DOI issue:
May 6, 1882
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.17752#0216
May 6, 1882.]
PUNCII, OR THE LONDON CHAEIVAEl.
209
O DETTE! OR VERY MUCH BORROWED !
Fiest, Odette is not an Irish piece, though Tlie O’ Debt would
certainly sound suggestive of No Itent. Mr. Bancroft need not
have trouhled himself to go to M. Saedotj for this play, since he
could have got a far better one turned out for him by any English
Dramatist who mightnot be above acting on M. Sardou’s sartorian
motto of “ Grents’ own materials earefully made up.” For Odette
recalls to the playgoer’s mind Fiammina (anglicised long ago by
Palgkave Simpso.v as Broken Ties) Fernande, Le Feu au Couvent,
La Cle, Les Grands Fnfants, and one or two others. Suchamixture
doesn’t say much for M. Sakdou’s originality, hut a great deal for
his ingenuity. Perhaps, too, if the great man has condescended to
study English, he may some years ago have read Mr. A’Beckett’s
Magazine Story, of which a successful dramatic version has been
reeently produced at the Royalty.
The spark of interest awakened in the First Act fizzles out before
the third is over ; in the fourth, a galvanic shock would be required
to arouse the audienee, and as there is nothing in the dialogue,
even when given inteUigibly by two of the principals, and nothing
in the situations or in the acting to eleetrify anybody, the audience
is not shocked—though it stood a good chanee of being so occasion-
aUy,-—by the dramatist’s spasmodic attempts to enUst their sympa-
thies for the wrong person.
ACT I.—Opening; French servants playing cards, and talking un-
inteUigibly. English servant trying to get a laugh by yawning and
faUing. Mdme. Modj eska as Odette, or Lady Henry Treverne, asks
a few friends in to tea—“ she always came home to tea ”—“ after
the Opera is over.” Uninteresting conversation reUeved by her
reading a message from her husband, and the friends are dismissed.
She stealthily unlatches a side-door, and exit to bed. Her
husband unexpectedly returns with his brother, Lord Artliur,
and brings back one of the tea-party, Philip Fden, whom he had
met on the door-step. Suddenly Lord Henry hears a step in the
passage outside the unlocked door, whereat ali three men start and
hecome apparently panie-stricken.
“ The door is unlocked! ” exclaims the horrified Lord' Ilenry
Bancroft ; “ that door, too, which I had always told ’em most par-
ticularly to keep fastened.”
Why had he given these orders ? “ Is it the jam-cupboard? ” the
audience ask themselves, and has his Uttle daughter Eva (alluded to
previously as being unwell) been getting at the sweets ? Why
doesn’t the stupid idiot open the door and see who it is ? No one
suggests this very natural expedient. No, the three nervous men are
too paralysed with fear to suggest anything ; they have lost their
heads; and the situatioa, which one touch of intelligent stage-
management might have made reasonable, is simply ridiculous.
Enter, through the jam-cupboard, Prince Troubitzkoy, a Russian
Slyboots, who is Odette's lover. This very risky part was cautiously
played by Mr. Smedley. His sneaking in, and his sneaking out after
being caught by Lord Henry, were two of the best bits in the piece;
for it is a piece in “ bits,” and the good bits are badly put together.
Odette's faithlessness having been proved, Lord Henry has his
chUd conveyed to Lord Arthur's room, and then, with a playful
reminiscence of his boyhood’s happier years, about Christmas time,
he hides behind his wife’s door, receding as she opens it (like the
immortal Mr. Pickwick in the garden of the boarding-sehool),
but not lying down so as to trip her up on the threshold— (a cul-
pable omission on his part—and yet they call this piece carefully
rehearsed!)—and then, as she stretches out her hand to welcome
Troubitzkoy (who has long ago
disappeared. into the recesses
of the mysterious jam-cup-
board—but without the usual
business of smashing the crock-
ery), Lord Henry
seizes her, she turns
towards him, he turns
on her, scream, whoop
tableau! .... But
not Curtain, —no, only
a long and weari-
some scene, in which
Mdme. Mod.jeska is
alternately uninteUi-
gible and admirable.
