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“MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING,” AT THE NEW ADELPHI THEATRE.

All London playgoers who can appreciate a most Intelligent, graceful, and refined performance of the most brilliant of Shakespeare's heroines should take the opportunity of seeing Miss Kate Terry's Beatrice. She played the part for the first time in London for her benefit on Wednesday, and, it is to be hoped, will repeat it during the brief period she remains before the London public. There has been no such performance of the part within recent memory. The character is one which, by dint of its very brilliancy, is apt, in any but very delicate hands, to become hard and unlovely. Miss Terry, without sacrificing a single flash of wit, or missing one point of arch gibing humour, is so feminine in look and bearing, and gives such force to the outbursts of womanly sympathy which Shakespeare has so skilfully interwoven with the character, that she makes Beatrice one of the most winning of Shakespeare's women as well as the most brilliant.

In these days, when a thorough assumption of an imaginative part is one of the rarest of English stage enjoyments, the mere completeness of Miss Terry's conception and execution of a character making such demands on the intelligence of the actress as that of Beatrice, would entitle it to critical notice; but when to finish are added consummate grace, unfailing vivacity, and the most winning charm of womanliness—criticism must take its pleasantest form—of deserved and hearty praise.

Miss Terry's Beatrice is not only bright, animated, and full of spirit, it is throughout delightful—whether in the saucy mock contempt of her first inquiry after Benedick (the nickname of Signor Montanto), in the defiant triumph with which he plays his part in the keen encounter of wits when the well-matched pair actually meet; in the varying expression with which, crouching like a lapwing in the pleached arbour, she listens to Hero's and Margaret's tale of Benedick's love for her; in the musical sweetness with which she delivers the exquisite lines in which Shakespeare has clothed her recantation of scorn and confession of love, beginning, “What fire is in mine eyes!” and in the passionate earnestness of the embrace with which she strains the wronged Hero to her heart, and the generous indignation with which she wishes she were a man, to kill her cousin's wronger. Strange to say, she did not seem unfeminine even when she uttered the savage wish, “Would I could eat his heart in the market-place!”

Purists may, perhaps, take exception to her recall of Benedick at the end of this scene, with a “kiss my hand again,” and a repetition of the injunction to “kill Claudio.” This is, at least, superfluous, though it brings the scene to a very effective close. But, bating this small point of excess, we observed no departure from the poet's text, and nowhere was the actress untrue to her conception of the part, or exaggerated in her impersonation. The charm of the woman asserted itself throughout, but without forcing, and the grace and ease of movement bore witness to the value of that long experience of the stage which, not having extinguished feeling for nature, or right reverence for art, in this case, has borne only the good fruit of perfect command over look and limb.

We can remember no such Beatrice, and we and find it difficult to conceive a better.

This is strong language, but it is not more strong than just. When so much enthusiasm is lavished on the acting of the operatic drama it seems a duty to speak out as heartily as the critic's judgment warrants in praise of one of the most accomplished English actresses that have graced the stage in our time, and who is leaving it when she can least be spared. Miss Terry will, we believe, only perform in London till the end of August; but before she takes leave of the stage we hope she may have an opportunity of adding Rosalind and Juliet to her list of Shakespearian parts, which, besides Prince Arthur and other childish parts, Cordelia and Ariel, played under Mr. Kean's management of the Priness's, includes at present only Ophelia, Viola, and Beatrice.

Taken along with Dora and Pauline, this last and most elaborate impersonation of Miss Terry's gives an opportunity, rare in these days of long runs, of studying the actress in three most distinct and individual assumptions of character. In each Miss Terry presents us with a complete whole, determined by a conception which extends to every point of movement, bearing, and expression. Three more thoroughly finished or graceful pictures of womanhood under different conditions and situation and character have never been presented by any actress of our time.

Of the performance of Much Ado About Nothing as a whole at the New Adelphi it is unnecessary to say much. Elaborate care in the mounting of the piece was hardly to be looked for in the case of a performance not expected to run for many nights. Nor is the Adelphi Company particularly fitted for such work as the acting of Shakespeare's comedies; but Mr. H. Neville's Benedick, considered as an embodiment of a rough and soldierly conception of the character, had much spirit and vivacity, and as a first performance of the part was entitled to high praise.

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Longer familiarity with the character will, no doubt, bring out a fuller expression of its subtler and more refined elements. Mr. Clark's Dogberry and Mr. C. J. Smith's Verges were both excellent, the former reminding us of Keeley, in the density of his obtuseness and the imperturbability of his self-conceit. A débutante, Miss Maxse, made a most favourable impression in the part of Hero, which is cruelly cut down in the acting play. She showed both intelligence, earnestness, and refinement, and has all the necessary advantages of face and figure for the part. In the Little Treasure, which on Wednesday followed Much Ado About Nothing, the part of Captain Walter Maydenblushe was admirably acted by Mr. H. Neville, and that of Gertrude, by Mr. Watts (late Miss Ellen Terry), with a combination of girlish grace, gaiety, abandon, and easy naturalness as delightful as it is rare on our stage. Mrs. Billington showed feeling in the part of Lady Howard, and Mrs. Stofer was very effective in the meddling grandmamma. The house was crowded by a brilliant and distinguished audience.