The Sun.
London, England, 1853-12-27 00:00:00

HAYMARKET.

The amusements of boxing night at this theatre con-
sisted of Mr. Stirling Coyne's comedy, The Hope of the
Family ; and a pantomime, the first ever produced at
the Haymarket. Harlequin and the Three Bears ;or
Little Silverhair and the Fairies, is the name given to
the pantomime in the bills. It is said to be founded
upon a popular story of Southey's, and to have been
written and invented by the lessee, Mr. Buckstone.
The outline of the story, developed in the harlequinade,
is as follows :—Little Silverhair, while playing in the
forest, is allured by some sweet music to the abode of
fairies, and passes the night gaily in their company.
The fairies pay her great attention, and woo her to stay
among them by all manner of fairy devices, the term of
their existence being at an end if they fail in inducing
her, or some other young and good girl, to be their
midnight guest. After passing the night with them
Little Silverhair returns to her mother's cottage, but
quite changed in her nature, and with a strange desire
to touch and meddle with everything she sees. She re-
jects the squire who comes and proposes for her, but
carries off all his presents. Her lover returns from sea,
and offers to share his prize-money with her,
but she snatches it from him, and betakes her-
self once more to the forest, her lover, her mother,
and the squire following in hot pursuit. They all
enter the house of the Three Bears, who happen at the
moment to be out while their porridge cools. Little
Silverhair tastes of the porridge in the three pots, sets in
the three chairs, lies down in the bed of each of the
bears, and at last falls asleep on the couch of Bruin the
Youngest. On their return the bears soon find out
what had been done, and, seizing Silverhair, are about
to cut off her head, when she begs as a boon before she
dies that they will give her a hammer and a long nail.
The simple bears furnish her with what she has asked
for. She immediately nails all their tails to the floor,
and is on the point of escaping, when the bears, break-
from their moorings again seize tier, but this time the
Queen of the Fairies comes to her rescue. The Fairy
Queen, finding that all the parties are in the house,
Silverhair having been followed thither by her
lover, changes him to Harlequin, the girl herself
to Columbine, the Squire into Pantaloon, and his
man into Clown ; so that Silverhair, after a time
may recover her natural disposition and be made happy
with the lover, all of which is brought about after the
usual manner of pantomimes. The harlequinade is re-
markable for the grotesques which appear in it ; for a
Beauty and the Beast sort of interest ; arising from
Silverhair's intercourse with the Bears ; and for some
magnificent fairy scenery by Mr. W. Callcott. The ruined
Abbey by Moonlight, changing to the Lotus Lake and
'aterfalls, is surpassingly beautiful in its way, and told
at once with the audience. The business that followed
the transformation was of the same kind as of yore, with
a difference. The cab strike, the camp at Chobham,
and a London fog gave full scope to the ingenuities of
Clown and Harlequin, and to the scenical and mechani-
cal resources of the theatre. A solo on the violin, by
the clown, was encored from the unexpected neatness of
of execution it displayed. The parts generally were
effectively sustained. Miss Mary Brown was a charm-
ing Columbine. Nothing could be more graceful
than the Harlequin of Mr. Joseph Marshall, as
nothing could well have been more deliciously droll
than the Clown of Mr. Harry Marshall—a gentleman,
whose varied abilities and agilities render them
remarkable acquisitions to the company at the
little Haymarket. Little Silverhair was most appro-
priately represented by Miss Lydia Thompson. The
last scene of all was Spithead, with the Queen of
England in her yacht, the Fairy, leading tha British
fleet out to sea. The spectacle part of the pantomime
is, perhaps, the best, but still, as a whole, the experi-
ment of pantomime at the Haymarket must be pro-
nounced as having been successful. The gods were
wonderfully quiet, and had not the unpardonable delays ,