Punch (68.1875)

152

PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI.

[Apbil 3, 1875.

OR ELSE!”

“We hare come to a crisis, when there shall be no mincing matters.
Parliament must either go with the People or against them. I represent the
People of England—the great and irresistible Working Classes of the Land.
I know that they are perfectly serious, and determined to have justice.

Parliament must learn and know the same, or else-’’

Da. Kenealy’s Manifesto to the “ true Men of Reading.”

We tremble to think that
the Member for Orton'
Is determined the life of
St. Stephen’s to shorten,
Disestablish at once both
Disraeli and Hart-
ington,

And mop back the sea,
like a new Mrs. Part-
ington.

That red-nosed Old Noll,
when he turned out the
Mace,

Had a strong brain to put
in the Parliament’s
place;

But though onr new Cromwell can brag very freely,

What more than mere brag can we get from Kenealy ?

terrible threat, all the
worse that ’tis vague,
From the Doctor whose
mission’s to rave and
to plague!

What is to be done with
this power irresistible,
Who claims all the
trumps at the Parlia-
ment whist-table ?

That terrific “ Or else-” might bring men to repentance

If they only believed he could finish the sentence:

But the general Public are often defiant

Of the dwarf who (’gainst evidence) says he’s a giant.

Perchance, after all, the old Parliament train,
Though Kenealy attacks it, may travel again :

Its Driver’s a man who in fight is no joker,

And he ’ll quickly suppress this rumbustical Stoker.

OUR REPRESENTATIVE MAN.

At the Premiere of Nicholas Nickleby at the Adelphi.

Sir,

In order to thoroughly enjoy a dramatic version of any
one of Charles Dickens’s works, total ignorance of the original is,
I should say, a qualification absolutely necessary. In most in-
stances the unbiassed mind would pronounce a verdict unfavour-
able to the drama, and could it have been possible to have reversed
the order of production, so that the drama might have been given
to. the public before the novel, the chances of popularity for the
original would have been remarkably small. It has been said
that Mr. Wilkie Collins wrote two of his works of fiction first
as dramas, then as novels, in which latter form the public became
acquainted with them. But in such melodramatic and sensational
stories, as Mr. Collins’s, the dramatic might well assist the
narrative form, and the narrative the dramatic. In both “ situa-
te11 ” is nine points of the law; and to realise situation is after
all the primary intention of the Dramatic Act. What the novel
is forced either to. leave entirely to the imagination, or to oc-
cupy pages in describing, that the drama places before us in instan-
taneous action, supplying.by its living illustrations, the want of the
illiterate, the unimaginative, and those who have the inclination,
but not the time for such reading.

To all who know their Nicholas Nickleby as they do their Pick-
wick,. almost. by heart, and who could pass with honours a stiff
examination in both books, the present adaptation at the Adelphi
must appear most unsatisfactory. What may be its effect on the
half-read and^un-read public “remains,” one may wisely say, “to
be seen.’ Nicholas Nickleby, as adaqited to Mr. Chatterton’s
stage, by Mr. Andrew Halliday was on its first night received
with enthusiasm, and its success carried by acclamation. Every-
body appeared to be gratified and satisfied ; and as Mr. Vincent
Crummies himself (who has not been fetched out of the novel to

appear in propria persona) would have said, it was from beginning
to end, “ Cheers, tears, and laughter! !”

