Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 1, CompleteVarious
General
Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 1, Complete
Various
English wit and humor -- Periodicals
Look, look! theres the grey filly, with the other made-to-measure
feather on her back; do you notice how she has crawled up to the
chesnut? Mark, mark! his arms appear to be India-rubber! Mercy on us,
how they stretch! and the bridle, which looked just now like a solid bar
of wrought iron, begins to curve! See how gently he leans over the
fillys neck; while the chesnuts rider turns his eyes, like a boiled
lobster, almost to the back of his head! Oh, hes awake! he still keeps
the lead: but the grey filly is nothing but a good un. Now, the Top-
boots riding her have become excited, and commence tickling her sides
with their flashing silver spurs, putting an extra foot into every
bound. She gains upon the chesnut! This is something like a race! The
distance-post is reached! The Top-boots on the grey are at work again.
Bravo! the tip of the white nose is beyond the level of the opposing
boots! Ten strides, and no change! She must win! No, she cant!
Grey for ever! Chesnut for a hundred! Done!
done!Magnificent!neck and neck!splendid!any bodys race! Bravo
grey!bravo chesnut!bravo both! Ten yards will settle it. The chesnut
rider throws up his armsa slight dash of blood soils the Day and
Martinan earth-disdaining bound lands chesnut a winner of three
thousand guineas! and all the world are in raptures with the judgment
displayed in the last kick of the little mans TOP BOOTS.
FUSBOS.
HINTS ON MELO-DRAMATIC MUSIC. It has often struck us forcibly that the
science of melo-dramatic music has been hitherto very imperfectly
understood amongst us. The art of making the sound an echo of the
senseof expressing, by orchestral effects, the business of the drama,
and of forming a chromatic commentary to the emotions of the soul and
the motions of the body, has been shamefully neglected on the English
stage. Ignorant composers and ignoble fiddlers have attempted to develop
the dark mysteries and intricate horrors of the melo-drama; but unable
to cope with the grandeur of their subject, they have been betrayed into
the grossest absurdities. What, for instance, could be more preposterous
than to assign the same music for storming a fort, and stabbing a
virtuous father! Equally ridiculous would it be to express the
breaking of the sun through a fog, and a breach of promise of
marriage; or the rising of a ghost, and the entrance of a ladys
maid, in the same keys.
The adaptation of the different instruments in the orchestra to the
circumstance of the drama, is also a matter of extreme importance. How
often has the effect of a highly-interesting suicide been destroyed by
an injudicious use of the trombone; and a scene of domestic distress
been rendered ludicrous by the intervention of the double-drum!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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