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raUy iadispeQsaI > le * o ensure certainty . As the stability of a compound decreases , and conTersely , the facility of reeomposition increases the higher its order , it follows that we can most easily apply the synthetical method where it is most needed . ; The position pf Chemistry in the hierarchical scale , and its influence" on our intellectual development , have now to be considered , and these will occupy ua next week . .
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THE TRIAL OF LOVE . MB . LovEH has writteir plays so far superior ; to the Trial of Love , that T must not hesitate to point oat what I conceive to be its serious and vital defects . It is stagey in every sense . It shows considerable practice of the stage ; -thorough knowledge of points and effects ; and never for an instant drags . But although its stage construction shows great skill , and saved it front failure , its dramatic construction , he must permit me io say , is altogether at fault . The work has no organization , consequently * ao life ' It J 8 put together , it does not evolve its scenes before you ; it is foailt up of stage materials , as if the sole aim were to " work up" to a ? fcir&de here , a tableau there , and a point elsewhere ; ranting passages ,
. surprises , fallings upon knees , bursts of indignant virtue , and humiliation K ) f baseness ^ -all the stock in trade is there , but leaves the audience without emotion , because it leaves behind an uncomfortable sense of ' mechanism . It is a play written according to a recipe . Let me take the fable as it stands ^ and ask Mr . Lovell whether , on re ; consideration , he believes that he has constructed it dramatically ? Colonel Boswell , the deputy-governor of besieged Newark , is in secret correspondence with the enemy * His servant , Martin , betrays that secret to Sir William Grey , w 3 a . o , the better to defeat the plot , affects to carry it on .
A letter havingbeen intercepted , Boswell very gratuitously and improbably throws the suspicion on Sir Herbert Tyrrell , who thereupon starts off into the most inexplicable madness ever witnessed even in the region of jfive-aet plays : for if the suspicion were credible , were true , he could not { foe more besidehimself . Fancy a man in his senses wondering that the walls do not crush him , because of the " taint" !—fancy a man declaring 'fchaffc the stars withdraw their gaze from him in timid purity at his corruption , he knowing himself to be perfectly innocent all the while ! But this singiflar psychology is the excuse for declamation , and Charles Kean must fhave M « tirades somehow or other . .
To resume ^ Sir Herbert , ^ restless and maniacal , as we have seen , under this suspicion , enters the private study of Sir William Grey , and there a falling table accidentally throws into his hands one of the traitorous letters . His eyes open-rryou may imagine how his mouth opens ( it is Charles kean who plays Sir Herbert I ) as he discovers that the culprit for whom he suffers is Sir William , the father of his Isabel . He is ignorant of the real part played by Sir William ; so is the audience . We all believed JSir William guilty , for the author has constructed his scene as if he were guilty— ( the innocence being only a clumsy afterthought , I imagine , when the denouement puzzled him ) . Believing him guilty , he suffers himself to T won over by Sir William ' s prayers , and by very exaggerated and false traitor
notions of duty to her he loves . He consents to be sacrificed as the xatlier * han a slur should be cast on her father ' s name . The soldiers arrive with a warrant to search Sir Herbert . The damning proof is found upon him . He is made prisoner . If I were entering into minutiao J would ask Mr . Lovell , How is it known that Sir Herbert has the paper < on him P It must be known ; it cannot be suspected , because Colonel . Boswell is perfectly aware of his innocence , and unless he knew it as a fact , he would never pretend to suspect it . Now , although Martin knows ¦ Sir Herbert is in the room , ho does not know that Sir Herbert has found the paper ; and if he did know it , ho being an accomplice with Sir Wil-* am , would dread the discovery . But this is only one of many errors in the dmmntjp . nnnn + mntinn . T iro to the central point . I say the "
