DOI Heft:
June 7, 1884
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.17756#0270
June 7, 1884.]
265
PUNCH, OP THE LONDON CHAEIVAPL
SHAKSPEARE AT SOUTH KENSINGTON.
(A Legend of the Chelsea Hospital for Women.)
The Note taker stood in the centre of the Royal Albert Hall. It
was nearly the last day of May—to be quite accurate, the 29th—and
three o’clock in the afternoon. There was a flourish of trumpets,
and a rather retiring person made a little deprecatory speech, and
declared “ the Show open.” Then a Procession was organised, which
included representatives of Science, Literature, and Art. The Pro-
cession passed by several Stalls in which the scene-painter and the
fancy-bazaar furnisher had apparently striven for mastery. The
titles of eleven of Shakspeare’s Plays were written up above these
Stalls. The Note-taker followed the Procession. It was then that
he observed that a Gentleman wearing the costume of the Elizabethan
era, was walking beside him. He was rather surprised at this, but,
on consideration, came to the conclusion that the masquerader must
have arrived too late to get into the group allotted to him.
“ Very pretty sight,” observed the Note-taker, courteously.
“ Methinks it is grotesque,” was the reply.
The Note-taker felt a trifle annoyed that his companion should
attempt to adopt the phraseology of the ancient time. The quaint
expressions sounded like verbal puzzles. Still, he could not but
| confess that his companion seemed quite at home amongst them.
“ This is not so bad,” said the Note-taker, as the Procession
stopped before a Stall devoted to Hamlet and other fancy articles.
“ I like not Ophelia. Seemingly, she hath been drowned,” was the
rather surly response.
A tableau devoted to the Merchant of Venice, followed. The Note-
taker glanced at the programme, and found that six of the characters
were represented by persons rejoicing in the honoured name of Cox.
“ Quite a nice little party, the talented Cox Family,” he observed,
with a kindly smile.
“’Twere better spelt they their name with the ‘ e ’ final. Nay,
stay—here is one goodly Gentleman—he who jdays the part of
Salarino—set down as ‘Philip Coxe, Esq.,’ with the additional
vowel.” And then the Individual in Costume asked if Nerissa
was really wearing spectacles ?
“No, I think not,” replied the Note-taker, “ She may possibly
possess a ‘ pinch-nose ’ (to translate French info English), but nothing
more. But what do you think of Shylock f ”
“ Feeble,” was the not too complimentary answer.
The Procession passed on, and paused before a representation of
the Winter's Tale and Measure for Measure. In the first, the
Hermione of Mrs. Coghlan McHardy caused some amusement;
and in the last, Miss Leyland, by the choice of her costume, testified
to her thorough capability of distinguishing the Beautiful in Art—
everywhere.
And now the Note-taker and his companion came to a Stall repre-
senting a Scene from King John, and both gave way to uncontrollable
fits of laughter. They certainly had some cause for their merriment.
The Archduke of Austria, wearing his armour and leopard’s skin,
had not neglected to provide himself with an eyeglass ; and a herald
in the foreground was also extremely funny. The wigs and false
moustaches of the Actors were again no doubt intended to promote
amusement. But perhaps the gem of the quaint collection was an
extremely genial “tragedy queen” (intended either to represent
Eleanor or Constance), who sat in the centre of the group, beaming
with the greatest possible amiability. In the background, serving
as an admirable foil to.the “ tragedy queen’s” evident good-nature,
stood a truculent-looking Cardinal, cursing from the very bottom of
his heart the world in general, and the characters in that especial
group in particular. In the tableau representing a scene from
Richard the Third, a “tragedy queen” also smiled, and. nodded
with much cordiality.
“ 0 Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo ? ” was all the
Individual in Costume had to say when the Procession paused in front
of a group containing several individuals in early Italian dresses.
“I am not surprised to observe now that I have seen their expo-
nents,” added the Note-taker, sententiously, “that the parts of
Friar Lawrence and Juliet are filled by a Gentleman and his wife.”
The Procession now hastily passed by scenes from Macbeth,
The Merry Wives of Windsor, and As You Like It, remarkable for
i incompleteness of detail, and then the Audience and the Masqueraders
mingled together.
“ What hast thou in thy hand ? ” asked the Individual in Costume.
“ The Shakspearean Show- Book,” replied the Note-taker, handing
a handsome-looking oblong volume (for which he had paid half'-a-
crown) to his companion.
