The Sun.
London, England, 1864-04-07 00:00:00

A Tribute to T, P. Cooke,

The following delightful tribute to T. P. Cooke
we find in the Standard of this morning :

A great popular favourite is gone. The Dibdin
of the English theatre is dead. T. P. Cooke—
Thomas Potter Cooke—is no more. The son of the

surgeon of Titchfield-street, the midshipman at the
blockade of Toulon and the battle of St. Vinoent,
the hero of the wrecked Raven, who leaped from

the deck to the stage, is to be buried in peace,

beneath the sod of Highgate Cemetery. Tcere was
an attraction abmit this " old man agile" which

marked him out amid the common multitude of

players. Everybody likad him. No one—not even
Miss Lydia Thompson—can compete with him in
the sailor's hornpipe. Sixty years ago, almost

exactly, a delighted crowd enjoyed his Jack Tar
impersonations at the Royalty Theatre. Then he

- -
went to Astley'd, flourishing under the regime of
" real water." We—or our grandfathers, if you

please—saw him at the Lyceum, subject to that
despotic manager Laurent, who afterwards humbled
himself so deeply as to become a Clown. Very grey-
headed people recollect him as Obi, or Three-fingered
Jack ; very hoary ramblers through the reminis-

cences of bygone evenings can recall him as the
Poor Soldier. They bring back his ghost, by that

complicated spectral apparatus which we style
memory, upon the boards of Covent Garden, the
Coburg, and the Adelphi; they talk of his Frank-

enstein, his Long Tom Coffin, his Dirk Hatterick,
and his Duke of Argyle, Perhaps, however, one
of T. P. Cooke's most rich performances has not been
universally appreciated, because the joke was en-
joyed in secret. He was, year after year—so an
atrocious babbler tells us—one of the Lord Alayor's
Men in Armour on the 9th day of November. What,
after this, were the characters of Varney the Vam-

pire, Gordon the Gipsy, Epaulette of Fontaine
blears, Orson in the "Iron Chest," Rinaldo in "Gi

Blas," or ",the best Frenchman on the stage ?'

His Frankenstein alarmed the Parisians. They
vilified him as" walking corpse ;" but the dear tra-
dition of the English public is the William in
" Black-eyed Sue—the William of the white unut-
terables, the blue jacket, the black Byronic neck-tie,
the whirling cutlass, the splendid hitch, the grand
" avast," the chivalry of courage in defence of un■
proected females—" A' l in the Dawns." T. P.

Cooke was inimitable. There was no trickery in
him. He had studied the old-fashioned part of the
old salt, and it became him honestly. The straw
hat and the broad-collared shirt, the blue jacket
and the bold song, the immaculate ducks and the
light shoes, the contempt of foreign courage and,
beyond all, the inevitable dance, which as a matter
of course ensues when a British seaman has been
married, hanged, murdered, or betrayed, made him
the delight of boys, the wonder of girls, the mystery 1
of those play-goers who asked whether Douglas
Jerrold had been created for T. P. Cooke or T. P.
Cooke had lived only for Douglas Jerrold. "Black-
eyed Susan" was a resurrection for the Old House
in Surrey : it made the actor famous; it saved the
manager from bankruptcy ; it allured half London
over the water ; it humbled Covent Garden into a
plagiarism from tranepontine vulgarity. In fact,
"T. P. Cooke was regarded as a living symbol of the
British sailor, and he hornpiped it so long that, at
length, when a great critic saw him flying through
the dance in his seventieth year, he said " It is
marvellous"; but 1 wish he wouldn't do it." How•
ever, until this veteran of the drama sustained his
supreme loss in the death of his wife he walked
lightly and erect, and his burden of seventy-eight
years seemed no Effiiction ; but when she died, he
told his friends, " I am mortally wounded now,"
and ho broke down and has passed away.

