The National Register. — 1808-04-25 (London, England)

APRIL 25.  The time of the piece is the epoch of the Roman invasion of Britain. Modred, the high priest, and Mader, the chief of the bards, enter with their attendants, and in an impressive anthem announce a sacrifice. The stone altar is prepared, and Ida, the destined victim, is introduced. She is about to be immolated for the propitiation of the war deities, when Ultee, her lover, enters to entreat her liberation : he is repulsed, and Caractacus, the chief, then appears, and saves her life.— Marcus, one of the Roman chiefs is taken prisoner, and brought into the strong place of the priests, but escapes by clambering along the boughs that overhang the spot of his confinement. Claudius, Drusus, and other Romans come to his release: a battle takes place between the Romans and Britons, in which the latter are defeated.—The Second Act represents the Britons dispersed, and Caractacus and his boy Llengo flying among the fastnesses. A Roman soldier shoots the child, and Caractacus kills the soldier with a fragment of the rock. The child dies, the Romans seize CaractarAs, and carry him with Ethelinde and others of the Britons, in triumph to Rome.-111 the Third Act, after much of procession, the Roman generals bring Caractacus before the throne of Claudius Ccrsar the Emperor : who, as far as we could understand, appeared to extend his mercy to the conquered chief, and to unite hint to Ethelinde. From this plot our readers will perceive that little could he expected—and accordingly little has resulted. The total absence of dramatic incident (except in the single instance of the shooting of the child, which was not very effective, and which is borrowed from Beautnoet and Fletcher's Play of lionduca), is a fault against which no magnificence of scenery, no pomp of procession, can successfully struggle. The affairs of a nation will never interest upon the stage : it is the petrel:a adventure or distress of some prominent individual or individuals that excites the sympathy of an audience. So the misfortunes of Ugulino and his sous who were starved to death in prison, fill our minds st ith pity and with horror; but the history of a blockaded town where famine carries off whole hundreds in a day, is read almost without emotion : for our minds have not an infinitely extensive faculty of pitying, and the interest is dissolved iu thegeneralizalion. Now in this ballet Caractacus ought to be the interesting personage; but Caractacus does nothing to excite our interest. Ile fights with his countrymen for his country, but that has nothing in it remarkable. He rescues a victim from death, but he rescues her without incurring any difficulties. He kills the murderer of his child ; but he accomplishes that revenge withoat danger to himself. The only interest then must be the interest • far the Britons : but we have said that the misfortunes of t nation are not the subjects of a dramatic interest, or indeed of any isely interest at all. And if they were, we should regret to see such a spring of interest touched at a moment like the present ; for though we abhor the wretched patriotism that effervesces in our scenic soldiers and sailors, yet we do not wish, by a representation of British discomfiture, to see the stage made the vehicle of reproach to our ancestors, or of discouragement to our cotemporaries. The expense of this piece must have been enormous : but it seems to have been incurred with little judgment, except as far as concerns the music. The music has a character of simplicity and.. grandeur, which produced a great effect upon the audience, and which reflects high honour on the genius of Mr. BISHOP, the composer. The overture was particularly striking, and seems to have been conceived with a noble disdain of all the pantomime trickery of triangles and jig tunes. There was great opposition at the annunciation of the Piece for a second performance.