The Nevada journal., 1854-11-17


law
THEATRIcAL.--1'he Lady of the Lake was
played at the Metropolitan for the first time,
on Wednesday night. The cast was:
Fltz james. ........... 80. Mr.. Phelps.
Roderick Dhu. ..... .... w. NJ. Leman.
Ellen Douglas. 80. Mrs Thoman.
If our readers enjoy the following critiquc
upon the performance as hugely as we did, they
will be indebted to the Evening Journal for
hearty laugh:
" 1t is seldom that we have an oppor-
tunity Of witnessing performance so per-
feet and so highly successful as was that of
the ''Lady Of the Lake" last night, at the
Metropolitan Theatre 1t deserves par
ticular attention from the lovers of the
dramatic art, and especially from the pub
lie press We are really sorry that the
usual excessive length of our leader, and
the very small space allowed to theatri-
Gals in our sober columns, will not permit
us to give the matter more than desulto-
ry sort Of notice.
1t was very soon evident, after the rise
of the curtain, that the actors had taken
extraordinary pains with the text Their
speeches were neither from the doggerel
of the printed play, nor yet from the poe
try of the romance, but were ingeniously
compounded of both, with original extem-
poraneous variations, which had most
novel and pleasing effect indeed We
could give twenty examples of this, but
one or two must suffice.
In the scene where Douglas declares his
intentions to leave Roderick Dhu's do.
minons, in order to avert from them the
vengeance Of the king, Roderick broke
out:
No never blast be yon pine
Ny fathers ancient and stl my boast and banner
If from its shade in danger part
Any whom Roderck loves
The guards shall start in Stirling porch,
When my nuptia altar is fired;
And its flames shall set abazc an hundred villages,
To scare the sumbers of king James :"
And again, where by an ingenious de-
vice, number of ghOstly pasteboard war
riors, with a small blue cloud on the head
Of each, start up at the whistle of Roder-
lex, Fitz-J James exclaimed
Come one come all this rock shall melt
Before shun Il killed Celt! -
An improvement on the original which
cannot be too much admired.
In this scene also Fitz-J ames thought
proper to introduce passage about the
death of Red Murdoch, which it was found
necessary to repeat further on. Some
ihypercritical gentleman. near us objected
to this, but we soon sileHced him with the
proverb which shows that good thing
will bear repetition. He was going on to
reply by something beginning "too much
of good thing"-when our attention was
recalled to the stage.
The audience had frequent opportuni-
! ties Of discussing the merits of the play,
while the actors, prompter and stage man
ager were discussing in the wings whose
turn it was to 90 out, and once the char
acters voluntarily and simultaneously left
the stage, in order to allow the spectators
a sufficient opportunity to express their
enthusiastic admiration. This is much
better than for actors to stand foOlishly
still while long continued applause lasts,
and is an example our dramatic friends
would do well to follow. A pleasing va
riety was occasionally introduced by the
scene shifer 1t was really thrilling to
see chamber fat marching solemnly
along the side to meet in the centre of the
stage wood scene, and every such oc-
currence was hailed with enthusiastic ex-
pressions Of delight. Indeed, every thing
was in perfect unison throughout this most
striking representation Of an excellent
play.
But the final combat was the feature of
the evening When Roderick, magnani-
mously throwing away his shield and bat
tle-axe and drawing a short fencing sword
from under his petticoat, squared himself
for his antagonist, every heart stood still.
We despair of giving any idea of the pro-
gress Of the fight. Some captious indiyid-
ual grumbled, it is true, because the fire
did not fly thick enough, and expressed
disapprobation when three successive cuts
one up and two down-were made in
emptysir sir instead of on each others blades,
but the y were speedily silenced by indig-
nant cries of ''dry up" from all parts of
the house. One freckled faced little boy,
with hair Of most sanguinary hue, laugh
ed 50 immoderately acknowledgements
ly considering the whole thing an excel
lent joke-as to disgust an English gen.
tleman near us to such an extent, that he
rose in his seat and offered to punch is
'ead for sixpence" In short, the play
was entirely successful, and when at the
close, Fitz-J ames, placing white hand
kerchief on the fallen herO's breast so as
not to soil his armor, set his foot upon his
PROSTATE foe and spread his hands to hea-
ven, the curtain went down amid plaudits
that shook the house like tempest. 1t
would be invidious to particularize actors,
when all acquitted themselves so well, but
we cannot forbear noticing Mr.. Phelps, as
having greatly added to the interest of