With deep regret we heard of this estimable
artist's death. We knew him to be earnestly
anxious that his life might be prolonged until
after the celebration of the Shakespearian tercen-
tenary. We heard of him labouring indefatigably
with that best friend of the actor, J. W. Anson,
on the Council, of the Royal Dramatic College
for the humbler and less prosperous belonging to
his own long-misunderstood and maligned profes-
sion. We saw in him an example of family
probity and homely providence that obliterated
many a reproach from the character of the class to
which he belonged. And it was an indication of his
faithful, hearty, cordial nature that, having once
been borne on the books of the Royal Navy, he in-
variably at the annual dinners of the General Thea-
trical Fund, returned thanks on behalf of that ser-
vice. Who more proud than he, in fact, of the St.
Vincent medal? But who, again, more zealous
when a friend stood in need of help ? Who, remem-
bering how he had profited by" Black-eyed Susan,"
came from his sick-room, unsolicited, to play at
the Adelphi Theatre, gratuitously and eagerly, for
" The Douglas Jerrold Fund ?" That was T. P.
Cooke, the player, now dead, who was born in 17843,
who by untiring industry, accumulated a fortune,
who was unwearied end unstinting in his sympathy
with the less victorious adepts of his profession, and
who perhaps went successfully through a wider
range of characters than any other actor of his time.
His William, admittedly, was unequalled, and is
the model which all future actors in nautical parts
must regard, whether they earn LOO a night at
Drury Lane, or 50e. a night at the Royal Standard.
His Duke Dorgan, in Mr. Buckstone's drama, was a
masterpiece. His Harry Halyard, in Haine's " Poll
and my Partner Joe," was an impersonation which,
by all old-fashioned playgoers, will long be a plea-
sant tradition ; while his Ban Frenant, in Mr.
Thompson Townsend's piece " The Lost Ship," was
precisely the sort of thing which, as Lord Dun-
dreary would put it,"cuts a fetish to pieces." Bright,
jovial, active, and hearty, this veteran of the toot-
lights could have played anything that smelt of the
sea, from the Ancient Mariner to " Post Meridian,
half-past four," or from Tom Tough to Peter Wil-
kins, the Flying Woman, and " famous Admiral
Jervis." But nothing ever came up to William and
the Hornpipe, to William who would " never stand
by and see a female assaulted," to William who
rattled through, and rattled through it more blithe-
somely than ever did other mortal man, the glory
of the British sailor, the triumphant stampede of the
deck, the dancing upon the Ark, the able seaman's
joy for ever," the original, genuine, indisputable
double hornpipe. Who cares whence that pleasant
jumping came ? Hawkins tells us that the dance
was invented in England. No matter; it was
danced by T. P. Cooke. The Tattler avers that
we should say " pipe horn," and not " hornpipe.''
The innovation is not to be endured. The seven-
teenth edition of the "Dancing Master," published
in the seventeenth century, declares that this espe-
cial jig "must be in triple time, six crotchets in a
bar, although the well-known tune, The College
Hornpipe,' is in duple measure," Does not this
surpass all patience ? Who thinks of duple mea-
sures, or six crotchets in a bar, when carrying back
his memory to the pleasant days when "All in the
Downs, T. P. Cooke, the veteran of another century,
cuts down his captain, rescues his Sue, stands in
readiness for execution at the yard-arm, is saved,
an'_ appropriately betakes himself to the light fan-
tastic toe? But, above this, there is a reason why
we should give a kindly thought to the memory of
the old man by whom we and our children have so
often been amused, and who hue now followed his
wife, and the mother of an only daughter, to her
rest, The dramatic profession, of lute years, has
risen higher than ever in the public estimation. It
is acknowledged and supported by every class. It
has assumed an independence never previously
attempted. Its morals are, we may scrupulously
affirm, from a general point of view, pure and
exemplary. It is making every possible effort to
destroy the old traditions of profligacy, mendicancy,
and insolvent toadyism. No man worked more
genially towards those ends than did the late T. P.
Cooke. We pay him this tribute, we dedicate to
his name these reminiscences and regrets, because
we eineerely feel that his passing away—although
in the fulness of time, and in, the course of nature,

after a long and radiant career—is a loss to the
profession, an event concerning which the public
cannot be indifferent—and an incident in the his-
tory of the stage which suggestively reminds us how
different is the stage of our day from that upon
which our grey-headed veteran, now dead, stepped
from the deck of the Raven.

