The Sun. — 1842-03-29 (London, England)

THEATRES. DRUBY-LANE.  A s the majority of an Easter audience is composed, for the most part, of persons of junior grade in life, Mr. Macready, not injudiciously, selected the tragedy of Macbeth for representation last night, being characterised by a greater degree of simple and palpable development than any other of the Shaltspearian dramas ; others of which, as. Othella, Lear, and Hamlet, more distantly still, diverge from this plain-ordered simplicity, range in a finer or more elevated air. Mr. Macready personated Macbeth ; some of his readings had great merit ; some few betokened feebleness ; but it must not be denied, that however Mr. Macready may perchance in isolated points prove unpalatable, yet he so comprehensively grasps the whole scope of his part, as to give it the circular roundness -of a master-piece. This was perceptibly worked out last night. The gra' dusl declinations of the stern, honest General into the palsying and terrified Thane, and thence into the appalled and haunted King, till. the closing scenes render him mad and reckless, under the impression of guilt and fear, powerfully, and, with propriety, were developed. The phrenzied excitement which he also exhibited in the last scene, yet, with the sudden and calmed interlocutions addressed to the Physician, along with the final blaze and expiry of his acting in the encounter with Macduff, showed the true actor in a fine light when wound up to the top of his bent. His mannerisms and usual enunciations aloe such well-settled points in the theatrical books that they vouchsafe no novelty of remark ; but one toueh, though among t'ie inferiorities of the piece, protruded like a brilliant : the words, "Your spirits shine through you," conveyed it, and was vigorously descriptive of the quick conceptions of the murderers of his plans. Mrs. Warner comported herself with her customary stateliness and professional ability. The incomparable passage of "the hand never to be sweetened," was delivered with a tone tremulous in its beauty, and heavy with a world of sigh. Mr. Phelps's Macduff was a spirited pourtrayal : his " What all my pretty ones ". when the truth crushes upon him, presented a fine idealism of manly sorrow. The incantatory doings of the Wierd Sisters are perhaps the most dilatory portions : they do not keep pace with the rapidity of actions pervading the run of events, while they aro far too sombre as scenes, and overmuch turgid with chorusses. Messrs. Macready and Phelps, as also Mrs. Warner, were individually called for after its conclusion, and the announcement of its repetition was greeted with every applause. A more waferish, off hand operetta than The Students of Bonn could not have beenAglied for the pleasure of ephemeral fancies. The Bonn Students, proverbially classed under the category of Colognese Don Juans, enter upon foolish pranks with the school-girls of a pension or boarding-house near Bonn, aided by the arch and iniquitous little soubrette (Therese) appertinent to that household, who secures florin upon florin from these gentleman in regard of her services with most avaricious audacity. The artfulness and vivacity sprinkled into the part by. Mrs. Keeley gave it great zest. The broad humour of the whole, however, rests on the back of a devoted old maiden, to wit, a Miss Stiffenback (Mrs. C. Jones), who, spite of her grey forelocks, and superannuated beauty, imagines herselt to be the enamoured idol of one of those gay gloriosos of Bonn. Wicked Therese, therefore, in the plenitude of her mischief, makes this promising dame the scapegoat of all the misdoings of the young ladies and their inamoratos, thrusts all their love-epistles into her reticule, and founders her in a host of dilemmas, which produce much amusement. It forms a tricksy, pretty-like afterpiece. The house was full usque ad cdum.