and sorely perplexed were we on any throne whatever, unless it were the high throne of criticism and taste. But, to pass away from ourselves, and such pleasant subjects (upon which, gentle reader, we should not thus much have conversed had the theatres furnished us with sufficient matter wherewith to amuse thee); we will turn, without more ado; to the business of the month, and speak of the very few novelties that have appeared since our last Magazine was published. DRURY LANE. We begin, as the King did, with Drury Lane. It had been reported that his Majesty had spoken very highly of Miss Wilson's talents, and the circumstance of his first visiting this theatre, to witness the exhibition of the opera of Artaxerxes, seemed to confirm this report. We have heard otherwise, however, and have understood that he does not entertain that exceeding admiration for her, which we had heen induced to suppose from the statements which appeared in the newspapers and other authentic records. Indeed, almost all the persons with whom we have conversed (we mean those who are competent to speak on such subjects) appear to consider Miss Wilson as a promising young singer, but no more. Mr. Elliston, however, fills his house, and we are glad of it. We would rather that he should fill it by means of a good comedy or tragedy, because we think more highly of those things than of any opera however fine. Yet, the music of Artaxerxes is very delightful on the whole, though the recitatives hang somewhat heavily on our ears. In fact, the recitative is an unnatural and inadequate substitute for colloquial phrase, and we should be almost glad to see it entirely abolished. When the dialogue is lively it interferes with it; and when it is tedious it prolongs it. It is as though a person were to dance and sing at the same time. We have, in truth, seen that feat performed with tolerable mal-effect: each faculty we remember was faithfully subservient to the other, and the consequence was that both were imperfectly displayed. So, with the recitative, there is a pompous pretension about it which lifts it beyond ordinary speech, and there is a familiarity also which at once con stitutes a difference between it and the aria: it has none of the tripping lightness of a comic song,-and but little of the grandeur of a chorus,and it wants that exquisite undulation of sound which is observable in almost all airs of merit; and which, in the Sul Aria' of Figaro, Mozart seems to have carried to the highest point of perfection. We have not altered our opinion regarding Miss Wilson. She is a clever singer, with a great compass of voice, but with little sweetness and no sentiment. Her teachers seem aware of this by not permitting her to play in the Beggar's Opera,' which is perhaps the best test by which the talents and power of a new singer can be measured.-Mr. Braham is the Arbaces of the opera, and Madame Vestris is the Persian prince. What might not Mr. Braham do with his voice and his musical skill if he would! We have been told that he himself likes simple and classical music, and that the florid style in which he at times indulges is adopted in conformity to public taste. To this we can only reply that there is no one who has a better right to have a voice in the world of music than Mr. Braham, and that (if what we have stated be his taste) we would rather see him lead the public taste than follow it. Madame Vestris is a delightful singer. We remember her many years ago when she first appeared at the Italian opera: she was a very young girl, and she sang the airs in Winter's opera of Il Ratto di Proserpina' so sweetly, that they remained in our memory for many a month. She is now not only a delightful singer, but an excellent comic actress: we would rather that she had been a serious one (yet it is well as it is); for there was a something about the delicate girl that haunted our remembrance, and something of sadness in her real history which seems now strangely enough lost or transmuted into merriment. We must not forget Miss Povey, who is a very promising young vocalist (and a very powerful one) and has a voice almost as rich as any one upon the stage. We did not at first know our old friend Mr. Horn in the ferocious disguise of the poisoner Artabanes. He filled his post respect-. ably. Pizarro. This pleasant and popu lar melo-drame has been again acted at Drury Lane for the benefit of Mr. Wallack, if not of the public. He tops these parts, however, well. Mrs. West played Cora, we believe. We sometimes wish that she had at her elbow the monitor of Caius Gracchus. Richard III.