Dramatic Review. Good my Lord, will you see the Players well bestowed!- SHAKSPEARE No. CCCI. WEDNESDAY, DEC. 31, 1823. Vol. VII. Theatre Royal. VIVANHOE. After the long run which Mr Murray gave this piece upon its first production, he should have allowed it some considerable rest. We have been the principal upholders of its merit; and went so far in our eulogiums as to say, that the scene between the bull-headed Sir Reginald and the persecuted Isaac is scarcely surpassed, in point of sublimity, by any thing to be found in the writings of Shakspeare. This was going a great length; but our impression certainly was, that the warp was too good for the woof; that the continuous splendour of the scenery deadened all sense of the beauty and dignity of the sentiment; that the plot occupied too much ground; and that the interest was too much distracted by the rapid succession of uncommon incidents. It certainly would be a great improvement to cut the pieee short at the taking of Torg Castle, though we do admit, that Dramatic Keview. Good my Lord, will you see the Players well bestowed!- SHAKSPEARE No. CCCI. WEDNESDAY, DEC. 31, 1823. Vol. VII. Theatre Royal. IVANHOE.-After the long run which Mr Murray gave this piece upon its first production, he should have allowed it some considerable rest. We have been the principal upholders of its merit; and went so far in our eulogiums as to say, that the scene between the bull-headed Sir Reginald and the persecuted Isaac is scarcely surpassed, in point of sublimity, by any thing to be found in the writings of Shakspeare. This was goiug a great length; but our impression certainly was, that the warp was too good for the woof;-that the continuous splendour of the scenery deadened all sense of the beauty and dignity of the sentiment; that the plot occupied too much ground; and that the interest was too much distracted by the rapid succession of uncommon incidents. It certainly would be a great improvement to cut the pieee short at the taking of Torquilstone Castle, though we do admit, that the trial scene is one of great effect. We have mislaid a letter from a correspondent, who expresses his wonderment, that the Grand Master of the Temple should have presumed to exercise criminal jurisdiction within the realm of England. We have not the novel before us, which perhaps explains the circumstance, but in the absence of all lights, we imagine that he only exercised a baronial power within a territory belonging to the Temple. We dismiss that question, however, in order to observe again, that the trial scene might well have been dispensed with. Humanity is a feeling very speedily exhausted. People will suffer their heart-strings once to be wrung with sympathy for the distresses of a heroine; but if she persists, whether from choice or blind fatality, in getting into scrapes, they discard all concern for her as a feeling incompatible with their own comfort. They consider misery as her natural element; and no more regard her afflictions, than they would the writhings of a salamander in the centre of a fiery furnace. Rebecca, in all conscience, suffers enough in that den of iniquity over which Sir Reginald holds sway, and acquits herself well enough, to ensure the compassion, esteem, and admiration of any audience. What follows is, in a dramatic point of view, mere supererogatory suffering, and a tax upon the patience of the audience. The first scene we like the best, as most indicative of those savage times, when there was no medium between insolence and prostration of spirit; when resentment of wrong was smothered in fear, and disguised itself under constrained humility; when the whole face of society, was distorted, scowling, and murky. No one contributes more to the effect of this scene, than Mason in the part of Isacc. But the whole of this gentleman's performance is a continued succession of inimitable beauties, remarkable alike for just conception, pure taste, and powerful feeling; in short, it would be creditable to the London boards, and sincerely happy are we that the value of it is justly ap preciated. Mrs Siddons' Rebecca, may justly be ranked alongside of Mason's Isaac. As for the other performers, we have had such frequent to allude to their acting in this play, that we need not recur to the subject. In place of sitting out the performance of that incomprehensibly stupid thing, called Harlequin's Olio, we went to enjoy ourselves at the Circus upon the Mound, which, we were glad to see, was most respectably attended. Most of the performances were really astonishing, particularly the tight rope dancing of a Mr Cunningham; and the horsemanship of some one with a Polish name. The place is most comfortably fitted up; and we seldom |