The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1839-12-24 00:00:00

THE NEW GRIMALDI AT COVENT-GARDEN.

Mr. T. Ridgway, who for the last five years has been the
admired clown and successful comic Mime of the Theatre-
Royal, Liverpool, is to make his appearance at the Theatre-
Royal, Covent-garden, in the splendid new Christmas panto-
mime, under the management of Madame Vestris. There
cannot be a rational doubt of Ridgway's success : he will
shake a decided hit. We are confident that there is not a
true appreciator of the genuine old (.irimaldi humour in the
metropolis who will not recognise in the new artist a worthy
successor to the head master of the school—poor old JUR !
prince of true fun and frolic ! ! The recollection of the
master will be buoyantly revived this Christmas, by the face
and performance of Ridgway ; and, by the unaided force of
genuine humour, free from the slightest coarseness, the cha-
racteristics of Grimaldi's style. The most delicate-minded
or modest lady need not deny herself the gratification of seeing
and laughing with the new clown. We never saw Ridgway,
in the most exuberant paroxysm of comic richness, exceed
that difficult but " honourable stop," or outsport discretion
by the wanton perpetration of anything approaching to
grossness. He will be a pet with the Londoners, and will
merit and maintain the appreciation of the rams, which at
no former period, since the days of iiazlitt, was ever so ge-
nerally distinguished by competent critics.
The new pantomime, entitled " Harlequin and the Merrie
Devil of Edmonston, or the Great Bed of Ware," has been
in active preparation for some weeks. It will he produced its
accordance with that taste, and enhanced by that enterprising
liberality, for which the managementest V v.seais is proverbial.
There is not slather and mother of a race of budding little
ones, who have seen Grimaldi in &pi of yore, who have not
a treat in store for them—a double treat while the new pan-
tomime runs. What a twofold pleasure to parents, to have
the innocent reminiscences of their youth recalled and at
the same time to see in laughing faces and eyes overflowing
I with tears, the picture of their joy revised in the children
by their side.

THE EXHIBITION.-List of prizes gained by the subserie
hers to the fund for the encouragement of modern art in th-
prsent annual exhibition :-John Clow £5O, John Pointer
45, John Saunderson 40, Thomas Clough 35, Thomas Tom-
lin 30, Hugh Jones 30, Henry Ashton 25, John J. Hamilton
25, Thomas Harrison 25, Richard Rathbonc 25, John Ash-
worth 20, Isaac Chambers 20, James Cullen 20, George J.
Wainwright 20, Samuel Turner 20, Richard Henderson 20,
The Mayor of Liverpool 15, Richard Scholes 15. John Well-
stood 15, Thomas Winstanley 15, William Haskayne 15, W.
Askew 15, Edward Griffin Jun. 15, William Nixon 10, Mat-
thew Sibson 10, Samuel Turner 10, Mrs. Farrell 10, Miss
Duckworth 10, Miss Diana Clarke 10, Daniel Nelson 10;
William Shipley 10, Benjamin Ellis 10, Gilbert Harrison 10;
Stephen Scott 10, Daniel Willink 10, John Miller 10, W.
N. Bell 10, Adventure 10, Joseph Mayer 10, H. G. Ashurst
10, W. W. Currie 5, Edward Griffin, Jun. 5, W. S. Cain 5,
W. Worthington Maddock 5, W. Wikes (Birmingham) 5
John Lynch 5, Dr. Webber 5, G. T. Webb 5. Thomas
Frost 5, John Finch 5, R. P. Glynne 5, R. L. Jones 5, N. S.
Glazebrook 5, James Smith 3, David Murphy 5, E. John-
son (St. Helens) 5, Mr. Foster (Blue Coat School) 5, E. P.
Thompson 5, Miss Wood 5, Robert Allen 5, E. P. Thomp-
son 5; and John Davies 5.

ANCiENT FESTIVAL' OF Si'. VALENTINt'S DAY.---At a
recent meeting of the Royal Soeisay of Literature, the
secretary read 'a .paper "On the Ancient Festival 0 St.
Valentine's Day," by the Baron Hammer Purgstall. The
origin of this celebration has excited much attention, but.
hitherto without any satisfactory result ; it is to be looked
neither in the calendar of the "tannish church nor in the
Roixiish festival of the goddess Februsta, but in the oldest
of existing calendars, the festivals of which have passed
successively into the Roman and Christian ones. Among
the ancient Persians, the month-of February bore a name
corresponding to that which it bore in the Roman calendar
(from febueare, because it was the period of purification and
lustration.) It was the intercalar month; and the intercalar
days were called by the Persians, Foordian or Poordiati,
which is the name with the Hebrew Purim ur Poorim (an is
the Persian plural, and in: is the Hebrew.) A second festival
of the month of Februar is Candlemas, an.sweing to the
ancient Persian festival, bade. These festivals were cele-
brated, the former at the end, and the latter at the beginning,
of February.. The 14th, St. Valentine's day (on which day,
according to the popular custom, still prevalent in England,
young persons choose their partners.) is dedicated in the
Indian calendar to Ganeslta, the god of matrimony. In
agreement with the rural tradition in this country, that birds
select their mates on this day, there exists the following
ancient calm-wary tradition of the Arabs and Persitins. In
the month of February three drops fall from heaven—the
first on the 7th, the second on the 14th, andthe third on the
21st day, the effect of which is to reanimate nature at the
returning of spring. The first drop evaporates in the air ;
the second falls on the water; the third mingles with the
earth ;—the first awakening the generative power in the
atmospheric regions, the second in the animal, and the third
in the vegetable, kingdoms. This tradition is exactly noted
down in the Persian and Arabic calendars, and is recorded in
the almanac annually printed at Constantinople. The festival
of Valentine, therefore, agrees with the most ancient festivals
of the Indians, Persians, and Arabs, celebrated on the same
day, consecrated to the god of matrimony, to the rise of
generative power, and, perhaps, also to Valentia, the goddess
of strength and vigour. With regard to the custom of
writing love-letters on this day in particular, the Baron
Hammer Purgstall, in the absence of all previous information
on this point, makes the following suggestions :—This custom
is, most likely, the remains of a very ancient usage, which
the Persians practised, not on the 14th February, but nine
days later, on the 23d. On this day (which answers to the
sth Sapendomadd Feridoon is reported to have written the
first taltsnian against impure beasts and noxious animals ;
and, ever since, spells and talismans were written in Persia
on that day, —a practice which appears to be perpetuated in
England by the Spell and talismanic virtue of amatory
epietles.—Literary Gazette.