R370600C. Strafford.
The New Monthly Magazine, June 1837, p. 296.
Addendum to The Brownings’ Correspondence, vol. 3.
We have turned from the Drama of late, as from a dreary subject, stale, flat, and unprofitable. Two events, however, have occurred within the past month to throw a grace upon the declining season; and the manager at either house has resolved, just as he was shutting his doors, to die with dignity. We allude to the appearance of Schrœder-Devrient at Drury-lane, and to the production of Mr. Browning’s tragedy of “Strafford” at Covent-garden. The public have been rather apathetic, we fear, upon both points, and have missed enjoyments of a very high kind. Schrœder’s English version of the character of Fidelio ought to have taken the “willing souls” of all classes of play-goers, and lapped them in the elysium of pit, gallery, and box. It should have been heard by everybody, and then the critics would have been spared the hopeless task of endeavouring to make its excellence comprehended. It embodied the soul of that magnificent music, and spoke to the innermost depths of the heart, in a continued succession of the finest human emotions. Nor should we, turning to the other house, bestow less than the highest praise upon the admirable delineation of Strafford’s character by Mr. Macready. It perfectly filled up, with as much delicacy as force, the bold, varied, and original design of the author. The powers of Mr. Browning were fully recognised in the “New Monthly” soon after the first evidence of them (“Paracelsus”) appeared. “Strafford” bears out the impression then made, and bids us look to its author, as to one who may become a liberal, we may add, an illustrious contributor, to our treasures of dramatic poetry. Its chief defect as a drama is probably that which the poet himself has suggested,—it is rather a representation “of action in character, than character in action.” Pym is a splendid portrait; he is a man worthy to be the friend of “lion-Elliott, that grand Englishman.” To be appreciated as a stage-performance, and achieve the triumph as an acting drama, which, as a dramatic picture of the mighty spirits of England working out their solemn purposes, it has already won, it must be played only to audiences of more than average intelligence. It is a work as much above the thinking public of the theatre, as the new drama which immediately succeeded it, is, or ought to be, beneath. “Walter Tyrrell,” however, has some pretty poetical spangles glittering upon its suit of fustian, which here and there makes its look quite fine; and has at least served one good purpose, by introducing Mr. Elton to the audience at Covent-garden. He infused into some of the scenes a noble spirit, and has since played Iachimo and Jaffier in a style at once energetic, discriminative, and intellectual. We shall be glad to see more of this gentleman at the Haymarket, whither also Mr. Macready goes.
Reviewed:
Strafford (RB), London: Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, Green, 1837.
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