| Title: | The Old Love and the New |
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| Description: | Scene From the New Comedy of The Old Love and the New, At Drury Lane Theatre. |
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| Theatre: | Drury Lane |
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| Source: | The Illustrated London News, Jan 18, 1851, p. 45 |
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| See Source: | Go to Source Images (9.4 MB) |
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| Review: | The Illustrated London News, Jan 18, 1851, pp. 45-46 |
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DRURY LANE.
A sentimental conversational play, in five acts, by Mr. Sullivan, entitled "The Old
Love and the New," was produced on Thursday. The house was, we are happy to say,
crowded by a fashionable audience assembled to witness a new drama, on which, probably, the
fortunes of the theatrical season depended. If the production of a meritorious literary
composition and the approbation of an intelligent auditory can ensure success, the author
and the manager may congratulate themselves
on the result of the evening. From the absence of situations and comic scenes, however,
it is somewhat difficult to make the interest of the theme intelligible in recital. The
plot is of the kind that comes out in the dialogue, not in the action; and its value is dependent
more on the style in which it is told than on the manner in which it addresses the eye of the
spectator. Its influence lies in the language, which is always good, though seldom brilliant,
frequently elegant, and invariably neat. The turns of
fortune in the story depend on the agency of an old maid, Miss Trimmer (Mrs. Ternan),
who has become such in consequence of the neglect in early youth of Sir Algernon Courtoun,
Bart. (Mr. Cooper), and who, at the opening of the play, deems himself the accepted suitor
of one Camilla Haythorn (Mrs. Nisbett). But the young lady has a lover in the
baronet's nephew, Captain
Sidney Courtoun (Mr. Anderson), in favour of whom she gives the uncle a refusal This has
the operation of depriving the nephew of the uncle's fortune; to restore which, the young lady
takes to scheming. She feigns a passion for Major Stock (Mr. Emery), who is deceived
by the ruse,
and who has accordingly to bear for the nonce the brunt of the uncle's indignation and her father's
disapprobation. The tables being turned upon the young lady in this direction, and the affair
becoming serious, to avoid the consequences, the lovers are compelled to call in the aid of the old
maid, who, by making herself known to Sir Algernon, turns all his anger into self-remorse
and induces him to sanction their marriage. The
interest of this fable was gradually built up, and the different developments of it contrived with
great skill. The scenery bestowed upon it is highly finished, and one of the scenes, which we
have given in the fourth act, is a very splendid and well-set picture. It is that in which the
Major is under the process of being undeceived as to the reality of Camilla's
attachment for him. It is, perhaps, the most exciting portion of the dialogue, and produced
considerable merriment. Mrs. Nisbett acted with care and effect, but, we thought, avoided too
much the realizing of the incidents. This fault may in general be found with the acting; but no
doubt it was indulged in by all, from the perception that the work depended, as we have said, on its
conversational excellence. Mr. Anderson had little more to do than to look the lover.
The smallest share of the dialogue fell, perhaps,
to his lot. Mr. Emery had, on the other hand, a somewhat bustling part to sustain and threw
some animation into the scenes in which he appeared. On the fall of the curtain, the author
and the performers were called for. The former bowed his acknowledgments from a private box,
and the comedy was announced for repetition until further notice.
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