Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 1.djvu/7

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my collection of West's juvenile theatrical prints I have one of which I have never seen another copy, except that in the Print Room of the British Museum. This latter is laid down and bound up at p. 43 of the fourth of the nine folio volumes comprising the splendid collection endorsed "West's Toy Theatre Prints," which was bought of me for the nation by Sir Sidney Colvin in 1886. Needless to say that nothing but the direst necessity made me part with it. The collection includes one of every print I then had, and also a number of sheets I believe to be unique, for I have no copies, though I have assiduously collected since. I estimate the Print Room collection to be now worth four times what I got for it. At all events, the Cruikshank sheets, which I then thought worth a shilling apiece, Capt. R. J. H. Douglas in his Catalogue values at 10s. each.

To return to West's print with which I began; it bears no title, and the only inscription outside the margin is:—"London, Published Jany 1, 1827, by W. West, at his Theatrical Print Warehouse, 57, Wych Street, Opposite the Olympic Theatre, Strand." It represents a number of actors round a table; on the tablecloth in front is the lettering, "West's New Theatrical Twelfth Night," and on the cake above, "Rich Treasury Cake." There is no description, and most probably none was necessary; all Londoners knew the characters. It might have been expected to bear some relation to the Drury Lane pantomime produced at Christmas, 1826, which was 'The Man in the Moon; or, Harlequin Dog-Star,' by William Barrymore; but that is not so. It seems clear that the engraving is only intended to be generally representative of celebrated performers who appeared at Drury Lane Theatre at different times, and not at the particular time of the previous year's celebration, namely, 1826. Thus at the head we have Edmund Kean, in costume as Richard III., saying to Robert William Elliston, who is in the act of cutting the cake, "Give me another Slice! Fill out the Wine! Do justice, Bobby!"

Elliston was lessee of Drury Lane Theatre from 1819 to 1826, but he did not act there after the expiration of his lease. Genest in his 'English Stage' (1832, vol. ix. p. 336) says, "In point of versatility he was scarcely inferior to any actor that had ever trod the stage." I have one of West's prints, dated as early as 1811, of Elliston in the character of Duke Aranza in 'The Honeymoon.' A copy of this is also in the Print Room (vol. iv. p. 50), but it is of later date, as it has been worked on to remedy the defects caused by taking numbers of impressions.

The figure just under Kean's right arm, holding his goblet in his left hand and cake in his right hand, is probably James Wallack, who "withdrew to the United States in 1845," the 'D.N.B.' says; but read 1851, as he was then at the Haymarket Theatre. The man just below him, who is also cutting the cake, bears a striking resemblance, both in face and figure, to Charles Kemble as he is depicted in the character of Thomas Cromwell in the splendid mezzotint engraving by G. Clint, A.R.A., after the well-known picture by G. H. Harlow entitled 'The Court for the Tryal of Queen Katharine,'