The Sun. — 1818-03-16 (London, England)

CIBBER. the greater blame, since with so ample a store of incident, and character, and poetry, at his hand, requiring only a judicious selection, he has preserved in his alteration little more than six hundred lines of his great original ; and of these, a very large portion is - excerp►ed from. SHAKSPEARE'S others Dramas. It is not perhaps generally adverted to, - that while listening, as wethink, to the poetry Of SHAKSPEARE,' Mr. KEAN'S impressive acting presents to us twelve hundred lines of ClBBlitt'S interpolation, instead of the noble original. With the exception of a very few points, which are deServedly popular, CIBBBR presents: to us from. his own stores•nnthing either elevated or attractive. To..make Gloster prominent in the piece, he has placed him alone ; instead of exalting his character, he has annihilated all the others, This injudicious arrangement has injured Gloster himself ; as it has deprived him of all shadowing,relief, and assistance. He jumps upon us with a sndden burchery, for which we are wholly unprepared :—through the whole piece his -crueltio,are exhibited, rather than his character; of which little is developed beyond its fierceness. If ever there was a period wherein the restor,a.  ion of SHAKSPEARE'S Richard vas desirable,  , is now ; when the Stage possesses an Actor so eminently capable or delineating Gloster. CIBBER, we suspect, has superseded StrAxseemta, not only on the boards, but in the closet ; and our audiences, therefore, would go to see the Richard of SHAKSPEARE almost as a •new play. Certainly it. would present to them, after every requisite akiap, tation, more than a thousand lines of our great Bard, to which the walls of the Theatre are and have been utter strangers. Every body is familiar with CIBBER'S Drama ; we will therefore limit ourselves to a brief analysis of SHAKSPEARE'S, as it might be performed. SMAKSPEARE has described 'Gloster, not only as vindictive, ambitious„and heroic, but as cold, subtle,• and joculur.—Let us not be misunderstood. The jocularity of Gloster is infinitely more gloomy and., more terrific ; it throws upon his cruelty a darker .and more dreadful shade, than any fierce. ness could give. We are prepared too for the wide'icene of bloodshed by a gradual disclosore„.... Instead of sticking poor Henry like a sheep upon the stage, he begins with plots and pretences, and a smooth count enance :—he deludes Clarence and Anne, .and Edward, and the Queen, and Hastings, and Buckingham ; he plays off each against the other; he affects reconciliation, he picks quarrels, he hints, he insinuates, he foments ,jealou-. sies, until, having completely alienated all,. he makes each his defenceless victim.—Of all these, we see at present only Anne, and Buckingham, and very. little of the Queen.  They assist him alSo in the scene; they play tip to him. Margaret too, the vindicAtive and miserable widow of Henry, follows him and crosses hiin with her reproaches; she prophecies destruction on his accomplices and tools ; she is disregarded ; her denunciations, most fearfully poetic, are set at nought; and we see them, in the gradual procedure of the Tragedy, all We may indeed call it a new Richard,- when we shall see (as Mr. KEAN is so popular, and capable of sliewing to us),- his interview with Clarence and artful irritation of that unsuspecting Pt ince, his affected reconciliation with the Queen and her 'kindred, and his equally affected bursts of pride ; his purposed quarrels with them, his insinuations aboutT/arence's death, his iampering with Hastings, his accusations in the Council Chamber—that fine scene, in itself worth an holocaust of model n Dramas !  These are not all the incidents, and touches of character which may be - restored, even without displacing any thing more than CIaBER'S ovit intet polatioos. But it may be necessary to remove also his dislocations of SHAKsPEARE ; since nothing can be more absurd than his putting into the lips of the patient Henry the ravings of the turbulent Nerthumberiand ; or his dressing out the cool and cautious Richnzond in the chivalric ardour of the Conqueror of Agincourt.; Our wish is to see as 11111C11 Of SHAKSPRARE'S Richard as can be represented. Woe to the ambitions writer who would give its his own lines when SHAKSPEARRS can be restored !—We shall hail it as a signal benefit to the Drama, and not. less advantageous to the Theatre that brings it forth, when SHAKSPEAUE'S Richard the Third is restored to his usurped honours. 'the restorer and the manager who shr.ll thereby connect their names with SHAKSPEARE'S, will not only more thoroughly gratify the public, but more eminently distinguish themselves than if they had written and produced an hundred modern plays.  A very extraordinary attempt to commit suicide is mentioned in the French Papers. A merchant at Marseilles went to the mountains of Montredon, about a league from the city, where he discharged a pistol in his mouth ; the ball went through one side of his head, but did not kill him. He reloaded his pistol, and fired again, by which the other side of his head was wounded, but life still remained. He descended the mountain, and falling at the bottom, he remained - two days on the ground exposed to all the inclemency of the •wenthee. He was at length discovered, still living; by a peasant; who obtained assistance, and the unfortunate man was conveyed back, to the city, but actually walking part of the way on foot. It is stated that there were hopes of his lite.