The Cornhill Magazine (Vol. I, No. 4, April 1860)Various
General
The Cornhill Magazine (Vol. I, No. 4, April 1860)
Various
England -- Periodicals; English literature -- Periodicals; Short stories, English -- Periodicals
_Burlington Gate_, No. 1, was published in 1723. Hogarth seems to have
admired Lord Burlington’s love for art, though he might have paid him
a better compliment than to have placarded the gate of his palace with
an orthographical blunder. There is in the engraving “accademy” for
academy. The execution is far superior to that of the _South Sea_, and
the figures are drawn with much _verve_ and decision. In the centre stand
three little figures, said to represent Lord Burlington, Campbell, the
architect, and his lordship’s “postilion.” This is evidently a blunder
on the part of the first commentator. The figure is in cocked hat,
wide cuffs, and buckled shoes, and is no more like a postilion than I
to Hercules. Is it the earl’s “poet,” and not his “postilion,” that is
meant? To the right (using showman’s language), sentinels in the peaked
shakoes of the time, and with oh! such clumsy, big-stocked brown-besses
in their hands, guard the entrance to the fane where the pantomime of
_Doctor Faustus_ is being performed. From the balcony above Harlequin
looks out. _Faustus_ was first brought out at the theatre, Lincoln’s Inn
Fields, in ’23. It had so prodigious a run, and came into such vogue,
that after much grumbling about the “legitimate” and invocations of
“Ben Jonson’s ghost” (Hogarth calls him Ben Johnson), the rival Covent
Garden managers were compelled to follow suit, and in ’25 came out with
their _Doctor Faustus_—a kind of saraband of infernal persons contrived
by Thurmond the dancing-master. He, too, was the deviser of “_Harleykin
Sheppard_” (or Shepherd), in which the dauntless thief who escaped from
the Middle Stone-room at Newgate in so remarkable a manner received a
pantomimic apotheosis. Quick-witted Hogarth satirized this felony-mania
in the caricature of Wilks, Booth, and Cibber, conjuring up “Scaramouch
Jack Hall.” To return to Burlington Gate. In the centre, Shakspeare and
Jonson’s works are being carted away for waste paper. To the left you see
a huge projecting sign or show-cloth, containing portraits of his sacred
Majesty George the Second in the act of presenting the management of the
Italian Opera with one thousand pounds; also of the famous Mordaunt Earl
of Peterborough and sometime general of the armies in Spain. He kneels,
and in the handsomest manner, to Signora Cuzzoni the singer, saying
(in a long apothecary’s label), “Please accept eight thousand pounds!”
but the Cuzzoni spurns at him. Beneath is the entrance to the Opera.
Infernal persons with very long tails are entering thereto with joyful
countenances. The infernal persons are unmistakeable reminiscences of
Callot’s demons in the _Tentation de St. Antoine_. There is likewise a
placard relating to “Faux’s Long-room,” and his “dexterity of hand.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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