collision" of the piece lies in that scene where Sir Herbert chivalrously resolves to sacrifice himself rather than the father of his mistress should bo known as a traitor . Wow , to make this a real collision , Sir William should bo really a traitor ; being only a traitor in appearance and for the Ralcoofunmapking the culprit , he would naturally let Sir Herbert into tho secret , and spare him and his daughter all the agonies which ensue . In fact , the whole piece , as I said , is constructed upon the principle of winging outpoint * situations , not of representing the evolution of Mts , and passions consecmont upon those acts . It is an opera of
oayatinna . The first tenor must have his covatina of lovo , his scona ot despair , « w eavatina of chivalrous honour , and so on . The prima donna has her ¦ wvatinas too , but not so many . I havo no doubt tho " artists' are charmod with tUo play , because they are charmed with thoir parts . fn f seont sevoro , because I place the standard aa high as tho author , taking hia play for what it is , and not what it aims at , I should admit that jt hna some unmistakenble stage merits . It is swift , progressive , full ot bustle , closing ouch act with an expectation raised for what is to oomo , A « o poetry soomed to mo manufactured as the p lay itself was , although « ° mo passages vindicator ! tho ¦ writer ' s claim to highor things . t As to tho acting , it rosfca with , tho Koans . Ever since Charles Ttoan jwavrollod with me ho has taken a base advantage of mo by acting so wo "' at I havo had io praise him . Now is that fair ? But my trnio will J ; )«| Moanwhilof with my usual forooity , I declare , that his tor Herhm n , rreU was decidedly offeotive-one of the host tilings I havo scon S o . It was earnest , not too violent , and occaRiona ly digniJod X
' "K Jw qualify this praiao by on 0 or iw 0 romarlca ' /• , ' V SSfn & ™* ralAtf * te , not to defects peculiar to this performance so 1 ol h ?/ liont ' Mrs . Koan . who has grown Bfcouter P *^ . ™ " ™ , ^ inn ft R f again . She wore a channing l > lond wig , dressed m iho foahion a ^ iininortalbd , and lookotl several years youngor Misb M - B tl . groat vulgarity mid incompetence into tho part o ( a conuo
waiting woman ; and Meadows did his utmost with a phantom of a part . IJyder looked truculent as a villain of Helodrame , and played as he looked . The scenery and dresses were—as always—new and good , heedless to ^ ay that the success pf the piece v / as uproarious on the first night ^ - ( when I - ^ aS riot able to be there)— -and decided afterwards * / : . '¦ - . I have only just left , the theatre , and . an ever-gasping press is waiting for " more copV . " Here , O dirty-faced devil ( printer's !) take this rough impression of the new play . I have not time to mince phrases . If , on calmer reflection , the criticism seem to me harsher than Eonest truth will have it , why , next week I will mollify . Take it away I
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GERMAN PLAYS . There are many people who , in the innocence of their hearts * envy me and my brother critics our " privilege" of seeing and hearing all the novel ties . " It must be so delightful to be able to go to Operas , and German Plays , and French Plays , and Concerts , and Exhibitions , and Private Views ! " Very delightful to be able ; but what do you think of being forced to go ? I ¦ make-up .. my mind , perhaps , to a quiet evening with my Books , and the day-dream is shattered by Levassor in two new pieces ; instead of thinking the great thoughts of noble minds , I have to laugh , for ttese hours , and listen to platitudes of criticism . To be sure , the stately Harriet is almost certain to be in the
stalls" And Beauty draws me with a single hair . That is compensation ! Another night I have a seductive invitation , which cannot be accepted , because of Einil Devrient & £ & the German Plays" And © ijty draws me with a single Herr !" Die Grosse Idee der JPflieU , the great idea of Duty , Kant has re" ^ ^ exalt ; it rules the world—and critics . Duty called me to Don Carlos- ^ as Glendower caled spirits from the vasty deep—and with similar success : I didn't go .. I once sat out Bon Cartes , in Berlin or Dresden , and I pledge you my word , that all the king ' horses and all the king ' s men , couldn't drag me to it again . It is not much of a favourite with me as a poem to be read , but as a piece to be acted ! .... Alfieri , in ffilippo , has treated the story with intense dramatic power ; Schiller has made it