-Mr. Wallack has also been adventuring upon Richard the Third; but Richard is an awkward man to manage, and he is withal too great for the moderate grasp of Mr. Wallack. It is not that Mr. W. played the character so incorrectly (yet there were some errors) as that he did it imperfectly. He had not the elastic spirit of Richard,-nor his bold front and buoyant step; nor had he that high and princely gait with which birth, and proud courage, and the habit of command invested the son of Plantagenet: his robes hung heavily on him, his mirth was gloomy, and his dissimulation laborious and artificial; whereas Richard was born so high that royalty was almost his inheritance; his spirit was quick and lively and subtle, and his deceit too natural not to be easy to him, and too profound for the eye of a casual observer. Mr. Wallack, however, made several hits' in the course of the evening, and he did not make them by merely mimicking others; on the contrary, he fell once or twice into the opposite error, and became faulty from a determination to be original. Such mistakes are promising and argue well. Nevertheless Mr. Wallack did not in our opinion completely develop the character of Richard: it was rather an occasional glimpse which he afforded us than a full portrait, and we are not sure that, even as it was, we were satisfied that the likeness was true. Therese. A new melo-drame has also appeared under this title. It is a translation from the French by Mr. John Howard Payne, the author of Brutus. It is one of those things which, like the Maid and the Magpie, strike very much upon the stage, though they are worthless in the closet. Yet it is but justice to say, that Mr. Payne has (we hear this only) given a faithful as well as pleasant translation from the original language. It is the fault of the French, and not of Mr. Howard Payne, that they manufacture their dramas from their police registers, and rely upon inci dent rather than upon dialogue. Advocates, and rustics, and maid servants, are very prominent in the French pieces; and magpies and dogs are, as we know here, of no little value as performers. Therese is almost one of the best melo-drames that we have seen; but when Mr. Elliston says that "no piece was ever so successful!" he makes one of those palpable mistakes which have now become so common in play-bills. What a pity it is that puffing cannot be prohibited by act of parliament ! COVENT GARDEN. A practice has been commenced at this theatre which, we think, ought to be condemned, as being likely to overturn both tragedy and comedy. It is the custom to adopt a play which has either some good comic or tragic parts, and introduce into mouths of the characters a variety of songs, and thus reduce it to an opera; or at once to fashion a play from some popular novel, and mingle tragedy and comedy, opera and farce together, and serve up the heterogenous mixture to the public. There would be no great harm in this, perhaps, if the first tragic and comic performers were not thrust into these medleys, and compelled to act with singers and join in chorusses and so forth; but, the truth is, that when the public know that they can see Mr. Macready and Mr. Liston, Mr. Chas. Kemble and Mr. Jones, at the same time that they hear Miss Stephens and Miss Tree, they will not attend either a tragedy of Shakspeare or a comedy of Congreve. It is by making the great tragic and comic (particularly the tragic) performers too common, that tragedy and comedy are injured; for if the taste of the public were not palled by these anomalous mixtures, it would remain as fresh as ever, and would relish Richard, and Othello, and Macbeth, as much as in days of old. We once invited a friend to go with us to see Macready perform Virginius,' but he declined, saying that he could see that tragedian in Rob Roy and -Miss Stephens also. This anecdote alone is satisfactory to us on the point which we have insisted upon. Twelfth Night.-This charming comedy has been maltreated like others, and new songs have been su→ peradded to the dialogue which has always seemed to us so entirely delightful. It is not enough that the stately Olivia should unbend from her dignity, or that the love-sick Viola (who never told her love') should enact the page, or Maria play off her jests in the way that Shakspeare has set down, but they must do violence to their natures and sing also. Poor Shakspeare! One would have fancied that the commentators had done enough when they buried him alive beneath the heaps which idle debate and conjecture had piled up:-but no; it was reserved for the present enlightened age to assault him more violently than ever, to hew and mangle his finely shaped limbs in a manner "unheard of among nations," and then to serve up this hash of literature as a fit dish for the entertainment of the British Public.' Our readers will observe that there are two or three songs in the comedy of Twelfth Night,' but the clown is the principal singer: one is so beautiful that we shall take leave to transcribe it for our readers, many of whom may not perhaps recollect it. Duke. O fellow come, the song we had last night : : Mark it, Cesario; it is old and plain: Do use to chaunt it; it is silly sooth, Clozen. Are you ready, sir? Don John, or the Two Violettas. Since writing the foregoing, "The