The Confessions of Harry Lorrequer — CompleteLever, Charles
General
The Confessions of Harry Lorrequer — Complete
Lever, Charles
Fiction
wild looks, their violent gestures, and, above all, their strange and
guttural language, for they were all speaking Irish, attracted the
attention of the manager; the effect, to his professional eye was good,
the thought struck him at once. Here were the very fellows he wanted.
It was scarcely necessary to alter any thing about them, they were
ready made to his hand, and in many respects better savages than their
prototypes. Through the mediation of some whiskey, the appropriate
liquor in all treaties of this nature, a bargain was readily struck,
and in two hours more, ‘these forty thieves’ were rehearsing upon the
classic boards of our theatre, and once more, La Perouse, in all the
glory of red capital letters, shone forth in the morning
advertisements. The run of the piece continued unabated; the Indians
were the rage; nothing else was thought or spoken of in Dublin, and
already the benefit of Ashewaballagh Ho was announced, who, by the by,
was a little fellow from Martin’s estate in Connemara, and one of the
drollest dogs I ever heard of. Well, it so happened that it was upon
one of their nights of performing that I found myself, with Mr. Burke,
a spectator of their proceedings; I had fallen into an easy slumber,
while a dreadful row in the box lobby roused me from my dream, and the
loud cry of ‘turn him out,’ ‘pitch him over,’ ‘beat his brains out,’
and other humane proposals of the like nature, effectually restored me
to consciousness; I rushed out of the box into the lobby, and there, to
my astonishment, in the midst of a considerable crowd, beheld my
friend, Mr. Burke, belaboring the box-keeper with all his might with a
cotton umbrella of rather unpleasant proportions, accompanying each
blow with an exclamation of ‘well, are they Connaughtmen, now, you
rascal, eh? are they all west of Athlone, tell me that, no? I wonder
what’s preventing me beating the soul out of ye.’ After obtaining a
short cessation of hostilities, and restoring poor Sharkey to his legs,
much more dead than alive from pure fright, I learned, at last, the
teterrima causa belli. Mr. Burke, it seems, had entered into
conversation with Sharkey, the box-keeper, as to all the particulars of
the theatre, and the present piece, but especially as to the real and
authentic history of the Indians, whose language he remarked, in many
respects to resemble Irish. Poor Sharkey, whose benefit-night was
approaching, thought he might secure a friend for life, by imparting to
him an important state secret; and when, therefore, pressed rather
closely as to the ‘savages’ whereabout’ resolved to try a bold stroke,
and trust his unknown interrogator. ‘And so you don’t really know where
they come from, nor can’t guess?’ ‘Maybe, Peru,’ said Mr. Burke,
innocently. ‘Try again, sir,’ said Sharkey, with a knowing grin. ‘Is it
Behring’s Straits?’ said Mr. Burke. ‘What do you think of Galway, sir?’
said Sharkey, with a leer intended to cement a friendship for life; the
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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