DOI Heft:
March 30, 1889
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.17687#0155
March 30, 1889.]
PUNCH, OP THE LONDON CHAPIYAPI.
145
NOTES ON THE PLAY.
A Letter about “ The Weaker Sex."
My Own Dearest Angelina,
As yon begged me to see Mr. and Mrs. Kendal in the new
drama at the Court Theatre, so that I might tell you all about it, I
outraged my feelings by going to the play without you and accom-
panying Jack Chappuis
instead. Need I say that
you were never absent from
my thoughts for a moment,
and that 1 did not enjoy
my dinner at the Epicurean
Club in the least ? How
can I care for anything
when you are away from
me ? However, as the piece
did not begin until 8'30,
Jack and I had plenty of
time for a smoke, a cup of
coffee, and a Kiimmel be-
fore attending the perform-
ances. The Weaker Sex is
by Mr. Pinero, the clever
author of Sweet Lavender,
and many excellent plays.
“ Six of one and two of the other
For the old Court Theatre he wrote The Magistrate, and two
other capital three-act farces which made the fortunes of the
then lessees. As Mr. and Mrs. Kendal are playing in it, I need
scarcely say that The Weaker Sex is not a three-act farce,
although I have seen those admirable artists at their very best in
such pieces as A Scrap of Paper and the Queen's Shilling. But,
as Mr. and Mrs. Kendal, I regret to add, are shortly to leave
us for America, of course it was only appropriate that they should
bid us adieu in something sad, and The Weaker Sex is sad indeed.
The story can be told in a very few words. Bather a feeble person
is jilted by Mary (subsequently Lady Vivash), goes to America,
turns poet, changes his name, and comes back to England engaged
to Rhoda, Mary's daughter. But Mary has never forgotten him,
and tells him so. Then the rather feeble person who loves Rhoda
better than Mary, and his own comfort more than either, goes back
to America, and the Curtain falls upon his never-to-he wife and his
How happy could I be with neither.”
found-to-be-impossible mother-in-law weeping in one another’s
arms. I believe when the piece was played in the Provinces, the
rather feeble person (who must have been weak indeed to have pre-
ferred the daughter to the mother), married Rhoda and Mary paired
off with someone else. The new ending reminded me strongly of a
pathetic little one-act drama, in which the Kendals made their mark
at the Haymarket many years ago called Faded Flowers, wherein
the hero, finding his lost love married to his dearest friend, although
still attached to himself, nobly effaced himself by accepting expatri-
ation for ever. How good Mr. Kendal was in Faded Flowers ! And
how good Mrs. Kendal is in The Weaker Sex! In fact, without her
never-to-he-sufliciently appreciated assistance, I question whether
the piece would have been successful. She could not possibly have
been better, and yet, somehow, her superb acting did not bring tears
to my eyes. This was not the fault of the actress, but the play, which
when all is said and done, is not a pleasant one. Much as I like your
revered Mother (to whom kindly remember me), should anything
happen to you, I do not think it would be vour latest wish that I
should lead her to the altar, and sorry as I felt for Mary and Rhoda,
and even the rather feeble person, who seemed to be passing his
entire existence in making melancholy trips to America, there was
something so essentially comic in the situation, that for the life of me
I could not cry. This was a great disappointment, as I like to be
touched. Jack Chappuis was equally indifferent, but then he is not
in the least intellectual, and yawns at everything except a Gaiety
burlesque. In real life I fancy Mary would have boxed Rhoda's
ears soundly, and sent her back to school for another twelve months.
DjamesThall.
Ve should know one another.”
For the rest, the satire upon Woman’s Bights (which more or less
made up the remainder of the piece), although fairly amusing, did
not strike me as particularly novel.
And now, darling, I must say good-bye.
Your ever loving, Edwin.
“DUX ECEMINA FACTI.”
By a Rabid Anti- Woman’’s-Rightist.
Whilst male Yoters only, Bads or Tories,
Have the vote will the Election-Bough rage,
There is one thing that “ emollit mores."
’Tis—so we are told—the Female Suffrage.
“ Cherchez la femme," an old sagacious quip is,
She ’s at the bottom of War, Madness, Murder.
Will politics be purged by the Xantippes
From wrath and rancour ? What could be absurder ?
As well, when rival roosters will not cease
Their war, drive Partlet in— to keep the peace !
ANSWEBS TO COBBESPONDENTS.
Getting a Good Yiew oe the University Boat-Bace.—Your
idea of hiring a couple of coal-barges, putting a brass band on board,
asking your two hundred friends, and.
tacking them on to half-a-dozen
steam launches, and then proceeding
to view the race by leading the van,_
and going over the course_ in front of
the contending crews, strikes us as a
happy idea full of novelty, and only
requiring, as you say, a little deter-
mination and energy to enable you
successfully to carry it out. You
ought certainly by this means to
manage to get a capital view of the race ; though, of course,"as you
suggest, if you cannot keep up the pace, and happen to get in the
way, it may be ratber embarrassing to the competitors, and may
possibly involve you in some disagreeables. No, we would not advise
you to take the Biver Police into your confidence. Take care to be
early on the scene—say, at about 3 a.m., and take up your position—
and stick to it. We shall be glad to hear how you have got on.
Back Again,
One note of music sound we, inter alia,
A note of joyful welcome to
Composer Frederick Cowen, who
Betums, a conquering hero, from Australia.
Good Omen.—Mr. John Hare’s new Theatre will not be opened
, m,--L- T -• -• — "-f “March” and
in March. The proverbial association, therefore, of
Hare ” will not be realised in this instance.
Mr. Mansfield’s “ Bichard the Third.”—A thorough Cibberite.
