Its happiest recourse is to clap-trap, by giving almost every speaker something generous, or something loyal, to say, and thus begging the question of the audience, who, in a play like the present, are willing to be careless whether such sentiments are in character or not. Mr Arnold generally contrives that his performers shall make their exits with aclap-trap, a point, or a pun; and he has been behind the scenes long enough to estimate the effect of this recipe. The merit of the piece chiefly consists in a little dramatic skill exhibited in the arrangement of the scenes, and the conduct of the play. We have been credibly informed that the scene in which the loyal sailor is introduced, was inserted by Mr Sheridan. If this be true,

O what a noble mind is here o'erthrown!"

The run of the comedy of Man and Wife was interrupted on the 1st of February, for the purpose of introducing to a London stage, in the character of Cato, Mr Wright, lately a professor of elocution at Edinburgh, and a performer in Mr Beaumont's company at Aberdeen. Elocution is all that can be looked for in such a character as Cato; but, however excellent Mr Wright's theory may be, his practice is laboured and stiff, His personal drawbacks are heavy and various; his voice is harsh, his action ungainly, and his countenance susceptible of little expression: he has a perverse bend of the wrist, and throws out his arms either horizontally with his shoulders, like a crucifix, or behind his back, like Catalani Or Collini, when they are driving Some terrified opera lover before them with the climax of a bravura. He was so loud in his general declamation, that he left his voice no room

for emphasis; and was reduced to the necessity of forcing out all his words, like successive guns in a feu. de joye. Mr Wright's appearance was, we believe, a mere experiment, as he has since retired to his original profession of a lecturer.

On the 9th of the month, was produced the Unconscious Counterfeit, a new "comedy in two acts," as it was called, from the pen of Mr Grefullhe, one of the translators of the Portrait of Cervantes, and the same gentleman who but two days before had been fortunate enough to procure the performance of another farce of his by the rival company, called, Is he a Prince? Mr Grefullhe we understand to be a young foreigner of very considerable property, who has settled in this country.

This farce was well received, but it bears a considerable family resemblance to Mr Grefullhe's twin production. The character of the Bailiff, Twitcher, is copied from his namesake, Twitch, in the Good-natured Man; but is nevertheless drawn by no vulgar hand, or rather by a hand that has nicely copied vulgarity. It was dressed, looked, and played by Mr G. Smith with matchless slang. The character of Dashport afforded Mr Elliston one of the best displays of his dry humour and grave impudence we ever witnessed.

There

On the 14th February, "A Monody on the Death of Sir John Moore," from the pen of Mr M. G. Lewis, was spoken by Mrs Powell. was nothing very remarkable in the composition; but after having been repeated once or twice, it was suppressed by order of the Lord Chamberlain, and was published accordingly with that recommendation.

We are now drawing towards the

distressing catastrophe, which may be truly said to have "eclipsed the gaiety of the nation, and diminished the stock of harmless amusement." On the 23d of February was produced, from the pen of Mr Ward, the secretary to the board of management, and from the piano-forte of Mr Bishop, a new opera, in three acts, called the Circassian Bride.

The action is occasioned by the wars of the Tartars and the Circassians, in which, by a new sort of " modo me Thebis," three English persons are made to interfere. For the purpose of extorting applause from the national feeling, instead of the national taste, two of these are sailors, who were made to give us frequent assurances by their words of that courage which we know English sailors to possess only by their deeds. Mr Mathews's first song, "In England they tell us," is an easy and humorous versification of Phædrus's fable," Repente Calvus," by Mr James Smith; Mr Mathews's second song was from the pen of Mr Theodore Hook. The former of these songs was saved from the general wreck of the opera, and has since formed one of the main planks of Mr Arnold's opera of the Maniac. The music of the Circassian Bride has been published, and is in many places original and beautiful in the highest degree. There is a quintette in the second act of the greatest merit; and Mr Braham and Miss Lyon's first duet is not only excellent in itself, but admirably adapted to the style of its singers. We trust that Mr Bishop will hereafter find a better vehicle than the Circassian Bride for such valuable compositions:

On the evening of Friday the 24th of February, a period of little more than five months having elapsed since

the burning of the Covent-Garde house, the whole of the magnificent pile of Drury-Lane Theatre was ut terly destroyed by fire. About half past ten o'clock at night, an appear. ance of fire was perceived at a window on the second story of the theatre, facing Russell-street, which continued some time without exciting any suspicion; but in less than a quarter of an hour the fire spread in one unbroken flame over the whole of the immense pile, extending from Brydges street to Drury Lane; so that the pillar of fire was not less than 450 feet in breadth. In a very few minutes all that part of the theatre, together with the front row of boxes, was on fire, and the rapidity of the flames was such, that before twelve o'clock the whole interior of the house was one blaze. The theatre was at this time left to its fate, and the appearance was awfully and tre mendously grand. Never before did we behold so immense a body of flame, and the occasional explosions that took place were sublime beyond cescription. About thirty minutes after the commencemement of the conta gration, the statue of Apollo, which surmounted the building, fell into the pit; and soon afterwards the whole of the roof fell in also. The reservoir of water on the top of the theatre was like a bucket-full to the volume of fire upon which it fell, and had no visible effect in allaying the fury of the rival element. When the leaden cistern fell in, it produced a violent concussion, and the burning matter which it forced up into the air resembled a shower of rockets. As for the iron curtain, which was intended to save at least one half of the theatre, it had been long ago found so infirm and intractable, that it was removed. The interior was

