Punch: Punch (76.1879)

190 PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHAEIVAEI. [April 26, 1879.

THE EGYPTIAN QUESTION.

Pat (ivJw has come to London with a view to emigrate). " Sure, I've come about that
Situation ye 're advertisin' ! '"

Newsvendor. ""What Situation d'you mean?"

Pat {pointing to poster). "It's this wonn in AGYPr I'm afther ! "

Newsvendor. " Pooh ! That's on the state of Affairs-"

Pat. " Divil a Ha'porth I care whose Estate It's on! Bedad, I'll take it!"

SHAKSPEAEE AT STEATEOED-ON-AVON.

"Wednesday of this week is the Saint's day of St. George, which is also the birthday of
Shakspeare. On this day, sacred to England's chief of Saints and first of men, will be first
put to use in Shakspeare's Stratford-on-Avon—that remote and rustic little town in the Mid-
lands, which owes all its interest to the house in which Shakspeare was born, and the
grave in which he is buried—the new building in which it is sought to commemorate, in a
form more permanent than Jubilee or Tercentenary boards and canvas, the most memorable
work ever wrought by mortal brain—the work done between the birthplace and the grave
which make Stratford-on-Avon a place of pilgrimage for the English-speaking world. Mainly
by strenuous local labour and large local liberality there has been built, and this week

will be opened, in Stratford, a Theatre,
though not large, not unsuited, as regards
elegance and convenience, for presentation
of the plays of Stratford's great son.
A series of these plays, including Hamlet,
Much Ado about Nothing, and As You
Like Lt, with a recital of the Tempest and
a Concert of Shakspearian music, will be
given in the new theatre between the 23rd
of April and the 3rd of May. Miss Helen
Faucit and Miss Wallis, Mr. Barry Sul-
livan and Mr. Brandram, among others,
will give their services for acting and read-
ing ; Mesdames Arabella G-oddard and An-
toinette Sterling, Mrs. Osgood, MIssMary
Chatterton, Miss Kate Field, Sir Julius
Benedict, Messrs. Santley, W. Shakspere,
Cummings, and Cowen, for music and song.

England is invited to assist at this fes-
tival of her greatest poet. Unluckily,
England, always very busy, is just now
very low in heart and pocket, and very
little in the mood for inaugurating anything
but unwelcome economies, and tardy re-
pentances. However, we hope she will still
find a public for the inauguration of the
Shakspeare Theatre in Shakspeare's native
town. The Theatre is to be associated, in
due time, with a Library, a Gallery, and
a Museum—in which the books, pictures,
and other objects of interest shall have, as
a right, first and chief reference to the im-
mortal William. There are designs, too,
which many will call dreamy, and more,
over-ambitious, of a Dramatic School to be
associated with the Theatre. Whatever may
come of these hopes and projects, the Theatre
is a fact, and the £12,000 that have been
spent on it, are a fact also. Both of these
facts have chiefly to thank for their achieve-
ment the scions of the same good stock,
which bore the heaviest burden of all that
was done in honour of Shakspeare at the
Tercentenary Festival, and which links the
name of Flower with more good works,
local and Imperial, than Punch has here
room or need to catalogue.

The name is one of sweet savour; and the
works of the venerable head of the family
that bears it are of the kind that, after he
is gone, will—

" Smell sweet, and blossom, in the dust."

Among these titles to respect he and his
have a right to reckon the enthusiasm—the
religio loci—which has taken form in the
Shakspeare Theatre this week inaugurated
at Stratford-on-Avon.

Everybody can give the best reasons why
nothing of the kind should have been at-
tempted, and why nothing of the kind that
may have been attempted and done can ever
be of the slightest use. Punch may have
something to say on these topics hereafter.

The point with the House of Flower,
and their friends and fellow-labourers, was
to get the thing done. That they have
achieved so much already is greatly to
their credit. That they may carry out all
they contemplate for the study, illustra-
tion, and honour of Shakspeare, in the
quiet town in which he was born, and
where he closed his days, should be
the wish of the myriads who, in their
several ways, find their highest and
most profitable pleasure in Shakspeare's
work. If they carry their good wishes fur-
ther than the Avishing stage to substantial
help, so much the better. Twelve thousand
pounds have been raised and spent; twenty
thousand pounds are asked for, to complete
the group of buildings, of which the Theatre
is to be the centre. Good use, they may
rely upon it, will be found for every pound
with which they think fit to entrust the
Messrs. Flower and their fellow-workers.