Chapter 3

So much for the Author and the Play. As to the Actors, Mr. HARE has had many a better part, and this is but an inferior species of a genus with which the public has long been familiar; but there is no one who can touch him in a part of this description. Admirable! most admirable! _Barbrook_ is in reality a silly elderly scamp, with all the will to be a villain but not endowed with the brains requisite for that line of life. Thus, the Author, unconsciously, has created him. But Mr. HARE invests this feather-headed scoundrel with Iago-ish and Mephistophelian characteristics, that go very near to make the audience believe that, after all, there _is_ something in the part, and also in the plot. But the part is only a snowman, and melts away under the sunlight of criticism. Miss KATE RORKE is charming. It is a monotonous and wearisome part, and the merit of it is her own. Miss NORREYS is very good but the girl is insipid. Miss COMPTON, as the good-hearted, knowing, fast lady, wins us, as she proves herself to be the real _Robin Goodfellow_, the real good fairy of the piece, _Robin Goodfellow_ is a misnomer, unless the aforesaid _Robin_ be dissociated from _Puck_: but it is altogether a bad title as applied to this piece for, as with Mr. CARTON's piece at the St. James's, _Liberty Hall_, it is a title absolutely thrown away. Mr. FORBES ROBERTSON is as good as the part permits, and it is the Author's fault that he is not better. Mr. GILBERT HARE gives a neat bit of character as the Doctor, and Mr. DONALD ROBERTSON may by now have made something of the rather foolish Clergyman (whether Rector, Vicar, or Curate I could not make out), whose stupid laugh began by making a distinct hit, and, on frequent repetition, became a decided bore. It is played in one Scene and three Acts, and no doubt in the course of a fortnight certain repetitious and needless lines will have been excised, and the piece will play closer, and may be an attraction, but not a great one, for some time to come. At all events, the part of _Valentine Barbrook_ will add another highly-finished picture to Mr. HARE'S gallery of eccentric comedy-character. I think of him with delight, and exclaim, once more--Admirable!

PRIVATE BOX.

* * * * *

At Drury Lane the Baddeley Cake Meeting was a Goodly sight.

* * * * *

[Symbol: Right-Pointing Hand] NOTICE.--Rejected Communications or Contributions, whether MS., Printed Matter, Drawings, or Pictures of any description, will in no case be returned, not even when accompanied by a Stamped and Addressed Envelope, Cover, or Wrapper. To this rule there will be no exception.