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Speaker 1: Getting up a pantomime by George Augustus Seller. Christmas is coming,

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cold weather, snow in the streets, mince pies, and our

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little boys and girls home for the holidays, kind hearted

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people's donations for the poor, boxes turkeys from the country,

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goose clubs in town, plums and candid sittern in the

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windows of the grocer's shops, hot elder wine, snap dragon

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hunt the slipper, and the butcher's and baker's quarterly bills.

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The Great Anniversary of Humanity gives signs of its approach,

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and with it the joyfulness and unbending and unstarching of

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white neckcloths, and genial charity, and genial handshaking and good fellowship,

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which once a year at least dispel the fog of

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caste and prejudice in this land of England. And Christmas

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is coming, and in his jovial train come also the pantomimes. Goodness,

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though we know them all by heart, how we love

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those same pantomimes still, though we have seen the same

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clowns steal the same sausages, and have been asked by

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the pantaloon, how are we tomorrow? For years and years,

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how we delight in the same clown and pantaloon. Still,

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there can't be anything esthetic in a pantomime. It must

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be deficient in the unities. It has no epipere or

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anything in the shape of dramatic property connected with it.

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Yet it must have something good about it to make

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us row at the old old jokes, and wonder at

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the old tricks, and be delighted with the old spangled

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fairies andaled fires. Perhaps there may be something in the

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festive season, something contagious in the wintry jollity of the year,

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that causes us churchwarden's householders, hard men of business, that

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we may be forget parochial squabbles, taxes and water rates,

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discount and adjutage for hours, and enter heart and soul

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into participation and appreciation of the mysteries of Harlequin Fifo FuMB,

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or the enchanted fairy of the Island of Abracadabra. Possibly

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there may be something in the shrill laughter, the ecstatic handclapping,

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the shouts of triumphant laughter of the little children. Yonder,

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it may be, after all, that the sausages and the spangles,

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the tricks and colored fires of Harlequin Fifo FuMB may

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strike some long forgotten cords, rummage up long hidden sympathies,

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wake up kindly feelings and remembrances of things that were

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air parochial squabbles, water rates and discount had been when

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we two were little children, when our jackets buttoned over

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our trousers, and we wore frills around our necks and

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long blue sashes round our waists. Else, why should something

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like a water in us in the eye, and a

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huskiness in the throat, not sorrowful though, come over us

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amid the most excruciatingly comic portion of the comic business.

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Else why should the lights and the music, the children's laughter,

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and the spangled fairies conjure up that mind picture half

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dim and half distinct, of our Christmases years ago, of

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Mangnal's questions and my incipation from the cane of Grandmamma,

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who always kept sweet stuff in her pockets, of Uncle William,

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who was never without a store of half crowns, wherewith

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to tip us of poor sister Gussie who died of

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the childish joys and griefs, the hopes and fears of

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Christmas in the year eighteen hundred, And never mind how

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many hip hip hip for the pantomime, however, exultingly watched

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the clown through his nefarious career, raw at jack pudding, tumbling,

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admire the paint on his face, marvel at the halls

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of splendor and glittering coral caves of the genius of

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the sea. Till midnight comes and the green baize curtain

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rolls slowly down, and brown Holland draperies cover the ormelou

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decorations of the boxing. Then if you can spare half

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an hour, send the little children home to Brompton with

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the best of governesses, and tarry a while with me

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while I discourse of what goes on behind that same

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green curtain, of what has gone on before the clown

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could steal his sausages, or the spangled fairy change an

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oak into a magic temple, or the colored fires light

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up the home of beauty in the lake of the

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silver Swans. Let me, as briefly and succinctly as I can,

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endeavor to give you an idea of the immense labor

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and industry and perseverance, of the nice ingenuity and patient

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mechanical skill, of the various knowledge necessary, nay indispensable. Eir Harlequin,

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fie fo FuMB can be put upon the stage ere

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the green bays can rise, disclosing the coral caves of

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the genius of the sea. Let us put on the

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cap of Fortunio, and the stilts of asthmadeus. Let us

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go back to when the pantomime was but an embryo

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of comicality, and in its progress towards the glory of

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full blown pantomimehood. Watched the labors of the ants behind

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the bays ants without exaggeration, For if ever there was

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a human ant hill, the working department of a theater

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is something of that sort. And mere amusement, your mere

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enlightenment on a subject of which my readers may possibly

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be ignorant, are not the sole objects I have in view.

