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ENTERTAINMENTS.
THE THEATRES, fto.
" Give bm
.To apeak my mind."-Bhakbpxam.
, Mr, Roberts opened tbeDnkeoJ Edinburgh
according to promise, Itusfc 1&tiir4ay night.
There was agtWdr«88-<&cle,afairgallery, 3
and acrowded0fcand;«tedl8, and, «o I«r%I
could discover, «veryfebdy was delighted. Sfcfr
deiightbegan before a word waiflpofcen, and
before.any Jofftapz^j^gurtouJ^
i*«i»d,ior a^aoona8^flur^ji^ Jfcere ,
was, e^denpp to shov thai tb»..
sew j^ji^ej &$P, B^vae^ng mora
you & nave been there-rTOostmve beeii ..
badlo#tito'drearin6««,' llndhfadbeen toad* ?'.
itedaoine'by a^hjrubbery ranged alongtido ->
the WaakwtiL
" jiffltn frnrtfllnpril iwwl curtains' alBo liML »
hung in tbe dress <"
M #MP
H^'andmre,
'lofek, wWai ^j^tottffly lb^d ^tifc1
!MMH6 lad^« roOtt^^lJoliaeMrtytidlr'8
jfbfuai 4ne^iext|lane ep«ii»Otftd ^bwkai
re-corerai fw9°

been madp clean, and had J»en .repaired. I
But when the curtainioae, however much '
delighted yon might have hew with the
praiseworthy attempts to make the audi
torium comfortable, you felt there was
nothing to find fault withon the stage. You
saw a room, a real room ; that is to say, some
thing as like a real room as stage properties
permitted. There was a fire-place, not on
one side, as if it were ashamed of showing
itself, and not looking as stage fire-places
usually do, infinitely unlike what they profess
to resemble, but a fire-place with a mantel
shelf, deserving to be called "practicable,"
and a large mirror over it, proving itself a
mirror by reflecting the figures of the
actors who moved in front of it. Ton are
quite right in begging to be allowed to ob
serve that an elegant drawing-room set does
not make a comedy ; but you will also per
mit me to observe that a drawing-room set
which is the reverse of elegant will go far to
mar the best comedy. The efficacy of the
elegance in this instance was markedly
demonstrated in that the somewhat un
stimulating quality of the dialogue of the first
act was not greatly perceived, the agreeable
appearance of the scene serving to com
pensate for the comparative lack of spirit I
mention the scenery especially, by way of
pointing out how conscientiously Mr. Roberts
has began to fulfil at least one of his pro
mises, namely, to give careful attention to
the requirements of Stage accompaniments.
But he has shown an equal readiness to carry

out his other pledges, namely, to furnish j
good plays and good actors.

"The Adventures of a Love Letter" is one
of those comedies which perhaps do not
in a moment commend themselves to
the average uuderstauding. There is
nothiqg either strikingly sensational or
strongly original in it. The plot of the
drama can hardly be said, indeed, to include
the real essence of the story. The adventures
of the letter could be worked out even if the
plot were almost wholly changed. The plot, in
fact, is only the setting for what may be termed
the motif. To be sure, the piece being a
translation from the French, and, like all
translations, losing a good deal in the pro
cess, something is to be said in explanation
of this apparent want of agreement between
the story and the principal action. It seems
almost a pity that English peculiarities or
prejudices-or, if you like, the sense of the
proprieties-should have made it necessary to

