Page:All the Year Round - Series 2 - Volume 1.djvu/361

Charles Dickens] Similarly, however depressing the modern burlesque, a slight acquaintance with the literature of the stage is sufficient to assure the student, that dramatic doggerel and nonsense are not the exclusive possessions of this age. Our forefathers had a deal of rubbish served up to them. The heavy, stupid, unreal five-act comedies in fashion comparatively few years ago, and now happily forgotten, do not get the best of it in comparison with a few of the livelier works of to-day. Many of the dramas of the last few years are worth, in human life and interest, any number of the stilted, flat, sham-classical tragedies of early Drury Lane and Covent Garden.

Also, having been told on high authority that the morals of the stage are deteriorating, Your Commissioner perhaps ought to have accepted the statement as a fact. He preferred, however, to judge for himself.

With a notion that it was barely possible that some of the morbid self-depreciating tendencies of Englishmen—always particularly rife in stage matters, and always eagerly grasped at by the enemies of the theatre as weapons against it—might be at work in the present complaints; and yet with sincere anxiety to consider the question with thorough impartiality, the tour of the theatres was commenced by Your Commissioner.

Your Commissioner may say, once for all, that the ballet has always appeared to him to be a violent, gymnastic exercise, usually ungraceful, and almost always stupid; and it is his conviction that a large portion of the public are of his mind. For it will doubtless have been observed, when in the course of a drama and for no obvious reason, the ladies of the corps de ballet are introduced, their gambadoes are watched with scant interest by the audience, and the conclusion of their portion of the evening's entertainment is usually hailed with the feeblest applause. In the pantomime, and where it is allowed the first or chief place in the performance, the ballet may be more appreciated; owing to the varied combinations of colour and form, afforded by the ingenious grouping of a large corps de ballet, on an ample stage. Those ballets which consist chiefly of elaborate processions, marches, and the like, are invariably more popular than those relying on dancing alone.

The two theatres first on Your Commissioner's list, are both famous for their ballet effects: undoubtedly a rich, barbaric, and fantastic display in the one pantomime was better received than an elegant and prettily arranged dance in the other. The dance was of its kind good, and the principal dancer nimble and clever; but there can be little novelty in mere dancing feats, and the audience, although appreciative, were not enthusiastic. The costumes at both theatres were gorgeous in the extreme, but differed little, if at all, from those that the public eye has been content to gaze upon, without dismay, for many years. The costumes of a stage fairy, and of a pantomime prince or princess, are perfectly well known, and it cannot be said that in either of the cases now under treatment any very special divergence from established rules was noticeable; most certainly there was nothing to call for interference from without. Your Commissioner feels it, however, necessary to mention, that the personages who caused him the most satisfaction, and whose antics, highly relished by the audiences, were most ingenious and diverting, were certainly clothed but lightly. At the same time it is necessary to remark that both these personages were of the male sex; that one of them represented a benighted, though amusing savage, whose ideas of dress would naturally be limited; and that the other, whose most conspicuous article of dress was a pair of top boots, was a cat.

At both these theatres several points presented themselves strongly to Your Commissioner's notice. Two may here be mentioned beyond State control, and two on which your Lordship's opinion may fairly be asked.

Firstly, the public must by this time have had pretty nearly enough of the Girl of the Period. The present writer can speak strongly for himself on this point. The original papers written under this title were of a not particularly agreeable nature. The satire, however, if a little unfair, was at all events brisk, and the subject was not unsuited for satiric handling. Unfortunately, the name and subject have been seized upon by all the smaller wits, who have never ceased worrying them ever since. The town has been deluged with Girls of the Period. The lady has been served up in every form, musical, illustrative, theatrical; and with every kind of sauce, piquante and otherwise—chiefly otherwise. She has been flourished at the heads of unfortunate readers in every newspaper and magazine. She has be-