DOI issue:
May 7, 1859
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.16623#0191
May 7, 1859.]
PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI.
183
should accord with the costumes on the stage, and their refreshments
APPLEWOMEN FROM THE ANTIQUE. be in keeping with the period of the piece. When either Coriolanus
| or Cato is revived, some more strictly classic beverage than ginger-
Deab. 1 LTf.™'t^^y°u^ beer should be produced with it. The drinks of the dead languages
should be revived for the occasion. A compound called ' Falernum et
aqua' might be vended, at the price, let us suppose, of two denarii a
glass; or the playgoer might be treated to a taste of the ' Quadrimum,'
such as Thaliarchus was by Horace asked to tap. So, when the
house is crammed to see the Gallic Grandmothers, or any other thrilling
melodrama taken from the French, eau sucree and mouchoirs should be
provided for the boxes, and eau de vie supplied in demi tasses to the
pit. In the samespirit, moreover (though eau de vie would be but
ill replaced by British brandy), when good old English pieces are put
upon the stage, good old English drinks ought to be handed to the
audience. When Richard' Cmcr de Lion or Bluff King Hal appear,
it would be nice to ' crush a cup' of right good hyppocras or mead, so
as to keep still on one's palate the flavour ' of the period,' while, as
soon as the drop falls upon the exit of Sir John Falstaff, the house
ought to resound with the cry of 1 Sherris Sack !' of which the thirsty
playgoer might quaff ' potations pottle deep.'
" It would be tiresome to enumerate the many ways in which this
notion might, I think, be carried out. The system might of course be
applied with equal fitness to viands as to drinks. Indeed I can con-
ceive it might without untruth be advertised, not merely as a ' Novelty!'
but an ' Additional Attraction! !' Eor instance, I can fancy how the
Scotch would cram the house, were it announced in all the newspapers
that haggis and cockaleekie would be nightly handed round for the
refreshment of the audience, in the intervals between the murders in
Macbeth !
" Trusting you will give the world the benefit of my suggestion,
which need by no means be confined to the Sultana's Theatre,
" I remain, Punch, yours, with reverence,
" A British Playgoer."
is the leading journal of
the age, and of course the
fittest mouthpiece for all
valuable suggestions, _ I
must trouble you to give
insertion to a grand idea
of mine, to amend a great
defect in our dramatic
system.
" What the defect is, it
is easy tQ describe. I go,
let us say, to the Sultana's
Theatre. I see there a
standard play (as_ far as re-
gards the acting, it matters
little what), put upon the
stage ' regardless of ex-
pense,' and with all that
close adherence to histori-
cal fidelity for which the
management, we know, is
so conspicuously famous.
Let not iminstructed critics
dare to wonder at the won-
ders which are brought be-
fore their noses. There is
a quotable authority for
whatever is presented. The flyleaf of the playbill, which is in itself a his-
tory, gives the public some idea of the pains taken to please it. Every
book that is readable, and some few dozens that are not, have been ran-
sacked for the customs and the costumes of the ' period,' which it is
intended to ' revive,' or reproduce. The properties are likewise all
' taken from the life '—if that term can be properly applied to things
inanimate. If a battle or a banquet be put upon the stage, the diinkins
our clever young MEN."
" P.S. If the orchestra were dressed in the ' costume of the period,'
it would considerably enhance the musical effect; and were a similar
rule enforced in the dress-boxes and stalls, it would add to the com-
manimate. 11 a battle or a banquet be put upon tne stage, tne ormjang pieteness 0f me general coup d' ceil, and cause great increase of amuse-
cups and weapons are most strictly of the period. ^or 1S. tl:.lls. ru4e ! ment to the ^allery and pit "
observed only in the greater stage accessories. ' Curat de minimis' is j - - . . -
the maxim of the management. Not merely are the infantry, if troops be
introduced, all furnished with the arms and armour ' of the period;'
but if a baby be brought in, a lollipop ' of the period' is given it to suck,
or in case a mediaeval street-boy is produced, a popgun ' of the period5
is revived for his amusement. If a Louis the Eleventh's hunting-whip {See Mr. Gladstone's Speech on the Reform Bill.)