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I do honestly think that the theatrical profession and its

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professors are somewhat calumniated. That people are rather too apt

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to call theaters sinks of iniquity and dens of depravity,

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and to set down all actors as a species of

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diverting vagabonds who have acquired a knowledge of their calling

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without study, and exercise it without labor. I imagine that if

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a little more were known of how hard working, industrious

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and persevering. Theatricals as a body generally, are of what

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has to be done behind the scenes of a theater

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and how it is done for our amusement. We should

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look upon the drama with a more favorable eye, and

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look upon even poor Jack Pudding when he has washed

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the paint off his face, with a little more charity

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and forbearance Fortunio capped. Then we stand in the green

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room of the Theater Royal Hatton Garden, one bleak November morning,

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while the stage manager reads the manuscript of the opening

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to the new Grand Pantomime of Harlequin fief O Fum.

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The dramatic performers as the pantomimists, are not present at

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this reading, the lecture being preliminary and intended for the

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sole behoof of the working ants of the theatrical ant Hill.

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The fighting ants will have another reading to themselves this morning.

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Are assembled the scene painter, an individual bespattered from head

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to foot with splashes of various colors, attired in a

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painted ragged blouse, a battered cap, and slipshod slippers. You

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would be rather surprised to see him turn out when

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his work is over dressed like a gentleman as he is,

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and an accomplished gentleman to boot Near him is the

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property man, also painted and bespattered and strongly perfumed with

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a mingled odor of glue and turpentine. Then there is

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the carpenter, who twirls a wide awake hat between his fingers,

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and whose attire generally betrays an embroidery of shavings. The

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leader of the band is present on the edge of

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a chair. Sits the author, not necessarily a seedy man

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with long hair and a manuscript peeping out of his

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coat pocket, but a well to do looking gentleman, probably

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with rather a nervous air just now and wincing somewhat

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as the droning voice of the stage manager gives utterance

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to his comic combinations, and his creamiest jokes are met

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with immovable stolidity from the person's present catch them laughing.

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The scene painter is thinking of heavy sets and cut

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cloths instead of quips and conundrums. The carpenter cogitates on

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sinks and slides, strikes and pulls. The property man ponders

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ruefully on the immense number of comic masks to model

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and coral branches to paint, while the master and Mistress

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of the wardrobe, whom we have hitherto omitted to mention,

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mentally cast up the number of elves of glazed calico, silk,

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satin and velvet required, lastly enthroned in awful magnificence in

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some dim corner sits the management. A portly, port wine

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voiced management may be with a white hat and a

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double eyeglass with a broad ribbon. This incarnation of theatrical

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power throws in an occasional good at which the author

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colours and sings a mental pain, varied by an ejaculation

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of conbdne, at which the dramatist winces dreadfully. The reading

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over a short desultory conversation follows, it would be better,

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mister brush, the painter suggests to make the first scena

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close in and not a sink. Mister tax. The carpenter,

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a machinist, we mean, intimates in a somewhat threatening manner

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that he shall want a power of nails and screws,

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while the master of the wardrobe repudiates with respectful indignation

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an economical suggestion of the management, touching the renovation of

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some old ballet dresses by means of new spangles, and

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the propriety of cutting up an old crimson velvet curtain

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used some years before into costumes for the supernumerries. As

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to the leader of the band, he is slowly humming

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over a very little warbler of popular airs which he

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thinks he can introduce, while the stage manager pencil in

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hand fights amicably with the author as to the cuts

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necessary to make the pantomime read with greater smartness. All, however,

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agree that it will do, and to each working ant

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is delivered a plot of what he or she has

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to manufactor by a given time, generally a month or

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six weeks from the day of reading. Mister Brush has

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a plot of so many pairs of flats and wings,

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so many borders and set pieces, so many cloths and backings.

