DOI issue:
January 5, 1884
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.17756#0012
PUNCH, OP THE LONDON CHARIVARI.
[January 5, 1884.
LETTERS TO SOME PEOPLE
About Other Peoples Business. 1. To Mr. Frederick Yokes, about Drury
Lane Pantomime. 2. To Miss Anderson, about the Gaiety. 3. To
Mr. Charles Harris, about Her Majesty’s Pantomime.
1. To Mr. Frederick Yokes.
My dear Yores,
Don’t be anxious. Drury Lane’s all right. First-rate
Pantomime, hardly ever seen a better, except Aladdin, in which you
and your sisters (hope they are all in the best of spirits) took part,—
took prominent parts, I should say. Sorry that on account of your
professional engagements elsewhere, you were unable to “meet me
at the Lane when the clock struck nine,” or rather earlier ; but I
was there, and hasten to give you the first and the best intelligence.
Your big heart will go out to Augustes Harris, as Wilson Bar-
rett’s does every night to Alaiida Eastlake, and you will rejoice
with Augustus, I know, when you hear that Cinderella is a Big
Success. It is emphatically and pre-eminently what, as you and
your sisters have often said, a Pantomime ought to be—that is. a
Children’s Pantomime—popular story simply and dramatically told,
full of movement, resplendent with glitter, with a sufficient spicing
of that broad humour and practical fun without which a mere spec-
tacular Pantomime is onlv a splendid failure.
I trembled, my dear Frederick Yokes, before the Curtain went
up after a rattling overture, “ personally conducted,”—as might be
said of Sir Arthur Sul-
livan on the exceDtional
nights (he is himself an
exceptional Knight) when
he wields the baton at
the Savoy,—by Mr. Oscar
Barrett,—“not ‘Clau-
uian ’ but another,”---
lest there should be no
Big Heads. On they
came, a whole family of
’em, with strong family
resemblance, all looking
better than ever, so
stolidly idiotic, and with
such beautiful complex-
ions, that I could not
resist applauding them
heartily, and, had I
known they were coming,
I would have showered
upon them the choicest
bouquets. From the mo-
ment I saw these Big
Heads, I felt the success
of the Pantomime was
assured.
I saw the Author, Mr. E. L. Blanchard, enter the Stalls and
courteously decline to purchase his own book, which was offered to
him by one of the neatly-attired Chambermaids, who only want a
bed-room candlestick in their hands to complete the illusion, and I
expressed to him (in pantomime of course, as he uses no other means
of communication), that the Big Heads had done the trick, and that
Cinderella was already a triumph.
The opening scene set every one applauding heartily, and the
indefatigable spirit of Miss Yictor and Mr. Harry Parker, as the
Baroness and Baron Filletteville, wTas of the greatest service to the
general “go,” both here and throughout the entire Pantomime. It
is jusfuthe very sort of Pantomime you and your family like, my
dear Yokes, as the fun is not confined to two or three people, but
there’s something for everybody, and not a moment’s cessation of
music, not a single pause in business or dialogue throughout. Fond
as you are of your joke, and a capital one it was when you first made
it, you and your family (may they live long and prosper !) would be
the last persons to act on the principle of Yokes et preeterea nil.
The proud and cruel sisters are always played by men, and this
year their representatives are Mr. Harry Hicholls'and Mr. Her-
bert Caaipbell, who act together well on the give-and-take prin-
ciple—the former, however, keeping, as he generally does, the
greater part of the. fun to himself. You, my dear Yokes, would
perhaps be rather irritated by this quiet humour, as you like an
Actor to face the audience and to speak his lines well out. I quite
agree with you; but for all this Mr. Harry Ticholls is very funny.
Cinderella herself is played by Miss Kate Yaughan, who looks
charming, and is elegance, grace, agility, and (dramatic caper-bility
combined. Her dancing is perfect of its kind ; but she is so clearly
of opinion that the Public ought to be contented with what she has
been giving them for the last six or seven years, that she does not
care about doing anything new in the dancing line, and I am sure,
my dear Frederick Yokes, you would be the first to tell her that
A Fitting Opportunity.
