AMUSEMENTS.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 4458, 3 July 1875, Page 3

AMUSEMENTS.

(From the New Zealand Mail.) . ** A crown’s worth of good interpretation.” —SirAK-M'iMlE. X -will' take it for granted tliat the large numbers of people who attended the Theatre Royal on Monday night were induced to do so by a desire to see one of Shakspere’s plays, not often represented, acted by a company exceptionally strong, to use a technical term. X ain not anxious to inquire whether or not these people were drawn to the theatre by the unanimous condemnation which their absence on the occasion that 44 Much Ado About Nothin" ” was played met with. It is more charitable to assume that the reason first accepted by me is the correct one. Ol one *hin" in connection with the performance, however, I may unite with certainty. Those not pleased by it must have been hard to please Indeed- " It had every element possible for giving pleasure, apart from the rare beauty which .the play intrinsically possesses. To explain why the play has beauty, and why that beauty is rare, would be impudent ; to dilate upon it would be unnecessary. And ’ yet something, I think, may be said with appropriateness if not of “As You Like It ” as a play, at least concerning it as one of its author’s works. That something will be but. a mere gathering of what others have said , ..dfefthis respect before, and may be the more 'interesting on that account. Shakspere has fixed the locality of part of his story, the Forest of Ardennes ; but otherwise it has no traces to connect its action, plot, or period with any particular country, people, or time. It is, in fact, an idyllic tale, and is said by Capell to have been founded on a novel, or (rather) pastoral romance, entitled “ Euphues’s Golden Legacy,” written in a very’fantastic style by Dr. Thomas Lodge, and by him published in the year 1590, in quarto. Besides the fable, which is pretty exactly followed, the outlines of certain principal characters may be observed in the novel ; and some expressions of the novelist (few. Indeed, and of no "reat moment) seem to have taken possesof Shakspere’s memory, and from thence f'rept into his play. It is noticeable that Drf Johnson says— 44 The stories, which we now find only in remoter authors, were in his (Shakspere’s) time accessible and familiar. The fable of B As You Like It’ which is supposed to be copied from Chaucer’s ‘ Gamelyn,’ was a little pamphlet of those times, and old Mr. Cibber remembered the tale of 4 Hamlet’ in plain English prose, which the critics have now to seek in ‘Saxo Grammaticus/ ” But this cannot have been the case, for Farmer disposes of the supposition thus— 44 4 As You Like It ’ was certainly borrowed, if we believe Dr. Grey and Mr. Upton, from ‘The Coke’s Tale of Gamelyn,’ which by the way was not printed till a century afterwards- When in truth the old bard, who was no hunter of MSS, contented himself solely with Lodge’s ‘Rosalyud,’ or Euphues’s * Golden Legacye,’ quarto : 1590.” Malone "ives 1600 as the probable date at which “As You Like -It” was ■written, and in 1623 it was printed. It is also said, and may serve to show that Shakspere was not a 44 star actor” in his time, that he played Adam. It may too be mentioned that the play contains one of those horrors of modern critics of modern standard plays—a local allusion. Rosalind says, “ X will weep for nothing, like Diana in the fountain.” Stowe, in his 44 Survey of Loudon,” 1596, says that in that year there was set up at the east side of the Cross in Cheapside “a curious wrought tabernacle of orey marble, and in the same an alabaster image of Diana, and water conveyed from the Thames prilling from her naked breast.” Two years afterwards the statue decayed. Of the performance of “As You Like It,” I believe there is for once a tolerable unanimity of opinion as to its merit. I cannot, I confess, say that Mrs. Darrell’s Rosalind was the best, in my opinion, that I have seen, but I can honestly say that it was very good. The part of R osalind requires certain conditions in actresses, which time and experience are apt to destroy. The very want of what is known to some as the highest elocutionary power may make the impersonation of Rosalind all the easier to a few ladies. The joyous freshness and pretty, pleasant, girlish -wit of Rosalind are not easily realised. But Xam far from desiring to take away from the merits of a performance, such, indeed, as it would be difficult •to see every day, and I am anxious to do justice to those rare qualities of innate talent and training which made Mrs. Heir’s Rosalind so enjoyable. Mrs. Hill’s Celia was as good a Celia as could be desired, and Miss Lilly May made a most loveable-looking shepherdess. I have seen it suggested that Mr.

