The Sun.
London, England, 1868-12-24 00:00:00

13EFO.RE THE PANTOMIME.

The Daily News gives an interesting description of a
visit to Covent Garden Theatre before the pantomime. "At
noon," says our contemporary, "the great place was in the full
tide of busy work. Quietly dressed young ladies peeped
in at the stage-door, and read the call-paper----' Boarding-
school at eleven for half-past '—and ran in, or retired
slowly, as the announcement did or did not affect them.
Gentlemen with the blue line of much shaving running
down their cheeks, and with hair cropped close for
character-wigs, exchanged silent nods with the door-
keeper, pushed thr_ugh the swing-door, and went
upstairs. Messages and notes for the lessee arrive
every few minutes, and are forwarded to him on the
stage, which is full of people. The foot-lights are lit, and
clown, pantaloon, and harlequin are all practising their
comic business for the eventful night. The walking gentle-
men who are to be beaten, the boys whose heads will be
cut off, the young women whose stage babies are to be
boiled, the aged wanderers who are to be stimulated into
activity by an application of the clown's hot poker, the in-
teresting citizens who will be tripped up upon the same
psblic functionary's buttered slide, are all lounging about
the wings. Three or four pretty young ladies are sitting
on chairs with their backs to the auditorium and watching
the business ; two gentlemen, with open books in hand,
and one who beats time on his fingers, stand, also with
their backs to the place where the public sit, and give
directions and instructions to the men and boys who are
to act as pantomimic foils. Two of the private boxes
nearest the stage are occupied, and a flood of daylight
comes down from the unshuttered windows behind the
galleries. Otherwise the vast space is dark and shadowy;
boxes, dress-circle, and stalls are swathed in brown holland,
and look mysterious in their cavernous emptiness.
The desolate waste suggests the uninhabited country
on which Robinson Crusoe and Friday were thrown, far
more than the stage, where a theatrical shoeblack is busy
at his box, and where the pea-jacketed clown speedily
usurps his place, to wrench the foot and otherwise
maltreat a subdued-looking Min, whose appearance and
demeanour sugge. ts a greengrocer who waits at
evening parties, and who has been some time out of
an engagement. The set scene behind, representing
Lord's' on a fashionable day, reminds one a litt'e of
the large picture by Gustave Dord Play at Baden.'
The figures are the same size, and the wistful
interested attitude of one stout gentleman, with mutton-
chop whiskers, who is apparently about to try to catch a
cricket-ball in his mouth, recalls the British Philistine of the
French artist. Nor is the analogy weakened by the fact
that at a comparatively short distance, and under all
the disadvantages of a hybrid light, which is neither
day an r gas, this picture, or rather this group of
pictures, looks admirably real. The disposition
of the male and female figures in and about
the grand stand, their attention, and the general
life-like attitude they have been placed in, will, if
we mistake not, go straight to the heart of the gods
on Boxing Night. Some twenty dogs are chained on the
stage while the Messrs. Payne and Mr. Paulo are at prac-
tice, and these, after some preliminary growlings, fall to
in real earnest, and have to be separated by main force as
theyare making their teeth meet in each other's hides. It is
like having a practical conundrum put before you t..) be
shewn theatrical proceedings such as these, with any view
of your understanding their bearing on the pantomime.
We preserved a discreet silence ; and whether these dogs
are to teach Friday's father the impropriety of cannibalism,
or to shew the advantages of civilisation by flying at
each other's throats, were as much mysteries to us when
we left the theatre as when we became aware of the pre-
sence of canine company on the stage. Up many stone
stairs, and after glancing through the armoury and the
dressing-rooms of the rank and file, we are in the property
shop at the top of the entire building, and over what
seems from the inside to be the roof of the theatre. The
armoury looked every bit as real, though not so extensive,
as that of the Tower. The wooden effigies of life
size, and each wearing a knight's full suit, are as
rigid and unmeaning at one place as the other, and
the rows of helmets and breast and arm plates on
the wall were all real metal, and as capable of good
service as those worn in veritable battle. The dressing-
rooms are like a school—clean, bare, and comfortless, and
with plain wooden desks all round them, the name of the
person sitting at each being chalked on the wall above.
The desk lifts up and is a looking-glass ; and as we took
the liberty of peeping into one of the drawers,we may men-
tion that the school books consisted of a pair of soiled silk
stockings, a stick of black cosmetique, and a pair of stage
dancing shoes. Up in the property room everything is unreal
and grotesque. Men in paint-bespattered suits of canvas
are energetically painting, gilding, moulding, modelling,
drying. Robinson Crusoe is very prevalent now, and
Man Friday too. The latter's relatives are represented
by the most hideous array of false heads, faces, and busts
it has been our good fortune to see. We trust we break no
confidence when we say that certain ostriches which we
saw stomachless and forlorn will be ridden by certain
blacks who are unsurpassed for frightfulness, and that
a procession of Amazons and Aztecs will be enough
to make one dream of horrors through the winter. Some
of the Amazons—stout men of jocund aspect and great
knowledge of life—are choosing their heads, and writing
their names inside the ones which fit them best, at the
time of our visit. We are able, moreover, to testify,
from personal experience, that the putting on and
taking off a false pantomimic head is a process
peculiar in itself, and that the latter part of it has a
tendency to turn the nose aspiringly upwards, and pro-
duces, indeed, the same ridgy effect upon the human
countenance as was attributed by Pip to Mrs. Gargery's
wedding-ring. Heads and faces are everywhere. They
lie on the floor in heaps, surmounted with gaily-coloured
feathers for the swell.' savages, and they are sorted
according to squints and mouths upon shelves and tables.
The other cannibals will come up in the course of the day
and suit themselves in their turn, each man claiming the
privilege of wearing the same head as long as the panto•
mime runs."

THE VACANT LORD-LIEUTENANCY.—The death
of Lord Belhaven renders vacant the office of Lord-Lien-
tenant of Lanarkshire, which is likely, we learn, to be
filled up by the appointment of Sir Thomas Edward Cole-
brooke, of Crawford, Bart., member for the northerr
division of the county.

INDIAN 111731 OUR.—The following appears in the
Advertiser (of all other papers) :—" I am glad," said the
Rev, Dr. Young to the chief of the Little Ottawas,
"that you do not drink whisky, but it grieves me to find
that your people use so much of it." " Ay, yes," replied
the chief, and he fixed his eyes expressively upon the
doctor, which communicated the reproof before he uttered
it, " we In44*use a great deal of whisky, but jtm,dAnot
maim it.'t