DOI Heft:
January 11, 1868
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.16881#0019
January 11, 1868.]
PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI.
ll
A SLAP AT THE FRENCH STAGE.
erily, whatever Anglophobiacs
may say, there are some things
which they do not “ manage
better in France.” For in-
stance, take the Censorship,
both of the Press and of the
Play-house. How would free-
born Britons like to go with-
out their Punch, if only for
one week, because it had said
something obnoxious to the
Government, and had therefore
been suspended ? Or, how
would playgoers in England
like to go without their Shak-
speabe, because the Censor-
ship had found out that he
wrote not for an age but for
all mortal time, and that such
a line, for instance, as
“ Uneasy lies the head that wears a
crown ”
might be interpreted to mean
a sneer against the reigning
Sovereign ?
Victor Hugo’s Ruy Bias
has been prohibited in Paris, for thereason.it. is thought, that the
play contains a speech against ihe Ministry of Spain, and the Minis-
ters of France have found that the cap fits them. If Censors are so
sensitive, it will he difficult for playwriters to avoid giving offence, for
sneers against a Government might be plausibly detected in most com-
monplace assertions. In a nautical drama, all allusions to a vessel
might be looked at as referring to the vessel of the State, and such an
innocent command as “ Clear away the top hamper” might be vievved
as recommending a clearance of the House of Lords, as hampering
the State vessel.
Fond as are our playwrights of adapting from the French, they would
hardl.v like to see the French Censorship adapted here. How Brown
would stare on hearing that his burlesque was prohibited because he
had inserted a pun on the word “Sovereign”! What expletive of
vehemence would Jones use in his wrath, when told that his fine
comedy—the work of half a life-time—could not be produced, because
the Censor had discovered that the words “ Oh, hang that king ! ” were
spoken in a scene where a game of cards was played? If ihe French
Censors were but half as strict in looking to the morals of the plays
which they permit, as in examining the language of those which they
prohibit, we English should consider that they really did some service
to the State.
FASHIONABLE INTELLIGENCE.
Ladies, please to look at this important news from Paris :—
“ It is evidently the determination of onr modistes that fur shall play an impor-
tant part in toilettes during the ensuing winter. A fancy of the moment is for
ladies to wear not only ihe skin but the head and paws of a sable, an ermine, or a
Canadian marten on their muffs, and strange enough these look, with the pointed
hea4 and sharp piercing eyes of one of these little creatures, flanked by its two
paws, peering over their tops It is further a fancy to wear one of these little
animals round the neck, with its tail thrust into its mouth as it were.”
Happy the animal whose fur is out of fashion ! How many little
creatures will be hunted down this winter, simply for the cause that
their fur happens to be fashionable ! The modistes determine that
ladies shall wear muffs with a sable or a marten on them, and of course
the ladies bow to the imperative behest, and never dream of thinking
of the deaths which it occasions. Merely to gratify “ a fancy of the
moment.,” sables, ermines, and martens are slaughtered by wholesale,
and if the fashion did not change, would speedily be numbered with
the mastodons and mammoths, and other extinct animals.
Another piece of Paris news may also interest you, Ladies : —
“ Plain silk sashes terminating in a deep fringe, and tied in large bows at the
waist behind, are worn with redmgotes and ordinary toilettes de 'promenade, made
of some richly-embroidered silk, worked over with flowers, buds, in.-ects, anchors,
horse-shoes, and even such things as a highland bonnet; and with their long ends
passed at the back of the waist, through gold rings encircled or surmounted by gilt
ornaments of a more or less grotesque character, they are largely in favour for
evening wear. These ornaments comprise such objects as a banjo, a sailor’s hat
and anchor, a yacht and a coil of rope, a group consisting of a peaked cap, whip,
dog, and gun, with a twisted hunting horn beneath, a strung bow, arrow, and
quiver, rings, chains, and fetters, monster dragon-flies and bees with their wings
in gold filigree, the latter intended of course to be worn with such scarfs as are
perfect parterres of flowers, and a lock and key, both large enough for a prison-
door. ”
Dressmakers have queer ideas of whaf. is ornamental. Imagine any
lady, with the slightest sense or taste, wearing any of the ornaments
here spoken of as fashionable ! Monster dragon-flies and bees appear
to us about the best of them, and perhaps we next may hear of
monster frogs and cockchafers. But fancy a girl wearing a banjo, or a
horse-shoe, or prison lock and key, and being under the delusion that
they prettily adorned her! Why, if this ugly fashion spreads, we shall
hear of ladies wearing a trombone at tHeir waist, or coming to a party
with a poker at their back, or a bootjack or a coal-scuttle dangling
down behind them.