Mr. Aug. Harris trying it on at Drury Lane
with Cinderella—and most successfully.
the constant repetition of the same dance, the same action, and the
same fun, palls upon the public after a few years of it. Your motto,
and that of your talented family, is “ Keep moving 1 ” Mention this
to Miss Kate Yaughan, will you, if you have the hoppy-tunitv ?
But there it is. The more you give me,—I represent the Public, I
j Relieve,—the more I want; and if I have exquisite dancing by
Mile. Palladino, lines well and clearly spoken by Miss Victor and
Mr. Parker (by the way, no one says her lines better than Miss
Yaughan—when there’s a chance of getting ’em out, and attended
to, either on or off the stage on Boxing Tight), and not only metrical
lines properly delivered, but also good songs artistically sung by
Miss Kate Sullivan, is it not greedy of me, I ask myself, am I not
a Grorgibuster to demand that all these qualifications should be united
in Miss Yaughan, who is an ideal children’s Cinderella,—and this is
a great point, as you and Miss Victoria are perfectly right in always-
showing a child’s heroine just as a child would expect her to be,—
but she is so clearly out of the rough and tumble of the comic business,
and has not a place among the fairies, and only one situation which
exactly suits her—when she is gathering sticks iu the wood and
comes across the bridge and across the Prince at the same moment.
This last is a charming idyllic bit—only a bit; j ust enough, and no
more,—and the bundle of faggots Miss Yaughan carries are the only
sticks in the Drury Lane Pantomime.
A propos of sticks reminds me of hitches, and how you would have
sympathised with the Stage Manager—when one of the ponies
“specially imported and trained,” says the playbill, “for this
Pantomime,” showed how his nasty temper had been imported with
him, and how not all the training, nor all the fairies in the world
could make him move if he didn’t feel so inclined. If he does this
again, (the island this pony comes from can’t be Shetland, it must be
“ Gib ”) Cinderella should get out of her carriage and sing, “ If I had
a pony what wouldn’t go!”—but, oh, my dear Frederick Yokes,
what a lot of “ponies” do go in getting up a Christmas Panto-
mime ! You and Mr. Leader, both together representing a
“ Yolks-Lieder ” entertainment, know that a Pantomime is not to he
got up for a mere song.
But you will be anxious to know what is the Great Effect of the
Drury Lane Pantomime ? Well, it is the Grand Procession of
Fairy Tales, which includes the
Knights, in full panoply, dancing
attendance on the Seven Cham-
pions, and the entire Band of
the Forty Thieves safe and sound,
and not “ done in oil ” by Mur-
qiana, blazing away in Oriental
armour. Such a picture, full of
the most varied costumes, alive
with giants with famous big
heads, dwarfs with wonderfully-
designed masks, champions,
kings, queens, pages, courtiers,
&c., &c., I do not fancy that
even you, my dear Yokes, with
all your vast experience, will
remember having seen for some
considerable time.
All the Fairy Tales came on
in excellent order, every set
complete except one, and that
was Aladdin's lot, which would
have been perfect hut for the
regretted absence of Abanazar
the Magician, with the tray of
Lamps. I saw him arrive after-
wards, and try to sneak in, as if
he belonged to the party of one of
the Seven Champions of Christendom ; hut they wouldn’t have him
at any price, and the unpunctual Magician was hustled off the top of
the steps, and shoved away somewhere at the hack, whence he never
subsequently emerged. It will teach that Magician to be in time
another night.
This being the climax, they ought to get to the transformation
scene as soon as possible; but they didn’t on Boxing Tight; and I
am sure that, were you behind the scenes here, you would have the
“ business ” in the Black Castle scene cut down to just as much as
might serve for the arrangement of Mr. AY. R. Beverley’s Home of
Light and Love, which, considered by itself, and quite apart from
the Pantomime story, is one of the most effective and most artistic
spectacular tableaux that even he has ever done.
Then, after we had said good-bye to all the characters (Cinderella
herself has almost disappeared since the Kitchen scene), there was a
lot of dancing by nobodies—or rather, by ahle-bodies—and by
Mile. Palladino, and then, when this was all over, and the groups
were all formed, and when the Cupids had all scrambled into their
places, and members of the Guards’ band, or of the orchestra, dressed
like Druids (why Druids at the end of Cinderella ?), blowing, not
Mr. Herbert Campbell and Miss Dot
Mario, illustrating—Dot and carry
one.