completely destroyed by one o'clock; at three o'clock the flames had nearly subsided, and the once magnificent structure of Drury-Lane Theatre presented to the view nothing but an immense heap of ruins. At five o' clock the flames had completely spent themselves. The multitude assembled to view the spectacle amounted to at least a hundred thousand persons; and, as far as it was possible to detach the mind of the spectators from the terrible calamity in view, the appearance of the metropolis was in the highest degree striking and magnificent. There was no part of London in which the effect of the fire was not visible; and every street, for a mile round the theatre, was as brilliantly illuminated as the streets of London are upon the occasion of a general illumination. The tops of the houses, in all directions, were covered with people, and those who stood upon any house, from which a view of Westminster or Blackfriars bridges could be seen, might perceive every passenger upon them, and distinctly count the ballustrades. The reflection of the conflagration on the Thames was another striking feature in the general splendour of the scene: the water appeared like a sheet of fire. The burning of Covent-Garden Theatre cannot be compared in terrific grandeur with this mighty conflagration. The building of this theatre cost 200,0001. Of the immense property of all sorts, scenery, machinery, dresses, decorations, music, instruments, manuscripts, &c. of which nothing was saved, we can form no estimate. It was insured for only 35,000l., and the whole of this money was immediately attached by his Grace the Duke of Bedford, the ground landlord. The treasury, having a party-wall, stood alone un

VOL. II. PART II.

hurt, and, but for the injudicious zeal of some of the assistants, in opposition to the better judgment of Mr Peake, the treasurer, none of the books or papers would have been lost. Few persons entered the theatre after the fire had broken out; but by those few Mrs Jordan's dressing-room was broken open, and her bureau, looking-glasses, &c. stolen, Fortunately not a single life was lost.

The burning of Drury-Lane Theatre left every onein despair of seeing it replaced; nor, even at the moment we are now writing, is there any certain hope that it will be rebuilt. The poverty of the concern, and the nature of the management, presented a hopeless prospect to the actors, who held several meetings of council, which were also attended by Mr Sheridan. Nothing, however, was finally settled until the 1st of March, when Mr Sheridan agreed to resign all controul over the actors and actresses of the establishment, and to leave them to their fortune. Shortly afterwards, however, he changed his mind, and informed them that they must provide for himself and his son. They at first endeavoured to obtain the Lord Chamberlain's licence to perform, independently of the patent; but Mr Sheridan was beforehand with them in their application to his lordship; and they were fain to put up with a temporary licence "for three nights only" for their own particular emolument. Houseroom, and the assistance of the whole corps de ballet of the King's Thea tre, was "gratuitously" furnished them, at 1001. per night, by Mr Taylor of the Opera House; and on the 16th, 20th, and 23d of March, blank nights of the Italian opera, the Drury-Lane company played, to crowded houses, at the following

temporary prices of admission-boxes 7s. pit 58. and gallery 3s. 6d. An occasional address, written by Mr Eyre of the company, was delivered by Mr Elliston. The proprietors of the opera-boxes liberally forewent their claims to them in favour of the public, and the company cleared 22001. In the mean time, the actors had been more successful in their application to the Lord Chamberlain for a lasting licence to play at the Lyceum Theatre, in the Strand, which they accordingly hired, and immediately set about fitting up. They concealed all this from the public, however, and, Passion-week being at an end, took their advanced prices for playing "three nights more" at the Opera House, commencing with the attraction of Mrs Siddons, and closing with that of Madame Catalani. On the last of these evenings, the crowd was perfectly unprecedented; the company, as Mr Elliston stated to the audience in his speech of thanks, grew rich enough "to pay the whole of the salaries up to that period." For his "gratuitous" loan of the Opera House, Mr Taylor received 7001.

From the 11th of April, the company, with the exception of Mrs Jordan, who seceded from them, played regularly, at the usual prices of admission, at the Lyceum Theatre in the Strand, which is a slight and incommodious building, having all the aspect of a provincial theatre. It is capacious enough, however, to hold from 2501. to 3001.; and is more central in its situation than the Haymarket.

On the 21st of April was produced a new comedy, entitled Grieving's a Folly, which had, we believe, been rejected by the Drury-Lane board of management, but which was gra

tuitously presented to the burnt-out company by Mr Leigh, a gentleman of property, residing at Bexley in Kent; and this word gratuitously we are taught not to understand in the sense in which it is used by Mr Taylor of the Opera House. The plot of this piece is by many degrees too complex, and the story is of too serious a cast for comedy. It shews the more so, too, by the side of the comic scenes of the play, which, on the other hand, are too farcical. It had a tolerable run, and, with the exception of a little farce, was the only novelty of the remainder of the season. The farce to which we allude was called Temper, or the Domestic Tyrant, and was translated by Mr M. G. Lewis from Le Growdeur of Brueys and Palaprat, and presented as a gift to the company, who played it for the first time on the 1st of May. The opening of the plot is detailed by a servant, (Mr Bannister,) who, without having heard a word of the parties' conversation, pretends perfectly to understand what they meant by their actions, which he very drolly and effectively repeats and interprets. Mr Lewis has made as much of this excellent idea as could be done, in his tale of " My Uncle's Garret Window." The dialogue be tween the master and his servant in the first act was well translated, and could not fail to produce effect in the hands of Mr Dowton; but, however highly we think of Mr Lewis's invention in other respects, he certainly did not betray wit and humour enough to carry him through with the rest of his farce, which conse quently met with no great success.

On the 25th of September following, the Lyceum Theatre opened for the new Drury-Lane season, under different circumstances. During the