ONE THING QUITE CERTAIN.
Until further informed, Mr. Punch is uncertain whether he should
begin the next paragraph thus :—
“ There is a well-meaning person trying to raise money for charitable
purposes,”
Or thus,
“ There is a photograph-seller trying to get off his wares.”
The fact being that Mr. Punch knows nothing about the party, except
that he advertises in one paper that he wants to sell photographs for
one charity, and in another expresses similar wishes in regard to a
different charity. Therefore, Mr. Punch neither assists nor exposes.
But he has one thing to say. One of the advertiser’s baits offers an
alternative, namely :—
“ Portraits of Twelve English Bishops,”
Or, if preferred,
“ Twelve Copies of your own Carte de VisiteP
Distinctly, should Mr. Punch accept either, the Latter. Most dis-
tinctly. He prefers his own portrait to the likeness of any twelve
hierarchs in the universal world, bar none, from Pius the Ninth to
Crowther the Negro. Ha! ha! He should think so. No doubt
there.
A Lather of Naples Soap.
The Mediterraneo, a Bourbonist organ at Naples, advocates the
claims of that city to be the capital of Italy enumerating, as grounds
of its superiority over all rivals, “ its blue sky, its burning Vesuvius,
its lively and intelligent population.” We wonder it did not add to
the list of recommendations, its stinks, its sirocco, and its lazzaroni.
These would seem to be at least as good grounds of preference as a
scorching sun, an active volcano, and a feather-headed people, hot as
the one, and liable to eruption as the other.
A REMARKABLE REQUIEM.
A Correspondent of a Fenian Irish newspaper relates that “ a
solemn requiem mass ” was performed, the other day, in the Parish
Chapel of Ennistyrnon, Clare, “ for the souls of our martyred fellow
countrymen,” as he calls the criminals hanged at Manchester. Sub-
joined is an extract from his bletheremskite :—
“ The choir performed Mozart’s Requiem amid solemn silence. A half-
smothered ‘ amen ’ broke from out that silence when the good priest said, ‘ My
dear people, pray for the souls of those noble-hearted men, and also pray that God
may save Ireland.’ Scarcely a dry eye was to be seen in the church, and I said
within myself, ‘ Ireland is not yet dead—all are not yet gone with a vengeance.’
The people were now standing up to leave the chapel, when, like a thunder-clap,
broke on their ears the chorus ‘ Tramp, Tramp.' ”
It is wonderful that such a service as that above described should
ever have been celebrated. What necessity was there to sing a mass
for the souls of martyrs? Is not martyrdom a direct passage to
Paradise ? Surely the “ good priest ” who called Brett’s mur-
derers “ noble-hearted men ” must think Brett’s murder an act of
Christian heroism—an act of faith. Let us hope that such is not the
view taken by the priesthood in general of rebellion against the consti-
tuted authorities, and shooting an officer in the execution of his duty.
The chorus "1 “ Tramp, tramp” is rather a remarkable sequel, one
thinks, to a Missa pro Defunctis. We shall see, hy-and-by, perhaps,
whether or no this kind of thing takes place “ permissu superiorumP
But perhaps the whole story of this alleged mass is an Irish hoax.
“ The choir performed Mozart’s Requiem amid solemn silence.” Very
likely.
Remigius of the Black See.
When Lichfield’s Bishop was no more,
Said Derby, “ Who would be.
Among our Churchmen, the best oar
To put in the Black See ?
“ Selwyn’s a man of boating fame ;
Be he the man for us.
And as the Popes take Latin name,
Be he Remigius.”