[January 5, 1884.
LETTERS TO SOME PEOPLE
About Other Peoples Business. 1. To Mr. Frederick Yokes, about Drury
Lane Pantomime. 2. To Miss Anderson, about the Gaiety. 3. To
Mr. Charles Harris, about Her Majesty’s Pantomime.
1. To Mr. Frederick Yokes.
My dear Yores,
Don’t be anxious. Drury Lane’s all right. First-rate
Pantomime, hardly ever seen a better, except Aladdin, in which you
and your sisters (hope they are all in the best of spirits) took part,—
took prominent parts, I should say. Sorry that on account of your
professional engagements elsewhere, you were unable to “meet me
at the Lane when the clock struck nine,” or rather earlier ; but I
was there, and hasten to give you the first and the best intelligence.
Your big heart will go out to Augustes Harris, as Wilson Bar-
rett’s does every night to Alaiida Eastlake, and you will rejoice
with Augustus, I know, when you hear that Cinderella is a Big
Success. It is emphatically and pre-eminently what, as you and
your sisters have often said, a Pantomime ought to be—that is. a
Children’s Pantomime—popular story simply and dramatically told,
full of movement, resplendent with glitter, with a sufficient spicing
of that broad humour and practical fun without which a mere spec-
tacular Pantomime is onlv a splendid failure.
I trembled, my dear Frederick Yokes, before the Curtain went
up after a rattling overture, “ personally conducted,”—as might be
said of Sir Arthur Sul-
livan on the exceDtional
nights (he is himself an
exceptional Knight) when
he wields the baton at
the Savoy,—by Mr. Oscar
Barrett,—“not ‘Clau-
uian ’ but another,”---
lest there should be no
Big Heads. On they
came, a whole family of
’em, with strong family
resemblance, all looking
better than ever, so
stolidly idiotic, and with
such beautiful complex-
ions, that I could not
resist applauding them
heartily, and, had I
known they were coming,
I would have showered
upon them the choicest
bouquets. From the mo-
ment I saw these Big
Heads, I felt the success
of the Pantomime was
assured.
I saw the Author, Mr. E. L. Blanchard, enter the Stalls and
courteously decline to purchase his own book, which was offered to
him by one of the neatly-attired Chambermaids, who only want a
bed-room candlestick in their hands to complete the illusion, and I
expressed to him (in pantomime of course, as he uses no other means
of communication), that the Big Heads had done the trick, and that
Cinderella was already a triumph.
The opening scene set every one applauding heartily, and the
indefatigable spirit of Miss Yictor and Mr. Harry Parker, as the
Baroness and Baron Filletteville, wTas of the greatest service to the
general “go,” both here and throughout the entire Pantomime. It
is jusfuthe very sort of Pantomime you and your family like, my
dear Yokes, as the fun is not confined to two or three people, but
there’s something for everybody, and not a moment’s cessation of
music, not a single pause in business or dialogue throughout. Fond
as you are of your joke, and a capital one it was when you first made
it, you and your family (may they live long and prosper !) would be
the last persons to act on the principle of Yokes et preeterea nil.
The proud and cruel sisters are always played by men, and this
year their representatives are Mr. Harry Hicholls'and Mr. Her-
bert Caaipbell, who act together well on the give-and-take prin-
ciple—the former, however, keeping, as he generally does, the
greater part of the. fun to himself. You, my dear Yokes, would
perhaps be rather irritated by this quiet humour, as you like an
Actor to face the audience and to speak his lines well out. I quite
agree with you; but for all this Mr. Harry Ticholls is very funny.
Cinderella herself is played by Miss Kate Yaughan, who looks
charming, and is elegance, grace, agility, and (dramatic caper-bility
combined. Her dancing is perfect of its kind ; but she is so clearly
of opinion that the Public ought to be contented with what she has
been giving them for the last six or seven years, that she does not
care about doing anything new in the dancing line, and I am sure,
my dear Frederick Yokes, you would be the first to tell her that
A Fitting Opportunity.
Mr. Aug. Harris trying it on at Drury Lane
with Cinderella—and most successfully.
the constant repetition of the same dance, the same action, and the
same fun, palls upon the public after a few years of it. Your motto,
and that of your talented family, is “ Keep moving 1 ” Mention this
to Miss Kate Yaughan, will you, if you have the hoppy-tunitv ?
