The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1839-05-03 00:00:00

THEATRE-ROYAL.

Since our last notice of what actually took place at this
establishment during the successful engagement of the de-
serving Van Amburgh, Mr. C. Kean has appeared in four of
his select characters : as Hamlet, Rolla, and Othello, and
last night as Sir Giles Overreach, in Philip Massinger's
" New Way to Pay Old Debts." The houses, alias the
receipts, have been unusually shy.
Of Mr. Charles Kean's merits as a Shaksperian tragedian
it is superfluous to speak. Like every actor and every human
being, he has his peculiarities of voice, manner, and style
in other words, he has what is colloquially termed " his
ways." So had his wilful and unreflecting father. And so
had the diminutive Garrick ; so had the asthmatic Kemble—
a man who owed his success much more to his real genius
for worldly prudence, and a caution exceeding that of a na-
tional Scot, than to his intrinsic powers as an actor, but
which are not here questioned, except relatively. So too
had Kemble's only successful pupil, Young—his pupil in
wheedling off the stage, as while wearing the high-heeled
shoe of Melpomene on it. So likewise, in his way, has the
greatest living artist, take him all in all, that the acting
drama ever has enjoyed, as a classic illustrator—William
Charles Macready.
Our remarks at present being intentionally general, we
pass from any further notice of Mr. Charles Kean's Sir Giles
than saying that it is confessedly, by his enemies as well as
admirers, the best on the stage. It is a disagreeable part in
an obsolete play—a play with the peculiar feeling of which
mixed audiences of the day cannot force themselves into
sympathy. The same applies to the Germanisms and super-
seded claptraps in the play of " Pizarro," for the Rolla of
which Mr. Kean is physically deficient in
_freight. Had he
been the Pizarro, and Mr. Gray or some other " heavy
man" the _Rolla, the parts had been more naturally cast,
though we cannot say that they had been better acted.
But of Mr. Kean's other impersonations during this week,
we are constrained to be more particular. Altogether his
Othello and Hamlet of Wednesday and Monday were de-
lineated with ability ; some scenes .tti the style of a master.:
but there were other scenes, nay acts, which were as re-
markably provocative of censure. In Hamlet, for instance,
particularly in the early dialogue of the play, Mr. Kean's
pauses were not merely singular ; they were offensive
to all who were conversant with the text, and the cues
cues to his part. We question the object of these pauses.
What is gained by them ? Mr. Kean may fancy that they
prepare the way for eccentric emphases or intonations, or by
serving to pique attention they thereby aid him in making
himself the observed of all observers ? Be the design what
it may, and apart wholly from the text of Shakspeare being
generally known, we are of opinion that to attempt such
novelties" or pauses of humour, betrays want of judgment
in untried genius itself ; and if so, how much more are not
they to tie avoided by one of upwards of twelve years' labour,
and with an audience too like that of Liverpool, which from
the mixed nature of its resident constituents, and which,
especially during summer from its influx of visiters, more
closely resembles a London one in its jury-like feelings and
judgment than any other in the provinces !
Forced pauses the length of a seaman's sleep, with night-
mare startings when in the humour to awake to a conscious-
ness of his situation and the current of the dialogue, were
the characteristics of Mr. Kean's opening scenes both in
Othello and Hamlet. These drawbacks as clouds of humour,
are remediable. Were they inherent defects of articulation,
or mannerisms confirmed by habit, they had not been ad-
verted to. Being otherwise, however, we say reform them
altogether. From what cause we cannot divine, (for playing
in the provinces is not sufficient to account for it) Mr. Kean's
pronounciation of several words is a departure from orthodox
usuage without the exculpatory plea of the slightest necessity
on the score of rhythmus or measure of blank-verse; or of
any improvement in the prevailing standard of either accent or
orthoepy. To justify these exceptions be it remembered that the
stage is justly regarded as one of the great schools and standards
of the English language as it is or ought to be spoken : now
neither Mr. Kean nor his admirers—among whose ranks we
claim to be included—can justify his wilful provincialisms in
his pronouncing passeth after the fashion of the shopmen on
the Surrey side of the Thames, and the diphthong i (for it is
not a pure vowel) in the words icicle, fine time, &c., like the
natives of the north of Ireland. Unless Mr. Kean departs
from his use and wont in this respect, in his readings of
Hamlet this evening, we ask of any one who does not pre-
tend, through ignorance or the affectation of indifference, to
be above such hypercritical minutia: ; we ask those who have
ears to hear, to listen, if in his very opening scene with his
mother in The Court of Denmark, he does not say—
" I have that within which paw-seth show !"
Mr. Kean dwells perceptibly to the dullest ear on the first
syllable of this word with the stress improperly on the vowel
a, which he converts into an open one ; whereas, as every
schoolboy and observer of the usages of educated mid." soft
society" knows, or by listening can at once satisfy himself,
the vowel instead of being an open is a shut one—shut in by
the consonant s, one or both of which should legaliy go with
the first syllable instead of being divorced from it. As to
the diphthong i, in such words as have been instanced, is it
not provincial and exceptionable taste to read them teim for
time, fein for fine, and so on? To revert to his hesitating
pauses, these have been occasionally alternated with an oppo-
site extreme ; namely, a volubility of utterance, the progres-
sion of which rivalled that of a light train of the first class
descending the inclined plane from Manchester.
These strictures are not to be misunderstood ; they are
offered in the spirit of a faithful observer, or say rather a
listener. As impressions they are either right or they are
wrong ; and as the remarks of a writer for the public in re-
spect of an actor to the public, it is for the public to decide
whether they are just or not.
Though pressed for room, we must add that the admirers
of Mr. Kean or those who have yet to see him will find him
in excellent voice, indeed on none of his previous visits do
we recollect it being hall; so good. His health, too, is what
his personal friends could wish it,;to be. He is therefore in
every respect physically qualified to give the fullest effect to
, his existing conception of his favourite characters.
On Friday, we shall advert to Van Amburgh's brilliant
success at Manchester ; and notice two accessions to the
stock company, in the persons of Mr. Vivash and Mr. Lynne.