be cracked, or an Elizabethan barmaid or servant girl be kissed, the tcri , „. ■, ,
smack in either case will smack most distinctlv ' of the period.' Nay, _L Oro clever young men, Sir, are always so shy,
supposing a procession or a siege be represented, the notes which are That they shrink from a num rous constituency:
brayed forth by the trumpets 'of the period' are taken, we are told, \ kn°w ™f™ riSht yell and have studied their habits,
from the black letter 'of the period:' and the gunpowder which is £nd how they resort to then- boroughs, like rabbits,
burnt 'smells woundily' of the period, being male, we may depend, From great cities they fly, and those vast vulgar towns,
from some recipe ' of the period,' that we may sniff the 'villanous ^ here the million reside, spinning cotton for gowns;
saltpetre' of the period. I ? \eve low raudic.al .notlons are po-ked m tjiei1r faces'
And sneers about sinecures, pensions, and places;
Where every pert smug msaufacturer prates
Against taxes on knowledge, and rails at Church Bates.
" Can a clever young man, who lias a cousin a peer,
And an uncle a bishop, to such snobs adhere ?
Now this attention to the mise-en-scene is praiseworthy in the
extreme, and I should be the last to either smile or sneer at it. Bilious
critics may contend that the acting of the plays at the Sultana's
Theatre is by no means on a level with the merits of their upgetting,
and may endeavour to persuade me that the poetry of the drama is
there smothered and put out of sight and out of mind by the uphol- Can one solarit up"withlhT&-'ish Constitution
stery. But what care I for critics ? To my eyes the attraction of a Mix with blackguards whose aim is, in brief, Revolution ?
play is m the scenery Gas before genius say I upon the stage; and Can a Pitt, or a Canning (if such be in store
I m sure that the enlightened British Public will agree with me. But To regcue thg Sute) face the Fmsbury roar ?
the defect I have to note at the Sultana s, Sir, is this. The costumes Can their delicate frame bear the brawling and knocks
and appointments on the audience-side the footlights are not at all m Tuat grace the contention 'twist Peto and Cox ?
keeping with those upon the other • and to readily impressible persons ^ nQ j Bu]1 Bright ! Think well o'er it, again,
like myself this absence ot completeness is exceedmgly distressing. | And some snuj? boroughs leave for Our Clever Young Men !
While the play is m performance, ail my senses are wrapt up m what
is passing on the stage, and to such perfection the 'revival' is brought
out, that I imagine myself living in the period presented. Then, Sir,
on a sudden down comes the act-drop, and from the twelfth or
thirteenth century, as the case may be, I am projected at a bound into
the middle of the nineteenth! A horrid cry of ' Happies ! horanges !
lemonade and _ bottled stout!' grates as harshly on my ear as the
summons to a jury; and all my visions of the past are dispelled in
a moment by the presence of an applewoman, whose middle-aged
appearance is the sole link that connects her with the mediaeval era.
" Now, surely Sir, this jar upon one's nerves should be prevented.
Surely, Sir, the Management of the Sultana's Theatre might, when
they let the curtain down, still keep up the illusion, and not allow our
feelings to be trifled with so ruthlessly. So sudden a transition gives
the death-blow to one's sentiment, and destroys the bright imaginings
which one's brain has conjured up. Yet methinks it would be easy to
remedy the evil. It would surely be but little tax upon the treasury,
if half a score of supernumeraries, at a shilling each a-night, were
engaged to undertake the part of audience-refreshers, in the place of
the old applewomen whose presence now afflicts us. Their costumes
THE DOOM OF DANIEL WEBSTER.
In both classical and romantic story, statues are related to have
been occasionally animated. What if the spirit of the Transatlantic
statesman named in the subjoined portion of American intelligence
should be doomed to inhabit the monument erected to bis memory ?
" Ms. Power's bronze statue of Daniel Webster, made for some persons in
Boston, United States, is said to give general dissatisfaction. One writer says, 'It
is a terrible-looking thing, having the appearance of a coloured gentleman who has
run away from his disconsolate master, and in stolen clothes.'"
Fancy a pro-slavery politician obliged to exist, constituting a
public exhibition, in the form of a fugitive coloured gentleman.
Let Dan'l Webster's Statue be a caution to sinners!
The Carlton Dictionary.—The Derbyites have a pretty way of
describing a bribe. They call it " a votive offering."
PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI.
183
should accord with the costumes on the stage, and their refreshments
APPLEWOMEN FROM THE ANTIQUE. be in keeping with the period of the piece. When either Coriolanus
| or Cato is revived, some more strictly classic beverage than ginger-
Deab. 1 LTf.™'t^^y°u^ beer should be produced with it. The drinks of the dead languages
should be revived for the occasion. A compound called ' Falernum et
aqua' might be vended, at the price, let us suppose, of two denarii a
glass; or the playgoer might be treated to a taste of the ' Quadrimum,'
such as Thaliarchus was by Horace asked to tap. So, when the
house is crammed to see the Gallic Grandmothers, or any other thrilling
melodrama taken from the French, eau sucree and mouchoirs should be
provided for the boxes, and eau de vie supplied in demi tasses to the
pit. In the samespirit, moreover (though eau de vie would be but
ill replaced by British brandy), when good old English pieces are put
upon the stage, good old English drinks ought to be handed to the
audience. When Richard' Cmcr de Lion or Bluff King Hal appear,
it would be nice to ' crush a cup' of right good hyppocras or mead, so
as to keep still on one's palate the flavour ' of the period,' while, as
soon as the drop falls upon the exit of Sir John Falstaff, the house
ought to resound with the cry of 1 Sherris Sack !' of which the thirsty
playgoer might quaff ' potations pottle deep.'
" It would be tiresome to enumerate the many ways in which this
notion might, I think, be carried out. The system might of course be
applied with equal fitness to viands as to drinks. Indeed I can con-
ceive it might without untruth be advertised, not merely as a ' Novelty!'
but an ' Additional Attraction! !' Eor instance, I can fancy how the
Scotch would cram the house, were it announced in all the newspapers
that haggis and cockaleekie would be nightly handed round for the
refreshment of the audience, in the intervals between the murders in
Macbeth !
" Trusting you will give the world the benefit of my suggestion,
which need by no means be confined to the Sultana's Theatre,
" I remain, Punch, yours, with reverence,
" A British Playgoer."
is the leading journal of
the age, and of course the
fittest mouthpiece for all
valuable suggestions, _ I
must trouble you to give
insertion to a grand idea
of mine, to amend a great
defect in our dramatic
system.
" What the defect is, it
is easy tQ describe. I go,
let us say, to the Sultana's
Theatre. I see there a
standard play (as_ far as re-
gards the acting, it matters
little what), put upon the
stage ' regardless of ex-
pense,' and with all that
close adherence to histori-
cal fidelity for which the
management, we know, is
so conspicuously famous.
Let not iminstructed critics
dare to wonder at the won-
ders which are brought be-
fore their noses. There is
a quotable authority for
whatever is presented. The flyleaf of the playbill, which is in itself a his-
tory, gives the public some idea of the pains taken to please it. Every
book that is readable, and some few dozens that are not, have been ran-
sacked for the customs and the costumes of the ' period,' which it is
intended to ' revive,' or reproduce. The properties are likewise all
' taken from the life '—if that term can be properly applied to things
inanimate. If a battle or a banquet be put upon the stage, the diinkins
our clever young MEN."
" P.S. If the orchestra were dressed in the ' costume of the period,'
it would considerably enhance the musical effect; and were a similar
rule enforced in the dress-boxes and stalls, it would add to the com-
manimate. 11 a battle or a banquet be put upon tne stage, tne ormjang pieteness 0f me general coup d' ceil, and cause great increase of amuse-
cups and weapons are most strictly of the period. ^or 1S. tl:.lls. ru4e ! ment to the ^allery and pit "
observed only in the greater stage accessories. ' Curat de minimis' is j - - . . -
the maxim of the management. Not merely are the infantry, if troops be
introduced, all furnished with the arms and armour ' of the period;'
but if a baby be brought in, a lollipop ' of the period' is given it to suck,
or in case a mediaeval street-boy is produced, a popgun ' of the period5
is revived for his amusement. If a Louis the Eleventh's hunting-whip {See Mr. Gladstone's Speech on the Reform Bill.)