effect so vital a change. The change-not to
keep you longer in doubt-is this: ApoBt
marital delinquency in the French is changed
into an ante-marital delinquency in the
English version. As thus: A lady has
written what seems a very harmless, though
undoubtedly affectionate billet doux (oblige
me, estimable son of Caxton, by setting this up
billet doux not billet deux), and she is, before
all (hings, anxious that it should not fall into
the hands of her husband. Now, a billet doux
written before a lady's marriage to a gentle
man who has not become her husband, is
surely a very venial fault-Mf fault at all;
but a billet doux written by a married woman
not to her husband, is an offence the re
verse of venial, according to English social
canons, and hence you can easily perceive
how the anxiety to repossess it may be
made in the French version a much
more interesting element in the materials
of the comedy. This difference, indeed,
seems to me the principal fault in the piece,
and the alteration has necessitated the some
what clumsy expedient of keeping the love
letter on a shelf three years in order to give
time for,the lady who wrote it to get married,
and for the gentleman to whom it was written
to travel all over the world, and cpme back
with a museum of curiosities. The principal
business of the piec6 is between this gentle
man and-hot the lady who was in love with
him and did not marry hiwi-but with a lady
who steadily sets herself to work to get back
from him for her friend, the married lady, the
bit of paper which Is supposed capable of
damaging her reputation. Of course, she
does, $p; recover it, but not before it has gone
through many curious adventures, and she is
then made to marry the gentleman between
whom and herself this passage of arms has
occurred. Thisisthepoint; the plots, as 1 have
said, are subordinate to the point, and may
be imagined. Mr. and Mrs. Steele sustained
the chief characters in this piece, and they
sustained them so well as . to make one
wonder why they should have been so long
away from the ^.ustraliai}, metropolis, and to
make one hope they will:not iquit us any
more for remote quarters of ilhe globe. A
good many people discovered, for the, first
time, what an addition Mrs. Steele'is to the
Melbourne stage. She has agood voice,
moreover, .find does not whine, Kind this of
itself , is a virtue. They, thatlp she and her
husband, were extremely well received when
they came on, but not more so than they de
served to be. And so, for the matter .pf that,

^'^r.^and. 'I' thinly indeed, Mr. be
laud got the largest share of applause, and he
deserved It too. He has been working a long
timefor JjiaBuccess.and there be divers who
thhikjhewfllnever get it. But lie remembfere
the proverb about ,£he long lane having a
tarning somewhere, so hie goes on doing his
best, and never minding that the lane is
cjoeed ln bjr bigh hedges, but feeling sure the
cfctefc ,itsdf at the turning which
is#o. lopg QJimi^. His part & the comedy
wan not a wonderfully prominent one, but he
made agood llealof it, especially in the
part <where he has to be sententious, jt
wotUdhavet beeu%;g?od thing if the sen
t^tjiopunpss wold tyro: been preserved all
through; bnt.inthisp&rticular the character

had|x>beB&crifl(!ed to thesituation.

mi before,
the Melbourne pnMio on this oocasion and in
this piece. There is always a satisfaction in

she

|f - Weight iwt to
hwfc vaga^i, Jackpon stwWnad;
tike fcart(«£ ^e lady i whose ropbtation has
beeb4)dmpK>mis<kL; She did not quite reach
to the limit of expectation, but her capa

ttlitjr ianotto be doubted by one trial of it.
Mfoa Milly Parker undertook the juvenile
part of the comedy, but she must be (teen in
other parte than this before an opinion can
be pronounced upon her. Mr. Humphreys
was careful and intelligent, as he always is,
in the part of a not over-interesting lover.
Bdt lovers never are interesting, save to
themselves. The rest of the characters were
played very respectably, and none of them
were ill-played.

Then came a farce of a twelvemonth old,
named "Dandelion's Dodges." It is a weak
farce, of which it is to be hoped we have
seen the last. It served to introduce Mr.

Davis, the low-comedian, from Sydney, of j
whom report had spoken favourably. Bat
either report had spoken untruly, or the piece
was so indifferent as to be quite unable to
. furnish him with the opportunity of exhibit

ing his powers to advantage. He is re
manded, therefore, till next week.

On Wednesday the piece was changed for
Mr. Watts Phillips' drama of "Maud's Perils''
the getting up and the acting of which were
on a like level of completeness with those of
the comedy.

For my own part, therefore, I think Mr.
Roberta is going to work up into a success
perhaps not an overwhelming immediate
success, but a success for all that. I have
but to observe, therefore, "So mote it be."

Madame Duret has come back on her third
visit to Melbourne, and re-appeared at the
Royal last Monday night. For her own sake,
it would have been well if she had remained
content with her former triumphs, if ever she
achieved any. A highly peculiar taste, for
which, of course, there is no accounting,
may dispose some people to be delighted
with her Lucrezia and her Zoe. If
there be such a taste let Madame
Duret thank Heaven that tastes differ.
"Lucrezia Borgia," the drama, is, however,
very amusing if you look at it in a proper
spirit; but some people are so obstinate that
they never will do anything in a proper
spirit, and hence they miss their amusement.
"The Octoroon," with Mr. Rayner as Salem
Scudder, and Madame Duret as Zoe,
is what American, people denominate a
" caution." But Mr. Le Roy's Uncle Pete is
excellent, and so is Miss Marion Dunn's
Dora. Besides the piece is so good that even
indifferent acting cannot well st>oil it. .

JAQUES.

$