The daily morning journal and courier., 1903-03-13
THEIONDON LYCET-NI.


 proverb. do net always vanish in smoke. They are. occasionally. the victims of the house e-breaker" and the creator of improved ground -rents:" and this is the kind Of fate that seems to threaten the Lyceum. which is about to be put up for sale by auction. The site is so valuable that this historic playhouse is only too likely to disappear. The architectural attractions of ''Kingsway' may be increased by the change, but the Lyceum cannot pass away without inficting a pang upon the old playgoer. Its career has been long and exceeding ly checkered. and it's story fills large chapter in the annals of the English stage. As place of entertainment. in deed, its pedigree goes back to 1T65- a long genealogy for a theatre. In that year picture gallery was built upon a portion of the site os old Exter House. it wss intended for the exhibitions of 'The Society of Artists and was called the Lyceum-an unsuccessful and short lived precursor of the Royal Academy. For the next generation the building served many of the purposes of what the Americans call a "dime museum '' Musical and variety entertainments gave place to panoramas and schools of eloQuence, ''porcupine men," and white negroes"
 At one period it was even a Roman Catholic chapel. and it was within it's walls that Madame Tussaud. in 1902, began the moral was figger" business. in which she was so successful and Artemus Ward so unluckly. A century ago the opposition of the Patent Houses" was, so strong that it was diffi- cult to obtain license for 8 new theatre. and the efforts made on behalf of the Lyceum were unavailing until 1909, when upon the burning of Drury Lane, the company migrated to what is now Wellington Street. By them the name of the place was changed to
 English opera House." by way of advertising the fact that they were giv- ing that class of performance. In the year of Waterloo, Arnold. the manager for the Drury Lane Committee, bought the entire block which is now for sale, pulled down the old building, and erect ed a new theatre, with a number of houses and shops, at a cost of eighty thousand pounds. It was opened on the first anniversary of the battle. with Fanny Kelly, Charles Lambs Barbara s." in it's first company. But even with two performances a night 1t was a failure until Charles Mathews produced his At Home two years later There it was that, in 1925, Mrs. Keeley made her first London appearance, and there, too, that the ohce-famous melodrama, ''The Bottle Imp" was produced.
 The usual fire came in 1880, and the present building was not opened until four years later. The architect gave an amusing proof that the historic joke of the forgotten staircase" was not a mere legend, for until the building was up it did not occurr to him that he had failed to provide access to the gallery, and for years temporary wooden stairs were to be seen climbing up the exterior. Balfe's attempt, in 1S40, to establish a National Opera at the Lyceum- which still bore it musical title-was not more profitable than many subsequent en- deavors have been, and the house re- lapsed into wild beast show, and the scene of the exploits of the "Gnome Fly" who walked on the ceiling and climbed up the walls. It was not until 1S44 that the Royal Lyceum Theatre be- came full-fiedged playhouse. Under the management of the Kaeleys, fortune came, tardy but brief. With Madame Vestris and Charles Mathews the suc- cess was more brilliant and enduring. Used Up,'' BOX and Cox,'' and series nf DIonaha,c house every night for years. The pieces were mounted with taste and splendor hitherto undreamed, and there, in 1S49 the first transformation scene was arranged by William Beverley. But Madame Fetris was extravagant, and i Mathews crippled by old debts, and at the end of seven years or so the venture promising as it was, collapsed. That fine but strenuous actor, Charles Dillon succeeded to the management, and set the town on fire with his Belphegor, his D DArtagman-"Th Three Musketeers" was the new to the world-his Lear and other parts full of breadth and | passion To him Bancroft owed hel | first appearance in London. Another landmark in the history of the Lyceun7 | and indeed, of the English stage, was the reign of Charles Fechter, whose ] Claude Melnotte and Ruy Bias willnev- 1 CT be forgotten by veteran theatre-goers l He entirely reformed the mechanism oi \ the stage, and first fanliliarized the piaygoer with the elaborate spectacles
 which now so often take the place ot dramatic art. With the lesseeship of | MT. Bateman. which began in 1871, we ] reach the modern period of the Lyceum It is more than thirty years since Sil \ Henry Irving achieved his first com. | manding success in Wellington Street ! as Matthias, in "The Bells" and it k
 TOW with his many triunphs that tho l house is mainly associated. The Sub. lime Society of Beefsteaks,'' which had | long met within it's walls, was dis
 solved shortly before his association
 with the Lyceum began.-Londor | Standard.