“ You are stiU my
wife,” says Lord
Henry, finishing a Lache et Kelache.
duU but highly conscientious tirade against divorce ; ‘ ‘ but out you
go. Allez!"
To which Odette's reply—there is a great deal of French spoken
in the piece—would naturally be, “ AUez-vous promener ! I don’t
hudge a step. Consult a solicitor ! ” And Lord Henry would have
had to telegraph off to his soUcitor in London—fetching him out
Offered and Taken; or, Nareisse and
Johnny in the Demon Gambolling
House.
of his bed at about 2 a.m. to wire back six-and-eightpennyworth of
opinion to Paris. However, this course is not adopted. He won’t
allow her to see her child— and so Eva becomes to Odette ‘ ‘ the girl
I left behind me”—and exit Lady Henry after shrieking out,
“ Lache ! ” at her husband, which unparliamentary expression quite
shuts up the unhappy Lord Ilenry, and Mr. Banceoei coUapses, in
a heap, like a fantoccini doll with its strings broken. End of Act.
Considerable applause from the Gallery consequent upon Mdme.
Modjeska having been understood to say, “ Lush ! ” which, whether
considered from a temperance or intemperance point of view, was
advice that exactly coincided with the intentions of the majority at
that moment,—at least such was the explanation of the plaudits
given by an eminent scholar to whose authority we bow.
ACT II.—Nothing particular. Mrs. Banckoft little and good.
ACT III.—Gambling Saloon. \_Fernande and
La Cle.~] Remindsus of Act II., Artful Cards,
only without Mr. Toole and the trombone.
Mr. Pineeo’s imitation of Mr. Edwaed Teeey
recognisabie_, but not humorous; he has a
row with his wife, and insists on joining the
“madding crowd” at baccarat in
the back-arat-room. The hit of
the piece is in this Act, and it
is made by Mr. Beookeield as
Narcisse. Clever, but exagge-
rated. He looked, on the first
night, as if he had mistaken the
pieee for a Burlesque, and had
made up accordingly. The mis-
takewas pardonable; and a dance
between him and Mr. Akthuk
Cecil, with a good exit, would
have brought the house down. It
is not too late to introduce it now.
Philip Eden, very well played by Mr. Conway, wants to talk alone
with Odette, so all the company retire behind folding-doors, and at
intervals make such curious noises that the audience begin to
imagine they are playing some childish game of The Zoological
Gardens in the hack drawing-room, and that one of the party,
perhaps Mr.
Stoney Stkat-
fokd, is giving'
imitations of
Jumbo. This
leads up to a
scene between
Lord Henry and
his wife, which
would be most
tedious and un-
interesting, but
for Mr. Ban-
ckoet’s happily
conceived idea of
throwing in some
admirable imita-
tions of the late
Mr. Buckstone’s
delivery, with an occasional sly touch of Mr. Ikving’s action : this,
coupled with the curiosity of the audience to know what Mdme. Mod-
jeska was talking about, considerably helped the concluding portion
of what, after all said and. done, must be pronounced a wearisome Act.
ACT IY.— Odette meets the girl she left behind her, who plays
to her a cheerful composition on the organ, of which her father is,
she says, very fond, a fact that speaks highly for his taste, as the
air, being hopelessly dull, must, of course, be strictly elassical;
then comes another long scene, in which Mr. Banckoft has a very
fine thinking part, when he is probably considering whether he
wouldn’t have been a happier man if he had never heard of such
a person as Sardou, if he had cancelled Mdme. Modjeska’s engage-
ment, and gone on for the Season with Mrs. Langtry, who had
gone on improving, and was at all events intelligible in Rohertsonian
Comedy, unt.il The Overland Route could be produced.
Old Songs Illustrated—“ Of what is the Old Man think-
ing ? ” and “ The Girl she left behind Her.”
The Budget.—The proposition for raising the taxes on carriages
shows that the Premier is aeting for the wheelfare of the country.
Won’t every four-wheeler be a growler now ! No one would have
been surprised at the idea had it been put forward by the Ex-Chan-
cellor Bicycling Bob. But that it should have come from W. E. G.,
the People’s Wheeliam ! Oh ! Yours, truly, Y. Haecoukt.
Make Bass a Beeronet by all means; and make one of the
Allsopks a Knight of Malta.
