On this page

• Text (2)

  Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

  • 

    Untitled Article

  • 

    Untitled Article

• Transcript

  • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

    Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.

    Untitled Article

    In the next act you are am 6 ng Les Barnes de la A < zWe--the market women , singing theirfticasste , gay , pert , defianVfull of love-making , matqh-tnaking , wrangling , and sauey goodnature . One of their beauties , " fruiterer toWMajesty , " and cynosure of neighbouring eyes , &c . &c ., — lovely , discreet , and faithful to her wandering husband , who had gone out to seek his fortune in San Domingo , in the midst of her own good fortune receives the news of his death , and next minute recognises him , living , and riding in a carriage as the returned Marquis de Melcy , who has now no eyes for her . - ' '' " * ' ¦ From this point a grave story runs through an incessant variety of gay and brilliant tableaux . Each act discloses to you some scene , admirably minted , and furnished forth with all the completeness for which Yestris

    has so many years been illustrious and unique ; thus you have in succession the house of JPere Bonneau , with Ms real donkey , cart , and stable ; the dazzling saloon in the Hotel de Melcy , all glitter and villany , polished and cruel ; the Marche deslnnocens , where the Bacchantes of the Halle are holding revel in groups at once picturesque and life-like ; the fountain of real water dancing keen and cold in . the shadowy moon-light ; the struggle between the myrmidons of the Bastile and the faithful and stout-armed Syndic , who literally ducks his man in the bubbling and splashing water ; and , finally / the illuminated Cafe of the Fleur deLys , with the Palais Royal , lustrous as Lucifer , discovered through the open casement on the starlight background—where poetical justice is summarily administered to good and bad , and all ends roundly and happily . As a work of art , the scenery ,

    with the stage effect , is , even m these days of , a rare triumph for Mr . William Beverley;—varied , and yet pleasantly harmonious ; every portion made to contribute to the air of wholeness . The animation and gaiety of the " getting up" do not jar with the sentiment of the more stirring story , but rather heighten the effect of the situations , which are very striking . The actors are not the least remarkable part of the picture ; although , as is suited to the season , it is eminently a piece for effects . From the heroine to the obscureBt of the chorus , each fills his place enjoyingly and aids the general action . We must , cast out of the account , however , two " walking gentlemen , " one of whom cannot walk , and the other can do no more . The heroine Was an actress new to the stage , —snatched from imrme " legitimate" experiments ,- —Laura Keene , who is , if not beautiful ,

    snaky and graceful , fresh in manner , and yet endowed , we incline to believe , with much dramatic intention . As the knavish lawyer , Charles Mathe ws wore hisr cunning with a coolness sublime , and invested even the footman ' s livery that he put on in the latter part with a certain heroism of adroit and subtle audacity . Madame Vestris subdues Time , by making him bring to her new powers : as the genial Madame Bonneau , homely but never coarse , giving loose to her grief with the unrestraint of a simple nature , rebuking the artificial lady with natural nobility , Madame Vestris exhibited powers which were concealed by the lighter graces of her earlier years , and which add to unfaded admiration a feeling of deeper respect . " We might name more , but shall be content to recall the bright and fascinating Javotte of Miss Julia St . George , and the reckless , exulting grace , character , abandon , and ( if we may be allowed to use the word without irreverence ) devil , of Eosina Wright ' s Pas de Poissarde , in the

    carnival scene . And the audience sat it all out ? Sat it out ! They clung to the whole story with unflagging interest , revelled in the fine painting , almost encored the shipwreck , were uproarious at the dancing , relished every turn of the elegant and easy villain , and fastened on the situations with a zest worthy of the Boulevard . We do not say that the piece might not be cut here and there with some advantage ; but it is essentially a dramatic story ; acted closely , it is over about eleven o ' clock , and , within a comfortable sitting , contains twice the fare of more varied playbills . In reply to the call of the excited crowd , Charles Mathews announced that the piece was from the French , altered and adapted to the stage of the Lyceum by Mr . Slingsby Lawrence and himself . Z .