“ A goodly tome,” said the Elizabethan, turning over the leaves.
“ The pictures please me much.. But what is this ? ” And he pointed,
j with much contempt, to some lines printed in such a manner as to
suggest that they were to be taken for poetry.
“ ‘ Oh, beautiful star with the crimson mouth ! ’ ” read the Note-
taker. “ Suppose that the heavenly orb must have been eating
black-currant jam—very quaint! And here again—‘0 ship that shakes
on the desolate sea! 0 ship with the wet white sail put in, put in to
the port to me, For my love and I would go to the land where the
daffodils blow ! ’ What an extremely injudicious choice of a convey-
ance ! What a bad passage they will have on a ship that sha.kes so
terribly that even its sails can’t escape a ducking ! ”
“And here,” said the Individual in Costume, “‘0 rapturous bird
with the low sweet note, 0 bird that sits on the spray.’ Methinks
the rapturous and vulgar or low bird—for hath he not a ‘ low note
might find a more convenient resting-place ! I see the name of the
writer is one Oscar Wilde—who is he ? ”
“ I do not know,” replied the Note-taker.
And then the two companions wandered hither and thither. They
listened to Shakspearian music, and visited a Shakspearian Museum.
The relics in the latter seemed to give the Individual in Costume
much pleasure, and he had a good deal to say a bout many of them.
“ Fear not,” said the Elizabethan at last, “ but I am going to fade
away.”
“ Fade away! ” exclaimed the Note-taker.
“ Yes. But, before I go, I would say that I do not think that my
name has been taken in vain if it has benefited that most excellent
charity, the Chelsea Hospital for Women.”
“ Your name ?” echoed the Note-taker, surprised at his companion
su ddenly abandoning his old style of phraseology.
“Yes; I speak in plain English, because I wish to be clearly
understood. Cheques may be sent to the Hospital Account at the
London and County Bank, Yictoria Street. As I said more than three
hundred years ago, ‘ ’Twere good you do so much for charity.’ ”
“Three hundred years ago!” gasped the Note-taker. “Why,
who are you ? ”
There was an empty space where the Elizabethan had been stand-
ing. But from every quarter of the Hall, as it comes from every
quarter of the globe, came the answer,--
“ William Shakspeare.”
SPORTING INTELLIGENCE.
(From Our Own City Sporting Prophet.)
That the prophecy I sent to you last week should have turned out
to be the correct card, of course astonished nobody, as it does so
happen that I have always been right since
I first received my present lucrative appoint-
ment ; but the singular fact that I am the only
Prophet who was right, or nearly right, is so
extraordinary, that I may perhaps be pardoned
for alluding to it.
No one Prophet, except Mr. Punch's own
infallible Prophet, spotted Harvester. What
cared I that he was said to have gone all wrong,
when I knew full well, by my unerring deduc-
tion, that he would go all right. No, confident
in my own unwavering judgment, I quietly
booked just a few hundreds for places for my
selected three, Harvester, Adelaide, and Talis-
man—the IS. A. T. of my prophecy—and just one quiet monkey,
at 20 to 1, about Harvester, and returned to Town with the calm
conscience of a man who feels that he has tried hard to befriend his
race, while at the same time not forgetting what is due to his own
unerring sagacity.
If there be any gratitude in men, and especially in sporting men,
the largesse sent to 85, Fleet Street, on this occasion, will probably
be larger than usual. Capel Courteous.
A Dark Event at the
Races.
PERILOUS PICNICS.
The head of a picnic party of nineteen persons complains, in a
letter to the Times, of a somewhat arbitrary rule existing in Bushey
Park. He says, that just as they were about to enjoy their luncheon,
a stalwart Policeman appeared on the scene, and informed them
that “no picnic party was) allowed to consist of more than ten
persons, and that they must either divide or break up entirely.”
This, which might be an admirable regulation in the House of Com-
mons, is scarcely in harmony with picnicular enjoyment. One would
like to know how far the parties of ten must be divided. Whether a |
party of ten might dispose themselves under each tree, whether only
ten picnickers are allowed in the Park at a time ? Especially we
should like to know if the Policeman in question was a practical
joker, and whether the Complainant offered him anything to drink ?
Pleasing Puzzle for Certain- Suitors who attended the
High Court oe Justice on the Derby Day.— Question.—Where
were two of Her Majesty’s Judges on the 28th of May, 1884 F
Answer.—At Epsom.
