Punch (98.1890)

March 8, 1890.] PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI._103_

THE LONDON COUNTY COUNCIL AND THE LYCEUM THEATRE.

APPEAL OF MR. HENRY IRVING. RESULT.

(A not impossible Extract from Next Year's Morning Papers.)

Yestebday, before the Theatres Committee of the London County
Council, the appeal of Mr. Henby Ibving (the well-known actor
and manager) against the decision of the Sub-Committee to refuse
a licence to the Lyceum Theatre, came on tor hearing.

After Mr. Heney Ieving (who appeared in person) had addressed
the Committee at some length, dwelling upon the character of the
pieces he had produced during his management, and the care and
expense with which they had been mounted, several members of
the Committee expressed a wish to put questions to him, which
Mr. Ibving promised to answer to the best of his ability.

Mr. Heckxebtjky. I think you told us that Hamlet was one of
your favourite parts f Is it not the fact that the chief character in
the play drives his fiancee to madness and suicide by his cruelty,
slays her father and brother, together with his own step-father,
and procures the death of two of his school-fellows ?
Mr. Ievikg admitted that this was so. {Sensation.)
Mr. Hecklebtjey. That is all I wanted to ask you.
Mr. Fusslee. I understand

myself with your dramatic career, and I find that you have played
as hero at various times in Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, The Corsican
Brothers, and The Dead Heart, besides Macbeth. Am I wrong m
saying that in each of these pieces you fight a, duel? .„,,.,

Mb. Ieving. No. I fight a duel in each of them, except Macbeth,
in which there is no duel, only a hand-to-hand combat. 1 do
oominit a murder in Macbeth. , .

A Membee. Mr. Ieving's tastes seem rather to run m the direotion

of murders. (Laughter.)

After the report of the Official Censor upon the general tone ot the
Lyceum plays during the last fifteen years had been read a second
time and adopted, the Chairman, without more than a formal con-
sultation with his colleagues, proceeded to announce the decision ot
the Committee. He said that they had not come to their present
conclusion without long and anxious deliberation. They were now
the constituted guardians of the public morals, and must fulfil their
functions without fear or favour. {Applause.) They must look at
the character of the performances at each theatre,, considering only
whether they were or were not beneficial to morality. _ In the past,
under a regime happily now at an end, public opinion had been
shamefully lax, and official control purely nominal; plays had
been repeatedly performed, and even welcomed as olassics, which he

did not hesitate to say were

that you have produced a , • j •• ll /, •tl' I ''i 01X\ VttMlMII«lll(\ \\>\ fmll of incidents that were

play called Othello on more L.,|.,' \ . /te.„, ';, ,Jj^ • \ , * \ H'\Mill I i™\ U \i revolting to all well-regu-
tnan one ocoasion; perhaps Vc <-^'': iMW.l>¥*W% \ • «i 'frX\m'<h\\\ lated minds. Shakbpeabe,

you will inform us whether j JfcafetM t WC- \A" 'w/O ' '•- - V who, with his undoubted

the loUowing passages are in | Mmj&f. i tedj ' A -f*V 1 iw §• ffi-VK ' talents, should have known

your, opinion suitable for • •!: ''<^^^!^^^mWmWt¥^^^^ better, was, so far from

public declamation? (Mr. ^Wm^ ' ' WmW M&^^mWwMjV k^^F^^:<^t being an exception, one of
Fcsslee then proceeded to I ifM : I ? Wf \' 'isf^S^fe^^ml^ ^^L^^&a 11 the worst offenders. The
read several extracts to which \ |» ' jH§t>;-. ■■j^LAS* '■" "^l Mmfflr^^i&*&lM Council must free them-
he objectedpn account of their M& m&Mh - .... ' • • , , \\M}M$ >m*hwW.\ Wf selves from the shaokles of

offensive signification) fi JHtf I , !' I ji ' \\VWmmJ^eM^i W:t conventional tolerance. (Ap-

q^^r1^ pr1este+dvhat ^HSffl^ 1 - 1 'H - ' / Wi Phme.) Evil was evil-

SSAtt («tr ' : iCMKlil murderwasmurder-coarse-

passages TKriFvPraSIS—-- ' '- ■ M K v' : ness was coarseness—who-

Mr. Eusslee. TJnfortu- MLr \V ^fe^ - \ \^-\M#pt ther treated by Shakspeaee

nately, Shakspeaee is not j{^^^«^^*f|rv ^W*^^^M,< I or anybody else. Not could

before us-and you are. You ^^^^BtTVc^^ 1 . _/ v 11 \Wmm^ the Committee shut then-

admit that you have pro- ^MBSBBim^^a^S^^ '''V^l -^^mT^^uXw j7<* *° ^? that Mr.
duced a play containing lines ^%M. I*BPB^W\ ^^'('W^MMl I^t? histnomc abili y.