A Musical Burglar.—One who breaks into a tune.
PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI.
ll
A SLAP AT THE FRENCH STAGE.
erily, whatever Anglophobiacs
may say, there are some things
which they do not “ manage
better in France.” For in-
stance, take the Censorship,
both of the Press and of the
Play-house. How would free-
born Britons like to go with-
out their Punch, if only for
one week, because it had said
something obnoxious to the
Government, and had therefore
been suspended ? Or, how
would playgoers in England
like to go without their Shak-
speabe, because the Censor-
ship had found out that he
wrote not for an age but for
all mortal time, and that such
a line, for instance, as
“ Uneasy lies the head that wears a
crown ”
might be interpreted to mean
a sneer against the reigning
Sovereign ?
Victor Hugo’s Ruy Bias
has been prohibited in Paris, for thereason.it. is thought, that the
play contains a speech against ihe Ministry of Spain, and the Minis-
ters of France have found that the cap fits them. If Censors are so
sensitive, it will he difficult for playwriters to avoid giving offence, for
sneers against a Government might be plausibly detected in most com-
monplace assertions. In a nautical drama, all allusions to a vessel
might be looked at as referring to the vessel of the State, and such an
innocent command as “ Clear away the top hamper” might be vievved
as recommending a clearance of the House of Lords, as hampering
the State vessel.
Fond as are our playwrights of adapting from the French, they would
hardl.v like to see the French Censorship adapted here. How Brown
would stare on hearing that his burlesque was prohibited because he
had inserted a pun on the word “Sovereign”! What expletive of
vehemence would Jones use in his wrath, when told that his fine
comedy—the work of half a life-time—could not be produced, because
the Censor had discovered that the words “ Oh, hang that king ! ” were
spoken in a scene where a game of cards was played? If ihe French
Censors were but half as strict in looking to the morals of the plays
which they permit, as in examining the language of those which they
prohibit, we English should consider that they really did some service
to the State.
FASHIONABLE INTELLIGENCE.
Ladies, please to look at this important news from Paris :—
“ It is evidently the determination of onr modistes that fur shall play an impor-
tant part in toilettes during the ensuing winter. A fancy of the moment is for
ladies to wear not only ihe skin but the head and paws of a sable, an ermine, or a
Canadian marten on their muffs, and strange enough these look, with the pointed
hea4 and sharp piercing eyes of one of these little creatures, flanked by its two
paws, peering over their tops It is further a fancy to wear one of these little
animals round the neck, with its tail thrust into its mouth as it were.”
Happy the animal whose fur is out of fashion ! How many little
creatures will be hunted down this winter, simply for the cause that
their fur happens to be fashionable ! The modistes determine that
ladies shall wear muffs with a sable or a marten on them, and of course
the ladies bow to the imperative behest, and never dream of thinking
of the deaths which it occasions. Merely to gratify “ a fancy of the
moment.,” sables, ermines, and martens are slaughtered by wholesale,
and if the fashion did not change, would speedily be numbered with
the mastodons and mammoths, and other extinct animals.
Another piece of Paris news may also interest you, Ladies : —
“ Plain silk sashes terminating in a deep fringe, and tied in large bows at the
waist behind, are worn with redmgotes and ordinary toilettes de 'promenade, made
of some richly-embroidered silk, worked over with flowers, buds, in.-ects, anchors,
horse-shoes, and even such things as a highland bonnet; and with their long ends
passed at the back of the waist, through gold rings encircled or surmounted by gilt
ornaments of a more or less grotesque character, they are largely in favour for
evening wear. These ornaments comprise such objects as a banjo, a sailor’s hat
and anchor, a yacht and a coil of rope, a group consisting of a peaked cap, whip,
dog, and gun, with a twisted hunting horn beneath, a strung bow, arrow, and
quiver, rings, chains, and fetters, monster dragon-flies and bees with their wings
in gold filigree, the latter intended of course to be worn with such scarfs as are
perfect parterres of flowers, and a lock and key, both large enough for a prison-
door. ”
Dressmakers have queer ideas of whaf. is ornamental. Imagine any
lady, with the slightest sense or taste, wearing any of the ornaments
here spoken of as fashionable ! Monster dragon-flies and bees appear
to us about the best of them, and perhaps we next may hear of
monster frogs and cockchafers. But fancy a girl wearing a banjo, or a
horse-shoe, or prison lock and key, and being under the delusion that
they prettily adorned her! Why, if this ugly fashion spreads, we shall
hear of ladies wearing a trombone at tHeir waist, or coming to a party
with a poker at their back, or a bootjack or a coal-scuttle dangling
down behind them.
