"THE LIBRARIAN."

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XXII, Issue 7178, 2 June 1885, Page 3

"THE LIBRARIAN."

This famous comedy will be placec upon the stage for the first time ir Napier by Messrs Macmabon am Leitch'a admirable compauy on Wednes day ana Thursday evenings, after tin immensely successful " Silver King,' Mr George Leitch will appear in hi great character of the Bey. Eober i . . -

Sparerib. It is a translation from the German of Von Moser's " Der Bibliotheker," which for more than 18 months past, under the title of "The Private Secretary," has nightly held the boards of the Princoss Theatre, London, where it has scored the greatest success achieved by any comedy for many years past. During the continuance of the " Healtheriea" Exhibition, which proved such a disastrous counter-attraction to the London theatres of late, and which called forth such a storm of indignation from the London managers, the theatre at which " The Private Secretary" is still being played was the only one which turned people away from its doors— a fact which testifies more than words to its great popularity. Mr Gilbert in his

" Bab "est mood, never conceived a more ridiculous type of the clerical milksop than Mr Leitch's curate, whose principal care ia the safety of his bandbox, and whi se mental character is as soft as his goloshes. Tho effeminate, semi-idiotic, yet wpakly cunning expression ; the slurring sibilants and little silly phrases; the meek interrogation, "Do yew know," and "If I only had a bun ;" the mildly irritating influenza ; the hopeless bewilderment aud impossible innocence of this rus'ic Sitnon Pare, with his horror of London and his odd mixture of confiding simplicity and timid suspicion, are all described as impayable ; while the unconscious humor imparted to his j song, " The Good Young Man who Died," is said to be convulsing. The impersonation is at once so natural and so supremely absurd that while one says, "an impossible creation," one feels aa if the Rev. Robert Sparerib were an old friend. A London contemporary remarks: "Rarely has the value of trifling accessories bean more clearly shown than in the impersonation of this mild curate. The white handkerchief rolled into a ball, the blue ribbon, the Bath bun and orange, the umbrella in an oilskin-case, and, above all, the goloshes, are items which are inseparably bound up with our recollections of the character, The point of this satire is ita element of truth, and none enjoy the discomfiture of the typical clerical ass more keenly than his more intelligent brethren of the cloth, of whom numbers (and many of them high dignitaries of the Church) are nightly to be seen in the stalls of the Princsaa Theatre.