Punch (103.1892)

November 19, 1892.] PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI.

233

Joe (to Melia). I '11 git the price o' that theer cup an' sarcer out
of 'un, any'ow. (To 0. B. F.j I '11 ha' a tanner wi' ye !

O. B. I. 'Alf a soverin, if you like— it's all the same to me !

Joe (after pricking). I thart 1 'ad 'un that time, too, I did!

The Sm. Y. M. You shouldn't ha' changed your mind—you were
right enough afore!

Joe. Yes, I should ha' stuck to it. (To 0. B. F.) I '11 bet ye two
bob on the next go—come!

O. S. F. Well, I don't like to say no, though I can see, plain
enough, you know too much. (Joe pricks ; 0. B. F. pulls away the
strip, and leaves the skewer outside?) I could ha' sworn you done
me that time—but there ye are, ye see, there/s never no tellin' at
this game—and that's the charm on it!

[Joe walks on with Melia in a mare subdued frame of mind.

The Sm. Y. M. (in the ear of the Spotty-faced One). I say, 1 got
a job o' my own to attend to—jest pass the word to the Old
Man, when he's done with this pitch, to turn up beyind the swing-
boats there, and come along yourself, if yer can. It's the old lay
I'm on—the prize-packets fake.

The Sp.-F. M. Right—we '11 give yer a look in presently—it '11
be a little change for the Ole Man—trade's somethin cruel ''ere!

HIS MAD-JESTY AT THE LYCEUM.

Except when Henry Irving impersonated the hapless victim of
false imprisonment in the Bastille, whence he issued forth after
twenty years of durance, never has he been so curiously and
wonderfully made-up as now, when he represents Lear, monarch of
all he surveys. Bless thee, Henry, how art thou transformed!

Sure such a King
Lear was never seen
on any stage, so per-
fect in appearance,
so entirely the ideal
of Shakspeare's
ancient King. It
must have been a
vision of Irving in
this character that
the divinely-inspired
poet and dramatist
saw when he had a
Liear in his eye. For
a moment, too, he
reminded me of
Booth—the " Gene-
ral," not the "parti-
cular" American
tragedian, — and
when he appeared in
thunder, lightning,
hail, and rain, he
suggested an embodi-
ment of the "Moses"
of Michael Angelo.

A strange weird
play; much for an
audience, and more
for an actor, all on
his own shoulders, to
bear. A one - part
play it is too, for of
the sweet Cordelia,—
and sweet did Ellen
Terby look> and so
tenderly did she
play !—little is seen
or heard. With
Goneril and Regan,
the two proud and
/ / / ' ' wicked sisters,—asso-

' ' oiated in the mind of

Bather mixed. Mr. Irving as Ophe-Lear." the modernest British

Public with Messrs. Heebebt Campbell and Harry Nicholls, as
is also Cordelia associated either with Cinderella or with Beauty in
the story of Beauty and the Beast—we have two fine commanding
figures; and well are these parts played by Miss Ada Dyas and
Miss Maud Milton. The audience can have no sympathy with
the two wicked Princesses, and except in Oone>tVs brief Lady-
Macbethian scene with her husband, neither of the Misses Lear has
much dramatic chance. Pity that Mrs. Lear—his Queen and their
mother, wasn't alive! Let us hope she resembled her youngest
daughter Cordelia, otherwise poor Lear must have had a hard life of
it as a married man.

Why should not Mr. Iryino give the first part of this play recon-
sideration ? Why not just once a week try him as a different sort of

Lear f For instance, suppose, to begin with, that he had had a bad
time of it with his wife, that for many years as a widower he had
been seeking for the opportunity of disposing of his daughters,
handing over to them and to their husbands the lease and goodwill of
" The Crown and Sceptre," while he would be, as King, " retired from
business," and going out for a lark generally. Thus jovially would
he commence the play, a rollicking, gay, old dog, ready for any-
thing, up to anything, and, like old Anchiscs, when he jumped on
to the back of JEneas, " a wonderful man for his years." In fact,
Lear might begin like an old King Cole, " a merry old soul," a
"jolly old cock!" And then—" Oh, what a difference in the
morning!"—when all his plans for a gay career had been ship-
wrecked by Cordelia's capricious and unnatural affectation.

Then must commence his
senility ; then he would begin
to break up. A struggle, to
show that there was life in
the old dog yet, could be seen
when the old dog had been
out hunting, in Act II., and
had shot some strange ani-
mal, something between a
stag and a dromedary, which
no doubt was a native of
Britain in those good old
sporting days. However,
more of this anon. Suffice it
to say now, that our Henry
Ieving's Lear is a triumph
in every respect, and that
the audience only wanted a
little more of Cordelia,
,r ~ 7 ,, „ , „ . which is the fault of the

Mr. Iernss as the (xood Fairy. immortal and unequal Bard.

To those unacquainted with this play, Mr. Terriss's sudden
appearance in somewhat anti-Lord-Chamberlain attire, as he bounded
on, with a wand, and struck an attitude, was suggestive of the Good
Fairy in the pantomime ; and his subsequent proceedings, when he
didn t change anybody into Harlequin, Clown, and so forth, puzzled
the unlearned spectators considerably. But Mr. Tebriss eame out
all right, and acquitted himself (being his own judge and jury) to
the satisfaction of the public. His speech about Dover Cliff, gene-
rally supposed to convey some allusion to the Channel Tunnel, was
excellently delivered, and certainly after Lear, "on the spear side,"
Mr. Terriss must take the Goodeley Cake.

Next to him in order of merit comes Mr. Frank Cooper, as the
wicked Edmund, on whom the good Edmund, "Edmundus Mundi,"
smiled benignantly from a private box. There was on the first night
a great reception given to Howe—the veteran actor, not the wreck,
and very far from it—who took the small part of an old Evicted
Tenant of the Earl of Glo'ster, a character very carefully played by
Mr. Alfred Bishop. Floreat Henricus! "Our Henry" has his
woik cut out for him in this " Titanic work," as in his before-curtain
and after-play speech he termed it. This particular "Titanic work "
is (or certainly was that night) in favour with "the gods," who
" very much applauded what he'd done." But the gods of old were
not quite so favourable to " Titanic work " generally, and punished
eternally Titanic workmen. To-night gods and groundlings applaud
to the echo, and then everyone goes home as best he can in about as
beautiful a specimen of a November fog as ever delighted a Jack-
o'-Lantern or disgusted "Private Box.

An Operatic Note.— Wednesday.—Lord Mayor's Day and Sheriff
Sir Augustus Druriolanus's Show. L'Amico Fritz, or '' The old Min
is friendly," as Dick Swiveller would have put it. Not by any means
as bright as Cavalleria. Mile. Del Torre, del-lightful as Sitzel.
M. Dufriche, very good as Rabbino; Cremonini, weak as Fritz; and
Mile. Martha-Cupid-Bauermeister, good as usual in the part of the
" harmless neoessary Cat "-erina. Opera generally " going strong."

Reported Decision.—Uganda is to be occupied till March next.
Then, order of the day, " March in, March out. "