PUNCII, OR THE LONDON CHAEIVAEl.
209
O DETTE! OR VERY MUCH BORROWED !
Fiest, Odette is not an Irish piece, though Tlie O’ Debt would
certainly sound suggestive of No Itent. Mr. Bancroft need not
have trouhled himself to go to M. Saedotj for this play, since he
could have got a far better one turned out for him by any English
Dramatist who mightnot be above acting on M. Sardou’s sartorian
motto of “ Grents’ own materials earefully made up.” For Odette
recalls to the playgoer’s mind Fiammina (anglicised long ago by
Palgkave Simpso.v as Broken Ties) Fernande, Le Feu au Couvent,
La Cle, Les Grands Fnfants, and one or two others. Suchamixture
doesn’t say much for M. Sakdou’s originality, hut a great deal for
his ingenuity. Perhaps, too, if the great man has condescended to
study English, he may some years ago have read Mr. A’Beckett’s
Magazine Story, of which a successful dramatic version has been
reeently produced at the Royalty.
The spark of interest awakened in the First Act fizzles out before
the third is over ; in the fourth, a galvanic shock would be required
to arouse the audienee, and as there is nothing in the dialogue,
even when given inteUigibly by two of the principals, and nothing
in the situations or in the acting to eleetrify anybody, the audience
is not shocked—though it stood a good chanee of being so occasion-
aUy,-—by the dramatist’s spasmodic attempts to enUst their sympa-
thies for the wrong person.
ACT I.—Opening; French servants playing cards, and talking un-
inteUigibly. English servant trying to get a laugh by yawning and
faUing. Mdme. Modj eska as Odette, or Lady Henry Treverne, asks
a few friends in to tea—“ she always came home to tea ”—“ after
the Opera is over.” Uninteresting conversation reUeved by her
reading a message from her husband, and the friends are dismissed.
She stealthily unlatches a side-door, and exit to bed. Her
husband unexpectedly returns with his brother, Lord Artliur,
and brings back one of the tea-party, Philip Fden, whom he had
met on the door-step. Suddenly Lord Henry hears a step in the
passage outside the unlocked door, whereat ali three men start and
hecome apparently panie-stricken.
“ The door is unlocked! ” exclaims the horrified Lord' Ilenry
Bancroft ; “ that door, too, which I had always told ’em most par-
ticularly to keep fastened.”
Why had he given these orders ? “ Is it the jam-cupboard? ” the
audience ask themselves, and has his Uttle daughter Eva (alluded to
previously as being unwell) been getting at the sweets ? Why
doesn’t the stupid idiot open the door and see who it is ? No one
suggests this very natural expedient. No, the three nervous men are
too paralysed with fear to suggest anything ; they have lost their
heads; and the situatioa, which one touch of intelligent stage-
management might have made reasonable, is simply ridiculous.
Enter, through the jam-cupboard, Prince Troubitzkoy, a Russian
Slyboots, who is Odette's lover. This very risky part was cautiously
played by Mr. Smedley. His sneaking in, and his sneaking out after
being caught by Lord Henry, were two of the best bits in the piece;
for it is a piece in “ bits,” and the good bits are badly put together.
Odette's faithlessness having been proved, Lord Henry has his
chUd conveyed to Lord Arthur's room, and then, with a playful
reminiscence of his boyhood’s happier years, about Christmas time,
he hides behind his wife’s door, receding as she opens it (like the
immortal Mr. Pickwick in the garden of the boarding-sehool),
but not lying down so as to trip her up on the threshold— (a cul-
pable omission on his part—and yet they call this piece carefully
rehearsed!)—and then, as she stretches out her hand to welcome
Troubitzkoy (who has long ago
disappeared. into the recesses
of the mysterious jam-cup-
board—but without the usual
business of smashing the crock-
ery), Lord Henry
seizes her, she turns
towards him, he turns
on her, scream, whoop
tableau! .... But
not Curtain, —no, only
a long and weari-
some scene, in which
Mdme. Mod.jeska is
alternately uninteUi-
gible and admirable.
“ You are stiU my
wife,” says Lord
Henry, finishing a Lache et Kelache.
duU but highly conscientious tirade against divorce ; ‘ ‘ but out you
go. Allez!"
