Punch (12.1847)

138

Ostler. " Please to take 'jm gently ovfii the Wood-pavement, sih; for he

THE PROVINCIAL BISHOP.

Our friend the M vesical World is
in a state of weekly excitement about
the progress of La Bishop—as he
artistically calls her—in the pro-
vinces. We are told that such was
the enthusiasm on her last appear-
ance in Edinburgh, that the audience
began pulling out their pencils and
writing on slips of paper, which were
sent round to the stage door, re-
questing the performance of various
morceaux in addition to those in the
programme. Why the dilettanti pre-
ferred writing instead of speaking out,
and calling for That they Avanted, our
musical friend has not informed us ;
but La Bishop, in the most obliging
manner, consented not only to sing the
morceaux requested, but to sing them
every one in character. When the
rondo finale from L'Eiisir d''Amove was
requested, by a slip sent round from
the slips, La Bishop came forward in
a few minutes, dressed in the costume
of Aelina, and the tenor aided her
amiability by appearing with her
dressed as Nemorino, though he had
not a note of music to deliver. Such
amiability was never heard of before,
either in or out of any theatre in
Europe. It is strange that with all
the enormous attraction of La Bishop
everywhere out of London, the mana-
ger of Drury Lane should have been
so self-denying as to exclaim, NoloEpis-
copaH, '*I will have no more Bishop !"

ETHIOPIAN FASHIONS,

been in the morning. There is every reason to expect, that, in the
course of the ensuing season, we shall have " a grand Ethiopian ballet,"
in which Taglioni will appear as Lucy Neal, while the renowned
Venapra, the 0. Smith of the Opera, will be called upon to "get out
of the way," as the representative of " Old Dan Tucker"

We have on previous occasions called attention to the Ethiopian
mania, but have not yet succeeded in checking it. Ethiopians are to
be found in every quarter of the town and every corner of the kingdom;
for a pennyworth of bones and a banjo, a ha'porth of soot, and an ounce
of suet, will set up a party of four, without further outlay

Some of these Ethiopians, after sur-
reptitiously holding themselves out as
blacks, and colouring their fingers and
their faces, cannot be expected to come
out with clean hands, though when they
practise the imposition of calling them-
selves the Original Ethiopians, they are
little better, notwithstanding all their
manual nigritude, than light-fingered
gentry. It must be admitted that the
public has not dealt out its patronage
with a niggard hand to these niggered
melodists. We shall not be surprised if
the rage for Ethiopian blackness extends
to the occupants of the boxes as well as
to the performers on the stage, and we
shall expect to see Ethiopian head-
dresses, and Ethiopian masks for the
upper part of the face, becoming popular
as the

The Ethiopian mania has had a wonderful effect upon the blacking
market, and Warren's jet has gone up half a sixteenth in the market;
while Day left off in the afternoon several shades better than it had

costume du soih.

He haw I He taw !

Colonel Sibthorpe tells us that it takes three years to make a
good dragoon. We wonder how many it takes to make a good merrfjer
of Parliament; but we forget that the perfection of the latter depend*
not so much upon the number of years as the length of them.

THE ABSENT ONE.

If it be true that absence makes you all the fonder of a person, how
desperately in love the electors of Westminster must be with Mr.
Leader.