DOI Heft:
January 7, 1882
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.17752#0014
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PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI.
[January 7, 1882.
; SPECIAL PLEADING.
“ POLLY, WE MUST GO NOW, IT’s THREE o’CLOCK.”
“ Oh, PAPA DEAR, I AM ENGAGED FOR THE NEXT TWO DANCES ! ”
“ The Browns went away two hours ago, and Fanny Brown didn’t complain.”
“ But thet are in Half-Mourning, you know, Papa dear!” \_Papa is not convinced, but Polly gains her point.
EftOM THE JONATHAN BULL-VARDS.
Waterloo is avenged! I say this advisedly, and withont prejudice.
By a combination which shail be nameless we won Waterloo, but
there are victories which are as costly as defeats. Cock-a-doodle-do-
ism costs money, and Waterloo fostered Cock-a-doodle-do-ism. The
best part of a century has elapsed, and at last our time has come.
Providence has introduced the leaden sky into Paris ; manufacturing
industry in and around Paris has introduced the veritable English
fog. Mabille (now c-losed for the season) is more dull and stupid
than the Polytechnic ; English tailors, drapers, and costumiers who
dress the best part of the Parisian public, have planted themselves
in the best part of Paris; and Paris itself is reduced to about a
quarter of a mile of City, from the Grand Hotel to the Vaudeville
Theatre, along which the predominant languages heard are Cockney-
American and American-English. The Boulevard—formerly I)es
Italiens—ought to be now called the Jonathan-Bull-vards, and the
English word “Tavern” ought surely to succeed the French word
“ Restaurant,” when boiled beef and carrots are wheeled round the
room on a carving-table as they are at “ Simpson’s” ! The time is
evidently not far distant when a Menu will be ealled a ‘ 1 Bill of
Fare,” except in En^land, and written in English, and when the
instructions for a Christmas pudding will be understood by Cooks,
and not sent as a prescription to the nearest Apothecary.
There is one Christmas dish, however, which lias not yet been
acclimatised in Paris, and that is a Pantomime. Attempts have
been made, froni time to time, to import the article, but never suc-
cessfully. The drama, in fact, in Paris, has no special Christmas
cliaracter. There are comedies and operas-bouffe, to which Parisians
may or may not take their children, though while the Vie Parisienne
exists as a so-called “ family ” journal, and is conducted as it is, it
ought surely to be possible to take French children anywhere.
The only special concession to the season is an attempt to dramatise
the whole Ardbian Nights ; for the tough old Biche aux Bois, which
has been running, more or less, for thirty or forty years, can hardly
be considered as a Christmas oifering.
The Thousand a.nd One Niglits is a clever attempt to put four
quarts of fiction into a pint pot. In three Acts and thirty-three
Scenes, lasting four hours and a half, a living panorama of all the
principal stories in the book we have agreed to call the Arabian
Nights is made to pass before us. Three of the most wonderful
dramatic stories ever discovered—Sinbad the Sailor, Aladdin, and
the Forty Thieves—have scanty justice done to them, and the French
dramatist has yet to be born who will find in any one of these pieees
enough for an evening’s entertainment. The Countess d’AuLNOY is
treated with more judgment and courtesy. So many years have
elapsed smce any “ spectacle ” worthy of the name has been seen on
the Parisian Stage, that the Thousand and One Nights, fairly
mounted, has become the piece of the day. It is not advertised on
every wall, and in frantic newspaper advertisements, as “ a gigantic-
success,” and the company engaged are not stated to be the “ greatest
comhination of talent ever brought together.” At the same time, as
it really possesses the materials of two or three Pantomimes, the
curtain, according to French theatrical custom, falls twice for twelve
or fifteen minutes during the evening. What a good theatrical
custom it is, and how thankful English audiences would be to see it
adopted for English Pantomimes. Another good French custom is
that of keeping the gin-shop out of the theatre. Here praise must
end.
The stage-mechanism is generally half a century behind the age, I
and every “ slider ” or “trap” appears to require two men with .
levers to follow on and wedge the unruly wood-work into its place.
The front of the house is probably never swept, and in my box I
found a piece of an envelope which I left there last August, while
witnessing Michel Strogoff !
A Prize Remark.
“ Distribution of prizes by Members of Parliament is becoming an institu •
tion.”—-Sir Stafford Nortlicote at Bxeter.
Sir Staeford it seems in a state of surprise is
That Members of Parliament should bestow prizes.
It is clear what they give to more fortunate elves,
They but seldom deserve, in the House, for themselves.
PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI.
[January 7, 1882.
; SPECIAL PLEADING.
“ POLLY, WE MUST GO NOW, IT’s THREE o’CLOCK.”
“ Oh, PAPA DEAR, I AM ENGAGED FOR THE NEXT TWO DANCES ! ”
“ The Browns went away two hours ago, and Fanny Brown didn’t complain.”
“ But thet are in Half-Mourning, you know, Papa dear!” \_Papa is not convinced, but Polly gains her point.
EftOM THE JONATHAN BULL-VARDS.
Waterloo is avenged! I say this advisedly, and withont prejudice.
By a combination which shail be nameless we won Waterloo, but
there are victories which are as costly as defeats. Cock-a-doodle-do-
ism costs money, and Waterloo fostered Cock-a-doodle-do-ism. The
best part of a century has elapsed, and at last our time has come.
Providence has introduced the leaden sky into Paris ; manufacturing
industry in and around Paris has introduced the veritable English
fog. Mabille (now c-losed for the season) is more dull and stupid
than the Polytechnic ; English tailors, drapers, and costumiers who
dress the best part of the Parisian public, have planted themselves
in the best part of Paris; and Paris itself is reduced to about a
quarter of a mile of City, from the Grand Hotel to the Vaudeville
Theatre, along which the predominant languages heard are Cockney-
American and American-English. The Boulevard—formerly I)es
Italiens—ought to be now called the Jonathan-Bull-vards, and the
English word “Tavern” ought surely to succeed the French word
“ Restaurant,” when boiled beef and carrots are wheeled round the
room on a carving-table as they are at “ Simpson’s” ! The time is
evidently not far distant when a Menu will be ealled a ‘ 1 Bill of
Fare,” except in En^land, and written in English, and when the
instructions for a Christmas pudding will be understood by Cooks,
and not sent as a prescription to the nearest Apothecary.
There is one Christmas dish, however, which lias not yet been
acclimatised in Paris, and that is a Pantomime. Attempts have
been made, froni time to time, to import the article, but never suc-
cessfully. The drama, in fact, in Paris, has no special Christmas
cliaracter. There are comedies and operas-bouffe, to which Parisians
may or may not take their children, though while the Vie Parisienne
exists as a so-called “ family ” journal, and is conducted as it is, it
ought surely to be possible to take French children anywhere.
The only special concession to the season is an attempt to dramatise
the whole Ardbian Nights ; for the tough old Biche aux Bois, which
has been running, more or less, for thirty or forty years, can hardly
be considered as a Christmas oifering.
The Thousand a.nd One Niglits is a clever attempt to put four
quarts of fiction into a pint pot. In three Acts and thirty-three
Scenes, lasting four hours and a half, a living panorama of all the
principal stories in the book we have agreed to call the Arabian
Nights is made to pass before us. Three of the most wonderful
dramatic stories ever discovered—Sinbad the Sailor, Aladdin, and
the Forty Thieves—have scanty justice done to them, and the French
dramatist has yet to be born who will find in any one of these pieees
enough for an evening’s entertainment. The Countess d’AuLNOY is
treated with more judgment and courtesy. So many years have
elapsed smce any “ spectacle ” worthy of the name has been seen on
the Parisian Stage, that the Thousand and One Nights, fairly
mounted, has become the piece of the day. It is not advertised on
every wall, and in frantic newspaper advertisements, as “ a gigantic-
success,” and the company engaged are not stated to be the “ greatest
comhination of talent ever brought together.” At the same time, as
it really possesses the materials of two or three Pantomimes, the
curtain, according to French theatrical custom, falls twice for twelve
or fifteen minutes during the evening. What a good theatrical
custom it is, and how thankful English audiences would be to see it
adopted for English Pantomimes. Another good French custom is
that of keeping the gin-shop out of the theatre. Here praise must
end.
The stage-mechanism is generally half a century behind the age, I
and every “ slider ” or “trap” appears to require two men with .
levers to follow on and wedge the unruly wood-work into its place.
The front of the house is probably never swept, and in my box I
found a piece of an envelope which I left there last August, while
witnessing Michel Strogoff !
A Prize Remark.
“ Distribution of prizes by Members of Parliament is becoming an institu •
tion.”—-Sir Stafford Nortlicote at Bxeter.
Sir Staeford it seems in a state of surprise is
That Members of Parliament should bestow prizes.
It is clear what they give to more fortunate elves,
They but seldom deserve, in the House, for themselves.