Monday, September 16th,

LOVERS VOWS HIGHLAND REEL.

The novelty of this evening was a young actor of the name of Spiller, in the character of Frederick. This gentleman, who comes from the Haymarket theatre, in London, has very good requisites for the stage. His person, though rather below the middle size, is well formed. His voice is sufficiently powerful, and his utterance articulate. His action was by no means ungraceful, but rather redundant, and injured by more use of one arm than was necessary. This, however, we thought at the time, and have since been more persuaded, arose from an endeavour to get rid of the appearance of embarrassment under which it was evident he laboured, notwithstanding his sturdy efforts to hide it. We have more than once said, that we always hail diffidence in a young actor, as a very favourable prognostic: for modesty confers a grace on every virtue and every excellence. Mr. Spiller's diffidence, however, did not prevent him from evincing much natural spirit, and considerable judgment in the conception of his part. Upon the whole, as friends to the drama, we cannot help feeling great pleasure that the Theatre has received such an acquisition as Mr. Spiller certainly will be, if the circumstance of his being independent of the stage (which we understand he is) does not in the end make him inattentive, and slacken that industry without which no one can ever hope to be a great and respectable actor. It is said that Mr. Spiller can boast not only of very handsome mental talents, but of very respectable literary attainments; that he writes well,—that some of his productions have received public applause, and the acknowledgments of some eminent dramatists in England,—and that persons of no less celebrity than Mr. Colman, Mr. Morton, and others, have backed his claims to the attention of men of genius in this country, by unequivocal testimony to his talents and acquirements. It is also whispered, that some of his productions will be brought forward on our stage. Taking these things for granted, we cannot be wrong in saying that he is indeed an acquisition.

Wednesday, September 18th,

FOUNDLING OF THE FOREST

MODERN ANTIQUES.

Miss Mary White, a younger sister of the young lady who, in the last season but one, made her debut in the character of Louisa

Dudley, appeared this evening for the first time in the character of Geraldine, De Valmont's niece. This young lady has been for some time under the tuition of Mr. Fennell, who undertook the office under the impression that she had talents which only wanted judicious instruction to obtain her in due time a respectable rank in the theatre. It was not likely that a person of Mr. Fennell's experience and acknowledged judgment, could be very wrong on such an occasion; and we are, on many accounts, happy in being able to add our opinion in confirmation of that gentleman's. Exclusive of a very elegant person, and a face of more than common beauty, Miss Mary White possesses an audible, clear, and very harmonious voice. In her reading she showed that she sufficiently understood what she was about, though her speaking suffered, as might well be expected, from natural timidity, and the embarrassment inseparable from that most distressing of all situations, a first appear

ance.

Mr. Spiller performed Florian in a manner that tended rather to increase than diminish the opinion we, from his first appearance, entertained, that he is an acquisition to our theatre. This line of acting, in which he is fitted to walk with considerable reputation, is one in which our Theatre stood in need of such an assistant.

Friday, September 20th,

MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING- -BUDGET OF Blunders. We have never received more unmixed satisfaction than this admirable comedy afforded us, this evening. Nor can we call to remembrance an instance of a play carried through with so much deserving of praise, and so very little liable to censure. The principal characters were sustained in a capital style: the greater part of the others were respectably performed, and no part was so ill done, as to detract from the general pleasure afforded by the play.

To the merit of Wood in gente el comedy, even the most uncandid of his enemies are compelled to bear testimony. We have always professed ourselves his admirers in that department; and indeed we consider him as so entirely unrivalled in it here, that respectably as he fills some parts of another kind, we cannot help viewing him when he plays them, as rather inferior to himself. In Benedick we consider him as having risen much above his usual level, even in genteel comedy. To personate a humourist of such whimsical singularity as Benedick, and to give full effect to his strange

but incomparable wit, without touching on the confines of buffoone. ry, is very difficult,-very difficult to avoid being too much or too little comical; for, with all his humour, Benedick is a finished gentleman, a soldier, and a man of sense and moral worth. Nor do we remember to have ever seen it performed by one who could entirely sink the actor. This we hold to be the great essential in high comedy, perhaps more in Benedick than any other character; and in that respect Wood certainly came nearer the mark than any one we have seen. He had not the volatile spirit, or comic vivacity of Lewis, nor had he the force, or point of Henderson; but he was less the actor than either, and as such was, we own it, the Benedick of our imagination, to all intents and purposes. Contemplating his Benedick, we cannot, out of compliment to customar arrangement, separate him from his Beatrice. In saying that Mrs. Mason, in Beatrice, made good every expectation we had formed from her Widow Cheerly, and every prediction we had ventured to pronounce in her favour, we might be thought to have said enough. It must naturally be gratifying to us, and we confess that it makes us proud too, to find the public sentiment in unison with ours. That we are seldom at variance with it is a truth of which we are not ashamed to boast; and it is with no common exultation we state that without the exception of a single individual, the opinion we have from the outset expressed of this admirable actress, is the opinion of every one, and they are many with whom we have conversed upon the subject.

