The Sun. — 1844-05-28 (London, England)

QUEEN'S.  Mr. C. J. James, the enterprising lessee of this popular little house, has brought several novelties befare his ll'hitsun-holiday patrons. These comprise every range of character, from the melancholy murderer, the admired of the gods, to the " gay Lothario," the delight of the little ladies in the boxes. The amusements of the evening commenced with a new piece, written expressly for the Queen's, entitled Chester Fair, or the Prophecy. The play is cast in that troubled age, when Wales was as yet unconquered by England, and it opens with a view of the fair in Chester market-place. The bustle of such a scene is well enacted, and the diversified groups of jongleurs, harpers, glee-maidens, and dancing-girls, come up to our ideas of a merry-making in the olden times. Sir Roger Dutton (Mr. J. Parry), the High Steward of Chester, mixes with the motley crowd, and is by a fortune-teller informed that he will fight a duel for a dancing-girl, that by so doing he will render his ladye love jealous, but that ultimately " he will win her by timely rescuing her from the Welshman, with a tattered army." The doughty Knight fulfils the first part of the prophecy by rescuing Marian (Miss Stoker), a peasant girl, from the hands of Chief Justice Glanville (Mr. Rogers), thus securing the gratitude of her lover, Allan (Mr. Reynolds), a minstrel, who has considerable influence with the mobocracy of the fair. So far so good ; but unfortunately the hero's ladye love, Mary de Lacy (Miss Rogers), fired by her lover's supposed unfaithfulness, flies her father's castle, and takes refuge with Earl Randolph (Mr. Renard), in his castle of Rothelan, on the borders of Wales, the very worst place, as it happens, to which she could have fled, as it is immediately afterwards invested by the Welsh mountaineers. This calamity has its advantages, however, for it gives Sir Roger Dutton an opportunity of fulfilling the last link in the prophecy, by defeating her enemies with the very ragged gentlemen who had been enjoying themselves at Chester fair. Such is the outline of the plot. It was a bustling thing throughout, and the actors seemed at home in their parts. Mr. Parry and Miss Romer, with Mr. Hodson, who personifies a drunken Irish fiddler, were particularly happy. The unities were not always well preserved by the authoress, but, as a whole, the piece was very successful. This was followed by "a drama of intense interest," called The Vision of Death, or the Posthouse on the Heath, which seemed to go off rather flatly. The amusing burletta of Devils in the Room succeeded; and the bill of fare was wound up by a melo-drama, by Mr. Barnett, entitled The Skeleton Hand, or the Demon Statue. The name will give the reader an idea of the " glamourie" compressed into the two acts. We have forests and caves innumerable, banditti above number; interesting gallants in cloaks and dominos ; supernatural appearances and—the Polka dance! The performances throughout the evening seemed to give general satisfaction ; the house was respectably filled, and the audience in the upper tiers much more quiet than might have been anticipated on a Whit Monday.