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Mister Tax has a similar one, as it is his

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department to prepare the canvases and machinery on which mister

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Brush subsequently paints. Mister Tag, the wardrobe keeper is provided

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with a list of the fairies, demons, kings, guards and

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slaves costumes he is required to Confexione and mister Rosin.

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The leader is presented with a complete copy of the

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pantomime itself, in order that he may study its principal

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points and arrange characteristic music for it. As for poor

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mister Gage, the property man, he departs in a state

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of pitiable bewilderment, holding in his hand a portentous list

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of proper is required, from regal crowns to red hot pokers.

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He impetuously demands, how it all to be done? In

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a month? Done it will be, notwithstanding, the stage manager

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departs in a hurry in which stage managers generally are

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twenty hours out of the twenty four, and entrapping the

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clown in the passage, who is an eccentric character of

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immense comic abilities, and distinguished for training all sorts of animals,

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from the goose which follows him like a dog, to

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a jackass fold which resides in his sitting room, enters

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into an animated pantomimic conversation with him, discoursing especially of

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the immense number of bits of fat for him clown

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in the pantomime. The author's name we need not mention.

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It will appear in the bill, as it has appeared

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in and across many bills, stamped and unstamped, when the

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officials have retired, he remains a while with the management,

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the subject of conversation mainly relating to a piece of

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gray paper addressed to Messrs Coots, Drummonds or Child's. For

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the next few days, though work has not actually commenced

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in all its vigor, great preparations are made. Forests of timber,

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so to speak, are brought in at the stage door.

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Also bales of canvas, huge quantities of stuffs for the wardrobe,

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foil paper, spangles and Dutch metal generally furkins of size

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and barrels of whitening arrive for mister brush, hundred weights

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of glue and gold leaf for mister gage, not forgetting

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the power of nails and screws for mister tax. Another

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day and the ants are all at work behind the

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bays for harlequin fee fos fum four Tunio's cap will

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stand us in good stared again, and we had better

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attach ourselves to the skirts of the stage manager, who

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is here, there and everywhere, to see that the work

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is being properly preceded with. The carpenters have been at

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work since six o'clock this nice winter morning. Let us

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see how they are getting on after breakfast, we cross

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the darkened stage and ascending a very narrow staircase at

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the back thereof mount into the lower range of flies.

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A mixture this of the between decks of a ship,

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a rope walk, and the old woodwork of the chain

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pier at brighton. Here are windlasses, capstans, ropes, cables, chains,

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pulleys innumerable. Take care or you will stumble across the

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species of winnowing machine used to imitate the noise of wind,

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and which is close to the large sheet of copper

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which makes the thunder. The cylinder filled with peas used

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for rain and hail is downstairs, but you may see

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the wires or travelers used by flying fairies, and the

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huge counterweights and lines which work the curtain and act.

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Drop up, then again by a ladder into range of

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Flies number two, where there are more pulleys, windlasses and

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counterweights with bridges crossing the stage, and lines working the borders,

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and gas pipes with colored screens called mediums, which are

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used to throw a lurid light of a moonlight on

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scenes of battles or conflagrations where the employment of colored

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fires is not desirable. Another ladder, a rope one this

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time has still to be climbed, And now we find

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ourselves close to the roof of the theater and in

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the carpenter's shop, such a noise of sawing and chopping,

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hammering and chiseling. The shop is a large one, its

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size corresponding to the area of the stage. Beneath. Twenty

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or thirty men are at work putting together the framework

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of flats and covering the framework itself with canvas. Some

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are constructing the long cylinders or rollers used for drops

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or cloths, while others, on their knees are busily following

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with a hand saw the outline of a rock or

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tree marked in red lead by the scene painter on

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profile thin wood required for a set piece. Mister tax

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is in his glory, with his power of nails and

