Punch (61.1871)

December 9, 1871.] PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI.

239

MIXED PICKLES.

Domestic (in terrified accents). "0, Mum, here's Master Plantag'n't, 'M, has been and Broke his Gkan'pa's Ink-Bottle

in the lib'ART, and cut his FlNGER dreadful, 'M ! ! "

Grandmamma1's Darling (gleefully alluding to his Nasal Organ). " And got a Marble up by Doze, Gra'dba' ! ! "

EVENINGS FROM HOME.

At the Lyceum.—The thanks of all really interested in the wel-
fare of Dramatic Art in this country—which means a somewhat
wider circle than is comprehended in the phrase, " the play-going:
public "—are due to Mr. Bateman, not merely for having produced
Le Juif Polonais with a completeness which leaves scarcely anything
to he desired, but for having afforded Mb. H. Irving an opportunity
for the partial development of a tragic power for which few, even
among those who are carefully watching the dramatic world for the
" coming man," would have given him credit.

The Bells, a good, honest, literal translation, not in any sense an
adaptation, of the French original, remains, what MM. Erckmann-
Chatrian intended it to he, " une simple etude dramatique ecrite
sans aucune preoccupation du theatre.1'' Emphatically a dramatic
study, and not a drama, it places before us the sketch of a picture,
where one figure alone is the centre of attraction, and all else in
it are but accessories. The burden thus laid upon an actor's
shoulders is indeed heavy to bear, especially as the most interesting
part of the action has to be performed in a cramped space, behind a
gauze, and under the peculiarly vulgarising influence of the
essentially theatrical lime-light.

The highest praise that can be awarded to Mr. Irving is, that the
spectators experience a sense of relief when the curtain descends
upon the last Act of this nightmare play, and though the end only
introduces them to the beginning of fresh sorrows, by showing the
awfully sudden death of a father upon the very morning of his
daughter's wedding, yet the genuine applause which calls Mr.
Irving to the front, testifies their thorough recognition of the
actor's merit. The scenery and the characteristic costumes are
perfect, while the composition and the arrangement of the Alsatian

which, for the sake of Actor and Manager, we hope will evoke a
favourable response. Yet, if so, what will be the probable result ?
Imitation in the same line. After the first Sensation Drama in the
West End, the theatrical market was glutted with sensations.
Shall we be deluged with horrors ? Are we to have Authors and
Managers saying to the public, like the Fat Boy in Pickwick to old
Mrs. War die, "I wants to make your fiesh^ creep." Perhaps so.
Let us not anticipate. Apropos, Pickwick finishes the entertain-
ment at the Lyceum. Mr. Irving plays Jingle. This, after llathais,
is an incongruity. It looks like Kean "afterwards Clown." We
hear that some one else is to take this part in future ; perhaps the
change has already been made. In any case we prefer to see Mr.
Irving play the Bells without the Jingle.

THE FUTURE OF FRANCE AND ENGLAND.

0 France, in future, wise as we

By sore experience grown,
Strive but to keep your own self free,

Your neighbours leave alone.

Mankind example let us give,

And Woman also, France ;
We '11 teach the Nations how to live:

You teach them how to dance.

Non Possumus.

In replying to an address presented the other day by certain
visitors, the Pope is said to have "protested against all idea of
music reflect the greatest credit upon M. Singla, of the Cluny coming to an understanding with Italy." Very likely. If his Holi-
Theatre, where, in the summer of '69, this piece was first produced, ness be infallible in defining unintelligible dogmas, it is therefore
Whether, with an English public, a dramatic study with so har- all the more out of his way to come to an understanding with
rowing a termination will prove a lasting success, is a question anybody.