But there it is. The more you give me,—I represent the Public, I
j Relieve,—the more I want; and if I have exquisite dancing by
Mile. Palladino, lines well and clearly spoken by Miss Victor and
Mr. Parker (by the way, no one says her lines better than Miss
Yaughan—when there’s a chance of getting ’em out, and attended
to, either on or off the stage on Boxing Tight), and not only metrical
lines properly delivered, but also good songs artistically sung by
Miss Kate Sullivan, is it not greedy of me, I ask myself, am I not
a Grorgibuster to demand that all these qualifications should be united
in Miss Yaughan, who is an ideal children’s Cinderella,—and this is
a great point, as you and Miss Victoria are perfectly right in always-
showing a child’s heroine just as a child would expect her to be,—
but she is so clearly out of the rough and tumble of the comic business,
and has not a place among the fairies, and only one situation which
exactly suits her—when she is gathering sticks iu the wood and
comes across the bridge and across the Prince at the same moment.
This last is a charming idyllic bit—only a bit; j ust enough, and no
more,—and the bundle of faggots Miss Yaughan carries are the only
sticks in the Drury Lane Pantomime.
A propos of sticks reminds me of hitches, and how you would have
sympathised with the Stage Manager—when one of the ponies
“specially imported and trained,” says the playbill, “for this
Pantomime,” showed how his nasty temper had been imported with
him, and how not all the training, nor all the fairies in the world
could make him move if he didn’t feel so inclined. If he does this
again, (the island this pony comes from can’t be Shetland, it must be
“ Gib ”) Cinderella should get out of her carriage and sing, “ If I had
a pony what wouldn’t go!”—but, oh, my dear Frederick Yokes,
what a lot of “ponies” do go in getting up a Christmas Panto-
mime ! You and Mr. Leader, both together representing a
“ Yolks-Lieder ” entertainment, know that a Pantomime is not to he
got up for a mere song.
But you will be anxious to know what is the Great Effect of the
Drury Lane Pantomime ? Well, it is the Grand Procession of
Fairy Tales, which includes the
Knights, in full panoply, dancing
attendance on the Seven Cham-
pions, and the entire Band of
the Forty Thieves safe and sound,
and not “ done in oil ” by Mur-
qiana, blazing away in Oriental
armour. Such a picture, full of
the most varied costumes, alive
with giants with famous big
heads, dwarfs with wonderfully-
designed masks, champions,
kings, queens, pages, courtiers,
&c., &c., I do not fancy that
even you, my dear Yokes, with
all your vast experience, will
remember having seen for some
considerable time.
All the Fairy Tales came on
in excellent order, every set
complete except one, and that
was Aladdin's lot, which would
have been perfect hut for the
regretted absence of Abanazar
the Magician, with the tray of
Lamps. I saw him arrive after-
wards, and try to sneak in, as if
he belonged to the party of one of
the Seven Champions of Christendom ; hut they wouldn’t have him
at any price, and the unpunctual Magician was hustled off the top of
the steps, and shoved away somewhere at the hack, whence he never
subsequently emerged. It will teach that Magician to be in time
another night.
This being the climax, they ought to get to the transformation
scene as soon as possible; but they didn’t on Boxing Tight; and I
am sure that, were you behind the scenes here, you would have the
“ business ” in the Black Castle scene cut down to just as much as
might serve for the arrangement of Mr. AY. R. Beverley’s Home of
Light and Love, which, considered by itself, and quite apart from
the Pantomime story, is one of the most effective and most artistic
spectacular tableaux that even he has ever done.
Then, after we had said good-bye to all the characters (Cinderella
herself has almost disappeared since the Kitchen scene), there was a
lot of dancing by nobodies—or rather, by ahle-bodies—and by
Mile. Palladino, and then, when this was all over, and the groups
were all formed, and when the Cupids had all scrambled into their
places, and members of the Guards’ band, or of the orchestra, dressed
like Druids (why Druids at the end of Cinderella ?), blowing, not
Mr. Herbert Campbell and Miss Dot
Mario, illustrating—Dot and carry
one.