Transcription
ASTLEY’S AMPHITHEATRE.—The chief entertainment produced among the present amusements at this theatre, is a “new grand military,” and so forth, “Spectacle,” entitled, The Battle of Waterloo. The author is said to be a Mr. AMHERST, and he is described as the author of several popular pieces; nor can we wonder at his popularity; for, considering the exploits concerning which he treats, his text is of a surprising and delightful brevity. “Actions speak louder than words,” and a plain story is soon told. Napoleon and the Duke of Wellington severally array their forces, and in half a dozen sentences inspirit the staff to a due heroic sense of the quarrel; the rest is done by vollies of musketry, mingled with red and blue fires. A little mummery betwixt Molly Malony “a character well known to the 92 regiment,” and the soup-eating French, allows the armies to advance from the affair of Ligny to the flight of Quatre Bras, and from thence onward to the field of Waterloo. The scenery is usually good, and the manoeuvring of the forces leaves the artillery-group immeasurably behind. But upon this last point, no wonder; for the play-bill intimates that the troops were represented by “picked Waterloo men;” and to this we would add, that the horses of the cavalry behaved quite as well as if they