be cracked, or an Elizabethan barmaid or servant girl be kissed, the tcri , „. ■, ,
smack in either case will smack most distinctlv ' of the period.' Nay, _L Oro clever young men, Sir, are always so shy,
supposing a procession or a siege be represented, the notes which are That they shrink from a num rous constituency:
brayed forth by the trumpets 'of the period' are taken, we are told, \ kn°w ™f™ riSht yell and have studied their habits,
from the black letter 'of the period:' and the gunpowder which is £nd how they resort to then- boroughs, like rabbits,
burnt 'smells woundily' of the period, being male, we may depend, From great cities they fly, and those vast vulgar towns,
from some recipe ' of the period,' that we may sniff the 'villanous ^ here the million reside, spinning cotton for gowns;
saltpetre' of the period. I ? \eve low raudic.al .notlons are po-ked m tjiei1r faces'
And sneers about sinecures, pensions, and places;
Where every pert smug msaufacturer prates
Against taxes on knowledge, and rails at Church Bates.
" Can a clever young man, who lias a cousin a peer,
And an uncle a bishop, to such snobs adhere ?
Now this attention to the mise-en-scene is praiseworthy in the
extreme, and I should be the last to either smile or sneer at it. Bilious
critics may contend that the acting of the plays at the Sultana's
Theatre is by no means on a level with the merits of their upgetting,
and may endeavour to persuade me that the poetry of the drama is
there smothered and put out of sight and out of mind by the uphol- Can one solarit up"withlhT&-'ish Constitution
stery. But what care I for critics ? To my eyes the attraction of a Mix with blackguards whose aim is, in brief, Revolution ?
play is m the scenery Gas before genius say I upon the stage; and Can a Pitt, or a Canning (if such be in store
I m sure that the enlightened British Public will agree with me. But To regcue thg Sute) face the Fmsbury roar ?
the defect I have to note at the Sultana s, Sir, is this. The costumes Can their delicate frame bear the brawling and knocks
and appointments on the audience-side the footlights are not at all m Tuat grace the contention 'twist Peto and Cox ?
keeping with those upon the other • and to readily impressible persons ^ nQ j Bu]1 Bright ! Think well o'er it, again,
like myself this absence ot completeness is exceedmgly distressing. | And some snuj? boroughs leave for Our Clever Young Men !
While the play is m performance, ail my senses are wrapt up m what
is passing on the stage, and to such perfection the 'revival' is brought
out, that I imagine myself living in the period presented. Then, Sir,
on a sudden down comes the act-drop, and from the twelfth or
thirteenth century, as the case may be, I am projected at a bound into
the middle of the nineteenth! A horrid cry of ' Happies ! horanges !
lemonade and _ bottled stout!' grates as harshly on my ear as the
summons to a jury; and all my visions of the past are dispelled in
a moment by the presence of an applewoman, whose middle-aged
appearance is the sole link that connects her with the mediaeval era.
" Now, surely Sir, this jar upon one's nerves should be prevented.
Surely, Sir, the Management of the Sultana's Theatre might, when
they let the curtain down, still keep up the illusion, and not allow our
feelings to be trifled with so ruthlessly. So sudden a transition gives
the death-blow to one's sentiment, and destroys the bright imaginings
which one's brain has conjured up. Yet methinks it would be easy to
remedy the evil. It would surely be but little tax upon the treasury,
if half a score of supernumeraries, at a shilling each a-night, were
engaged to undertake the part of audience-refreshers, in the place of
the old applewomen whose presence now afflicts us. Their costumes
THE DOOM OF DANIEL WEBSTER.
In both classical and romantic story, statues are related to have
been occasionally animated. What if the spirit of the Transatlantic
statesman named in the subjoined portion of American intelligence
should be doomed to inhabit the monument erected to bis memory ?
" Ms. Power's bronze statue of Daniel Webster, made for some persons in
Boston, United States, is said to give general dissatisfaction. One writer says, 'It
is a terrible-looking thing, having the appearance of a coloured gentleman who has
run away from his disconsolate master, and in stolen clothes.'"
Fancy a pro-slavery politician obliged to exist, constituting a
public exhibition, in the form of a fugitive coloured gentleman.
Let Dan'l Webster's Statue be a caution to sinners!
The Carlton Dictionary.—The Derbyites have a pretty way of
describing a bribe. They call it " a votive offering."