but he shewed it in every lineament-and mus-
cle of the body. He was the soul-stricken, self-cou-
victed murderer, that he represented ; and he (the
war.ier -;ho would have sacrificed thousands of his
unoffending fellow-creatures in the field without a
pang) stood here the penetrated victim of the re-
morse that must torture the bosom of an assassin. It
was in our eyes the perfection rf the histrionic art.—
In the less important scenes of the play he shewed the
same powers of just conception, and though his voice
sometimes failed in doing justice to his ideas, his
judgment in the manner never erred. In the Soli-
loquy, where he follows with his eye the dagger that
marshalled him the way he was to go, he was
quick and pointed in the transition between the loss
and the re-appearance of it. The dagger, by the tine
imagination of the poet's augury, is made to pass
into the chamber where Duncan sleeps. In that inter-
val the vision is lest to Macteth, and then he says,

" Mine eyes are made the fools o'the other senses,
" Or else worth all the rest--"
But it re-dppears, and

" He sees it still,
" And on its blade and dudgeon gouts of blood
" Which were not so before-"
This transition he marks with that discriminating tact
so peculiarly his own ; but to make the vision more
edifying, the whole ought to be directed to the very
chamber which he afterwards enters to perpetrate the
crime. Throughout the whole part, he displayed the
most perfect intimacy with the character, and the
justest idea of personifying it. We have no hesita-
tion in saying, that though his Richard may, by the
continuance of the passion, be regarded as a whole,
more uniform than his Macbeth, yet there is nothing,
in any play, equal to some of the pictures of passion
that he exhibited on Saturday night.
The other parts of the play were also more uni-
formly good than we are accustomed to see at either
Theatre. Of Mrs. BAIaLEY'S Lady Macbeth we for-
bear to speak critically. The shadow of the great ori.
ginal, reminds us feelingly of the loss we have sus-
tained. She is great only where the imitation ap-
proaches to the model. Mr. POPE'S Banymo was ex-
cellent, and Mr. RAE in Macdufwas more than usually
impressive. It seldom happens that the minor parts
of such a drama are ably sustained—and the French
critics constantly assert that we have not what they
tail the ensemble of a play on our boards. Now in this
Tragedy some of the finest speeches of the poet are
given to short characters✓-yet the wounded sol-
dier—Malcolm, Roue, &c. all delivered their pathetic
descriptions with the force of truth. And nothing
could surpass in harmony the manner in which Mr.
BELLAMY, Mrs. Drawn, Mrs. &Aso, &c. gave the
principal vocal parts of the Chot us. The three Witcher
also by Mr. DOWTON, Mr. Lovzortove, and Mr.
KII/GIIT, were finely represented by not being made
ludicrous. The mischief of their dark intent was not
fritred away by mummery. Upon the whole, the per.
formance was received with such enthusiasm of appro-
bation, that it was instantly, on the dropping tot the
curtain, announced (or Tuesday, Thursday, and Sa-
turday, to the satisfaction of the crowdedaudience.

At Covent• Garden Theatre, Mr. Kotula sustained
the character of Brstus, iu Jain Cesar—his per-
formance was, as usual, most deservedly applauded.