[Footnote 2: Perhaps!!! Mr. Wood we dare say has too much good sense to relish this _perhaps_, it rather savours of irony.]
Mrs. Wood ranks high in the same line; the correct style in which she gives the sense of her author, the refinement of her taste and her clear and distinct utterance, must always ensure to her the approbation of an enlightened audience; we feel some reluctance in adding that her uniformity of declamation, and something in her tones approaching to monotony, retard her progress to that excellence to which the qualifications abovementioned must evidently lead her.
Mr. Warren, viewed only as a performer, will be found fairly deserving of our praise. In the arduous character of the "inimitable and unimitated Falstaff" he has no rival on this side the Atlantic. In the other class of characters, to which he modestly confines himself, he is always correct and respectable.
In Mr. Cone, we see a young performer gradually rising in estimation. To the manners of a gentleman, he adds a habit of discrimination, the effect of a liberal education; and could he get over a certain inflexibility of voice, (whether arising from nature or habit we know not) he must very soon become a distinguished performer.
Mr. M'Kenzie is also a most respectable and useful actor: his person and manner give him many advantages in performing characters requiring dignity and firmness of deportment; as Glenalvon in Douglas, he is excellent; and those who have witnessed his performance of sir Archy M'Sarcasm and sir Pertinax M'Sycophant, will unite with us in paying him the tribute of applause for his correct personification of the wily Scotchman.--His talents do not seem calculated for genteel comedy in general.
Mrs. Barrett must be considered as a very useful actress; her figure is well adapted to the characters she undertakes, and her general deportment upon the stage immediately indicates her perfect acquaintance with the boards.
Mrs. Wilmot needs not our panegyric to call forward that public attention she has so long merited; her qualifications as an actress are uncommonly general--whether we see her in genteel comedy, or in the English opera, we are equally gratified with the diversity of her talents. As a singer, her voice and judgment are equally conspicuous, and those who have seen her in the character of Ophelia, will readily admit her claim to the pathetic.