Burford should hare played Orlando instead of Mr. Douglas. Mr, Burford is a most capable actor, but his acting, without offence, partakes largely of that style which Mr. Crummies was said to possess—that is, of the “bricks and mortar” style. It maybe remembered that Mr. Crummies’ manner was described in the way I have mentioned, because it was of a heavy and ponderous school. I am certain that Mr. Burford himself knows that of all parts in “ As You Like It ” that for which he is most unfitted is Orlando. On the contrary, as it seems to me, Orlando is just one of those parts which Mr. Douglas can play better than most actors. He can make love on the stage as if he meant it. His love-making is neither maudlin, nor so ponderous as to be without expression of any kind. He contrives to throw a tenderness into his manner, and a passion into his voice, which is strangely like the real ~»thing; as imagined by dramatists. Moreover, he has the advantages of youth and appearance on his side. Altogether he was a capital Orlando. Mr. Darrell has. wonderfully improved since I saw him last, as he gave evidence in his Jnques. Nevertheless, I shall be glad to chronicle, as a further improvement, that he does not assign to the letter B a prominence it is not intended to hold, except when used by an irate Frenchman. A little less consciousness, too, that he is really au actor of great promise would not he amiss in one of whom I hope yet to hear great things. To my mind, the best played parts were those of Audrey and Touchstone. Miss Anstead if she would but confine herself to a line of business in which she excels would soon have few equals. None but a gentleman with the intense appreciation of every word Shakspere has written could have done the justice to Touchstone that Mr. Hoskins did. His due emphasis and thoroughly understandable delivery of the words caused every saying of Shakspere’s great “ fool ” to tell. It is but a poor compliment to Mr. Hoskins to say that there is not an actor in the colony who could have ' given so complete and so scholarly a rcalisa- . - tion of Touchstone as he did. With the exception of a couple of minor parts, whose representatives got, as the saying is, “ slightly shaky” on Shakspere, the remaining characters in the play were presented with very uniform excellence. I can sincerely congratulate Mr. Darrell upon the promise which his work as a writer , of plays affords. I do not mean to say that “ Under the Ban" is a great play, or one likely to survive its author ; but it is far better than many a one written by men of greater repute than Mr. Darrell, and performed with much greater fuss. In some respects it is a pity that the action extends beyond the very telling situation at the end of the second act, because it really seems as it this action alone, by a little more extension of incident and a little longer leading up to the situation, could have been made into a very good three-act play ; but Mr. Darrell having decided that the first two acts should be merely preliminary, I am bound in justice to say that the final result is worked out with evidence of a good deal of care and skill. In his play, too, Mr. Darrell has invaluable assistance from his wife. I do not know a lady who plays the class of parts of which Mis. Fielding is a type better than can Mrs, Darrell. She has the power, possessed by very few, of sustaining pathos so that a scene that with another would become wearisome, nay, almost comic, with her never hangs nor drags. I can assure Mr. Darrell that an attempt to play “ Under the Ban” with any but his wife would in all probability result in failure after the second act. Indeed, all the other parts,. hitherto subordinate, merge into nothingness in value, compared to hers, after the period I have mentioned, and I am unaware of any lady in the colonies capable of ustaining the interest, the utterly melancholy

interest, of the play from this point as Mrs. Dan-ell does. If I might make a suggestion to Mr. Darrell, the low comedy portion of whose drama is very well done, it would be this : that, in the first place, the class of lawyer’s clerk he has pourtrayecl is not usually entrusted with the confidential advising of a wealthy client ; and, in the second place, that “ Under the Ban” contains something too much of askings for forgiveness and offers of the same “ upon one condition.” From what I can hear, my absence from the amateur performance of “ All tliat Glitters” need not be a cause for poignant regret to me. I am informed that the performance of the play gave indisputable proof of the large Irish population resident in Lancashire, evidenced by the acquirement even by Lancashire bom people of what is known as the Irish accent. Indeed, as I heard one ■ gentleman who had witnessed the performance remark, “I knew before that the Irish .had overrun Liverpool, but I was unaware that they had monopolised the county.” And here, lest I draw down wrath upon my head, I may say that I am as good an Irishman as any, but that does not prevent my thinking It an anomaly for any one to play a dialect part, when he has already a different dialect of which he cannot divest himself. IVe laugh at the efforts of Cockneys as stage Irishmen, why not laugh at something like the reverse. My Dunedin correspondent writes me : “ In the way of .amusements the only place at present open is the Princess’ Theatre, where a very good business is being done down stairs, but the patrons of the dress-circle attend in very scanty numbers. A number of novelties have been produced, all of them more or less successfully. I understand that before the close of the season the Bates intend to bzing out a new American piece, especially written for them by Mr. J, J. Utting, of this city, entitled, 4 Check and Counter Check; or, the Fall of Richmond.’ 4 Paradise Lost’ did nothing, and it was only by the distribution of gifts, that Eastwood could get any money in -the house at all. Rainford was to have appeared at the Queens to-night, in company with Herr Schott, but he has thought better of it, and taken a sudden departure for Melbourne. I believe the Bates will be followed by the Darrells, about the 20fch proximo.” Histriomastix.