Punch (7.1844)

PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI.

125

I not to counsel the said town—or those members of it who delight in
onw TO r i vp nv vivp hwttttMPS \ WFFK I the glories of a good play well acted—to make a pilgrimage towards
hu\. iU LIVJS ON MiNh brilLJ.l.Mjb A Wt^iV merry Islington, made all the merrier by the high entertainment
vert man's income is limited more or less ; and he \ now proffered to all comers. Assuredly it is a pleasant, reproof to
must limit his expenditure accordingly. Thus, he may [ those despairing folks who sighed over the hopeless condition of
be forced to content himself with a house of a rent not; the Drama, to witness its robust vitality at Sadler's Wells. Shak-
exceeding two thousand a year, with no greater number spere may have been banished from Drury Lane and Covent Garden j
of servants than a dozen, with six horses and no more ; but then he has found the snuggest asylum near the New Sivar,
with but two carriages ; with turtle, venison, eham- j There, at nights, is he heard in all the might of his passion and the
pagne, and burgundy, only now and then; with a ' tenderness of his thouglits,—and there, in sweetest, laziest mood, is
middling box at the opera, and so on. I he sometimes to be seen, fishing for what Charles Lamb called

Nine shillings a week is a decidedly limited income. To live upon it a
man must first cut down his expenditure to the fewest possible branches,
and secondly apply the closest shaving to each. They can hardly be
reduced below three : food, clothes, and lodging ; but if anybody could do
without one of these, the difficulty would be much simplified. As to
lodging. The cheapest to be had "must be chosen : the more unpleasant
the situation the better, as the rent will then be more reasonable. A road-
side hovel, or a ruinous old house up a court, may be recommended. A
single room, however small, must suffice for a whole family, however
large. Chairs, tables, bedsteads, and other moveables, may be dispensed
with ; the entire furniture should consist of a few blankets and some
straw ; and the blankets ought to be begged. Coals and candles are too
expensive ; and it is extravagant to have any fire at all, except to cook a
few potatoes, or to avoid being frozen to death.

With regard to clothes. These must be obtained, if possible, through
charity : there is another way of getting them, which it would be hardly
l ight to hint at, By a proper economy they may be made to last till they
fall to pieces, which they will not altogether do for years. If it is neces-
sary to buy clothes, they must be bought ; but the purchase should only
include inilispensables. Shirts and stockings are superfluities ; and the
younger children may always, and the whole family at times, manage to
do without shoes. Food must be confined, in general, to bread and
potatoes ; but perhaps, with management, a little bacon may be indulged
in now and then. It will be out of the question to think of any other
drink than the plain water ; and tea and sugar are luxuries not to be
dreamt of.

By following the above rules it is perhaps possible to live honestly on
nine shillings a week, with a wife aDd family. Medical attendance is out
of the question. What are called comforts must be considered unattain-
able ; for any man, even though starving and perishing, to help himself to
a meal, a handful of wood, or anything of the kind, is highly immoral ;
the law respects not persons but property, and severely visits such
wickedness.

Wbi §im girts fa jfraiur.

We understand that it is at length decided what are to be the subjects
cf the two pictures for which vacancies have been left on the walls of the
French Chamber of Deputies. The first will be a magnificent and highly
imaginative representation of the Prince de Joi.wille in the Belle Poule,
towing the town and castle of Dover into Boulogne harbour ; while the
second will exhibit the same hero storming: Windsor Castle, and receiving
the keys of the Round Tower from the five military knights who had been
defending it.

SHAKSPERE AT SADLER'S WELLS.

It is a fact not so generally known as it ought to be, that when the
Shaksperian monopoly was destroyed by Act of Parliament, several

" legendary gudgeons," for our artist assures us that the above is a
correct likeness of the immortal Master William, as he appeared
to his spiritual eye, last Monday.

Accident to the Liberator.

When all the preparations were made to liberate O'Connell, it was

,i • ,___k__„ r ii „ ____/ - , . .. ', , discovered to be impossible for the martyr to quit the prison by the same

ot the ancient members oi the profession—the champions of the eood 1 n_ x i * j mi * ^ ■ 1 * i iV 1 j- ..

, , ,. . . . , V , & : door that he entered it. The truth is, he had become so enormously fat,

old times—went into aeep mourning for the death of the legitimate

drama. Two or three took to their beds, had their knockers tied

up, and straw laid before their doo««. Chahi.es Kemble made a

manful fight for it; and, as a last piece of devotion to the moribund
Shakstere, read him "a little compressed." Mr. Bunn took
refuge from his sorrows in the blandishments and endearments of
ballet and opera, and at length consented to be comforted. Now,
Mrs. Warner and Mr. Phelps did better than all; for, full of
hope, they took Sadler's Wells Theatre, and, to the edification and
amusement of thronging audiences, have for weeks past been playing
Shakspere, Beaumont and Fletcher, Sheridan, and such
folks, who—it was sorrowingly predicted—had been destroyed for
ever and for ever by a recent statute ! It is not often that Punch
visits a theatre. Sooth to say, he has had but few temptations; but he
has been to Sadler's Wells of late, and has seen plays so excellently
put upon the stage—has beheld an audience so possessed and delighted
by Uie admirable acting of the scene,— that he would be false to
himself and to the town (whose guide, philosopher, and friend he is),

in consequence of the culinary presents of a grateful people, that anothei-
opening had to be made in the walls before he could wend his way to
Merrion-square. This circumstance is not generally known ; but those
who recollect—and who does not I—our portrait of O'Connell in his
captivity, cannot for a moment doubt it.

an alderman wanted.

The ward of Billingsgate will want an Alderman. May we beg to
recommend a certain law lord, whose peculiar knowledge of the language
of the district renders him singularly worthy of the gown.

Early Hours.

The movement for the early closing of all places of trade is gaining
strength. That two or three publishers may be shut up very early,
the author of The Great Metropolis has resolved to write books for
them.