Punch (71.1876)

September 30, 1876.] PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI. 133

DRIVING LADIES.-EXTREME MEASURES.

" If you can't "Whip him up, you must Lift him up, Chaeles ! "

OUR EE PEE SENT ATI VE MAN.

{The Winter Theatrical Season commences. He pays a flying visit
to the Queen's, and briefly reports thereon.)

Sir.,

Before quitting England, you, at a most affecting parting,
strictly enjoined me to represent yourself whenever and wherever
Sharspeare might be " revived." * You, then and there, gave me a
standing order ("not admitted after seven"), which I promised
scrupulously to obey.
Hearing then of Mr. John Coleman, how
John Coleman, of the Provinces, by the Nine Muses swore
That York and Leeds and somewhere else should see his face no more,

until he had produced Shakspeare's Henry the Fifth in London,
at the Queen's Theatre, I determined to be in my place on the first
opportunity, which, I regret to say, was not on the premiere of the
grand revival.

Whatever may be the result of the Jpresent speculation at the
Queen's, everyone, interested in the prosperity of the English stage,
must wish success to the enterprising Manager from the North, who
has heard mysterious voices in the air crying, "York, you're
wanted! " and, in obedience to the mystic summons, has come up
to make essay of the Metropolis. And, no doubt, Mr. John Cole-
man—our old King Cole-man, a jolly old soul man, and a jolly old
soul is he—has effected much that is worthy of great praise, and,
where he has failed, he is to be credited with the best intentions—a
fruitful source of failure, by the way,—and sympathised with as
not having achieved his own ideal success.

It is bad, for example, to have to start with such an apology as
catches the eye on the first sheet of his elaborate (and excruciatingly
sneezingly scented) programme, i.e., "Notice. As many of the

set scenes are of great magnitude, especially the ' Interior of
Westminster Abbey,'' public indulgence is requested for such delays
between the Acts as may be necessary during the first week of this

production"- Yes, but surely another two weeks' rehearsal

would have rendered these delays unnecessary, and, despite their
expense, would have, in the end, been a genuine economy.

VOL. LXil.

Again, more rehearsal would have done some good to the invisible
orchestra. As it is, the band plays out of sight, and out of—a good
deal else. Then the men whose duty it is to manage the curtains,
should be rehearsed at their work every day. The directions given
"behind the scenes" should be toned into a lower key (difficult,
perhaps, where crowds have to be dealt with) ; and were a pair of
"tormentors" (as the sort of screens are called which conceal the
space between the proscenium and the first wings) added, the effect
for those of the audience who are seated at the sides and in the
front row of the stalls would be materially enhanced. I confess the
illusion of a Knights-in-armour battle-scene is destroyed, as far as
I am personally concerned, when I catch sight of energetic people
in the hats and coats of eighteen hundred and seventy-six suddenly
coming into sight at the wings.

One mistake to my thinking is the retention of the Chorus, a part
fairly declaimed by Miss Leighton. The Chorus is an apology for
the absence, in the time of the Divine Williams, of those very effects
which it is one chief aim of this revival to place before the public.
Nowadays the occupation this Chorus appears to have gone.

Time, Sir, will not permit me to review at length this revival,
which begins at seven (confound it! —why won't you let us dine
comfortably, Mr. Coleman ?) with the Jerusalem Chamber and
Mr. Phelps, and ends at eleven, or thereabouts. By the way, why,
in the bill, are Nym, Bardolph, and Pistol described as "Irregular
Humorists" ? I think it a capital name, and should like to adopt it
myself ; but how are these three "Irregular Humorists" P Mr. Meal,
who plays Pistol, is a regular humorist.

The play-bill consists of eight pages, rather formidable. All the
available talent finds herein a local habitation and a name. This
swells the list with the rank and file. Allow me to offer a sugges-
tion. A French Lord—Lord Bouciqualt—is mentioned in the play,
and is put down in the cast. Well, as Mr. Coleman has been going
in for descriptions, as for example, "The Irregular Humorists,"
why not give the foreign nobleman the benefit of the doubt, thus,
Lord Bouciqualt {probably ancestor of the present eminent Irish
Dramatist and Fenian-Liberator, Mr. Dion Bovgigault) "—which
would be interesting to others besides the mere antiquarian. .

I hope to'pay the Queen's another visit when everything will be in