    Untitled Article

    HOW COCKAIGNE " KEEPS" EASTER . A citizen of Cockaigne , who has not been to Greenwich Fair , is about as respectable as a dweller in Belgravia , who has never visited the Opera . He is a barbarian , vegetating beyond the pale of civilization , —a pariah among his fellow-cockneys , —a person of no taste , and ostracised by all that is fashionable . But , as most of our readers are in this awful case , let them see what they lose by their abstinence , their ignorance , or their pride , in the following witty article from the Times : —

    " Greenwich , Easter Monday , and King Mob , ruling right noisily from the Hospital to Blackheath . Bitter relentless April weather . As much dust in the air as though the Great Desert were lying just beyond the Trafalgar , and it would not be surprising to see some fine specimens of alligators reposing in the mud below the boat-stairs . People everywhere . People up the river , where it rolls dirtily between eating-houses , wharfs , and dingy street ends . People down the river , whore it rolls still more dirtily botwixt groat banks of warehouses and the Watermen and Gravesond steamers . People on the shores of Poplar , people on

    the heights of London-bridgo ; people m huge puny steamboats , in tiny cockboats , gigs , and wherries ; people in donkey carts ; people sitting on the drivers' laps on omnibuses , or clinging tenaciously to the conductors' legs ; people talking defiantly to the man at the ' wheel , people in the Greenwich trains in every placo but under the engines , people on Onc-treo-hill , -pooplo in pothouses or the carriages they paid for , people treading on the toes of anclont Greenwich pensioners smoking cheerily in the sunshine , people in tho withorod trees , which tho east wind has blighted to budlessness , people everywhoro , but no fun . * # # The- steamers each

    came waddling along from pier to pier to take in more paasongors , being apparently loaded at some remote point up tho Thames by several dozens more than it ought to hold , but still contriving , by some magical compromise between death and hydrostatics , to afford room for a few hundreds or so more at every landing place , Tho omnibuses exhibited their usual elastic properties , —it being a remarkable fact that the police regulations are alwnys rigidly observed whenever the conductor cannot break them , but that when they would bo of the _ smallest use they are treated with a contempt that ought to break the heart of the i ^ ycurgus of Scotland-yard . Elderly gentlemen who remonstrated against having to support

    still more elderly ladies in their laps , and who were embarrassed in getting their money out of their pockets by babies * legs , met with the mild rebuiff from W 10 , ¦« We can't help this here , Sir . Wot ' s the use of bein' so crusty of a Grennid ge Fair ? ' And so omnibuses are made to cany fi ; om 15 to 20 out , and each of the inside passengers was licensed to carry double . As to the Greenwich station , the general effective management which distinguishes the lords of the road was surpassed . The officials seemed to think it the height of facetiotishess when a firstclass passenger objected to sit on the ledge of ft third-class carriage , while the thirdclasses ^—who are , we suppose , the lower-classes— -were certainly- fortunate in establishing their right to travel 'in style' in the sumptuous conveyances intended for the aristocracy of Greenwich and Deptford . Of course , on common days , everything would be arranged with the nicest propriety , and smoking would be

    punished with the rigours of railway law ; but on this day , when alone good regulations were wanted , all the ordinary officers seemed to have gone out for a lark , and to have left several substitutes in the enjoyment of the same at the termini ! Happy the man who got away in a train half an hour after he came to the station ( trains every five minutes ) , and , if popular exclamations are to be relied on as asseverations of facts , a considerable per centage of babies of tough and tender years , and of . young women and matrons , must have expired in the struggles for places For the fair itself , much like other English festivities , the great fun is going to it ; but , oh ! how much greater the fun of getting from it ! As a national institution Greenwich on Easter Monday is becoming more ricketty every year . Whether it is the weather or the rival attractions which spring up ' the pleasant marshes of Battersea or the sweet meads of Victoria Park we know not—we record a fact ; —native British art , which used to

    excel in the moulding and modelling of gingerbread , is on the decline . The melancholy dearth in British natural phenomena which we bewailed some time ago is on the increase . It really should be taken up by some flf our cotemporaries . Why do they not despatch a commissioner to inquire into the effects of free-trade on our native breed of giants ? Where are our Norfolk Enceladi , our Yorkshire Briarei ? What has come over our muttons , beeves , goats , horses , asses , dogs , and poultry , that they never present a single ' unrivalled wonder of the world / but persist in being born with the proper complement of limbs , heads , and bodies ? The Gingerbread-alley looked as fan ? to view as ever , but as we strolled along it was evident invention had ceased in the preparation of that fragile but wholesome ( we presume it must be , else why don't all the children at Greenwich die ?} and corneous provender . There was merely a tame adherence to precedents ;

