DOI Heft:
January 22, 1887
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.17657#0050
40
PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHAEIVAEI.
[January 22, 1887.
A WILLING CONVERT.
First Man {lighting up). " See those three Girls over there, Jack ? Each of 'em has Thirty Thou. ! "
{Jack Hardup thinks he remembers luiving heard that some Bishop was in favour of tolerating Polygamy, and wishes it toould become fashionable.)
" MERRY IN HALL."
The Hall is St. George's, Langham Place, which might by this
time be called German .Reed-gent Street. Do they still call the
place of entertainment " The Gallery of Illustration P " "We think
not, though the book continues to call the characters "Illustrations."
The other afternoon we contrived to squeeze in—this place is
always crammed at holiday-time—and hear The Friar, a One-Act
Operetta written by Comyns Carb, and its music by Caldicott. A
very pretty scene, and picturesque costumes, and as I listened to the
dialogue which, it gradually dawned upon me, was in blank verse, I
said to myself, remembering the Laureate's Falcon at the St. James's,
" If J. Comtns Care goes on like this, Tennyson isn't in it with
him." And I am glad to say that, as the piece progressed, Tennyson
was not in it with him. To hear them talk in Elizabethan fashion,
and to see the good folk right merrie, forsooth, at many of the japes
and jests, and quips and quirks, by my halidame and marry come
up but I wish that Joseph Comyns Carr—such a Jo-Karr he is—
had collaborated with William Shakspeare in such comic rustic
scenes as those of As You Like It and Love's Labour's Lost.
Beshrew me, but Master Carr doth show a marvellous pretty wit.
An the ladies Fanny Holland and Marion Wardeoper do not act
and sing charmingly, call me Door-post, for your door-post, mark
you, can neither hear, see, nor sing. The song-words too are of a
sort that you_ shall not buy from every scurvy ballad-monger.
And the quality of Master Hobth Home—sweet, sweet, Home,
mark ye, maidens all, when he sang—as Hubert, was indeed goodly
both for eyes and ears. Master Saut Matthews bore himself as a
most reverent Abbot; and as for Master Alfeed Reed—good sooth,
but he is a merry man and a full-grown one to boot, and if he have
not as the players say, " all the fat of the piece," pluck me for a
four-boy-cockroach. {Shakspearian Note. Why not this as well as
a "three-man-beetle?")
And then, to bring us from the sixteenth century to the nineteenth,
in comes Mr. Coenet Gealn and sings," Oh, That Boy ! " the refrain
of which everybody is humming on leaving the Hall. Capital song
that of his, "Be always kind to Animals, wherever you may be."
Very funny idea, and we fancy, if our memory serve us well, not
absolutely unknown to Mr. Punch and his "Lazy Minstrel." The
Lowther Arcade Concert is excellently managed, in a duet for piano
and Coenet. All good. As Shakspeare, had he known the Gallery
of Illustration, would have made Hamlet say to Ophelia, " Go to the
Gallery, go! " _
"FROM MOZART TO MARIO."
This title does not mean that you will find in these two volumes
musical notes from the great Composer to the great Tenor,—for a very
sufficient reason,—but it does mean
that you will here read personal re-
collections of many Composers, Per-
formers, and Singers, from the time of
Mozart to that of Maeio, written by
Mr. Louis Engel, who may be des-
cribed, with mathematical precision,
as "an acute Engel." It is an
amusing, gossiping, readable, take-it-
up-at-any-time sort of work, by a
writer who, being composer, journal-
ist, and pianist, has been "in it" all
his life.
Every chapter is like a theme with
so many variations, and all of them so
erratic, that the original air on which
they are founded would be entirely
lost,were not the author to return to it now and again, just to keep up
appearances. There is something about Veedi, Mendelssohn,
Berlioz, Wagner, Auber, Patti, Nilsson, also about Mozart and
Maeio too, and a considerable amount about Mr. Louis Engel. As
the Yankee song has it, " 'Tis Engei-ish, you know! _ So Engel-ish,
you know!" And the nom-de-plume of the musical author of
these reminiscences might well be, " The Wandering Minstrel."
But, from this portfolio of oddities, three scenes stand out vividly,
and impress themselves on the reader's memory. The first is the
interview of Mr. Loins Engel with the Pope ; the second, his evening
at the Duchess's ; and the third, his bounding dance with Mme. Path.
PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHAEIVAEI.
[January 22, 1887.
A WILLING CONVERT.
First Man {lighting up). " See those three Girls over there, Jack ? Each of 'em has Thirty Thou. ! "
{Jack Hardup thinks he remembers luiving heard that some Bishop was in favour of tolerating Polygamy, and wishes it toould become fashionable.)
" MERRY IN HALL."
The Hall is St. George's, Langham Place, which might by this
time be called German .Reed-gent Street. Do they still call the
place of entertainment " The Gallery of Illustration P " "We think
not, though the book continues to call the characters "Illustrations."
The other afternoon we contrived to squeeze in—this place is
always crammed at holiday-time—and hear The Friar, a One-Act
Operetta written by Comyns Carb, and its music by Caldicott. A
very pretty scene, and picturesque costumes, and as I listened to the
dialogue which, it gradually dawned upon me, was in blank verse, I
said to myself, remembering the Laureate's Falcon at the St. James's,
" If J. Comtns Care goes on like this, Tennyson isn't in it with
him." And I am glad to say that, as the piece progressed, Tennyson
was not in it with him. To hear them talk in Elizabethan fashion,
and to see the good folk right merrie, forsooth, at many of the japes
and jests, and quips and quirks, by my halidame and marry come
up but I wish that Joseph Comyns Carr—such a Jo-Karr he is—
had collaborated with William Shakspeare in such comic rustic
scenes as those of As You Like It and Love's Labour's Lost.
Beshrew me, but Master Carr doth show a marvellous pretty wit.
An the ladies Fanny Holland and Marion Wardeoper do not act
and sing charmingly, call me Door-post, for your door-post, mark
you, can neither hear, see, nor sing. The song-words too are of a
sort that you_ shall not buy from every scurvy ballad-monger.
And the quality of Master Hobth Home—sweet, sweet, Home,
mark ye, maidens all, when he sang—as Hubert, was indeed goodly
both for eyes and ears. Master Saut Matthews bore himself as a
most reverent Abbot; and as for Master Alfeed Reed—good sooth,
but he is a merry man and a full-grown one to boot, and if he have
not as the players say, " all the fat of the piece," pluck me for a
four-boy-cockroach. {Shakspearian Note. Why not this as well as
a "three-man-beetle?")
And then, to bring us from the sixteenth century to the nineteenth,
in comes Mr. Coenet Gealn and sings," Oh, That Boy ! " the refrain
of which everybody is humming on leaving the Hall. Capital song
that of his, "Be always kind to Animals, wherever you may be."
Very funny idea, and we fancy, if our memory serve us well, not
absolutely unknown to Mr. Punch and his "Lazy Minstrel." The
Lowther Arcade Concert is excellently managed, in a duet for piano
and Coenet. All good. As Shakspeare, had he known the Gallery
of Illustration, would have made Hamlet say to Ophelia, " Go to the
Gallery, go! " _
"FROM MOZART TO MARIO."
This title does not mean that you will find in these two volumes
musical notes from the great Composer to the great Tenor,—for a very
sufficient reason,—but it does mean
that you will here read personal re-
collections of many Composers, Per-
formers, and Singers, from the time of
Mozart to that of Maeio, written by
Mr. Louis Engel, who may be des-
cribed, with mathematical precision,
as "an acute Engel." It is an
amusing, gossiping, readable, take-it-
up-at-any-time sort of work, by a
writer who, being composer, journal-
ist, and pianist, has been "in it" all
his life.
Every chapter is like a theme with
so many variations, and all of them so
erratic, that the original air on which
they are founded would be entirely
lost,were not the author to return to it now and again, just to keep up
appearances. There is something about Veedi, Mendelssohn,
Berlioz, Wagner, Auber, Patti, Nilsson, also about Mozart and
Maeio too, and a considerable amount about Mr. Louis Engel. As
the Yankee song has it, " 'Tis Engei-ish, you know! _ So Engel-ish,
you know!" And the nom-de-plume of the musical author of
these reminiscences might well be, " The Wandering Minstrel."
But, from this portfolio of oddities, three scenes stand out vividly,
and impress themselves on the reader's memory. The first is the
interview of Mr. Loins Engel with the Pope ; the second, his evening
at the Duchess's ; and the third, his bounding dance with Mme. Path.