Some Roundabout PapersThackeray, William Makepeace
General
Some Roundabout Papers
Thackeray, William Makepeace
Essays
But the pictures!—oh! the pictures are noble still! First, there is
Jerry arriving from the country, in a green coat and leather gaiters, and
being measured for a fashionable suit at Corinthian House, by Corinthian
Tom’s tailor. Then away for the career of pleasure and fashion. The
park! delicious excitement! The theatre! the saloon!! the green-room!!!
Rapturous bliss—the opera itself! and then perhaps to Temple Bar, to
_knock down a Charley_ there! There are Jerry and Tom, with their tights
and little cocked hats, coming from the opera—very much as gentlemen in
waiting on royalty are habited now. There they are at Almack’s itself,
amidst a crowd of high-bred personages, with the Duke of Clarence himself
looking at them dancing. Now, strange change, they are in Tom Cribb’s
parlour, where they don’t seem to be a whit less at home than in
fashion’s gilded halls; and now they are at Newgate, seeing the irons
knocked off the malefactors’ legs previous to execution. What hardened
ferocity in the countenance of the desperado in yellow breeches! What
compunction in the face of the gentleman in black (who, I suppose, has
been forging), and who clasps his hands, and listens to the chaplain!
Now we haste away to merrier scenes: to Tattersall’s (ah gracious powers!
what a funny fellow that actor was who performed Dicky Green in that
scene in the play!); and now we are at a private party, at which
Corinthian Tom is waltzing (and very gracefully too, as you must confess)
with Corinthian Kate, whilst Bob Logic, the Oxonian, is playing on the
piano!
“After,” the text says, “_the Oxonian_ had played several pieces of
lively music, he requested as a favour that Kate and his friend Tom would
perform a waltz. Kate without any hesitation immediately stood up. Tom
offered his hand to his fascinating partner, and the dance took place.
The plate conveys a correct representation of the ‘gay scene’ at that
precise moment. The anxiety of the _Oxonian_ to witness the attitudes of
the elegant pair had nearly put a stop to their movements. On turning
round from the pianoforte and presenting his comical _mug_, Kate could
scarcely suppress a laugh.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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