The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser. — 1838-10-19 (Liverpool, Merseyside, England)

THEATRE ROYAL.  During the week Mr. Charles Kean has appeared out of the beaten track of his round of Shaksperian characters, as Claude Melnotte, in Sir Edw. Lytton Bulvver's new play of "The Lady of Lyons." There is nothing very great in the character—no profound intellectual depths. The amount of it is simply this; Claude Melnotte, a gardener's son, falls in love with u rich merchant's daughter, and alter laboriously improving, himself in polite learning with a view of distinguishing himself for her, ventures a poetic epistle to her, signed with his own name. This is treated as an act of great presumption, and the poor gardener's son is insulted with all the offensive arrogance and pride of puffed-up wealth. His pride is wounded and his feelings are deeply hurt, and whilst in this state of mind he is found by a rejected suitor, (Beauseant,jof Pauline Deschappelles—the "Lady of Lyons," with whom he (Claude Melnotte) is in love, and enters into a conspiracy with Beauseant, to be introduced to her as a foreign prince, Beauseant finding the means; and under the advantages which the silly pride of Pauline and her mother, Madame Deschappelles (Mrs. Clarke) would give him in this character to win the affections and marry Pauline, and then take her home to his cottage as a gardener's wife, and thus gratify his own and Beauseant's revenge. Claude is a man of right feeling, and repents him of his crnel purpose, but which he is bonnd to carry out by an oath. He marries Pauline, and then, after a scene of outrageous passion and wounded pride on her part, when she finds that instead of being the wife of a prince, her husband is but a gardener, he absolves her from her incomplete legal tie, and executing a divorce, delivers her up to her parents. He then enters the army resolved to raise himself, and to wipe off the stain on his honour, consequent to lending himself to this conspiracy; and after a rapid rise in the army, finds and rescues his divorced Pauline from becoming the wife of Beauseant, to save her father from ruin, and marries her. The carrying out of this' plot, gives a few opportunities for the expression of the feelingss of ardent hope, mortified pride and remorse. The play, however, has nothing great about it, and it is little better than a melo-drama. Kean's acting as Claude Melnotte was clever, effective, and striking ; yet it was not a perfect whole. When describing to Pauline his palace at Como, while in the character of Prince, and indeed during the whole of his interview with her, his performance was a feelingless piece of recitation. The tongue spoke, indeed, in tones of passion, but the soul of passion, the eye,—the features—earnest yet subdued action were wanting; the manner was cold and flatly contradicted the tongue. Again on taking his leave of Pauline and his mothe in his cottage and rushing out to serve his country as r soldier, his manner, was outrageously melo-dramatic stamps ing, dust-kicking up, wind-millizing, mountebankizing, and_ murdering of propriety. Leaving out these blots, his performance was very effective. Miss Faucit as Pauline, played with great skill. The character is perfectly her forte; and hur acting was a fine specimen of womanly affection mixed with excessive pride. Mrs. Clarke's Madame Desohappelles was exceedingly clever. The manner in which she called Claude, as a prince, "our beautiful prince," and as a poor gardener "you ugly villin," was an exquisite touch of character. The author of the play has had here a keen perception of the foibles of human nature. How many living Madame Deschappelles are there to whom an honourable and deserving youth, undistinguished by wealth—or rather without wealth,° for wealth is no distinction—and "unknown to fame," would be "an ugly villain," who, with these "accidental" gifts of fortune, would be "our beautiful Prince?" But so the world wags. The new farce of 'l'. IL Bayley, Esq. which has just been brought out in London with considerable success, "Tom Niiddy's Secret," has concluded the performances. The gist of the joke consists in a superannuated old schoolmaster, Tom Noddy (Mr. Baker), who will see about" everything and does nothing; who ties knots on his pocket handkerchief to remember to "see about it," and forgets what he has tied the knot for, and then ties another to remind him not to forget to "see about" what he tied the first knot to remember. This, not very unusual trait of character— tnere being Tom Noddy's enough in every community,—is the foundation, beginning and end of the whole piece. It excites a laugh, but we don't think it worth the fuss that our metropolitan brethren have made about it.