The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1839-04-23 00:00:00

THEATRE Rl/40YAL.

Last night Mr. Van Amburgh exhibited his fearless and ex-
traordinary performances with lions, tigers, leopards, and
trained animals—all unmuzzled, and free as the casing air.
The town has been lithographed, and , the bills of the night
have had a " display" of Van Ambuigh like another Daniel
in the den with a parcel of mixed beasts of the field.: We
notice this, and for this reason : if this Van Amburgh was a
humbug, and where his " lions" only dogs, aiul..as,ses, in
wild beast skins, what a hue and cry had been iminstpously,
and indignantly got up against the management 'hat there
is no exaggeration in either the .puff, preliminary, or in the
puff direct, the septical have but to see with their own eyes,
and participate in the astonished, and delighted-feelingsof the
enviable majority who will nightly, during . this attractive
engagement, mark by their plaudits, the triumph; of liuthan
intellect over the instinctive ferocity of the brutes of the
field. The house was crowded in every part, and the aptiquse
was of such a character, and to well timed, as to ,leave. no
doubt of the complete success of this liberal and enterprising
engagement, effected at indisputable expense, by .111eossrs.
Lewis and Clarke.

We had the opportunity of witnessing Van Amburgh's
surprising exhibitions upwards of twenty times within the
walls of " old Drury," previous to Lent, and during the
week thereafter. In the metropolis there was but one opinion
respecting their merit among those competent to jadge. Van
Amburgh is no drugger of his beasts : they are well fed ;
their coats are sleek, and their health, like their good spirits,
" beyond suspicion." No tragedian; not excepting John
Kemble or Edmund Kean, ever gave more decided proofs of
elaborate finish in their sustained scenes or favourite appear-
ances, than Van Amburgh. Every position he takes up ;
every look and gesture are premeditated and coolly acted up
to, according to his own manner of marking out his work.
The animals are treated with kindness. While he opens the
huge jaws of one of his creatures, lie caresses tlie crest and
shoulders of some other, which the while is completing what
is technically styled a " picture"—and a picture too which
justifies the appreciation of every artist. A series. of astonish-
ing tableaux will be represented nightly during- this week ;
and, unless we blunder, Mr. C. Kean will not be the only lion
"rampant" as an exclusive attraction, during the-,fortnight of
success thereafter ? Mr. Forrest, the American tragedian, was
admired as a fine animal, which, in .his way, he questionless
was in spite of his monstrous excrescences, of calves. But
Van Amburgh, take him all in all, is a finer man. The
lithographs of him are unlike the run. of .sncla slu)v,-8, stuck
in the shop windows in this town : the only. flattery that per-
tains to them is the truth of the delineation ; they faithfAlly
embody their subject in his habit as he lives, and is nightly
to be seen realising, by his introduction of the little Ideating
creature, the biblical prophesying of the supremacy of the
human mind ; that the day should eonae, when vile wolf
should be seen lying down with the lamb,, and the young
child playing, unhurt, under the hole of the asp. Eulogy
apart, these are " extraordinary" performances : they will
draw, and redound otherwise to the credit of the solvent,
and enterprising management that has produced them amongst
us in Liverpool. .