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screws around him. He pounces on the official immediately he

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must have more nails, more hands, spreading out his own

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emphatically give him hands. The stage manager, pacifiers and promises

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00:17:57,200 --> 00:18:01,119
stand by there, while four brawny carpenter rush from another

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00:18:01,160 --> 00:18:04,839
portion of the shop. With the pagoda of Arabian delights

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dimly looming through canvas and whitewash. A curious race of

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00:18:11,039 --> 00:18:16,000
men are these theatrical carpenters. Some of them growl bits

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00:18:16,039 --> 00:18:20,720
of Italian operas or melodramatic music as they work. They

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are full of traditional lore of the lane and the

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garden in days of yore. Probably their fathers and grandfathers

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were theatrical before them, for it is rare to find

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a carpenter of ordinary life at stage work, or vice versa.

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Malignant members of the ordinary trade whisper even that their

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00:18:41,400 --> 00:18:45,279
work never lasts and is only fit for the ideal

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carpentry of a theater. There is a legend also that

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a stage carpenter, being employed once to make a coffin,

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constructed it after the hamlet manner and ornamented it with

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00:18:58,119 --> 00:19:03,559
scroll work. They preserve admirable discipline and obey the master

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00:19:03,680 --> 00:19:08,079
carpenter implicitly, but work once over and out of the theater.

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He is no more than one of themselves, and takes

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beer with Tom or Bill and the chair at their

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committee and six club reunions in a perfectly republican and

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fraternal manner. These men labour from six in the morning

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until six in the evening, and probably as Fifo Farm

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00:19:29,119 --> 00:19:32,640
is a heavy pantomime, from seven until the close of

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the performances at night, when the gas battens below, the

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00:19:37,640 --> 00:19:41,799
flies are all lighted. The heat is somewhat oppressive, and

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if you lie on your face on the floor and

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00:19:44,559 --> 00:19:47,559
gaze through the chinks of the planking, you will hear

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00:19:47,599 --> 00:19:51,319
the music in the orchestra and catch an occasional glimpse

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00:19:51,359 --> 00:19:55,640
of the performers on the stage beneath, marvelously foreshortened and

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00:19:55,880 --> 00:20:01,319
microscopically diminished. The morning we pay our visit, a rehearsal

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00:20:01,480 --> 00:20:05,039
is going on below, and a horse command is wafted

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00:20:05,079 --> 00:20:09,119
from the stage to start that hammering. While Mark Antony

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00:20:09,240 --> 00:20:12,720
is pronouncing his oration over the dead body of Caesar.

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00:20:13,839 --> 00:20:17,559
The stage manager, of course, is now wanted downstairs, and

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00:20:17,680 --> 00:20:23,160
departs with an oft iterated injunction to get on, we

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00:20:23,279 --> 00:20:30,000
too must get on without him, which, still using Fortunio's invisibility,

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we will endeavor to do. We enter another carpenter's shop,

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smaller but on the same level, and occupying a space

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above the horseshoe ceiling of the audience part of the theater.

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00:20:43,599 --> 00:20:47,480
A sort of martello of wood occupies the center of

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this apartment, its summit going through the roof. This is

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00:20:52,039 --> 00:20:56,279
at once the ventilator and the chandelier house of the theater.

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If we open a small door, we can disc scry

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00:21:00,759 --> 00:21:04,480
as our eyes become accustomed to the semidarkness, that it

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00:21:04,559 --> 00:21:08,880
is floored with iron in ornamented scroll work, and opening

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00:21:08,960 --> 00:21:12,839
with a hinged trap. We can also see the ropes

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00:21:12,880 --> 00:21:16,960
and pulleys to which are suspended the great center chandelier,

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00:21:17,480 --> 00:21:20,400
and by which it is hauled up every Monday morning

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00:21:20,480 --> 00:21:25,119
to be cleaned. More carpenters are busily at work at

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00:21:25,240 --> 00:21:31,039
bench and trestles, sawing, gluing, hammering, hark, we hear a

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00:21:31,119 --> 00:21:35,079
noise like an eight day clock on a gigantic scale,

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00:21:35,240 --> 00:21:39,200
running down. They are letting down a pair of flats

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00:21:39,200 --> 00:21:42,279
in the painting room. Let us see what they are

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about in the painting room itself. Pushing aside a door

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00:21:46,920 --> 00:21:51,319
forever on the swing, we enter an apartment somewhat narrow

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00:21:51,400 --> 00:21:55,119
if taken in comparison with its length, but very lofty.

