THE HUMOROUS LIEUTENANT
The Examiner.
January 26, 1817.
The Humorous Lieutenant, brought out on Saturday week at Covent-Garden, is a bad alteration from one of the most indifferent of Beaumont and Fletcher’s plays. It went off very ill, and was as fairly damned as any thing at Covent-Garden could be. They have some jus theatricum here, which saves things and carries off appearances. So the play has been brought forward again, and its first failure attributed to the failure of the actress who played the part of Celia. That was certainly a failure, and an unexpected one; for the lady’s accomplishments and attractions had been much spoken of, and perhaps justly. Of her talents for the stage, we shall say nothing; for we cannot say a word or syllable in their favour. Nor shall we say any thing against ‘The Humorous Lieutenant:’ for it passes under the name of Beaumont and Fletcher, ‘whose utmost skirts of glory we behold gladly, and far off their steps adore:’ and indeed it is at an immeasurable distance, and by a prodigious stretch of faith, that we see them at all in the Covent-Garden refaccimento. Mr. Liston plays the heroic Lieutenant in it; but we shall live to see him in the mock-heroic again!