What the Dynamitards get eos their Pains.—Broken Glass!
265
PUNCH, OP THE LONDON CHAEIVAPL
SHAKSPEARE AT SOUTH KENSINGTON.
(A Legend of the Chelsea Hospital for Women.)
The Note taker stood in the centre of the Royal Albert Hall. It
was nearly the last day of May—to be quite accurate, the 29th—and
three o’clock in the afternoon. There was a flourish of trumpets,
and a rather retiring person made a little deprecatory speech, and
declared “ the Show open.” Then a Procession was organised, which
included representatives of Science, Literature, and Art. The Pro-
cession passed by several Stalls in which the scene-painter and the
fancy-bazaar furnisher had apparently striven for mastery. The
titles of eleven of Shakspeare’s Plays were written up above these
Stalls. The Note-taker followed the Procession. It was then that
he observed that a Gentleman wearing the costume of the Elizabethan
era, was walking beside him. He was rather surprised at this, but,
on consideration, came to the conclusion that the masquerader must
have arrived too late to get into the group allotted to him.
“ Very pretty sight,” observed the Note-taker, courteously.
“ Methinks it is grotesque,” was the reply.
The Note-taker felt a trifle annoyed that his companion should
attempt to adopt the phraseology of the ancient time. The quaint
expressions sounded like verbal puzzles. Still, he could not but
| confess that his companion seemed quite at home amongst them.
“ This is not so bad,” said the Note-taker, as the Procession
stopped before a Stall devoted to Hamlet and other fancy articles.
“ I like not Ophelia. Seemingly, she hath been drowned,” was the
rather surly response.
A tableau devoted to the Merchant of Venice, followed. The Note-
taker glanced at the programme, and found that six of the characters
were represented by persons rejoicing in the honoured name of Cox.
“ Quite a nice little party, the talented Cox Family,” he observed,
with a kindly smile.
“’Twere better spelt they their name with the ‘ e ’ final. Nay,
stay—here is one goodly Gentleman—he who jdays the part of
Salarino—set down as ‘Philip Coxe, Esq.,’ with the additional
vowel.” And then the Individual in Costume asked if Nerissa
was really wearing spectacles ?
“No, I think not,” replied the Note-taker, “ She may possibly
possess a ‘ pinch-nose ’ (to translate French info English), but nothing
more. But what do you think of Shylock f ”
“ Feeble,” was the not too complimentary answer.
The Procession passed on, and paused before a representation of
the Winter's Tale and Measure for Measure. In the first, the
Hermione of Mrs. Coghlan McHardy caused some amusement;
and in the last, Miss Leyland, by the choice of her costume, testified
to her thorough capability of distinguishing the Beautiful in Art—
everywhere.
And now the Note-taker and his companion came to a Stall repre-
senting a Scene from King John, and both gave way to uncontrollable
fits of laughter. They certainly had some cause for their merriment.
The Archduke of Austria, wearing his armour and leopard’s skin,
had not neglected to provide himself with an eyeglass ; and a herald
in the foreground was also extremely funny. The wigs and false
moustaches of the Actors were again no doubt intended to promote
amusement. But perhaps the gem of the quaint collection was an
extremely genial “tragedy queen” (intended either to represent
Eleanor or Constance), who sat in the centre of the group, beaming
with the greatest possible amiability. In the background, serving
as an admirable foil to.the “ tragedy queen’s” evident good-nature,
stood a truculent-looking Cardinal, cursing from the very bottom of
his heart the world in general, and the characters in that especial
group in particular. In the tableau representing a scene from
Richard the Third, a “tragedy queen” also smiled, and. nodded
with much cordiality.
“ 0 Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo ? ” was all the
Individual in Costume had to say when the Procession paused in front
of a group containing several individuals in early Italian dresses.
“I am not surprised to observe now that I have seen their expo-
nents,” added the Note-taker, sententiously, “that the parts of
Friar Lawrence and Juliet are filled by a Gentleman and his wife.”
The Procession now hastily passed by scenes from Macbeth,
The Merry Wives of Windsor, and As You Like It, remarkable for
i incompleteness of detail, and then the Audience and the Masqueraders
mingled together.
“ What hast thou in thy hand ? ” asked the Individual in Costume.
“ The Shakspearean Show- Book,” replied the Note-taker, handing
a handsome-looking oblong volume (for which he had paid half'-a-
crown) to his companion.
“ A goodly tome,” said the Elizabethan, turning over the leaves.