This comedy is, from the first to the last, one uninterrupted tis. sue of wit and comic humour. It is all Shakspeare. Like certain islands in the eastern seas, it is illumined with a continual unintermitted series of coruscations of lightning. Benedick and Beatrice are evidently the favourite children of the author, and upon them he has lavished unsparingly the treasures of his genius. To do such characters ample justice, not only refined humour, but great skill in speaking are necessary to the performers. Mrs. Mason showed herself mistress of both; in both her performance was perfect and unforced, and it adds not a little to her praise, that she chastened down, and softened into amenity, several parts in which the old fashioned colouring of Shakspeare was too coarse, too strong, and too glaring for our this-day taste. The robust pen of our bard, like the club of Hercules, sometimes shivers with the very wind of it the dainty fine spun nerves of our modern auditors.

Dogberry and Verges, had most able representatives in Jefferson and Blissett. Blissett did for Verges all that could be done for it; but in the Dogberry of Jefferson there was a richness of humour, and at the same time a steady conformity to truth and nature, that we have rarely seen equalled, never surpassed. From Parsons himself, our much lamented favourite, we never received, in a part of the same length, more true comic delight, than from Dogberry's ridiculous assumption of superiority over, and pity for the weakness of Verges, as it was pourtrayed this night by Jefferson. Were there not one other scene in the play worth looking at, we should think this alone enough to bring a whole city to see Much ado about Nothing over and over again. But being, as it is, from begining to end one of the most fascinating productions of human genius, delightful in every aspect, and being performed in all its parts better than any we have ever seen in this country, we cannot help expressing a hope that it will be repeated, and a confidence, which we rest not merely on the merits of the play, but on the sound taste of the public, that it will fill more than one, or even two houses this season.

This tragedy was got up, we believe, for the purpose of introducing a novice in the character of Venoni. On such an occasion it will no doubt be expected that of the person who appeared for the first time in so interesting a character, we should at least offer an opinion. We must, however, be excused from saying any thing upon the subject, till one more attempt at least on the part of that gentleman, shall enable us to make up our minds, respecting his pretensions.

Miss M. White appeared for the second time, and in the character of Josepha met a very flattering reception. She was frequently and loudly applauded; and one compliment, which any actress might be proud of, was paid to her by many persons in different

parts of the house-namely, that there were some tones in her voice which resembled those of Mrs. WARREN. The remark could not well have been made, as it certainly was, at the same time, by different people, in distant parts of the house, if there were not some truth in it.

Considering it highly probable that this young lady's progress will be of importance to the stage, we think a few hints will be well bestowed upon her. Her natural powers are no doubt considerable; and from Mr. Fennell's judicious instructions she could scarcely have failed to derive much benefit in her reading and utterance; but the direction given to her action is radically bad, and ought to be got rid of as soon as possible-for until it is got rid of, she need never hope to acquire a correct style. The too great elevation, expansion and winding about of her arms, as general action, is unbecoming in any character or either sex; but is peculiarly unfit for a female, whether she performs the lady or the heroine-being neither natural, dignified, expressive, nor elegant. As it is an acquired habit, however, it can soon be laid aside: that done, every day's practice will bring some new accession of grace and propriety, and her action will soon correspond with her other qualifications.

In Maria, in the Citizen, Mrs. Mason maintained the great superiority as a comic actress, which she evinced in Widow Cheerly and Beatrice.

Friday, September 27th,

RICHARD III.

-IRISH WIDOW.

The selection of Richard, so soon after the impression made by Cooke, and so immediately preceding that great actor's intended return to our boards, was certainly a bold attempt of Mr. Cooper; and by the public in general was considered as one of those uselessly hardy enterprises, a failure in which was not only probable, but by no means to be lamented. The theatre, and the conduct of the actors, are here, what the irregularities of the bon ton, and the little incidents which supply Doctors Commons with pastime, are in England: they constitute the great exhaustless fund from which the charitable draw their resources for the tea-table, and pay in their share of tittle-tattle to the benevolent coteries of the city; and the assumption of Richard by Mr. Cooper, was ascribed by many to motives that never found harbour in his bosom. What