Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 1, CompleteVarious
General
Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 1, Complete
Various
English wit and humor -- Periodicals
What was the use of Sir Hugh Middleton bringing the New River to a
head, or of King Jamie buying shares in the speculation on purpose to
supply Sadlers Wells with real water, if it is to be drained off from
under the stage to make way for horses? Shade of Dibdin! ghost of
Grimaldi! what would you have said in your day? To be sure ye were
guilty of pony races: they took place outside the theatre, but within
the walls, in the very cella of the aquatic temple, till now, never! We
wonder ye do not rise up and pluck bright Honner from the vasty deep
of his own tank.
Sawdust at Sadlers Wells! What next, Mr. Merriman?
A silhouette standing on the back of a horse which is running in a
circus ring. A JUDGE GOING THE CIRCUIT.
If Macready had been engaged for Clown, and set down to sing hot
codlins; were Palmerston secured for Pierrot, or Lord Monteagle for
Jim Crow, who would have wondered? But to saddle The Wells with
horsesprofanity unparalleled!
Spitefully predicting failure from this terrible declension of the
drama, we went, in a mood intensely ill-natured, to witness how the
Horse of the Pyrenees would behave himself at Sadlers Wells. From the
piece so called we anticipated no amusement; we thought the regular
company would make but sorry equestrians, and, like the King of
Westphalias hussars, would prove totally inefficient, from not being
habituated to mount on horseback. Happily we were mistaken; nothing
could possibly go better than both the animals and the piece. The actors
acquitted themselves manfully, even including the horses. The mysterious
Arab threw no damp over the performances, for he was personated by Mr.
Dry. The little Saracen was performed so well by le petit Ducrow, that
we longed to see more of him. The desperate battle fought by about
sixteen supernumeraries at the pass of Castle Moura, was quite as
sanguinary as ever: the combats were perfectionthe glory of the red
fire was nowise dimmed! It was magic, yes, it was magic! Mr. Widdicomb
was there!!
Thinking of magic and Mr. Widdicomb (of whom dark hints of
identification with the wandering Jew have been droppedwho, we know,
taught Prince George of Denmark horsemanshipwho is mentioned by Addison
in the Spectator, by Dr. Johnson in the Rambler, and helped to put
out each of the three fires that have happened at Astleys during the
last two centuries), brought by these considerations to a train of mind
highly susceptible of supernatural agency, we visited
THE WIZARD OF THE NORTH, the illustrious professor of Phnixsistography,
and other branches of the black art, the names of which are as
mysterious as their performance.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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