The Sun. — 1863-02-24 (London, England)

DRURY-LANE THEATRE,  BONNIE DUNDEE,  Mr. Falconer's long,expected novelty was produced at this theatre last evening with great care and completeness, and in the presence of an audience that crowded the theatre to the roof. The drama is an historical spectacle, which takes for its central figure the celebrated Jacobite hero, James Graham of Claverhouse, Viscount Dundee; and which, commencing with his visit to the Highlands  to raise the clans in support of James the Second, winds up with the Massacre of Glencoe, which occurred some three years afterwards under the rule of William 111. the first act is devoted to an incident in the life of Dundee, his venture from Edinburgh to Lochaber, to meet the Highland chiefs, when, unattended and on feet, he is waylaid and on the point of being murdered by a band of Lowlanders, and owes his rescue to the presence of mind of the daughter of LoAiel and her Highland foster sister, as well as the arrival of some friends. The second act is employed by the meeting of the Highland clans, and ultimately the gathering of the clans around the person of Dundee in a wild valley of Lochaber ; and the last act, as we have stated, is given to the massacre of Glencoe. There is an under plot, which turns on the adventures of Helen, the daughter of Lochiel, who, escaping from her father's roof to avoid a distasteful marriage, is rescued from the hands of the 'Whigs who are lying in wait for Claverhouse, by Alaster M'Donald, who guards her home in safety, and who wins her love and hand for his service—he proving to be a member of the Al'lan clan in the end, and thereby becoming involved with her in the peril of the massacre, from which they are rescued by the timely arrival df a portion of the clan of the Camerons. Mr. Falconer, in constructing his story, has not relied very much on history, nor, on the other hand, resorted to the admirable materials to be  found in Scott, in the tale of "Old Mortality." He has neither drawn Dundee in the gloving colours of the novelist, who presents as most conspicuous the grace and gallantry of his demeanour, nor gone, on the other hand, to facts, which show that his  chivalric bearing was only a mask under which he nursed the most savage passions and animosities. He simply presents him as a loyal Jacobite, intent on defending his master's rights. We regret: we cannot add that his endeavour was very successful.  The structure of the piece was so very slight, and the writing so unimpressive, that its entire effect was thrown upon the great incident of the second act—" The Gathering of the Clans." This, however, was so admirably managed, whether in respect to its numbers or vivacity—the Highlanders pouring in upon the foreground from every cleft and pathway of their rocky rendezvous, until the entire scene became a moving mass of beings— that it formed one of the most exciting spectacles which we have 'witnessed for some time, and succeeded in rousing the audience to a great state of enthusiasm. The Valley of Glencoe was also a great success pictorially—being a moonlight view on snow, from the pencil of Mr. Telbins 7t-hich may be numbered among the most magical of his many brilliant achievements. The acting of this drama was tolerably sustained, by Mr. Edmund Phelps in the character of Dundee, who gave to the loyal partisan great dignity of  bearing; by Mr. Loraine, in Alaster INPllonald ; by Mr. Graham and Mrs. Falconer, in a pair of Highland peasants, and by Mrs. Bowers in the chief's  daughter. Mr. Haigh also was very successful in his delivery of the song of "Bonnie Dundee," which was appropriately introduced into the second act.