The Drama and the times.
--The New York Express, speaking of the performance of Damon and Pythias by Forrest Wednesday night, alludes to the eager way in which every portion of the play which could be construed as alluding in the most distant manner to national politics was seized upon by the audience, while special parts provoked continuous bursts of applause. This was the case with "Damon's" passionate burst — capitally rendered by Forrest.-- ‘ "I blush to look around and call you men.What, with your own free, willing hands, yield up
The fabric of your Constitution?"
and also with his fleece cry of sorrow--
"Oh! all ye Gods! my country! Oh! my country."
We may also cite the rapturous plaudits which succeeded to--
"Death's the best gift to one that never yet
Wished to survive his country."
’ But were we to except all the passages which struck on the key-note of popular feeling at the present moment, we might take twenty or thirty, and the very popular feeling which is so keenly alive to politics makes this unnecessary, demanding briefer criticism, while it asks for lengthier reports and leaders at the hands of the journalist. We will consequently allude to one more passage only as a purely histrionic excellence. This was in the same scene from which we have taken the preceding quotations — that in the Senate House: ‘ "But no! I will not rail, nor chide, nor curse ye. I will impressed you fellow-countrymen! With blinded eyes and weak and broken speech, I will improve you."
’ These lines were uttered with a soulful supplication which we have rarely been impressed with upon the stage, and richly deserved the applause which followed them.
