Punch: Punch (69.1875)

October 9, 1875.] PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI. 139

Even his courage in the last Act—when he is tied to the stake, and,
bear-like, must fight the course—is feverish, tetchy, and irritable,
more like the waspish petulance of an angry sickwoman than the
concentrated fury of a strong man driven to despair.

In the presence of this pervading character of Me. Ibving's
conception, all details of odd or ungraceful habits of pose, or
movement of body and limbs, all peculiarities and tricks of
elocution—the sudden shrillings or sinkings of voice, the gut-
tural slurring of some lines, or the long-drawn dragging out of
others,—are hardly worth insisting on. They are only to be noted
as mannerisms already fast growing into affectations, which, like
the abuses attacked by Me. Burke's famous Bill, "have increased,
are increasing, and ought to be diminished."

Miss Bateman's Lady Macbeth had many points of high excel-
lence. She, too, has peculiarities of elocution which sometimes
detract from the effect she aims at—as in the Sleep-walking Scene,
the slow,drop-by-drop utterance of her " Who-would-have-thought-
the-old-man-had-so-much-blood-in-him ! " But her strong mark-
ing of the different moods of the wicked woman, from the intense
determination of the First Act to the breaking strength and failing
spirit of the Third, was both original in conception, and powerful in
execution. But she should distinguish, by a more decided change of
voice and manner, her evil brooding over MacbetKs letter from her
triumphant greeting as she throws herself into his arms; and she
should be more careful to assume a serpentine smoothness and lowly
courtesy of subject and hostess as she bows before Duncan.

Punch must again protest, as in the case of Hamlet, against
arbitrary changes of scene running in the teeth of the text.

What is the meaning of bringing Duncan and his train in front of
MacbetKs Castle by moonlight, and setting the Castle at a distance
which deprives of all meaning the reference to the martlets' nests
under its eaves and cornices ? Is it not evident that Shakspeare
meant to conjure up in the minds of his audience of the Globe—he
had no scene-painters—a close view of the grim, grey Castle front,
basking serenely in the pleasant air of summer afternoon, as if in
contrast to the dark deeds of blood and horror about to be wrought
within it after set of sun.

And if there must be not a " moving grove " only in the last Act,
but moving miles of the country_ between Birnam and Dunsinane,
at least the management might give us the comfort of a set-piece to
mask the raw, straight edges of the shifting cloths.

Punch. must congratulate _ Mrs. Bateman on her courage in
getting rid of the chorus of witches, even at the cost of Matthew
Locke's music, and bringing back the weird sisters to the original
mystic three—The Fates of Macbeth—the Eumenides of modern
tragedy.

RAISING THE VANGUARD.

ince the Court-
Martial has pro-
nounced sentence,
Mr. Punch has
received the fol-
lowing communi-
cations on this
interesting sub-
ject, which are
published for
what they are
worth:—

Sir,
It appears to
me that the Van-
W^//'^ guard might be
raised by attach-
ing twenty-five
thousand balloons
to her hull by
means of chain-
cables. The only
difficulty would
be, when and
where to drop
her.

Irours extraneously,
Earlswouldn't; Sunday out. Balloonatic.

Dear P.,

Concerning the proposed floating of the Vanguard, could
not the experiment be tried of attaching to her, at low tide, a
number of those gentlemen who are so clever in floating Public
Companies? The Blue Book of the Foreign Loans Committee

recently published will suggest the eminent members of the com-
mercial world whose extraordinary powers of flotation especially
qualify them for the task. Even should they fail to float the
vessel, and, in the attempt, go under themselves, the loss would
hardly be irreparable. Yours,

City, Sept. 19. In Corpore Ytt.t.

Sir,

I have given intense thought to the problem of raising the
hull of the Vanguard, and, up to the present time, I have come to
the firm conclusion that one of the obstacles to successfully floating
it is its great weight; and another may be found in the fact that
there is a large hole in the vessel's side.

Hoping my humble efforts may assist any ideas which may have
been formed by others on the subject, I have the honour to be, Sir,

Yours reflectively,

A. Noodle.

The OwVs Nest, Bedford. Monday.

Dear Mr. Punch,

That there are difficulties to be met in raising the Van-
guard cannot be disputed, but with money and encouragement there
are few things impossible to the modern Engineer. Let the Govern-
ment place £1,000,000 at my entire command, and give me a baro-
netcy before I commence operations, and I think I may promise
that the task of floating the noble ship would appear less formidable
than it does at present to Yourg faithfullyf

Archimedes Jones, M.I.C.E.
Anvil Lodge, Hammersmith, Sept. 28, 1875.

My dearest Punch,

Don't laugh at me, if I seem foolish : I was always a giddy
thing. Promise you won't make fun of me, and I '11 tell you an
idea I have of how to make that Iron thing—you know, the some-
thing "Guard "—I mean how to make her swim again. I'd have a
great big Botton's dress to put her in. It must be a large one, of
course. Am I very silly ?

Yours affectionately,
Shrimpton-cum-Prawnly, Goose Day. Arabella.

Dear Sir,

I have a firm belief that successive shocks, from seaward,
produced by a huge battery charged with a sufficient number of
Electric Eels, would have the effect of driving the Vanguard into
shallow water. Hoping you will not think me officious in making
this suggestion,

I am, Your galvanic Servant,
Stockton-on-Tees, Friday. Electrician.

Sir,

I have a splendid idea for floating the Vanguard, which I
mean to keep to myself. Yours sincerely,

Aut Face aut Tace.

P.S.—Might not water-tight doors be called " Sink Ports " ?

Dear Old Boy,

My recent experiences in endeavouring to raise a hundred
pounds convince me that the Vanguard must remain where she is.
If you can drop me a fiver do. Yours ever,

Impecuntosus.

P.S.—I have no present address. Direct—" Vanguard," G. P. O.

My Dear Punch,

Oe course, long before this, you have come to the same
conclusion as myself with respect to raising the Vanguard.
You may just as well try to raise the Devil.

Nothing can be done except to censure the Iron Duke and give
the Vanguard what the Court Martial has already given her
Captain and principal Officers, Admiral Taeleton and the Captain
of the Iron Duke, in other words, everybody concerned in her loss
—a good "blowing up." Yours, sternly,

Sept. 30th, 1875. Common Sense.

Michaelmas Day, 1875.

Coen may be down and Coal may be dull,

And Indigo puzzle the clever ;
But Cotton they say, in the City to-day,

Is soon to be higher than ever.

"With him in the Chair of London's Lord Mayor,
He who talk after dinner fears,

Of Mansion House fare may partake without scare-
He '11 have Cotton in his ears !