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Half the roof at least is skylight. A longitude sudennal

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00:22:00,440 --> 00:22:04,319
aperture in the flooring traverses the room close to the wall.

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00:22:05,200 --> 00:22:09,200
This is the cut or groove half a foot wide

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00:22:09,279 --> 00:22:12,519
and seventy feet in depth, perhaps in which hangs a

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00:22:12,559 --> 00:22:16,920
screen of woodwork called a frame. On this frame, the

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00:22:17,000 --> 00:22:20,240
scene to be painted is placed, and by means of

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00:22:20,279 --> 00:22:23,279
a counterweight, and a windlass is worked up and down

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00:22:23,359 --> 00:22:27,039
the cut as the painter may require, the sky being

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00:22:27,119 --> 00:22:30,119
thus as convenient to his hand as the lowest stone

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00:22:30,240 --> 00:22:33,720
or bit of foliage in the foreground. When the scene

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00:22:33,759 --> 00:22:37,400
is finished, a signal is given to stand clear below,

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00:22:37,880 --> 00:22:40,920
and a bar in the windlass being removed. The frame

303
00:22:41,119 --> 00:22:44,680
slides with immense celerity down the cut to the level

304
00:22:44,720 --> 00:22:49,200
of the stage. Here the carpenters remove the flats or

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00:22:49,200 --> 00:22:52,079
wings or whatever else may have been painted, and the

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00:22:52,160 --> 00:22:56,680
empty frame is wound up again into the painting room. Sometimes,

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00:22:56,759 --> 00:23:00,319
instead of a cut, a bridge is used. In this case,

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00:23:00,480 --> 00:23:04,440
a scene itself remains stationary, and the painter stands on

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00:23:04,480 --> 00:23:07,519
a platform which is wound up and down by windless

310
00:23:07,519 --> 00:23:10,519
as he may require it, a ladder being placed against

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00:23:10,559 --> 00:23:13,400
the bridge if he wishes to descend without shifting the

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00:23:13,440 --> 00:23:17,480
position of his platform. When the scene is finished, a

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00:23:17,640 --> 00:23:20,720
trap is opened in the floor and the scenes slung

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00:23:20,759 --> 00:23:25,319
by ropes to the bottom. The cut and frame are,

315
00:23:25,599 --> 00:23:29,480
it is needless to say, most convenient The artist, being

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00:23:29,519 --> 00:23:32,599
always able to contemplate the full effect of his work,

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00:23:33,039 --> 00:23:36,240
and to provide himself with what colours or sketches he

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00:23:36,319 --> 00:23:39,759
may need, without the trouble of ascending and descending the ladder.

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00:23:41,119 --> 00:23:45,599
Mister Brush, more bespattered than ever, with a double tie

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00:23:45,680 --> 00:23:49,440
brush in his hand, is knocking the color about bravely.

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00:23:50,440 --> 00:23:54,000
Five or six good men and true his assistants are

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00:23:54,079 --> 00:23:57,359
also employed on the scene. He is painting the fairy

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00:23:57,559 --> 00:24:02,559
palace of Fivo Fum. Perchance. One is seated at a

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00:24:02,640 --> 00:24:05,759
table with something very like the toy theaters of our

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00:24:05,839 --> 00:24:08,759
younger days, on which we used to enact that wonderful

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00:24:08,839 --> 00:24:12,880
Miller and his men, with the famous characters, always in

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00:24:12,960 --> 00:24:17,799
one fierce attitude of triumphant defiance we remember of mister

