Public Amusements.

PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS .

DRURY LANE THEATRE . Cheerful and exhilirating was the aspect of Drury-lane when the house re-opened for the season on Saturday last . The decorations in the style of Louis XIA ., with which it was so ¦ elaborately beautified by Mr . Marsh Nelson when first it passed wito the hands of Bro . Falconer , the present lessee , still look as

fresh as they did last Christmas , when they were seen ftr the first time , and there is always a pleasure in the reflection that a capital like London can at least own one large , "handsome theatre where plays in the language of Shakspeare may be performed . The audience on Saturday was very numerous , and in an encouraging mood , which could leave no doubt

that a large portion of tho public sympathises greatly with the enterprise of Mr . Falconer . Drury-lane ill-managed is a source of positive injury to the drama , for there is about it a prestige which may operate in lowering the standar d of taste , and even if it is worked at a loss its size renders it a formidable rival to more meritorious neighbours , for a body of spectators that looks

inconsiderable at Drury-lane may , nevertheless , considerably diminish the number that would fill a house of smaller dimensions . AVorst of all is the infliction when the prosperity of the big establishment is so much below par that a decent appearance can only be maintained by an unlimited distribution of orders ; for then so many persons have an opportunity of

: going to the play gratis that the extremely bad may enjoy a seeming triumph over the comparatively good . On the other land , Druiy-laue well managed provides the theatrical world with a centre round which a great deal of scattered talent may be . gathered ; and , though still a formidable rival , will provoke a healthy spirit of emulation that may prove universally beneficial in the end . All things considered , there is every reason that the playgoin "

public should wish well to Mr . Falconer . Under his management the theatre wears a magnificent appearance , contrastin " 1-marvellously with its aspect during many preceding years ; and -the list of performers on his programme is a sufficient guarantee of his good intentions with respect to the present season . Mr . Phelps will be seen in the course ot' next month , and in the

meanwhile we have Mr . Walter Lacy as the first li ght comedian ; the veteran Mr . Ryder for the gentlemen of weight and responsibility ; Mr . Addison , one of the cleverest delineators of strongly marked character ; Mr . G . Belmore , indubitably a rising man , as the principal low comedian ; Mr . Barrett , another veteran , for the hearty old men ; Mr . Neville as a third elder ; Mr . Charles

as the second light comedian ; Miss Murray and Miss Piose Leclercq the handsome ladies ; Mrs . E . Falconer as what the French call the Dneynes , and Miss Charlotte Saunders for the eccentric heroines . These make up a reasonably strong corps . The season commenced with the production of a new comedy from the pen of Mr . Falconer himself , entitled "Nature ' s above

Art . " " Nature , " in his title , does not denote the indiscriminating producer who is supposed to entertain for the clodhopper an amount of affection equal to that which she bestows on an accomplished youth with an endless pedigree , and who is consequently addressed in such a confident spirit b y the Rousseaus , the Inchbalds , and so ou ; but is meant for that more fastidious

matron who can be an i-justa noverca to some of her offspring , and who made up her mind several centuries ago that there should be a distinction between gentle ancl ungentle blood which a few generations could not easily rub out . ' Mr . Mordaunt ( Mr . Ryder ) , an " old English gentleman , with a fine old estate , " and with very aristocratic sensibilities , is not at all satisfied with the tastes and propensities of his son Edgar ( Mr . G . Belmore ) , in whose idiosyncracy tbe qualities of

the dolt and the scamp are most objectionably compounded . Supposed to be occupied with Eastern travel , Edgar has confined his peregrinations to the least reputable haunts of London , where he gets into all sorts of low scrapes , and when he comes back to the paternal hall in Warwickshire , after an absence of five years , bringing with him a strange-looking friend named Billpuddick ( Mr . Addison ) , who commences his intimacy with the family hy thrashing the servants and pitching the head

gardener into the conservatory , the impression that he makes on his father and his collateral kinsfolk is the reverse of favourable . Besides Billpuddick , who is neither more nor less than a prize-fighter , he brings with him an accomplished gentleman , MJ :. Meander AVilderspoon ( Mr . AValter Lacy ) , who , endowed with amazing volubility , employs his talent to make the goose appear as like a swan as possible . However , the youth ' s shortcomings are not to be explained away ; he is voted a failure

by the entire family , and the only person in whom he awakens a feeling of admiration is Sally Stiggins ( Miss Charlotte Saunders ) , a romantic chambermaid whose head has been turned by the journals , and who recognises in Edgar an incognito sweetheart with whom she has flirted at Cremorne . But even Sally is disgusted when she discovers that her high-born sweetheart's intentions towards her are not honourable , and everybody is

charmed when Mr . Oldacre ( Mr . Barrett ) , brother to Mr . Mordaunt's deceased wife , arrives at Mordaunt-hall with the revelation that Edgar was changed at nurse , and is consequently not one of the family . At first , however , much is not gained by the discovery , for the housekeeper , Mrs . Confidence Caudle ( Mrs . E . Falconer ) , who avows that she was a party to the fraud , thereby intending to oblige her late mistress , who was in want

of a male heir , also asserts that Sally Stiggins is the real Mordaunt , much to the annoyance of old Stiggins , an honest countryman ( very well played by Mr . Neville ) , who does not want to be argued out of his daughter , or to accept the lubberly Edgar as an equivalent . In spite of the arguments of the plausible Wilderspoon and the forcible Billpuddick , Sally ' s claim is for a while established ; and now the tables are turned , for , as Miss Mordaunt , she is able to treat with contumely her degraded admirer ; that is to say , as long as her own good heart will allow her , —for she is soon ready to fling herself into

the arms of the wretched cub , who would check the exuberance of her affection lest it should provoke her father , and deprive her of the inheritance which he chiefly covets . However , Mr . ' Oidaere soon comes forward with the new revelation that the lost child was not a female , and consequently not Sally Stiggins ; and , after much explanation , it is established that Mr . Mordaunt's son and heir is Meander AA'ilderspoon , who , though circumstances have rendered him somewhat of a scamp , is

gentleman enough to illustrate the advantage of gentle blood , and to marry a certain cousin EUa ( Miss Murray ) . If the audience do not exactly understand the manner in which the change of infants was in the first instance effected it is not for want of pains on the part of Mr . Falconer , who has made his personages talk at amazing length on the subject , " and even informed them that Ellen's young governess Blanche ( Miss Rose

Leelercq ) is really the daughter of Mr . Oidaere . However , let the people talk as they will , the story is wondrously intricate , and when the honest prizefighter manifested his inability to comprehend it , a sympathetic roar from the audience expressed their avowal that they were precisely in the same predicament . This cannot be considered one of Mr . Falconer's best pieces . The part of the story contained in the action is far too slight

in proportion to the vast web of mystery which lies in the remote past , and which has to be taken up and unravelled before the fall of the curtain . Hence there is too much talk on matters about which the audience do not greatly care , and this may judiciously be abridged . But , in spite of faults of construction , which render it the very reverse of a drama adapted from the French , it contains elements which are congenial to a

large portion of the London public , and by the employment of which Mr . Falconer has often attained success . His sentiments are always intelligible to the masses , and though on this occasion the general moral of his play would seem rather to be addressed to the favoured few than to the many , his aristocracy has a popular ring about it which makes it sound very like his democracy of former times . Then the charactersif not

-, par ticularly novel , ar marked with outlines which everybody can understand . The voluble gentleman , volubly played by Mr . AValter Lacy ; the sedate , but crafty , housekeeper , represented with all dignity by Mrs . Falconer ; the romantic servant-girl , spiced with the shrieks and starts of Miss C . Saunders ; the odd