    the same cocks , hens , generals , and horses as our great-grandfathers had chewed in their boyhood . Algar ' s was there as usual , with that band of determined will and iron spirit , each of whom mighrmake ah emperor , as emperors are made nowa-days . But we missed the curley-haired Queen of the Cannibal Ishinds / There was no giant ! Not one . Still more _ incredible , there was no dwarf ( save those whom gin and tobacco had dwindled" down ^ below the l level of humanity ^ in the passing crowd ) . Passing down Gingerbread-alley , the only . zoological curiosities calculated to excite the leaslremotion in the breast of a member of the society were * a horned cock' ( with horns like a bull ' s ) , but oar pride in it was at once dashed to the ground by reading that it had 'just arrived from Dantsic ; " and a < sand dog' QiaUtat unknown ) , which , according to the affteJie , had « the mouth of a sheep , the breast-bone of a fowl , the shoulder-bone of a man , the claws of an eagle , for nuts

    the web-foot of a duck , and the hind part of a pig . ' The firing was pretty brisk , but not so spirited or effective as we have seen it ; but Richardson was in all his glory ; his band excelled in the virulent intensity of their polkas ; and never was the celebrated cornopean in more force . But again we noted an innovation—even the tragedy has been changed ! So has been the comic song So has been the pantomime ! To be sure there is not much difference , for the gentleman in armour , ' The Bed Ruffian of the Excess / just as he is about to be Uncivil to a lady whom ' the r-r-r-ights of conqu-e-est has made my-en , ' is encountered by the very same ghost who prevented ' Halonzer' from committing some capital crime in the old piece , and is ' der-riven-ah to ' orror and despahhair ! ' by so very unexpected an apparition ; and the dukes are changed into countswhile the other nobles become « barrons / and Himogyeno is altered to

    , ' Halesinar . ' The tragedy is as affecting as ever , and the comic song makes tho drunken sailors cry in the gallery , while the harlequin of the pantomime is , we are happy to say , as plethoric as in his best days . Altogether , Richardson and Algar bear the burden of this part of the fair on their shoulders . Aw reste , there were only two ' up and downs / and not one knock ' emdown;—a solitary booth , in front of which two miserable ill-made and worse-looking ruffians , ' with cadaverous aspects and battered beaks / were parading as « the Derbyshire Gamecock and tho Paddington Pet / open to all comers for 2 d . a-round and 2 d . a visit ; two or three grand < chromtyptic monograph likenesses' and ' daggerotip talboyite processes' for Id . each ; some nut-stalls , a cosmorama of nature and nrt on a very small scaleand that was nil * * * *

    , . „ .. There was , of course , tho customary amount of ' scratching '—the whole fun ot tnc fair for 2 d . ( and very dear it was for the money ) , —which seems to bo the only available mode known to Londoners of scraping an acquaintance on those occasion ^ and it was pretty to soo the good citizens on tho tops of tho hills smash hats am bonnets all in joke with hard apples and volleys of oranges , or roll old ladies an < young women down among tho stones and gravel . The dust was insufferable , ti heat in tho sun was annoying , tho cold in tho shade was still wore so ; an coat

    oven Job might havo lost temper if , under such circumstances , his w « scratched' off his back ; his hat , or its prototype , damaged by whacks of orft " ^ and stony pippins . Certainly soveral foreigners , who had . come abroad to fi > ° l idea of tho marine ™ and customs of tho English , and whoso pockets wore dangi " g gracefully behind their coats turned inside out , seomod not at all to undorstt the wit and humour of the follies of the hour . Blackheath was devoted to cqne ^ fcrian-, asinino , and toxophilitic amusements . Tho cavalry was in great request , a stuffed representative of tho Prince President suffered , severely from arrows , m of which , however , wore in his bo <> t « and cooked hat , —rather a proof of bad ma manship ; wp fear , than friendly feeling . Altogether tho afl ' air was flat and 'i ™ > j to us , but many thousands of people appoared to think otherwise , and , ho long , ^ that is tho case , Greenwich Fair will bo a national institution , and all who oyi

    it bo regarded with propor scorn and contempt by tho masses . " yrown Is not this another Bign that our national amusements have M- d worse than useless—mischievous P And yet , while Greenwich fairs ai almost the only opportunities to tho people for gregarious recreations * aristocratic cricketer , now Chief Commissioner of Works , insists on p » » down tho Crystal Palace ! There is wisdom still in England , certa » j but its local habitation is not called Whitehall . p *

    Untitled Article

    373 T # ^ ¦\ ' \\ - : ' : ; " ^

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), April 17, 1852, page 378, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1931/page/22/