New-York tribune., 1885-02-11
THE LONDON STAGE.
,uc,pryrs IN IT'S RECENT HIsTORY-lIs
pROsPECTS.


a.. renal ORGANS. They are not enthusastlc-how
sho,,a thew bel The London horizon. oeyohd
winch the London critic hardly cares TO look mas
been lighted up y no brilliant appartion. No''no
PLAYWRIGHT nor playactor has wthin'the i'ih''' "
the bills of mortality distinguished himsel III soo
o way as to leave permanent name W '
ing distinction 10 the annals OF tho '"oi'
that has passed. The chronicler In search VA oi's
ipality is forced to content himself Win such
piecc as Mr.. ii. A. Joness Saints and sinners
the success of which appears to be uue 10 .es'r
monals from clergymen of the Church OF Eng'a ana
approyue its exposure of hypocrisy in the Dissent
ing community. 1t pnly remains for Mr.. Brown 70
write play of equally fimsy structure exposing
wbatcver bvpocrisy NAV be prevalent in the COM
muuity of the Church of England. Then let the
Dissenting ministers furnish certificates OF appr"vai
to this and all will be WELL The Vaudevlie
manager having filed his theatre for months WIN
play-going Chnrchmen, will. doubtless MI IL io'
some months more with play-goIng Nonconiormists'
Justice i'll be DONE the treasury will be hed the
mirror will be held up to nature, and Mr. Robinson
will presently write third drama to expose the
hypocrisy of the communities which are neither
Episcopal nor Presbyterian.
Not even Miss Anderson's success at the Lyceum
snices to redeem the character OF the London year
Nor the fact of her allowed by the critical
Engishmsn to pass without challenge. 1t is freely
asserted that the Lyceum is losing moneys 1t seems
to be admitted that Romeo and juliet" Is 10 be
withdrawn as soon The Iiunchback can DC
prepared AS to Miss Anderson's success In the
artistic sense opinion remains pretty much what II
was. Her performance has been before the ppbilc
for two or three months under conditions that
admit now if ever. of just estimate OF Its worth
Miss Anderson has found fcrvid eulogist IN Lord
Lytton who spices his praise with attack on the
81, nj yaffh he
to be less enchanted than is the noble lord himself
If our pretty cOuntrywoman could manage to
infuse into her Juliet some of the warmth when
pervades Lord LyttOn's panegyric, the performances
would better deserve the applause bestowed on IL.
The critics unconverted and undsmayed by this
outbnrst remain of the opinion they first expressed.
The Times of to-day, after pronouncing Mr. lrvngs
Malrolo quaint and curious rather than great.
saws: @Of still smaller account artstically was
Mics Anderson's yJalie, which was only saved from
mediocrty by the actresses personal grace, though
some indiscreet and self-suficient admirers have
loady claimed for her the possession of genius or at
least of talent of the first order" The Standard at
the end of the year observed that it would be afec
tation to pretend that Miss Anderson's impersona-
tion of Juliet had satisfied Shakcspearean Students
Mr.. Clement Scott in The Theatre, is cruel enough
to say Of the balcony scene that it can only be
described as Mary Jane flirting over the garden
wall with her young man.
Nor does Mr.. Wilson Barrett's Hamlet" appear
to have stood the test of time. Announced with
every arety of the puff preliminary. prodnced with
elaborate care, made splendid spectacle
appealing to students by parade on the one hand
of fidelity to a genuine text, and on the other by an
assurance of archaeological accuracy, this " Ham
let of the Princesss Theatre was received by the
press with respectful attention The critics and the
public tried hard TO like the new rendering. 1t was
reviewed at great length and the long reviews were
then reprinted in the advertising columns of the
same and other papers at Mr.. Wilson Barretts cost
and charge. In the art of advertising direct and
indirect, Mr. Wilson Barrett is past-inaster. The
expedients by which the curiosity of the public
was excited aud. for time. kept alive. were as
ingenious as they We're diversified Whatever may
he thought of the art of the actor the art OF the
shownl an has seldom been developed to higher
point. But it is one thing to secure your audience
another and perhaps more difficult thing To act
Hamlet to them in such fashion to interest or
enthral them. am afraid it must be said that the
greater number thought Mr. Wilson Barretts
Prince of Denmark inferior in atractiveness to the
scenery and dresses Students of Shakespeare
laughed at his antiquated pedantries in the matter
of text He is with the exception of the compiler
Of Messrs. Sotheby g. Wilkinsons auction cata-
ogues the last survivor of the uncritcal generation
which ACCEPTED Horne Tool.e's dictum about tho
authority of the First Folio. Naturallsm on the
stage had gone solnc lengths before Mr.. Wilson
Barrett took it mp, but the conception of Hamlet as
the walking gentleman of a modern drawing room
is original with him. Mr.. Irving played certain
scenes quietly and colloquially.-those with Ro-
sencraats and Gutdtnstern Cor instanco-and with
Immense effect This seems to have misled his
successor and induced him to present the Hamlet of
Shakespeare in what may be permitted to call
mental equipment of trousers, dress-coat and opera
hat. He has modernized bin out Of all likeness
to the poet-prince whom Shakespeare drew brood
ing in philosophic abstraction over the mightlest
problems oil life, and balancing the arguments for
and against his every act with microscopic minute
ness and incompatible subtlety of dialectics The
heroic and poetic qualities have disappeared alto
gether. Mr.. Irving's Hamlet was unequal. but it
touched the imagination 1t was intellectual.
delicate sympathetic, and it filled the Lyceum for
two hundred successive nights. The Hamlet of Mr.
Wilson Barrett, laboriously painstakng and con-
scentious as it is. can only be described as hum
drnm When it ceases to be mat tter-of-fact it
becomes melodramatic, tine most exact of his
critics reminds us. And ii HIS ceased after short
run to draw. The "busness" at the Princesss
Theatre has for some time past been known to be
bad, and Hamlet is shortly tn give way to some.
thing else.
The current performances at the London theatres.
% far as they novel; require but brie. comment
Christmas however. marked moro clearly than ever
before one or two changes in the public taste. The
ti1ne-hcnored pantoipime survives only at Drury
Lane. unless we cross the river to the Surrey
Theatre. which few people do. Covent Garden
has been abandoned to the circns. good circus 10
. good thing to see, as everybody knows who has
visited the Cirque dEte in the Champs Elys6es at
Paris. But the equestrian entertainment, the
bnl-stickcrs have it. provided by Mr.. William Ho-