The Sun. — 1850-11-21 (London, England)

SADLERS' WELLS THEATRE.  The chef d'auvre of John Webster, the Duchess of was revived here last, evening. It has been adapted to the exigereies of the modern stage by Mr. IL 11. Horne, who has exhibited a reverential regard fur he reageilieent work of one of our finest old dramatists in the alterations which he Las found it necessary to make in order to adaFt a tragedy, originally produced in 1612, to the tastes of an audience of 1850; indeed, he has been almost too revereotiel, and we could have wished that ho had ' altogether emitted the fifth net (in itself an anti-climax) or gr. atiy altered the dencuenteet, so es to leave avoided the almost burlesque termination of the play, its which all the principal characters kft surviving (tee Duchess, it will be recollected, is murdered in the fourth act) kill one another. The plot of this work is simple to the last,degree, but the author has filled it with horror, mental and physical, to its extreme complement. The Duchess of Amalfi. iu Italy (corrupted to "Maid "), secretly marries her own steward; and her brothers, a prince and a cat dinal, by means of a hired miscreant, deliberately murder her, as a punishment for the stain on the family honour. Prior to her ee%th, however, they visit her with a series of moral tortures. She is made to see a wax figaire, which she takes for the corpse of her husband ; all the inmates of a madhouse are turned loose about her to terrify her with their horrible antics, a funeral dirge is sung over her while she is still living, and at last her windpipe is closed by the fatal cord. Tne scene in which this banquet of horrors is presented is the most renowned in the piece, and here we may cite the comment of Charles Limb, one of the most admiring of Webster's critics. Ile says, " Ail the several parts of the drea, tful apparatus with .-:Bich the Duchess's death is ushered in are not mote remote from the conceptioiis of ordinary vengeance than the strange character of suffering „winch they seem to bring upon their victim is beyond the imagination of ordinary puets. As they are not like inflictions of this life, so her language seems not of this world. She has lived among horrors till she is become native and endowed unto that element.' She speaks the dialect of despair, her tongue has a smatch of Tartarus and the souls in bale. rr !Int are `Luke's iron crown,' the brazen bull of Pnatarts, Procruve's bed, to the waxen images which comattrfeit death, to the wild masque of madmen, the tombmaker, the bellman, the living parson's dirgo, the mortification by degrees? To more a horrur skilfully, to touch a soul to the quiets, to lay upon tear as much as it can hear, to wear end weary a life till it is ready to drop, and hen step in with mortal instruments to take its hit fOrleit—this only a Webster can do. Writers of an inferior genius may `upon horrors' head hollers accumelate,' hut they cannot do this. They tnistahe quantity ter quality, they terrify babes with painted devils,' but they know nut how a soul is capable of hefeg moved; their let rors want dignity, their atfrightmeets are without decorum." The play is well ~put upon 'the stage and is very str.mgly cast ; Miss Wynn personeting the Duchess; Mr. 11-lps Ye-din:lei', end Mr. G. Bennett, Beanie. Ie the earlier scenes with the Steward, M W iss ynn acted the part us a light comedy one, exhibiting quite a spirit of coquetry, and was, as it struck us, in all the earlier scenes of the play, indeed, up to the conclusion of the third act, somewhat deficient in diguit.e. The scone in a hick she parts with her childiee, at the conclusion of the third act, was very finely given, and the whole cf the fourth act vas acted with terrific earnestness. Mr. Phelps was very fine in Ferdieand—we have seldom a' ea the agoidea of remorse more finely depicted; and Mr. G. Ben-nett, as Bosola, was pwf,ct. Taken as a whole, 8.,501a was the best acted character of the play. The applause was enthusiastic, and at the conclusion all the principal artistes were celled on, avid there were loud calls for Mr. Horne. the hou,,t was crowded.  ST.