Few modern pieces, whatever their merit, have been so strongly
cast as this. In fact, its strength was cast-iron. Who could be
better, to commence with, if you were thinking over it, than
Mr. Fernandez as Ralph Nickleby, unless, perhaps, Mr. Benjamin
Webster in his best days ? Then Mr. John Clarke was evidently
cut out for Squeers ; but unfortunately Squeers had not previously
been cut out for Mr. John Clarke. There might have been some
doubts about putting Mrs. Mellon into Mrs. Squeers, but these
doubts would have been entirely dispelled on seeing her admirable
make-up (after Phiz’s pictures, to the life, only too cleanly), but
that she could not help being cheery in her rendering of the part;
and “ cheery” is not the word for Mrs. Squeers. As to Mr. Bel-
more, he is so clever and versatile, that it was quite on the cards
for his Newman Noggs to have been the success of the piece; but
the adapter had clearly set his face against any such result as this,
and either proprio motu, or by special request, had so changed
the character of Newman Noggs, that nothing remained of the
original save the name. Mr. Halliday is, of course, a worshipper
of Dickens; but “When he who adores thee has left but the
name,” it is rather hard on the adored one. However, nothing
succeeds like success; and if Messrs. Halliday and Belmore
have achieved this, it is not for Your Representative to say another
word on the subject. Our old friend Mr. C. T. Smith as Snawley
was excellent, but not stout enough. What noisy heartiness could
do for the Yorkshire farmer John Rrodie, was done by Mr. Emery
to perfection. On the first night he was three by honours, and the
odd trick ; and I fancy so it will remain to the end of the run, for
there are some touches of nature (to be credited to Mr. Halliday
developing a hint of Dickens’s) which secure for John Brodie the
sympathy of the entire auditorium, from the languid swell in the
front row of the stalls, who subsequently gives his opinion that it
was “ doosed good,” to the little unwashed in the back-row of the
sixpenny gallery, who applauds lustily, and won’t be satisfied
until he has had “ Hemery” out before the curtain at the end of
the Act.

Miss Lydia Foote as Smike reminded me not in the least of
Dickens’s Smike and Phiz’s portrait, but of the hoy (Joseph, I
think), in Mr. Charles Reade’s Never too Late to Mend, at the
Princess’s, wbo sees angels and beautiful faces in the air and all the
rest of it, whatever it usually is that is seen in the dying moments of
interesting stage-boys doomed to a breeches part in melodrama and
an early death. Let the readers of Dickens remember that when Mr.
Crummies first saw Smike his professional eye selected at a glance
the poor abject, half-starved wretch for the part of Apothecary in
Romeo and Juliet. Now, would anyone in their senses ever have
hit upon Miss Lydia Foote as the very beau ideal of the Apothecary
in Romeo and Juliet. Had this been suggested to Mr. Chatterton
by Mr. Halliday, would the latter have now been alive to tell the
tale, or if alive couldn’t his friends have provided for him as.My
Aunt, in David Copper field, provided for Mr. Dick’s eccentricities ?
Undoubtedly this was a difficulty which former adapters felt, and
relieved themselves from by, as it were, changing Smike at nurse,
and substituting a pretty interesting, intelligent girl, for the half-
famished, hollow cheeked, pinch nosed, “ poor half-witted creature
(Dickens’s own description this) that tfie original Smike is repre-
sented to be in the novel.

There was no love interest about Nicholas Nickleby, so it was
necessary, in order to get up any interest at all, to rouse an audi-
ence on behalf of Smike. The old piece was called, if I remember
rightly, The Fortunes of Smike, and that is exactly the title that
any knowing Crummies would bave chosen. I fancy, however, that
this was a dramatised version, unauthorised by Charles Dickens,
who, however, with his strong dramatic instincts, and his know-
ledge of the practical requirements of the stage, would have been
the first to acknowledge that if there was any necessity for the
work to be dramatised at all there was at once a necessity ten
Smike’s being played by a young actress who could appeal to the
sentimental susceptibilities of the audience.

Mr. Lloyd’s scenery is good throughout; and the old inn-yard,
showing the start of a real coach and horses, is a thoroughly realistic
picture, which brought down the Act-drop to immense applause, and
brought out the scene-painter to receive an ovation. All the clever
people came on at the conclusion of the piece, and ‘ everyone, was
right and no one was wrong, upon my life and soul—oh, demmit.
as Mr. Mantalini would have said had he been in front on the
first night of Nicholas Nickleby as was

Your Representative.

RIBANDS AND RACES.

The Turf has but one Riband Blue,
Whereas the Thames can boast of two.