Chances," of Beaumont and Fletcher (or rather of Fletcher alone, we believe) has been shaped into an Opera, under the above title. The names of most of the dramatis personæ have been altered, and songs assigned to the two Violettas, (in the original, the two Constantias)—a band of hunters is created, there being a sort of sylvan chorus introduced-and the character of the second Violetta is purified from the taint that affected her in her original state. A Miss Hallande made her first appearance on the stage in the character of the "first Violetta." She was so much terrified that we can as yet scarcely judge of her capabilities for the stage; indeed we could not hear much of the dialogue which was assigned to her. Her songs, however, were given with great effect, and her softer notes are quite delightful. She appears to have a voice of extensive compass, and to possess exceedingly good taste. Her second air was sung and repeated in a way that altogether captivated us, and she seems to understand the meaning of the music as well as the mere letter of it. We confess, that of the two musical debutantes who have lately come forth, we prefer, on the whole, Miss Hallande. They are very dissimilar certainly, one being excessively timorous, and the other having a perfect self-possession; the one affects our fancy only, but the other, in some measure, touches our heart. Miss Stephens's voice sounded shrilly we thought, when she sang with Miss Hallande, whose tones are less clear, and are, what musicians we believe, call "veiled;" but she acquitted herself very prettily in a lively part. Charles Kemble played excellently as Don John, and Jones seconded him very well; but Liston's part was unworthy of him, and he produced but little effect in it. We have said nothing of the play itself; perhaps we may touch upon it next month, but at present we have not space. A. GLEANINGS FROM FOREIGN JOURNALS. THE SWEDISH SCULPTORS SERGEL AND BÜSTRÖM. Of these celebrated artists,-who, with their Danish contemporary, Thorvaldsen, have cast such a splendour on the arts of their respective countries, that it may well be termed a luminous Aurora Borealis -the first, J. Tobias Sergel studied sculpture at Stockholm (of which place he was a native,) under L'Archeveque, a French artist, who was employed to model the equestrian statue of Gustavus Adolphus, afterwards cast in bronze. He went subsequently to both Paris and Rome, at which latter place he continued twelve years. During his residence in that city he produced the following works, viz. a recumbent Faun, about half the size of life;-Diomed carrying off the Palladium, a figure as large as life: this statue is now in England;-Venus stepping out of the bath and drying herself;-Psyche kneeling before Cupid, and intreating him not to desert her: this groupe, which was begun at Rome, was not finished till after the artist's return to Stockholm; as was the case with another smaller one, representing Mars supporting Venus, who has been wounded by Diomede. The following subjects were executed by him at Stockholm: a groupe containing a figure of History, to whom the Chancellor Oxenstiern is recounting the exploits of Gustavus Adolphus, in order that she may celebrate them: this is of colossal dimensions; and was intended to have been cast in bronze to decorate the pedestal of that hero's monument, but has not yet been executed. A model for a monument to the celebrated Cartesius, representing a flying genius, who with one hand is uncovering a celestial globe, and with the other holds a torch to enlighten a it. Sergel was one of the first artists who adopted the system of Mengs and Winckelmann, and who abandoning the vicious style, still predominating among the imitators of Bernini, applied themselves to the study of nature and the antique. It is owing to this, that his works form such a contrast with those of his early contemporaries, and obtained for him such distinguished approbation from all real connoisseurs. His productions became universally esteemed, and he himself obtained the flattering cognomen of the Swedish Phidias. Sergel was, in fact, formed by nature to be a great artist; he possessed a lively imagination and plastic powers, by means of which he was enabled to conceive his objects in a lively and forcible manner. His style is severe; his forms are well defined; and yet there is somewhat of mannerism in the execution. He had early imbibed what the French term energie and tact; nor was he ever able to divest himself completely of it, however incompatible with the pure definition of character; hence it happens that not a few even of his most masterly productions, for instance his recumbent Faun, in spite of the felicity of the ensemble, appear to be rather excellent academical subjects, than chaste and well-matured representations of individual and idiosyncratic character. Sergel was nevertheless far superior to the generality of modern sculptors; he