ABSTRACT
Nov. 29 [1821]. The Two Gentlemen of Verona, was this evening revived with an abundance of music, splendid scenery, and surpassing machinery. Whether this perversion of Shakespeare into melo-drame have “nothing of offence in it,” may be a question; but if the offence could be palliated, it must be in the case of the present play, one the feeblest and most incomplete of all the hasty works of it’s great author; so much so indeed, as to have been doubted by many competent judges, if it were really his. The love of Valentine, and the inconstancy of Proteus; the lofty resolution of Sylvia, and the gentle constancy of Julia, were to-night embellished with illuminated palaces and triumphant galleys; catches and glees in forests, and a blazing mountain! The first three acts were dull, with the occasional exhilaration of songs by Miss Tree and Miss Hallande; but in the fourth, the Carnival was displayed in more than it customary glories. The opening of the scene displayed the Ducal Palace and great square of Milan illuminated, golden gondolas on the river, and all the usual appendages of foreign gala, masquers, dancing girls, and mountebanks. The pageant then commenced, with a display of the Seasons. Spring came enthroned on a pile of unblown flowers, which the nymph touched with her wand, and the buds were turned into blooms. Then came Summer in the midst of corn, which grew into golden heads at her touch. Autumn followed, with a similar conversion of leaves and stems into melting grapes and blushing apples, and Winter closed the pomp by a view of Lapland with a shower of snow; while dancing nymphs, reapers, and shivering Laplanders, filled up the intervals. Next came the elements, Earth moved on in majesty, seated in a car drawn by lions over clouds; and Air was a portrait of Juno, attended by her peacocks.—Fire had Vulcan in his forge, illuminated by showers of his own sparks; and Water was green robed, with a paid of pigmies sounding Conch shells, and seated upon Dolphins. The stage was then suddenly invaded by water, and on it’s bosom rolled Cleopatra’s galley, covered with silks and gilding. The Queen lay classically sofa’d upon the deck, and the Nymphs and Cupids flew and fanned about her with picturesque fidelity. This was followed by a splendid scene of the Palace of Pleasure, all gaiety and glory, which was also succeeded by a view in the Duke’s gardens, with a lake, a castle, a bridge, and an artificial mountain reaching to the clouds, the explosion of which discovered a gorgeous Temple of Apollo, rich in all that is bright and brilliant; and dazzling the spectators until the drop scene covered the catastrophe. The applause which had before been most lavish, rose to enthusiasm at this spectacle, which it is but justice to say, was most magnificent. Its only fault being its too great length, which has been since remedied.
