Mr. Punch at the Play: Humours of Music and the Drama
General
Mr. Punch at the Play: Humours of Music and the Drama
English wit and humor; English wit and humor, Pictorial; Theater -- Great Britain -- Humor
Who makes the bankrupt's doleful doom
In all its blackness o'er me loom?
Who'll bring my grey head to the tomb?
The Deadhead.
* * * * *
[Illustration: IBSEN IN BRIXTON.--_Mrs. Harris._ "Yes, William, I've
thought a deal about it, and I find I'm nothing but your doll and
dickey-bird, and so I'm going!"]
* * * * *
[Illustration: A five bar rest]
* * * * *
[Illustration: _Seedy Provincial Actor._ "Young man, I hear that you
propose to essay the _rôle_ of the melancholy Dane. What induced you to
do it?" _Prosperous London ditto._ "Oh, I don't know. They egged me on
to it." _Seedy Provincial Actor._ "H'm. They egged _me OFF_!"]
* * * * *
LESSONS LEARNED AT A PANTOMIME
(_By an Intelligent Schoolboy_)
That demons are much given to making bad puns, and have on their
visiting lists the most beautiful of the fairies.
That the attendants upon the demons (presumably their victims) spend
much of their time in break-downs.
That the chief amusement in Fairyland is to stand upon one toe for a
distressingly long time.
That the fairies, when they speak, don't seem to have more H.'s to their
tongues, than clothes to their backs.
That the fairies have particularly fair complexions, considering they
dance so much in the sunlight.
That the tight and scanty costume of the fairies is most insufficient
protection from the showers that must be required to produce the
gigantic and highly-coloured fairy _flora_.
That the chief fairy (to judge from her allusions to current events)
must take in the daily papers.
That harlequin is always shaking his bat, but nothing seems to come of
it, and that it is hard to say why he comes on or goes off, or, in
short, what he's at altogether.
That if clown and pantaloon want to catch columbine, it is hard to see
why they don't catch her.
That pantaloon must have been greatly neglected by his children to be
exposed without some filial protection to such ill-usage from clown.
That clown leads a reckless and abandoned life, between thefts,
butter-slides, hot pokers, nurse-maids, and murdered babies, and on the
whole is lucky to escape hanging.
That policemen are made to be chaffed, cuffed, chased, and knocked
head-over-heels.
* * * * *
[Illustration: THE NEW PLAY
_Low Comedian._ "Have you seen the notice?"
_Tragedian._ "No; is it a good one?"
_Low Comedian._ "It's a fortnight's."]
* * * * *
[Illustration: A quick movement with an obligato accompaniment.]
* * * * *
[Illustration: TERRIFIC SITUATION!
Heroine of domestic drama pursued by the unprincipled villain is about
to cast herself headlong from a tremendous precipice!]
* * * * *
APPRECIATIVE!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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