PACKET SHIP CAMBRIDGE.—Perhaps there never was a
ship built that has been so successful as the Cambridge. She
is now a little over one year old, and has performed five voy-
ages to Liverpool. Her accommodations, arrangements, and
convenience for comfort cannot be surpassed. Her cabin is
splendid, and can accommodate with the extra berths, nearly
fifty passengers. The dining table is forty feet long, and,
consequently, each passenger can have two feet. There is a
cabin on deck, where the passengers can assemble when the
weather is too boisterous without. In the place of the jolly
boat, to keep fowls and cattle in, there is a house built up with
compartments for the cow, the pigs, and the fowls, and which
closes tight, so that in the event of a hurricane, they are per-
fectly safe ; and then attached, is a large ice-house, in which
fresh beef, and in fact provisions of all descriptions are kept
nice, cool, and fresh, during the entire voyage. We have
been told, by passengers, that they have entered the pOrt of
Liverpool dining on fresh beef and fowl. When the weather
is pleasant, the passengers have a clean flush deck, fore and
aft, where they can dance, promenade, and the like. The
Roscius is different : she was built with a poop deck, which
are rapidly getting into fashion, and are much liked. We
think that all ships should be constructed like the Roscius.
Another and very important improvement in the Cambridge,
is the different entrances to the cabins. The ladies have theirs
—the gentlemen theirs—and the steward's is distinct from all,
which, heretofore, have been compected, and much to the
vexation cf the ladies. The fou voyages of the Cambridge
have netted the owners 30,000 dollars, and the passage money
of the present trip is 6000 dollars. It is now doubtful whether
the Liverpool packet owners will ever reduce the fare. They
say that it will be impossible to furnish the ship in the same
splendid manner as is now done, and unlyss they do, passeng-
ers will be continually complaining. As the reduction makes
but little difference to the passenger, but is of vast importance
to the pioprietor in the long run, we do not believe they will
make the reduction—certainly not at present. The Cambridge
is full freighted, and we noticed the other day, a large box,
which contains a splendid bust of Daniel Webster, sent to
Mr. Gair of Liverpool, by Jonathan Goodhue, Esq., of this
city.—New York Morning Herald.
REV. SIDNEY SMITH'S LAST.—On this witty clergyman's
observing Lord Brougham's one-horse carriage, he remarked
to a friend—alluding to the B surmounted by a coronet on
the panel—" There goes a carriage with a B outside, and a
wasp within."