The Sun.
London, England, 1865-11-22 00:00:00

take away an absurd restriction, and let the theatre
compete with its younger rival upon the simple
ground of excellence. In the end the public must
determine what it ought to see, and what it ought
not to see, and to the public should be left the
choice of ballet at the music-hall or ballet at the
theatre. The pipe and grog consideration should
be omitted altogether, for nothing can be more ab-
surd than to maintain that because a man desires
this indulgence he should be debarred from anything
but a low or inferior class of entertainment in the
place it pleases him to look for it. In effect, this is
the obstacle the theatrical managers would put in
his path. So long as he was content with the regu-
lation comic song,the unmeaning Irish dialogue, the
contortionist, and the Ethiopian serenader, they
were undemonstrative. But when he was found to
patronise a more rational or picturesque form of
entertainment they stepped in to deprive him of it.
If anything be wanted to show the absurdity of the
whole matter the pleas of defendants in such cases
as Wigan v. Strange may be put in evidence. Thus
we find the music-hall manager resting his defence
upon the fact that he has only provided an imper-
fect entertainment. Hampered by legal restrictions,
he has carefully avoided representing anything
which has plot or coherence. " The ballet in ques-
tion," says Mr. Poland, " was only a ballet divertis-
sement containing neither plot nor dramatis persons."
The ballet girls danced, but they did so undramati-
cally and without meaning. They brandished their
daggers and their palm laves, but not with the
slightest intention of conveying a tangible idea to
the audience. The object of the defence is
to prove that the ballet was a mere piece of salta-
tory nonsense ; the object of the prosecution to
show that the ballet was a good and perfect one.
Thus we find the counsel for the theatrical lessees
giving Mr. Strange a high testimonial as to the
dramatic value of the ballet he puts on the stage,
while he himself is compelled, by the mouth of
his advocate, to maintain that he presented a bald,
disjointed spectacle, of an inferior character to that
produced at the theatre. In these toils we find
Lord Chief Justice Erle also struggling. He looks
upon the case as one of fact, not of law ; and he
gives his decision upon the ground that the plaintiff
has not shown the ballet in question to have ap-
proached anything like completeness. He sees that
the performance comes " very near" to a dramatic
one ; but as it is " a ballet divertissement, in which
there is no consecutive train of ideas, but in which
a number of persons of elegant shapes and motions
represented a number of scenes whiclr-are uncon-
nected, dramatically speaking," he gives his decision
in favour of the defendant. It is a question of ex-
cellence. A mere unconnected display of pirouetting
and posturing—a ballet without beginning, middle,
or end—is within the aegis of a music and dancing
licence ; but once make the dancing coherent, as
it were, and the medium of a story, and the bounds
of the licence are overstepped and the music-hall
becomes an unlicenced theatre. The difficulty is to
prove the exact point at which the line is passed ;
and this difficulty is a grave one indeed. When
does a ballet become a stage play? Mr. Poland
gives us an instance in " Ondine," and possibly this
is as good an instance as could be given. But the
" action" of a ballet—in other words, the plot—is
of so mysterious a character in most cases as to
defy the shrewdest understanding. The nearest
approach to a definition is to say that it must be
founded upon a recognised story, and must tell
that story in detail to the audience. But how
many ballets do this? Of all performances on any
stage ballots are the most doubtful and mysterious.
A new one puzzles even the professional critics,
without the friendly aid of the ballet-master, or
the. assistance of that odd kind of literary man,
the ballet author. If we go to acts of Parliament
we find the word " ballet" altogether absent.
They speak of " stage plays," and these
are defined as interlude, tragedy, comedy,
opera, farce, play, burletta, and pantomime, " or
other entertainment of the stage." Evidently the
ballet was not within the purview of the act of
Parliament makers, or, with other and numerous
definitions of stage plays, it would have been in-
cluded. But enough has been said of this very
doubtful motter. The great question at issue is the
absurd restriction which creates dispute between
theatrical lessees and managers of music-halls, and
interferes with the rational amusements of the
people. Mr. Locke's bill of last session would have
done much towards settling the question, but
somehow the bill was burked, or suffered to fall
through in a questionable way, and so the only de-
cision we got is one which Chief Justice Erle ad-
mits might have been reversed had more graphic
evidence been laid before him or had he himself
seen the ballet complained of. Let us hope, how-
ever, that a decision even thus qualified will make
an cud of the discussion, at least till it shall be
raised again in the form of a case for Parliament to
decide upon. We want an act that will take away
such grievances as theatres labour under, and place
the entertainments of music-halls upon a safe and
legal footing. Nothing can be more absurd than
laws which keep music-halls down to a low level
and burden them with penalties directly they rise
above the ordinary entertainments of the old
singing-rooms with which cur progenitors were
perforce satisfied.