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00:24:17,920 --> 00:24:21,599
Park before him. It is in reality a model of

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00:24:21,640 --> 00:24:25,279
the stage itself, and the little bits of pasteboard he

330
00:24:25,359 --> 00:24:28,680
is cutting out and pasting together form portions of a

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00:24:28,759 --> 00:24:32,039
scene he is modeling to scale for the future guidance

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00:24:32,079 --> 00:24:36,440
of the carpenter. Another is fluting columns with a thin

333
00:24:36,640 --> 00:24:40,039
brush called a quill tool, and a long ruler or

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00:24:40,200 --> 00:24:44,559
straight edge. Different portions of the scene are allotted to

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00:24:44,599 --> 00:24:49,160
different artists according to their competence, from mister Brush, who

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00:24:49,240 --> 00:24:53,519
finishes and touches up everything, down to the fustian jacketed

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00:24:53,559 --> 00:24:57,759
whitewasher who is priming or giving a preparatory coat of

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00:24:57,799 --> 00:25:02,680
whiting and size to a pair of wind If you

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00:25:02,720 --> 00:25:06,079
are at all curious to know how the brilliant scenes

340
00:25:06,160 --> 00:25:09,200
you see at night are painted, you may watch the

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00:25:09,279 --> 00:25:12,440
whole process of a pair of flats growing into a

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00:25:12,480 --> 00:25:18,759
beautiful picture under mister Brush's experienced hands. First, the scene,

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00:25:19,039 --> 00:25:22,599
well primed and looking like a gigantic sheet of coarse

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00:25:22,680 --> 00:25:27,400
cartridge paper on a stretcher, is placed on the frame. Then,

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00:25:27,480 --> 00:25:30,519
with a long pole cleft at the end and in

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00:25:30,599 --> 00:25:34,279
which is stuck a piece of charcoal, mister Brush hastily

347
00:25:34,400 --> 00:25:38,160
scrawls as it seems the outline of the scene he

348
00:25:38,240 --> 00:25:42,279
is about to paint. Then he and his assistants draw

349
00:25:42,480 --> 00:25:46,680
in a finished outline with a small brush and common ink, which,

350
00:25:46,839 --> 00:25:50,640
darkening as it dries, allows the outline to shine through

351
00:25:50,680 --> 00:25:55,559
the first layers of color. Then the whitewasher laborer as

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00:25:55,559 --> 00:25:59,480
he is technically called, is summoned to lay in the

353
00:25:59,480 --> 00:26:04,240
great glasses of color sky wall, foreground, et cetera, which

354
00:26:04,279 --> 00:26:08,279
he does with huge brushes. Then the shadows are picked

355
00:26:08,319 --> 00:26:12,720
in by assistance to whom enters speedily. Mister brush with

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00:26:12,799 --> 00:26:15,440
a sketch in one hand and brushes in the other,

357
00:26:15,880 --> 00:26:20,680
and he finishes. Finishes too, with a delicacy of manipulation

358
00:26:21,000 --> 00:26:25,559
and nicety of touch, which will rather surprise you, previously

359
00:26:25,599 --> 00:26:28,359
impressed as you may have been, with an idea that

360
00:26:28,519 --> 00:26:32,839
scenes are painted with mops and that scenic artists are

361
00:26:32,880 --> 00:26:39,000
a superior class of house painters. Stay here is the

362
00:26:39,039 --> 00:26:41,799
straight line of a cornice to be ruled from one

363
00:26:41,839 --> 00:26:44,880
part of the scene to the other. A space fifty

364
00:26:44,920 --> 00:26:49,720
feet wide. Perhaps two laborers, one at either end, hold

365
00:26:49,720 --> 00:26:53,440
a string tightly across where the desired line is to be.