VOL. xcvi.
o
PUNCH, OP THE LONDON CHAPIYAPI.
145
NOTES ON THE PLAY.
A Letter about “ The Weaker Sex."
My Own Dearest Angelina,
As yon begged me to see Mr. and Mrs. Kendal in the new
drama at the Court Theatre, so that I might tell you all about it, I
outraged my feelings by going to the play without you and accom-
panying Jack Chappuis
instead. Need I say that
you were never absent from
my thoughts for a moment,
and that 1 did not enjoy
my dinner at the Epicurean
Club in the least ? How
can I care for anything
when you are away from
me ? However, as the piece
did not begin until 8'30,
Jack and I had plenty of
time for a smoke, a cup of
coffee, and a Kiimmel be-
fore attending the perform-
ances. The Weaker Sex is
by Mr. Pinero, the clever
author of Sweet Lavender,
and many excellent plays.
“ Six of one and two of the other
For the old Court Theatre he wrote The Magistrate, and two
other capital three-act farces which made the fortunes of the
then lessees. As Mr. and Mrs. Kendal are playing in it, I need
scarcely say that The Weaker Sex is not a three-act farce,
although I have seen those admirable artists at their very best in
such pieces as A Scrap of Paper and the Queen's Shilling. But,
as Mr. and Mrs. Kendal, I regret to add, are shortly to leave
us for America, of course it was only appropriate that they should
bid us adieu in something sad, and The Weaker Sex is sad indeed.
The story can be told in a very few words. Bather a feeble person
is jilted by Mary (subsequently Lady Vivash), goes to America,
turns poet, changes his name, and comes back to England engaged
to Rhoda, Mary's daughter. But Mary has never forgotten him,
and tells him so. Then the rather feeble person who loves Rhoda
better than Mary, and his own comfort more than either, goes back
to America, and the Curtain falls upon his never-to-he wife and his
How happy could I be with neither.”
found-to-be-impossible mother-in-law weeping in one another’s
arms. I believe when the piece was played in the Provinces, the
rather feeble person (who must have been weak indeed to have pre-
ferred the daughter to the mother), married Rhoda and Mary paired
off with someone else. The new ending reminded me strongly of a
pathetic little one-act drama, in which the Kendals made their mark
at the Haymarket many years ago called Faded Flowers, wherein
the hero, finding his lost love married to his dearest friend, although
still attached to himself, nobly effaced himself by accepting expatri-
ation for ever. How good Mr. Kendal was in Faded Flowers ! And
how good Mrs. Kendal is in The Weaker Sex! In fact, without her
never-to-he-sufliciently appreciated assistance, I question whether
the piece would have been successful. She could not possibly have
been better, and yet, somehow, her superb acting did not bring tears
to my eyes. This was not the fault of the actress, but the play, which
when all is said and done, is not a pleasant one. Much as I like your
revered Mother (to whom kindly remember me), should anything
happen to you, I do not think it would be vour latest wish that I
should lead her to the altar, and sorry as I felt for Mary and Rhoda,
and even the rather feeble person, who seemed to be passing his
entire existence in making melancholy trips to America, there was
something so essentially comic in the situation, that for the life of me
I could not cry. This was a great disappointment, as I like to be
touched. Jack Chappuis was equally indifferent, but then he is not
in the least intellectual, and yawns at everything except a Gaiety
burlesque. In real life I fancy Mary would have boxed Rhoda's
ears soundly, and sent her back to school for another twelve months.
DjamesThall.
Ve should know one another.”
For the rest, the satire upon Woman’s Bights (which more or less
made up the remainder of the piece), although fairly amusing, did
not strike me as particularly novel.
And now, darling, I must say good-bye.
Your ever loving, Edwin.
“DUX ECEMINA FACTI.”
By a Rabid Anti- Woman’’s-Rightist.
Whilst male Yoters only, Bads or Tories,
Have the vote will the Election-Bough rage,
There is one thing that “ emollit mores."
’Tis—so we are told—the Female Suffrage.
“ Cherchez la femme," an old sagacious quip is,
She ’s at the bottom of War, Madness, Murder.
Will politics be purged by the Xantippes
From wrath and rancour ? What could be absurder ?
As well, when rival roosters will not cease
Their war, drive Partlet in— to keep the peace !
ANSWEBS TO COBBESPONDENTS.
Getting a Good Yiew oe the University Boat-Bace.—Your
idea of hiring a couple of coal-barges, putting a brass band on board,
asking your two hundred friends, and.
tacking them on to half-a-dozen
steam launches, and then proceeding
to view the race by leading the van,_
and going over the course_ in front of
the contending crews, strikes us as a
happy idea full of novelty, and only
requiring, as you say, a little deter-
mination and energy to enable you
successfully to carry it out. You
ought certainly by this means to
manage to get a capital view of the race ; though, of course,"as you
suggest, if you cannot keep up the pace, and happen to get in the
way, it may be ratber embarrassing to the competitors, and may
possibly involve you in some disagreeables. No, we would not advise
you to take the Biver Police into your confidence. Take care to be
early on the scene—say, at about 3 a.m., and take up your position—
and stick to it. We shall be glad to hear how you have got on.
Back Again,
One note of music sound we, inter alia,
A note of joyful welcome to
Composer Frederick Cowen, who
Betums, a conquering hero, from Australia.
Good Omen.—Mr. John Hare’s new Theatre will not be opened
, m,--L- T -• -• — "-f “March” and
in March. The proverbial association, therefore, of
Hare ” will not be realised in this instance.
Mr. Mansfield’s “ Bichard the Third.”—A thorough Cibberite.
VOL. xcvi.
o