Punch (100.1891)

16

PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI.

[January 10, 1891.

CHRISTMAS IN TWO PIECES.

St* ^

antomlme! Pantomime!! The only Drttrio-
lantjs, and the only Pantomime in the Tame
West. Therefore, it is almost a duty, let alone
a pleasure, on the part of Parents and Guardians
to take the young gentlemen from school,
schools public and private, and the young
ladies freed awhile from their Governesses, to
see Beauty and the Beast at Drury Lane. " Is
it a good Pantomime this year ? " " That," as
Hamlet once observed, though at that parti-
cular moment he was not thinking of Panto-
mimes, nor even of his own capital little
drawing - room drama for distinguished
amateurs, entitled The Mousetrap, " that is
the question." And Mr, Punch's First Com-
missioner of Theatres can conscientiously
answer, "Yes, a decidedly good Pantomime."
If pressed further by those who " want to
know" as to whether it's the lest Pantomime he ever saw, the First Commis-
sioner answers, "No, it is not Beauty and the Best," and he is of opinion that
he must travel, in a train of thought on the line of Memory, back to the Paynes
and the Yokeses in the primest of their prime, if he would recall two or three
of the very best, mind you, the very best, Pantomimes ever seen in the Tame
West. For real good rollicking fun, the Pantomimes at the Surrey and the

Grecian used to be worth the trouble
of a pilgrimage ; but it was a trouble,
for the show used to commence early
and end late, and indigestion was the
consequence of a disturbed dinner and
the unaccustomed heartiness of a most
enjoyable supper.

Drury Lane Pantomime commences
at 7 '30, and is not over till 11 '30, and
yet in these four hours there rarely
comes over you any sense of weariness,
except perhaps when the ballets are
too _ long. _ From first to last the
audience is expecting something, and
is ready to accept every transition
from one scene to another as a change
for the better. Mr. Harry Nicholls
and Mr. Herbert Campbell are, of
course, funny to look at as the con-
ventional proud sisters ; only; as they
admit in one of their duets, " it's been
done before," in Cinderella, for ex-
" Sure such a pair '' &c. ample; and, by the way, in choosing

this subject of Beauty and the Beast,
all resemblance between the two stories should have been got rid of, as, up to
the Ball Scene, except for the absence of the Pumpkin and the Mice, it is diffi-
cult to distinguish between the two f airytales. But, when last I saw Cinderella,
wasn't Rosina Yores the sprightly heroine, and her brother with the wonderful
legs the Baron ? I think so : but I will not be too much of a laudator tem-
poris acti, and will be thankful that one of the youthful Commissioners

thoroughly enjoyed this Pantomime, though he was not
absolutely certain as to what might be the effect of
ghosts and skeletons on his very little brother, aged five
or six, if he were brought to see this show. For my
part, had I at an early age seen these skeletons which
pervade the piece, and of whom two become elongated
ghosts, I should
have lain awake
o' nights, seen
horrible repro-
ductions on the
wall by the
glimmer of the
fire-light (spec-
tral rush-lights
were used when
I was a small
boy), screamed
for help, and
perhaps given
my own private
and practical
version of the
Ghost Scene in
Richard the

Third by not Troubled Trots,

leaping out of

bed and shouting, " Give me another horse ! " (there was
only one in the nursery, and that was a towel-horse),
but by putting my head under the bed-clothes and
shivering with fear till my nurse returned from her
supper. Such on me, your present brave First Commis-
sioner of Theatres, was the effect of merely seeing the
interior of the Blue Chamber in Skelt's Scenes and
Characters, with which I used to furnish my small
theatre on the nursery table.

' |Well, this is all private and personal, and not much
about the Drury Lane Pantomime, it is true; but, as
everyone will see "The Only Pantomime" (we have
reached the era of the "Onlys"), and be only too
delighted, what need I say more than that the libretto
is written by Mr. Bill-of-the-play Yardley con-
jointly with Mr. Drttriolancs Atjct.or, and I daresay
it was very witty and rhythmical and poetical, though I
didn't catch much of it, and the songs were neither parti-
cularly well sung, nor remarkably humorous,—one, intro-
duced by Miss Vesta Tilly (and, therefore, for this our
joint authors are not responsible, except for permitting it
to be done), being a distinct mistake, and utterly out

Seeing the 'Mime, Decembsr 30 ; or, A Draught at Night

of character with the part of the Prince, as written,
which she was representing. And, d propos of songs, the
music of this Pantomime lacks " go."_ Wagner borrowed
from pantomime his notion of dramatic music to carry on
the action and tell the story of serious opera; _ but we
don't want our Pantomimes to become AYagnerian ; or,
at all events, as the lamented George Hodder would
have said, "Let's have plenty of the 'Wag,' and none
of the ' nerian.' " What he would have exactly meant
by this nobody would have known, but everyone would
have laughed, as he was one of those self-patented jesters
at whose witticisms the company laughed first and
wondered afterwards.

Drtjriolanus Magnxts, not content with his own
special pantomime-pie and a Drama at Covent Garden,
has had a finger,—only a little one, perhaps, and not the
thumb, with which Johannes Hornerius extracted the
plum,—in the Christmas pie at the Prince of Wales's
Theatre, of which the Manager is Horattus Sedgeritjs.

Now, Ladies and Gentlemen, patres et matres, et