Event Comment: "[In
Pizarro] the effeminacy of
Alonzo's dress, better adopted for a ball-room than for scenes of warfare; the magnificence of the
Spanish dungeon, in a country where the Spanish invaders were fain to put up with tents for their own accomodation; the vile manner in which the scene is bungled together, where
Cora leaves her infant child to the fury of the pitiless storm, whilst a hut stands most invitingly in sight; the absurd introduction of Cora's song to the accompaniment of thunder and lightning--but, above all, the disgraceful additions made by
Mr Sheridan himself, with the farcical termination of this sublime tragedy, by an
Irish howl over the dead body of
Rolla;--all these glaring defects, sufficient to damn any writer of less notoriety than Sheridan, still continue to outrage good-sense, and the feelings of every spectator of taste and discernment...We are firmly of opinion that the c
rowded houses this play still continues to draw are principally to be attributed to the masterly acting of the elder
Kemble" (
Dramatic Censor, I, 23-24). Receipts: #429 9s. (388.1; 40.1; 1.7)