“ The pictures please me much.. But what is this ? ” And he pointed,
j with much contempt, to some lines printed in such a manner as to
suggest that they were to be taken for poetry.
“ ‘ Oh, beautiful star with the crimson mouth ! ’ ” read the Note-
taker. “ Suppose that the heavenly orb must have been eating
black-currant jam—very quaint! And here again—‘0 ship that shakes
on the desolate sea! 0 ship with the wet white sail put in, put in to
the port to me, For my love and I would go to the land where the
daffodils blow ! ’ What an extremely injudicious choice of a convey-
ance ! What a bad passage they will have on a ship that sha.kes so
terribly that even its sails can’t escape a ducking ! ”
“And here,” said the Individual in Costume, “‘0 rapturous bird
with the low sweet note, 0 bird that sits on the spray.’ Methinks
the rapturous and vulgar or low bird—for hath he not a ‘ low note
might find a more convenient resting-place ! I see the name of the
writer is one Oscar Wilde—who is he ? ”
“ I do not know,” replied the Note-taker.
And then the two companions wandered hither and thither. They
listened to Shakspearian music, and visited a Shakspearian Museum.
The relics in the latter seemed to give the Individual in Costume
much pleasure, and he had a good deal to say a bout many of them.
“ Fear not,” said the Elizabethan at last, “ but I am going to fade
away.”
“ Fade away! ” exclaimed the Note-taker.
“ Yes. But, before I go, I would say that I do not think that my
name has been taken in vain if it has benefited that most excellent
charity, the Chelsea Hospital for Women.”
“ Your name ?” echoed the Note-taker, surprised at his companion
su ddenly abandoning his old style of phraseology.
“Yes; I speak in plain English, because I wish to be clearly
understood. Cheques may be sent to the Hospital Account at the
London and County Bank, Yictoria Street. As I said more than three
hundred years ago, ‘ ’Twere good you do so much for charity.’ ”
“Three hundred years ago!” gasped the Note-taker. “Why,
who are you ? ”
There was an empty space where the Elizabethan had been stand-
ing. But from every quarter of the Hall, as it comes from every
quarter of the globe, came the answer,--
“ William Shakspeare.”
SPORTING INTELLIGENCE.
(From Our Own City Sporting Prophet.)
That the prophecy I sent to you last week should have turned out
to be the correct card, of course astonished nobody, as it does so
happen that I have always been right since
I first received my present lucrative appoint-
ment ; but the singular fact that I am the only
Prophet who was right, or nearly right, is so
extraordinary, that I may perhaps be pardoned
for alluding to it.
No one Prophet, except Mr. Punch's own
infallible Prophet, spotted Harvester. What
cared I that he was said to have gone all wrong,
when I knew full well, by my unerring deduc-
tion, that he would go all right. No, confident
in my own unwavering judgment, I quietly
booked just a few hundreds for places for my
selected three, Harvester, Adelaide, and Talis-
man—the IS. A. T. of my prophecy—and just one quiet monkey,
at 20 to 1, about Harvester, and returned to Town with the calm
conscience of a man who feels that he has tried hard to befriend his
race, while at the same time not forgetting what is due to his own
unerring sagacity.
If there be any gratitude in men, and especially in sporting men,
the largesse sent to 85, Fleet Street, on this occasion, will probably
be larger than usual. Capel Courteous.
A Dark Event at the
Races.
PERILOUS PICNICS.
The head of a picnic party of nineteen persons complains, in a
letter to the Times, of a somewhat arbitrary rule existing in Bushey
Park. He says, that just as they were about to enjoy their luncheon,
a stalwart Policeman appeared on the scene, and informed them
that “no picnic party was) allowed to consist of more than ten
persons, and that they must either divide or break up entirely.”
This, which might be an admirable regulation in the House of Com-
mons, is scarcely in harmony with picnicular enjoyment. One would
like to know how far the parties of ten must be divided. Whether a |
party of ten might dispose themselves under each tree, whether only
ten picnickers are allowed in the Park at a time ? Especially we
should like to know if the Policeman in question was a practical
joker, and whether the Complainant offered him anything to drink ?
Pleasing Puzzle for Certain- Suitors who attended the
High Court oe Justice on the Derby Day.— Question.—Where
were two of Her Majesty’s Judges on the 28th of May, 1884 F
Answer.—At Epsom.
What the Dynamitards get eos their Pains.—Broken Glass!