The collected works of William Hazlitt, Vol. 08 (of 12)Hazlitt, William
General
The collected works of William Hazlitt, Vol. 08 (of 12)
Hazlitt, William
English essays -- 19th century
The acting was upon the whole excellent. Miss Kelly, as the wife of the
unfortunate D’Anglade, gave a high degree of interest to the story. She
was only less delightful in this character than in that of the Maid of
Paliseau, because she has less to do in it. Mr. Rae was the hero of the
present drama, and he acquitted himself in it with considerable
applause. We never saw Mr. Bartley to so much advantage as in the rough,
honest character of the relation of D’Anglade, (we forget the name), who
comes to claim restitution of his fortune, to try the integrity of his
old friend, but who generously offers him his assistance as soon as he
finds him plunged in distress. Mr. Wallack was Valmore, and there was a
scene of really fine acting between him and Mrs. Glover, (the Countess
of Servan, his aunt), where she tries to probe the guilty conscience of
her nephew, and to induce him to release D’Anglade from his dangerous
situation, by a confession of the treachery of which he has been made
the victim. Mr. S. Penley played the part of the unprincipled valet very
unexceptionably, and Mr. Barnard made an admirable accomplice, in the
character of a strolling Italian musician. Knight, as the raw country
lad by whose means the plot is chiefly discovered, was as natural as he
always is in such characters. He perhaps has got too much of a habit of
expressing his joy by running up and down the stage with his arms spread
out like a pair of wings. Mr. Powell, as the faithful old servant of the
Anglade family, was highly respectable. One sentiment in the play, ‘The
woman who follows her husband to a prison, to share or to alleviate his
misfortunes, is an ornament to her sex, and an honour to human nature,’
was highly applauded—we do not know for what particular reason.[37]
_Covent-Garden._
The same drama has been abridged and brought out here as an After-piece.
We cannot speak highly of the alteration. The sentimental French romance
is cut down into an English farce, in which both the interest of the
story and the _naiveté_ of the characters are lost. The two characters
of the Valet and the Italian stroller are confounded in the same person,
and played by Mathews, who is death to the pathetic! Charles Kemble
played the Count D’Anglade in a very gentlemanly manner. Farley was the
most turbulent Valet we have ever seen.
MEASURE FOR MEASURE
_The Examiner._
_February 11, 1816._
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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