Punch (80.1881)

280

PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI.

[June 18, 1881.

" IL SERAGLIO ;» OR, PITTMAN'S PEGASUS.

No form of entertainment ever tickles onr sense of humour so
thoroughly as genuinely serious Italian Opera, specially when inter-

Sreted by Italians. Taken from this point of view, comic Italian
ipera, being intentionally funny, fails to amuse us in the same
way; and so, while delighted with Mdme. Sembrich, pleased with
Mdlle. Yaleeria, charmed with the melodious Mozartiness of this
thoroughly Mozartian opera, II Seraglio, and sufficiently entertained
with the conventional humour of M. Gtjtlhard, we should have
had only a mild evening but for the English libretto supplied by the
present Poet-Laureate of the establishment, Mr. J. Pittman, whose
work, far from being a mere servile translation, evinces much
original thought and rare poetic power occasionally rising to the
reckless freedom of true genius.
The story of U Seraglio—as the advertisements spell it, or II

Sevraglio as Poet
Pittman's book has
it—is of the simplest
and weakest kind.
Two ladies of un-
certain nationality
called Constance and
JBionda are in the
power of Pacha Selim
and Osmin, his ....
Gardener!! Why the
Gardener ? Is there
some hidden joke
about " guardin'
her " P However, joke
or no joke, this Osmin
acts as the Pacha's
chief adviser and
major domo, but it is
evident to everybody,
An Eastern Question to a Partial Pacha. except the amiable

though misguided

Mahommedan, that this Osmin is merely a Pantaloon in Turkish
trowsers. The Pacha never having seen a pantomime, is easily
imposed upon, and does not discover a fraud which is so palpable to
an English audience.

These two ladies are about to escape from Pacha Pittman's Ser-
raglio with one Belmont, a fat French lover, looking like Raoid out
of The Huguenots after a course of indolence and cod-liver oil, and
Pedrillo, his Spanish servant, who, in Turkish costume, has also
imposed on the credulity of this weak-minded Selim Pacha—what a
set of characters !—when they are intercepted by the Gardener,
condemned to death by Selim, and immediately afterwards pardoned
by the same''amiable autocrat. Instead of 1 II Seraglio, the title of
the story should have been, in true Eastern language, " Posh.'"

However, something like a century ago it furnished Mozart with
opportunities for the display of his genius, and so let us be thankful.
The rondo in Act First, the quartette, the drinking duet, Constance1's
solo and Bionda's sparkling song in Act Second are the gems of the
music. Now let us leave these gems, and descend with our Pitt-
man into the mines of Librettist ore. Osmin, speaking of Pedrillo to
Belmont, exclaims violently—

" That scoundrel! may his neck be broken ! "
Whereupon Belmont, the fat French lover, remarks, aside—

" How rude ! His tongue he won't unfetter."
Isn't " how rude " delicious P So mild!

Pedrillo says to< Belmont, who is anxious about Constance—
" Be patient. Shortly your Constance,
With the Pacha, will return home
From a sail on the water.
Belmont. Great Heav'n ! With him, she ? "

There's fire for you! The Italian is " Con lui, oh pena ! " but Poet
Pittman's Pegasus bore him above mere commonplace rendering.
Osmin asks Pedrillo about Belmont—

" Who 's this stranger ?
Pedrillo. By permission of the Pacha, he's admission."

And Osmin, instead of prosaically returning "IsheP" replies,
poetically—

" That I care not, out must stay you."
Constance, the heroine, thus grandly rejects the Pasha's suit:—
" I'll yield thee ne'er, in vain thou wouldst dismay me ! "

and continues apostrophising her absent lover—
" Love knows no transgression,
My heart's full possession
Thou, Belmont, shall have!
Constance doth swear thee
By Heaven above," &c, &c.

This is very fine. The comic scene where Pedrillo makes old
Pantaloon Osmin drunk
in less than half a
brace of vocal shakes,
finishes with these two
lines, which are quite
worthy to rank with any
" exit couplet" spoken by
either of the P)romios in
The Comedy, of Errors
or by the burlesque low-
comedy characters in The
Taming of the Shrew :—

" Pedrillo. Let's go, lest
the Pasha, our master,
Might see us, to us would hap
disaster."

All hail, great Pitt-
man ! for these are abso-
lutely Shakspearian.

Pedrillo and Belmont
venture to hint their sus-
picions as to the fidelity "YivaBacko!"
of their sweethearts while

in the Pasha's Seraglio, whereupon the energetic Bionda replies to
her lover—

" Thou rascal, durst to throw
Such stain upon my virtue ? "

while the gentler and more lady-like Constance, addressing Belmont,
reproachfully adds—

" Belmont, you hardly know
My feelings how now hurt you ! "

Aha! There's rhyme and reason, too, for you ! Then, all being
forgiven, they sing this quartette :—

" Now that love prevails again,
May jealousy never
Our sweet union sever,
May love live for ever,
For e'er on us reign."

Hooray! Pittman on Pegasus wins in a canter !! Shakspeare
second ! Tennyson nowhere !

Space forbids our heaping up more treasures from the Pittman
diggings, so we will give Selim Pasha's concluding benison on the
happy pairs, and drop the curtain on the brilliant finale .—

" Selim. Go hence in freedom. Be happy you for ever !
Tour friend, Selim Pacha, forget you—Never ! "

And then the chorus, commencing "Great Selim," for which,
however, we venture, with the utmost deference, to substitute Great

Harem-Scarum Finale.

Poet—meaning, we need hardly explain, the Covent Garden Lau-
reate, and dedicating his own lines to himself—

" Great Poet, we, grateful bending,
Hail thee e'er, thy praises sing ;
Far and wide thy name's extending _ j(
Through the world on Fame's bright wing.

We trust the sale of the "book of the words'' may be largelyj
increased by our present notice. Poet and Profit should go hand m:
hand. Should anyone rashly imagine that he can rival our Laureate j
Librettist, we warn him—

" Poeta nascitur, nonfit," man;

Which is quite true of Mister Pittman,