New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1872-11-19
ORLEANS TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 10 1872
DeRnr,s FaIstaE.

The play written by Shakespeare to illus;
trate the humors of that wild boy" Prince
Hal, the madeap son of Henry ", who, to
| the surprise of the world as it then existed,
| forgot the errors of his youth and, having
Sown his wild oats, made one of the lord
liest of all England's kings. This greatest
OF English writer's has given US a glimpse
of 'fastness" in those days, and the great
| interest of the tragedy in which this is an
| episode is lost i'll Falstaf3an eceentricities
! of tight head and loose tongue.
DeBar'a FaEstaf lacked none of the
humorous touches which by good actors
| are so well conveyed without speech and
IN the reading many points were brought
out not discovered at cursory glance.
What FelstGF is vas made plain enough.
That he is like all loafers who live pretty
well on their friends, braggart and
coward, bOastful and windy, an .unser-
vicoable sneak, with his bad and his worst
qualities relieved by good humor and SEN
tlment, was made quite evident last night,
and the many points were greeted with
genuine laugh from the audience either of
49, AA2S "a PiCctoNACt ~ Ll14C Gb Ol
mirth was well kept up wherever FalStqF
stopped the view.
The character of TalstaF and his appear
@nce can be ascertained by careful read
ing of the play. Hackett has set this tyre
of hummer Of the dead and gone period,
and everybody within the realm of the
kings English has but one idea of Fogstaf.
and that ID Hackett's. 1t is well that this
type should be made up from the text, for
this being the only chronicle of any such
man, there are no other resources to dis
cover what he was like. He would have
been called in these days dead beat for in
his talk with the Prince he cOnfesses never
TO have paid the reckoning of his drinks
That he was also a cutpurse it needs no
ghost to come from the grave to tell Us. He
says himself, touching his corpuleney, that
EIGHT yards Of uneven ground is three
score and ten miles afoot with me-" and in
regard to his "heft," he asks the Prince.
who tells him to lie down and put his ear to
the ground to hear Travellers Hast thou
any levers to lit me up again, being DOWN."
That he is coward appears abundantly
during the action of the play.
The actor should undoubtedly show FaL
STAFF as a hummer OF that day-as a dead
beat, eutpurse and man of enormous and
unwieldy bulk, Harding the earth as he |
walks" Messengers call him fat as butter, |
and he is alluded to as "taIlow," and in the
expressive epithet of "old ribs" And that
he is thorough drunkard there is not the
slightest doubt. DeBar filed the entire
of these features in his rendition
last night.
Mr.. DeBar is native man of humor-not
that he studies it, but because nature has
given him what art seldom confers, though
The imitation is often so similar to the
original 0onhomDeie it would pass for it.
But there is a merry twinkle of the eye, an
expression of feature natural to a good
liver who knows the world, and is "up to
'nutf, which is untaught. A joke couched
n demeanoF like this is sure to 90 for its
uil weight, be seen instantly unlike the
majority of stage jestsl and dwell costly in
he memory to brighten up the head in the
uture. OeBar appreciates FalstaF and
'"H'VS > Ii GU thtb Vne mousse appreciates 1t, |
60.
ROtsp@r, Mr. Fitzgerald, is out of the
phere OF BazstaG His impatience and
leat, intemperate zeal and explosive dispo-
ition, his impulse that would, if unarrested, |
end him beadlong to destruction, were
ouched up with good effect, though the in
crest felt in FalstaF caused the house to
verlook in a haste to see this idol OF the
,ood ivers omit many things that would
thergise be seen. The support of Mr.. De
Bar is not such as would frame the picture I
10 presents in an appropriate style, but |
'ho caresR FaLstaG's speech in describing
is famous regiment of latter donations
nd ''revolted tapsters" was delivered in a.
one which said plain enough he knew the
ruth and application to the present times
f what he said.
In short, Mr., DeBar has struck his "voca-
ion, and it is believed will be quoted as :
'alstaF in place of Mr.. Hackett, whose '
aputation for this is worldwide The play
ill gain hearty support, and will receive
hen no more than it deserves. }