the utterance of some impassioned eloquence in favour of liberty , but has missed the tragic and dramatic style . On Tuesday , Schiller ' s Kabale und Idebe—his second work—was produced for the gratification of a public which believes that because Schiller is a great name , it can only sign greatness . I hope the public was sufficientl y bored on Tuesday , to have distinctly made up its mind about this piece , one of the worst , and the worst acted , I have endured for some time . For crudity of expression and absurdity of dramatic conception , —for outrages against taste , truth , interest , Kabale und Idebe is more than , enough to justify Goethe ' s profound repugnance to the " Sturm und Drang" period of Schiller ' s career , Then the acting ! Herr
Devrient , as tue young lover , contrived to destroy the mitigated admiration he excited in me by his Egmont , I must say it , without disguise—his acting was as bad as an intelligent man , accustomed to the stage , could make it . In repose , he looked and stood like one of the pretty officers in the pretty pictures of Fashions ; in agitation , he was lackadaisical , loud , ungraceful , and , at times , immensely ludicrous . Herr Devrient ' s qualities are , a handsome person , a good voice , an unusually good German accent , and a cultivated elocution : qualities available in the higher kind of drama , where ideal treatment is required ; but when the drama descends into the sphere of actual experience , then is the actor ' s capability
tried , for then he must simulate emotion , represent character . I do not believe in Herr Devrient ' s power to do either . His face is inflexible , his voice wants the modulations of passion , his gestures are " pretty" when not absolutely conventional , But the audience applauded him , and recalled him , as if he had been a genius . It was " another blaze of triumph . " Gallantry forbida my mentioning the ladies ; but one genuine bit of comic acting , perfect m its way , I must mention , and that was Herr Schrader ' s representation of tho foppish Baron von Kalb—a German fop , such as I have jostled in countless salons and ombassios . Tho recollection made me shout with hilarious gusto : as a bit of charaotor , it was quite a study . Voice , gesture , expression—all wore perfect .
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ELLA'S MATINEE MUSICALE . On" Tuesday , Ella gave the subscribers to tho Musical Union an extra and gratuitous Matine ' e . Had ho meant to convince us of the superior charm of tho Musical Union , with its well-selected programme of three or four pieces , performed by first-rato playors , he could not have chosen a bettor plan than by this Matine ' e , to provo tho dulness of a " miscellaneous" concert . There was but one thing worth the trouble of going to hear , and that , indeed , repaid an immense oxpondituro of patience . It was Beethoven's popular sonata in F ( known as a solo by all pianoforte players ) , performed by Viouxtomps and Madame Ployol with a grace , an entrain , a grandeur Quito ravishing . Tho moist warmth of tho atmosphere somewhat af&ctod Viouxtomps' playing—no violinist could altogether withstand such a day as it was—but the solid qualities of a conscientious artist wero unmistakoablo .
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MADEMOISELLE VAN DER . MEEBSCH . An elegant and interesting cntortainmont is that which Madllo . Van del " Moorsch offers with her well trained birds . Learned pigs aro abominations , and not erudite . Learned dogs aro delightful , but who wonders at any amount of sagacity in dogs P . Learned birds aro novelties , and this young enchantress has so instructed her little birds that they accomplish some conjuring tricks as neatly as Houdin . She askod one of tho company to make an addition ; tho numbers ilvo and three wore chosen ; instantly , from some hundred cards tho bird piokod out ono bearing tho figure eight . Hho then askod for a subtraction ; a wit and critic present chosb throe from eight , and tho bird picked out a card bearing tho figure five !' Madllo . Van dor Moora . ih takes her litfclo conjurors into society , and fashionable soirdes aro varied by this now and pretty exhibition . Vivian .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), June 12, 1852, page 569, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1939/page/21/
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