Text: C. F. Briggs (?), Literary, Broadway Journal (New York), January 18, 1845, vol. 1, no. 3, pp. 35-36

[page 35:]

The Drama

“OLD HEADS AND YOUNG HEARTS.”

A new Comedy, by the author of “London Assurance,” called “Old Heads and Young Hearts,” is now having a run at our Theatres. It was popular in London, after the first night, (when it was not very warmly received,) and of course is popular here. The success of a play like this, proves the truth of our views of the state of the stage.

The author of “Old Heads and Young Hearts,” may be presumed to know something about London society, and his representations of its phases should have some degree of vraisemblance. But if this Comedy represents any class of the English, it must be some one that is not composed of human beings. Even Earls and Countesses may be presumed to have some affinity with human nature, but the Earl of Pompion and his Countess are not even caricatures of any humanity that we have any knowledge of. There is a good deal of very lively dialogue, and one or two smart things, but not a particle of wit in the whole piece. All the characters say good things, without any reference to their appropriateness, and stand apart from each other without possessing any individuality. The most amusing character in the piece is a spaniel, who acts his part very naturally, and causes a good deal of merriment. The other actors should take a hint front the applause bestowed on his modest performance.

The first act opens with Littleton Coke, Esq., one of the legitimate rake-scrapes of the English stage, at his breakfast-table, in a Chintz morning gown. His valet is sitting on a stool, and Mr. Coke rises from his seat and lets us into some of the particulars of his good-for-nothing history, framed after the model of Charles Surface. Presently, Lord Charles Roebuck, son of the Earl of Pompion, comes in and informs him that his father has sent for him to marry his cousin, Lady Alice Hawthorn, and to stand for Closeborough, at the next election, but that lie had fallen in love with Miss Kate Rocket, and begged that his friend would have the goodness to marry Lady Alice and go into parliament, in his stead. Mr. Coke is delighted at the proposition, as he is head over heels in debt, and Lady Alice has a fortune of five thousand a year. While they are conversing his servant informs him that a bailiff and one of his creditors are at the door, upon which the two young men run off, and leave the valet to arrange matters with the harpies and body-snatchers, as he calls honest men who ask for their belongings. The bailiff and the creditor come in, and they prove to be a venerable clergyman, Jesse Rural, with long white hair, and Thomas Coke, Esq., M.P., the brother of the spendthrift Littleton. The valet, who has been pretty well used to bailiffs and tradesmen, never discovers from the appearance of these gentlemen, that they are not the persons he takes them for, and when they inquire for his master, salutes them with a torrent of vulgar abuse, which no bailiff even would take from a flunkey, or any body else. The two gentlemen, however, walk off with themselves, without demanding any explanation, and presently meet Littleton Coke, Esl. at the house of the Earl of Pompion, where all the dramatis persona’ are assembled, and where the most remarkable scenes occur — infinitely more gross and unnatural than any thing in Mr. Cooper's “Monnikins.”

The Countess of Pompion, when she first meets her son, after his long absence from abroad, sits caressing her lapdog; and without either rising to salute him, or showing the smallest mark of pleasure, asks him whether he has [page 36:] brought her any eau de Cologne, which must be a very great rarity with a Countess, and hopes he still uses the perfume des milles fleurs. As soon as she goes out, he and his cousin, Lady Alice, begin to make fun of her. Littleton Coke falls in love with Lady Alice; so does his brother. She, however, only falls in love with Littleton, but flirts with Tom, who loves her to desperation, until the last scene, when he not only suddenly resigns her to his brother, but also resigns the bulk of his property to him, when a reconciliation takes place between them, which no entreaties on the part of Tom and his friends could effect before. Jesse Rural is the friend of the Coke's, but he does nothing but laugh, and get them into scrapes, and go into hysterics. A double elopement takes place, for no earthly purpose, and Lord Charles Roebuck — Charley, as they call him — cheats his father, by getting his friend returned for Closeborough, through his valet, Bob, who imposes himself in his assumed character upon the Earl, who not seeing through the very gross deception, makes a confession to him, for which there is not the slightest need, that he has a natural son, named Robert; and then the valet passes off Lord Charles in the disguise of a groom, upon his father, for this natural son, whom he had not seen for fifteen years. In the end the Valet himself proves to be the earl's son. There is an E. I. Colonel, the father of Kate Rockett, who salutes everybody in military style, and is so grossly ignorant, that he has never heard of the Battle of Hastings. Lady Alice does a thousand things that no woman, not even an abandoned one, could be guilty of; and the Earl of Pompion, Secretary of State for the Home department, is hardly a degree better than an idiot, while his son Lord Charles, is more vulgar than any tallow chandler's son possibly could be, who had enjoyed the privilege of waiting upon his father's customers. The whole piece is such a conglomeration of absurdities, that criticism would be degraded by dissecting it. It is put upon the stage with a good many modern refinements, which must give the vulgar very strange notions of high life. In the Earl of Pompion's drawing room the furniture is all burnished gold. It would take more bullion than the bank of England could furnish to make such a magnificent set out. The floor is covered with a real carpet, and no mistake, and the chandelier is real tin. In the last scene, which is laid in a tropical country, with a view of St. Paul's in the distance, Lady Alice and Miis Rockett came in after their elopement in their opera dresses, accompanied by the Countess of Pompion in a winter hat, a muff and boa. Although the drawing room is covered with a real carpet, the lawn in front of the tropical summer-house is composed of boards.

Old Heads and Young Hearts is no doubt intended for a representation of high life, and considered as such might be popular with two classes in London; those who have an itching to become acquainted with the manner in which Lords spend their time, and those who love to see the habits of the higher orders ridiculed. But there are no such classes here, and we can only account for the popularity of this piece, by attributing it to the degraded standard of dramatic taste existing in the community.

We saw this performance at the Park Theatre, where it was doubtless as well done as it could have been at either of our Theatres. Mr. Crisp, who personated Littleton Coke, is a rather slight, gentlemanly-looking person, who can hardly be classed with good actors, but he was good enough for his part. Mr. Barry, who always looks and speaks like a gentleman with some grave affair on his hands, represented the brother — a kind of Joseph Surface, without his hypocrisy — in a commendable manner; and Mr. Chippendale did his part, Jesse Rursl, with his usual neatness [column 2:] and finish, — perhaps he overdid it a little, and laughed a little too much. But the acting was all well enough; Garrick himself could have made nothing out of such a farrago of nonsense. The play has a moral, of course, which is identical with the majority of stage morals, viz.: That the most worthless conduct will always be rewarded by a great fortune and a beautiful wife. There are two marriages at the end, for no other reason than that the last act has been reached. The parties might as well have been married in the first act, and have saved all the subsequent trouble.