such a7l haTjusTr ad ¥ S?4 * ^

That ia pTirmo-Vi fr>i TTo ~- x^V,m^faS^"£^P^ I r. UVWJmm TMIiWWh ' those who attended his exhi-

Mr M™t*j tt i t '■^•-■■-7@*W-^W bitions could only intensify

j.mite! S • = - ■ k^0J^'-~W' \\ ^^^^>-^Bm the injurious effect which

n?*,H • I i '° m r- _N \\ ~^£3m&^SBS3i such representations must

Othello is not only .a mur- ^.....^f^Zs^f^T ' 1 \\ ulgffi^g have upon young and im-

Mr.pXLndoubtedly. ^'IHi'IfU, h i j ) V! ||ll!llil!|llllllillip) STtXt r^

( Mv m"0 w t gretted having to say so, the

mi. mEBlAM. W e have This is what the County Council's Licensing Bill for Places of Entertainment did Lyceum was nothing less
ri11 ^^ethmg of a piece not intend, as, according to the latest authoritative explanation, the L. C. C. does than a School of Murder.
6 j Belts. I seldom not consider Theatres as coming under the head of " places of entertainment." Rather It aggravated rather than
nor^T, fe^8 ™yself, ex- _W on the Theatres!_ _ extenuated the evil to be

told, as they had been told, that all these deeds of violence had
been represented on the stage with every aid which money, art
and research could give. Again, was it desirable that the Demo-
cracy should derive their ideas of the family life of crowned heads
from being admitted into the scandalous secrets of the house-
hold of Hamlet ? Or did they wish to see an injured husband
following the example of Othello ? A thousand times no. These
things must be stopped. The 'Council was very far from taking a
Puritanical view of the question—(applause)—they fully recognised
that the stage was a necessary social evil, and, as such, must be
tolerated until the public taste was sufficiently purified to refuse it
further countenance; but, in the meantime, the Council must insure
that such exhibitions as they were prepared to sanction were of a
kind consistent with the preservation of good manners, decorum,
and of the public peace—(applause)—none of which conditions, in
the unanimous opinion of the Committee, was fulfilled by the
class of entertainment which the appellant Ieving had, by his own
admission, persisted in providing. On those grounds alone the
Committee dismissed the Appeal,, and declared the Lyceum Theatre
closed till further notice. He might say, however, that they might
possibly be induced, after a certain interval, to reconsider the
question, and allow the theatre to be reopened on Mr. Ievikg's
undertaking to produce dramas of an entirely unobjectionable
character in future. (Mr. Ieving begged for some more definite
leading as to the dramas alluded to.) The Chairman said that he
had been informed that an illustrated periodical called Punch was
publishing a series of Moral Dramas, in which the sentiments and
incidents were alike irreproachable. Let Mr. Ieving promise to con-
fine himself to these, and the Council would see about it. (Me. Ieving
then withdrew, without, however, having given any definite under-
taking, and the Committee adjourned,)

2 S the exercise of my public functions, but I do happen to have
«;en that particular play on one occasion. Does my memory mislead
me in saying, that you committed a brutal and savage murder in
tne course of the drama ?

marf' lEVI\G faid that, as" a matter of fact, the murder took place
TO„ry ^ai? before the curtain rose—otherwise, the Member's memory
was entirely accurate.

iiti^S' me,dla:m. Whenever the murder was committed, it remains
wt t *and the orlmillal escapes all penalty-is not that the case ?
mm:!' ia,VINa urSed. that the Nemesis was worked out by the
murderer's own conscience.

<wu M(E?LAM 8aid that was all nonsense ; a person's conscience
™™T n0* i mad? Ylslble on the stage, and here a murderer was
room as dvrng several years after his crime, in his own bed-

room .respected by all who knew him. Did Mr. Ikving intend to
mmvW that ?uch a spectacle was calculated to deter an intending
murderer, or did he not ? That was the plain question,
ciawt'o YNG thought that intending murderers formed so inappre-
kf \e?,ment in his usual audiences, that they might safely be

M calculation. '

vorTrH«,^-EI)LAM; Bllt you^isht have an intending murderer among
M atdlence. I suppose P 5-
5p i^e's reply was not audible in the reporters' gallery,
dueli;™AESEKETE- 1 shoiihi like to hear what you have to say about

sucha „ ^ Ealdi that, he did not quite understand the drift of
dnelliL4Uestl?n^ b^' -f^0% they asked him, he should say that

1h t> distinctly illegal. J
dWuPAJrSEE™- You will understand the drift of my question
tHy' Me- Ikving. I have made it my business to acquaint

toi. icrrn,