BRAY'S TRACTION ENGINE,

Yesterday the powerful engine manufactured by

Bray's Traction•engine Company, to the order of the
Russian Government, for military service, was tested
in the neighbourhood of the Sevenoaks Junction
station of the London, Chatham, and Dover Rail-
way, in the presence of a select company of engi-
neers and practical men connected with locomotive
enterprises in almost every part of the world.
Among those present were Mr. H. D. Davies,
chairman of the company ; Mr. Osborne, director ;
Mr. Clark, engineer; Mr. Cyrus Field, director of
the Atlantic Telegraph Company ; M. Dudot, repre-
sentative of MM. Lafitte, constructors of the Mont
Cenis Tunnel ; M. Blanc, of Paris ; Mr. Lewis
Olrick, consulting and marine engineer; Mr. A.
Chaplin, engineer, of Glasgow; and other gentle-
men of great practical experience.
The ground selected for the trial was a steep
ascent, in soma places not less than 1 in 15 feet, on
the old Maidstone road,which the continuous and
heavy rain for somewhere about 36 hours previously
had thoroughly soaked and softened. The experi-
ment therefore was made under every disadvantage,
and the result all the more creditable to the
company.

The engine itself in full working order weighs 14

tons ; the driving wheel is 7ft. in diameter ; the two
cylinders are 9 in., with a 15-inch stroke ; and the
train consisted of 5 loaded waggons, weighing 45
tons. Up the steep, soft, and rugged ascent the
engine smoothly and efficiently carried this heavy
load at a speed of about 2 miles and a quarter per
hour. The perfect command of the engine, and the
ease with which the work was performed, elicited
general and warm commendation from the engi-
neers and practical gentlemen present.
The cost of the engine itself is £1,500, bnt other
appliances have been added for the purposes of the
Russian Government, including the derrick and
steam lifting apparatus for raising timber, and
other heavy articles, which increases the cost to
about £1,700. The principle on which Bray's trac-
tion engine for common roads is constructed has
been so often and so fully described that it is un-
necessary to enter into details.
The experiment, or rather demonstration of its
capabilities, yesterday would have taken place
nearer to London but for the prohibition of the
Home Secretary of the use of those engines within
10 miles of Louden. As it was, the exhibition
seemed to satisfy completely the select company
who were invited to witness it.

At one point the ground was so soft that the

wheels of the heavily-laden waggons sank at least
4 inches into the ground, but the engine continued
its steady pace, and reached the brow of the hill
with ease and perfect command, which elicited
general admiration.

M. Dudot stated that he believed with a few

alterations, which he would point out to Mr. Clark,
the engineer of the company, the engine might be
made to ascend Mount Cenis, dragging heavy loads
behind it.

Mr. Davies, the chairman, said the object of the
company was mainly to pronaoie steam locomotives
on common roads, and they had no fear but that the
best engines would in the end obtain the largest
amount of public support.
Mr. Chaplin, of London and Glasgow, who has

now become the sole manufacturer of the engines
for the company, exhibited drawings of a new en-
gine, more simple, compact, and inexpensive, which
appears to possess all possible requisites for the con-
veyance of heavy loads on common roads, or rough
and soft surfaces, at a much less cost than they
have heretofore been made by the company ; and,
altogether, the party separated with the general
conviction that this important branch of mechanical
science is likely ere long to make such progress as
to effect an entire revolution in locomotion, not only
in this country but throughout the entire world,