was the first to open a new career of art, and to excite by his example others to enter it. Sweden may, therefore, justly boast of having produced in him the restorer of a purer taste, and of a chaster style in sculpture, which has since been pursued more or less successfully by Trippel of Schaffhausen, Zauner a Tyrolese, Christopher Jussen an Irishman, and more recently by the two illustrious living artists, Canova and Thorvaldsen. Thus much respecting Sergel's genius as an artist: with regard to his personal character and habits, he indulged in a species of liberal cynicism, enjoying his for * To these England is proud to be able to add the name of Chantry. tune with his friends, and revelling in the contemplation of undisguised nature. This disposition induced him to found the Bacchanalia that used to be held privately by the artists at Rome: they were kept twice a month at his own residence in that city; for, owing to the liberal pension allowed him by Gustavus III, and what he gained by his profession, his income was very considerable. Of these festive meetings Heinse has given us a faint echo in his Romance of Ardinghello. Sergel's talent was highly esteemed in Sweden; where he was created by Gustavus a knight of the polar star. He was personally attached to that monarch, whom he regarded not merely as his patron but as his friend; and such was the grief he felt at his untimely death, that he seemed from that hour to lose all relish either for his life or for his art. Sergel died in 1813, in the 77th year of his age. Johann Nicolaus Büström, his pupil, was born at Philippstadt, in the year 1783, and was intended by his parents for trade; but they dying, he was enabled to follow his own inclination which led him to devote himself enthusiastically to sculpture. His circumstances enabling him to travel, he immediately proceeded to Stockholm for the purpose of attending the academy, and particularly of enjoying the instructions of Sergel. Endowed by nature with a mild and steady disposition, and with a pleasing exterior, the young artist soon acquired the friendship of his instructor, who felt himself attached to his pupil, and was anxious for his improvement. Büström studied under Sergel for three years, partly after the antique and partly from nature: but his master would not permit him to copy any of his own works, considering them-with a rare modesty-as models not of sufficient authority, and too little to be depended upon. In 1810, Büström proceeded to Rome, and it was in this city of the soul" that the young artist's views expanded themselves. Hitherto he had only modelled in clay, but he now perceived that it was indispensably necessary for him to work in marble; for on the acquisition of facility and confidence in this manner of execution depends not only animated expression, but likewise, in a great degree, the stamp of originality. Since even an excellently modelled figure must, when executed in marble by another hand, lose a considerable portion of its individuality, for want of that accordance with the original conception, and those Promethean sparks of vitality which impart life to the inert mass: consequently let such a work be ever so well arranged as to its ensemble, it will be apt to carry with it, to a discriminating eye, the constrained air of a copy. In order to avoid this defect, the young artist applied himself sedulously to this difficult province of his art; and, as nature had gifted him with considerable manual dexterity, and he pursued his labours incessantly and indefatigably, he overcame all his impediments much sooner than he himself had expected, so that he may now be classed foremost among those artists who work this material with facility and freedom. It was particularly fortunate for Büström, that he visted Rome at a period when an attachment to the fine arts was developing itself in Sweden, under the auspices of Gustavus and his royal brother, Charles XIII; for, in consequence of this, many of the Swedish nobility, and other rich individuals of that country, were induced, by a patriotic zeal, to encourage the young artist, by important commissions, most of which he has since executed. The regard which the student felt for his first instructor was returned by the paternal kindness of Sergel; who, not contented with imparting to him, in his letters, advice respecting the most advantageous prosecution of his studies, and with constantly encouraging him to unceasing perseverance, declared that he was worthy to succeed him; and obtained for him a grant of the residence which he himself occupied at Stockholm, and which had been erected for him on his return from Rome, at the expence of the government. It was for the purpose of taking possession of this inheritance, after Sergel's death, and at the same time of carrying into execution some other designs that Büström returned to Stockholm in 1815. In his last letters to his pupil, Sergel had spoken |