THE HONEY MOON
Drury-Lane Theatre.
Drury-Lane Theatre.
Drury-Lane Theatre.
Drury-Lane Theatre.
The favourite comedy of theHoney Moonwas performed here last night; the part of theDukeby Mr. H. Johnston. Upon the whole he acquitted himself well in it, with spirit and effect. More than that the character does not require; and it would be hard if the critic required of the actor what the poet has not clearly and intelligibly exacted from him. When, indeed, an accomplished performer, who happens to be a man of genius, lends additional graces to a character, and places it in a brilliant light of his own, we are bound to thank him: when he merely gives ‘what is set down for him’ with force and fidelity, we are bound to be content. Mr. Johnston, we thought, sometimes too coarse, and sometimes too sarcastic; but in this sort of assumption of character, it is hard to say exactly how far the habitual manners and sentiments are to modify and appear through those which are put on to answer the purpose of the moment. In this species of themock-heroic, which is a sort of equivocal mixture of comedy and tragedy, half pompous and half playful, Elliston, who was the firstDuke Aranza, excelled all those who have succeeded him. ‘Plautus was too light, Seneca was too heavy for him.’ He just aspired to something above comedy, he just fell short of tragedy; buthe hit the stage between wind and water. Mr. H. Johnston’s energy is more fierce, his irony more virulent: but still he moved, and looked, and spoke, if not like a lord, like a very lordly husband, and gave the essential interest to the part. He danced much at his ease, and recited the speech in which the Duke describes his idea of what his wife’s dress should be, with propriety and feeling. Knight’s countryman was admirable: his hysteric laughter at the dispute between his host and hostess, and his sheepish confusion when discovered, were equally perfect. His wonder at the manner in which Johnston rates his wife was ecstatic:
‘And near him sat ecstatic Wonder,Listening the hoarse applauding thunder.’
‘And near him sat ecstatic Wonder,Listening the hoarse applauding thunder.’
‘And near him sat ecstatic Wonder,Listening the hoarse applauding thunder.’
‘And near him sat ecstatic Wonder,
Listening the hoarse applauding thunder.’
His jaws relaxed to their utmost expansion, and his nose ‘grew sharp as a pen.’ Miss Kelly was too pert and forward, and too much like my lady’s chambermaid. Nor can we speak in praise of Mrs. Davison’sJuliana. She pouts, flounces, and lumbers about the stage strangely. Mr. Harley did theMock Dukewell; he seemed like Sancho Panza in his government. TheHoney Moonis a very pleasing drama: it is a cento of passages from old plays modernized; it is an ingenious plagiarism from beginning to end. The author was a most incorrigible pilferer, but so expert in his art, that we would say to other authors, ‘Go thou and do likewise!’