366
00:26:54,519 --> 00:26:58,799
This string has been well rubbed with powdered charcoal, and

367
00:26:59,039 --> 00:27:01,960
being held up in some part for a moment between

368
00:27:02,000 --> 00:27:06,079
the thumb and finger, and then smartly vibrated onto the

369
00:27:06,160 --> 00:27:10,240
canvas again, leaves a mark of black charcoal along the

370
00:27:10,279 --> 00:27:13,480
whole length of the line, which, being followed by the

371
00:27:13,519 --> 00:27:18,880
brush and ink, serves for the guideline of the cornice. Again,

372
00:27:19,200 --> 00:27:22,720
the wall of that magnificent saloon has to be covered

373
00:27:22,759 --> 00:27:27,480
with an elaborate scroll work pattern is all this outlined

374
00:27:27,519 --> 00:27:32,680
by the hand. Think you no. A sheet of brown paper,

375
00:27:33,079 --> 00:27:36,440
perforated with pin holes with a portion of the desired

376
00:27:36,480 --> 00:27:40,759
pattern is laid against the scene. The hole is then

377
00:27:40,880 --> 00:27:45,480
gently beaten with a woosted bag full of powdered charcoal, which,

378
00:27:45,640 --> 00:27:50,359
penetrating through the pinholes leaves a dotted outline capable of

379
00:27:50,400 --> 00:27:56,279
repetition add infinitum by shifting the pattern. This is called pouncing.

380
00:27:57,319 --> 00:28:01,640
Then some of the outlines of decoration stenciled. But for

381
00:28:01,839 --> 00:28:06,240
foliage and rocks, flowers and water. I need not tell you,

382
00:28:06,440 --> 00:28:09,799
my artistical friend, that the hand of mister Brush is

383
00:28:09,839 --> 00:28:15,480
the only pouncer and stenciller. For so grand a pantomime

384
00:28:15,519 --> 00:28:20,359
as fi fo fum, a scene will, probably, after artistic completion,

385
00:28:20,759 --> 00:28:25,799
be enriched with foiled paper and Dutch metal. Admire the

386
00:28:25,839 --> 00:28:30,720
celerity with which these processes are affected. First, an assistant

387
00:28:30,880 --> 00:28:34,640
cuts the foil in narrow strips with a penknife. Another

388
00:28:34,880 --> 00:28:39,480
catches them up like magic and glues them. Another claps

389
00:28:39,519 --> 00:28:44,039
them on the canvas, and the scene is foiled. Then

390
00:28:44,359 --> 00:28:48,160
mister Brush advances with a pot, having a lamp beneath

391
00:28:48,440 --> 00:28:52,640
filled with a composition of burgundy pitch rosin glue and

392
00:28:52,799 --> 00:28:58,160
beeswax called Mordant. With this and a camel hair brush,

393
00:28:58,480 --> 00:29:03,200
he delicately outlined finds the parts he wishes guilt. Half

394
00:29:03,200 --> 00:29:06,839
a dozen assistants rush forward with books of Dutch metal,

395
00:29:07,240 --> 00:29:10,240
and three fourths of the scene are covered in a

396
00:29:10,359 --> 00:29:15,359
trice with squares of glittering joss. The superfluous particles are

397
00:29:15,400 --> 00:29:18,359
rubbed off with a dry brush, and amid a very

398
00:29:18,480 --> 00:29:23,160
deniant shower of golden particles, the outlines of Mordant to

399
00:29:23,240 --> 00:29:27,319
which the metal has adhered become gradually apparent in a

400
00:29:27,400 --> 00:29:33,000
glittering network. All around this chamber of the arts are

401
00:29:33,079 --> 00:29:37,359
hung pounces and stencils, like the brown paper patterns in

402
00:29:37,400 --> 00:29:41,119
a tailor's shop. There is a ledge running right round

403
00:29:41,119 --> 00:29:43,319
the room, on which is placed a long row of

404
00:29:43,440 --> 00:29:47,039
pots filled with the colors used, which are ground in

405
00:29:47,119 --> 00:29:51,920
water and subsequently tempered with size, a huge caldron of

406
00:29:52,000 --> 00:29:56,559
which is now simmering over the ample fireplace. The colour

407
00:29:56,559 --> 00:30:01,640
grinder himself stands before a table supporting an ample stone slab,