ONE THING QUITE CERTAIN.
Until further informed, Mr. Punch is uncertain whether he should
begin the next paragraph thus :—
“ There is a well-meaning person trying to raise money for charitable
purposes,”
Or thus,
“ There is a photograph-seller trying to get off his wares.”
The fact being that Mr. Punch knows nothing about the party, except
that he advertises in one paper that he wants to sell photographs for
one charity, and in another expresses similar wishes in regard to a
different charity. Therefore, Mr. Punch neither assists nor exposes.
But he has one thing to say. One of the advertiser’s baits offers an
alternative, namely :—
“ Portraits of Twelve English Bishops,”
Or, if preferred,
“ Twelve Copies of your own Carte de VisiteP
Distinctly, should Mr. Punch accept either, the Latter. Most dis-
tinctly. He prefers his own portrait to the likeness of any twelve
hierarchs in the universal world, bar none, from Pius the Ninth to
Crowther the Negro. Ha! ha! He should think so. No doubt
there.
A Lather of Naples Soap.
The Mediterraneo, a Bourbonist organ at Naples, advocates the
claims of that city to be the capital of Italy enumerating, as grounds
of its superiority over all rivals, “ its blue sky, its burning Vesuvius,
its lively and intelligent population.” We wonder it did not add to
the list of recommendations, its stinks, its sirocco, and its lazzaroni.
These would seem to be at least as good grounds of preference as a
scorching sun, an active volcano, and a feather-headed people, hot as
the one, and liable to eruption as the other.
A REMARKABLE REQUIEM.
A Correspondent of a Fenian Irish newspaper relates that “ a
solemn requiem mass ” was performed, the other day, in the Parish
Chapel of Ennistyrnon, Clare, “ for the souls of our martyred fellow
countrymen,” as he calls the criminals hanged at Manchester. Sub-
joined is an extract from his bletheremskite :—
“ The choir performed Mozart’s Requiem amid solemn silence. A half-
smothered ‘ amen ’ broke from out that silence when the good priest said, ‘ My
dear people, pray for the souls of those noble-hearted men, and also pray that God
may save Ireland.’ Scarcely a dry eye was to be seen in the church, and I said
within myself, ‘ Ireland is not yet dead—all are not yet gone with a vengeance.’
The people were now standing up to leave the chapel, when, like a thunder-clap,
broke on their ears the chorus ‘ Tramp, Tramp.' ”
It is wonderful that such a service as that above described should
ever have been celebrated. What necessity was there to sing a mass
for the souls of martyrs? Is not martyrdom a direct passage to
Paradise ? Surely the “ good priest ” who called Brett’s mur-
derers “ noble-hearted men ” must think Brett’s murder an act of
Christian heroism—an act of faith. Let us hope that such is not the
view taken by the priesthood in general of rebellion against the consti-
tuted authorities, and shooting an officer in the execution of his duty.
The chorus "1 “ Tramp, tramp” is rather a remarkable sequel, one
thinks, to a Missa pro Defunctis. We shall see, hy-and-by, perhaps,
whether or no this kind of thing takes place “ permissu superiorumP
But perhaps the whole story of this alleged mass is an Irish hoax.
“ The choir performed Mozart’s Requiem amid solemn silence.” Very
likely.
Remigius of the Black See.
When Lichfield’s Bishop was no more,
Said Derby, “ Who would be.
Among our Churchmen, the best oar
To put in the Black See ?
“ Selwyn’s a man of boating fame ;
Be he the man for us.
And as the Popes take Latin name,
Be he Remigius.”
A Musical Burglar.—One who breaks into a tune.