To which Odette's reply—there is a great deal of French spoken
in the piece—would naturally be, “ AUez-vous promener ! I don’t
hudge a step. Consult a solicitor ! ” And Lord Henry would have
had to telegraph off to his soUcitor in London—fetching him out
Offered and Taken; or, Nareisse and
Johnny in the Demon Gambolling
House.
of his bed at about 2 a.m. to wire back six-and-eightpennyworth of
opinion to Paris. However, this course is not adopted. He won’t
allow her to see her child— and so Eva becomes to Odette ‘ ‘ the girl
I left behind me”—and exit Lady Henry after shrieking out,
“ Lache ! ” at her husband, which unparliamentary expression quite
shuts up the unhappy Lord Ilenry, and Mr. Banceoei coUapses, in
a heap, like a fantoccini doll with its strings broken. End of Act.
Considerable applause from the Gallery consequent upon Mdme.
Modjeska having been understood to say, “ Lush ! ” which, whether
considered from a temperance or intemperance point of view, was
advice that exactly coincided with the intentions of the majority at
that moment,—at least such was the explanation of the plaudits
given by an eminent scholar to whose authority we bow.
ACT II.—Nothing particular. Mrs. Banckoft little and good.
ACT III.—Gambling Saloon. \_Fernande and
La Cle.~] Remindsus of Act II., Artful Cards,
only without Mr. Toole and the trombone.
Mr. Pineeo’s imitation of Mr. Edwaed Teeey
recognisabie_, but not humorous; he has a
row with his wife, and insists on joining the
“madding crowd” at baccarat in
the back-arat-room. The hit of
the piece is in this Act, and it
is made by Mr. Beookeield as
Narcisse. Clever, but exagge-
rated. He looked, on the first
night, as if he had mistaken the
pieee for a Burlesque, and had
made up accordingly. The mis-
takewas pardonable; and a dance
between him and Mr. Akthuk
Cecil, with a good exit, would
have brought the house down. It
is not too late to introduce it now.
Philip Eden, very well played by Mr. Conway, wants to talk alone
with Odette, so all the company retire behind folding-doors, and at
intervals make such curious noises that the audience begin to
imagine they are playing some childish game of The Zoological
Gardens in the hack drawing-room, and that one of the party,
perhaps Mr.
Stoney Stkat-
fokd, is giving'
imitations of
Jumbo. This
leads up to a
scene between
Lord Henry and
his wife, which
would be most
tedious and un-
interesting, but
for Mr. Ban-
ckoet’s happily
conceived idea of
throwing in some
admirable imita-
tions of the late
Mr. Buckstone’s
delivery, with an occasional sly touch of Mr. Ikving’s action : this,
coupled with the curiosity of the audience to know what Mdme. Mod-
jeska was talking about, considerably helped the concluding portion
of what, after all said and. done, must be pronounced a wearisome Act.
ACT IY.— Odette meets the girl she left behind her, who plays
to her a cheerful composition on the organ, of which her father is,
she says, very fond, a fact that speaks highly for his taste, as the
air, being hopelessly dull, must, of course, be strictly elassical;
then comes another long scene, in which Mr. Banckoft has a very
fine thinking part, when he is probably considering whether he
wouldn’t have been a happier man if he had never heard of such
a person as Sardou, if he had cancelled Mdme. Modjeska’s engage-
ment, and gone on for the Season with Mrs. Langtry, who had
gone on improving, and was at all events intelligible in Rohertsonian
Comedy, unt.il The Overland Route could be produced.
Old Songs Illustrated—“ Of what is the Old Man think-
ing ? ” and “ The Girl she left behind Her.”
The Budget.—The proposition for raising the taxes on carriages
shows that the Premier is aeting for the wheelfare of the country.
Won’t every four-wheeler be a growler now ! No one would have
been surprised at the idea had it been put forward by the Ex-Chan-
cellor Bicycling Bob. But that it should have come from W. E. G.,
the People’s Wheeliam ! Oh ! Yours, truly, Y. Haecoukt.
Make Bass a Beeronet by all means; and make one of the
Allsopks a Knight of Malta.