The New York herald., 1871-01-14
The Revival or che Legitimate.

The Revival or che Lesitimases
The star of the legitimate seems again in
the ascendant, and our dramatic records Of
the past week clearly point to the conclusion
that the public are returning to those healthy
fountains of amusement from which they de-
lighted In the best days of the stage to drink.
Last week Mr.. Edwin Booth splendidly in
augurated this revival of the legitimate drama
at his beautiful theatre In twenty-third street.
The appearance of Mr.. Lester Wallack, whose
annual engagement at his own theatre always
marks an epoch In the dramatic year, will, ON
Monday night, set the crown on this good
work. Mr.. Wallack belongs to our best and
highest school of art. He did not, as SO many
now attempt, catch the golden apple Of posi-
ton at bound, but by long and patient study.
trained under his distinguished father and
many Of the brightest lights Of our stage, year
by year put on that light which has eliminated
in such luminous perfection now. Mr.. Wallack
will, we are informed, appear in two Of those
charming and graceful pieces which have been
too long strangers to our stage, ''Faint Heart
Never Won Fair Lady" and ''Ussd Up," OF
the leading characters in which he mag be said
to be. with Charles Mathews. the only living
representative. They are the only two men
on the stage now who would have the gay
audacity to appear in either part. We say it
with sorrow, bat that whim, address, gayety
and grace, light as the wave of q feather or
the futter Of q fan, seems in the present day
to have wholly faded and nowhere to be found.
We cannot point to single name in this eoun-
try which can even give us future hope. We
have excellent low comedians and eccentric
comedians-men like Warren. an artist Of su-
preme merit, like Jefferson, like John s.
Clarke, like Owens-we have tragedians Of
unquestioaed excellence, like Mr.. Edwin
Booth and Mr.. Edwin Forrest; but with the.
one exception of Mr.. Lester Wallack, we have
not what may be termed the gentleman Of the
gift of nature as any other accomplishment
such qualities as Palmer and Elliston exhibited
and Mr.. Charles Mathews exhibits. 1t is i'm
possible to acquire this peculiar quality. Ysu
catch 1t from your early training and associa-
ton. Both Palmer and Elliston were brought
up in the best society of their day-not, like
poor Grimaldi, to be placed as food for
amusement 'between Lord Byron and another
lord" but as equals and compeers. Mr..
Charles Mathews was in his youth the favorite
companion of Count D'Orsay, and Mr.. Lester
Wallack's associations, as we all know here,
have never been such as to brush tinge of its
natural lustre from the attractive charm of his
wing.
Mr.. Wallack's greatest quality is perhaps his
wonderful variety. Although representa-
tive light comedian, some Of his greatest sue
cesses have been achieved in serious and melo-
dramatic parts in the Romance of q Poor
Young Man," in "Pauline," s'Monte Cristo"
and ''Rosedale," all of which have had runs
of almost unequalled duration on the stage.
The part of Sir Charles Coldstrsam, being the
part in which Mr.. Lester Wallack first made
his appearance on the stage in this country,
and his not having appeared in it since that
engagement, will doubtless impart special in
terest to an occasion which merely requires to
be ''heralded" to insure for it an overfowing
success