A farcical comedy with but the slightest of plots and with characters constructed, on conventional and stereotyped lines makes lessn demand upon the attention of the audience than upon the resources of the actor. A blustering but henpecked husband, boisterous and indulgent uncle, a comic curate, a languid Lancer or two, a masterful matron, pretty parlour maid and some ful girls—these go to make Our giment." The play depends for its humour, such as it is, as much upon the dialogue as upon the situations; in point of form it has no pretensions to any originality of its own and affords but little scap" for any on the pt of the performers, and in less capable ands ove can well imagine it might fall very Fortunately the cast was a uniformly strong one and was comsed of amateurs of more than average lity. If im the second and third acts the piece dragged a little, the fault no doubt is the playmright's, It is inevitable that on a first night there should be an occasional break in the general smoothness, but thoro was never anything approaching a hitch in the proceedi the rather vulgar merchant and his wife were good, and such points in their parts as were to be made were given with full effect.
To Mr, Ellaby Mr. Wynne has, I should fancy, a congenial part, and he did adequate justice to the hearty and genial enthusiast. After the stormy se his niece when he upbraids her for flirting with the curate, his complacent sense of an unpleasant task satisfactorily accomplished was excellently portrayed.
Mr. Cecil and Me, de Maire as the two Lancers lacked the assurance, if they inolined to exaggerate he nonchalance, that one associates with the beau sabreur of the "Tenth don't-dance" type. Indeed, Captain Featherston's entry in the first act was hardly what one would expect from an acknowledged lady-killer, and he positively seemed when introduced to suffer from some slight embarrassment. Mr. Cecil will soon realise the futility of attempting to pull tightly strapped overalls over his knees before sitting down. Again, it. is surely possible to give a stage kiss lady's shoulder and feebly ocking without jobbing the head right over a
somewhere about the back of hor In his final love-scene with Enid in the last act Mr. de Maire showed to more advantage and seemed to warm to his work.
Mr. Fitz-Spavin had an exceedingly difficult part. The Rev. John Talbot is sucha hopelessly impossible character that its very anomalies, instead of assisting the actor, test his powers to the utmost, In the first
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.