Transcription
ASTLEY’s AMPHITHEATRE.
Mr. ASTLEY’s indefatigable spirit furnishes every year some agreeable novelty for the public. His Pantomimes frequently possess more variety and fancy than those of the prouder theatres. Besides the usual attraction of the exquisite equestrian skill of Mr. MAKEEN, there was the additional one of a new pantomime, and a new grand scenic drama. The former was rendered doubly pleasing by the graceful and bounding activity of the Columbine (Miss TAYLOR); the scenery, too, puts us in mind of some of the most charming enchantments in the Arabian Nights. The Clown indeed broke the spell a little, by the protrusion of his rubicund nose and vulgar grimace, amid magic bowers and golden fountains: but it would be hypercritical to censure what, with all its inconsistency, gave us much amusement. The great charm of the evening was, however, a grand scene in the melodrama of Ferdinand of Spain. A castle is fired, and a splendid scene of conflagration ensues: the falling beams enveloped in masses of flames, the explosion, the ruinous confusion, together with the clashing of swords and the trampling of horses, formed one of the most striking combinations that we ever witnessed; a young poet might have caught from it some vivid ideas towards describing the horror of battle, or the destruction of cities.