408
00:30:01,920 --> 00:30:05,480
on which with a marble molor he is grinding Dutch

409
00:30:05,599 --> 00:30:10,480
pink lustily. The painter's palett is not the oval one

410
00:30:10,640 --> 00:30:14,480
used by picture painters, but a downright four legged table,

411
00:30:14,759 --> 00:30:18,640
the edges of which are divided into compartments, each holding

412
00:30:18,759 --> 00:30:22,279
its separate dab of colour, while the center serves as

413
00:30:22,279 --> 00:30:26,599
a space whereon to mix and graduate the tints. The

414
00:30:26,680 --> 00:30:30,880
whitewashed walls are scrawled over with rough sketches and memoranda

415
00:30:31,079 --> 00:30:35,079
in charcoal or red lead, while a choice engraving here

416
00:30:35,119 --> 00:30:38,759
and there, a box of watercolours, some delicate flowers in

417
00:30:38,799 --> 00:30:42,920
a glass, some velvet drapery pinned against the wall. Hint

418
00:30:43,079 --> 00:30:48,680
that in this timber roofed, unpapered, uncarpeted, size and whitewashed

419
00:30:48,680 --> 00:30:54,400
smelling workshop, there is art as well as industry. Though

420
00:30:54,400 --> 00:30:57,119
it is only of late years, mind you, that scene

421
00:30:57,240 --> 00:31:01,519
painters have been recognized as artists at all. They were

422
00:31:01,519 --> 00:31:07,119
called doorbers, whitewashers, paper hangers by that class of artists

423
00:31:07,160 --> 00:31:10,359
to whom the velvet cap, the turn down collars, and

424
00:31:10,400 --> 00:31:15,279
the ormeloo frame were as the air they breathed. These

425
00:31:15,480 --> 00:31:18,279
were the gentlemen who thought it beneath the dignity of

426
00:31:18,559 --> 00:31:22,960
art to make designs for wood engravers, to paint porcelain,

427
00:31:23,200 --> 00:31:28,200
to draw patterns for silk manufacturers. Gradually they found out

428
00:31:28,400 --> 00:31:33,799
that the scene painters made better architects, landscape painters, professors

429
00:31:33,799 --> 00:31:39,519
of perspectives than they themselves did. Gradually, they remembered that

430
00:31:39,680 --> 00:31:44,359
in days gone by such men as Salvatorerosa, in Ago

431
00:31:44,599 --> 00:31:49,200
Jones and Philip de Luthborg were seen painters, and that

432
00:31:49,279 --> 00:31:53,920
in our own times one Stanfield had not disdained size

433
00:31:53,920 --> 00:31:57,559
and whitewash, nor a certain Roberts sought it derogatory to

434
00:31:57,640 --> 00:32:03,400
wield the double tie brush scene painting. Thenceforward looked up,

435
00:32:03,880 --> 00:32:08,079
and even the heavy portals of the Academy moved creakingly

436
00:32:08,160 --> 00:32:12,200
on their hinges for the admittance of distinguished professors of

437
00:32:12,319 --> 00:32:18,000
scenic art. We have been hindering, mister Brush, quite long enough,

438
00:32:18,119 --> 00:32:21,960
I think, even though we are invisible. So let us

439
00:32:21,960 --> 00:32:25,839
descend this crazy ladder which leads from the painting room

440
00:32:25,920 --> 00:32:30,240
down another flight of stairs. So keep your hands out

441
00:32:30,240 --> 00:32:34,440
before you, and tread cautiously, for the management is cherry

442
00:32:34,480 --> 00:32:39,279
of gas, and the places pitch dark. Now as I

443
00:32:39,359 --> 00:32:42,279
open this door, shade your eyes with your hand. A

444
00:32:42,359 --> 00:32:46,640
moment blest, the sudden glare of light dazzle you. This

445
00:32:47,319 --> 00:32:51,519
is the property room. In this vast, long, low room,

446
00:32:51,599 --> 00:32:56,920
are manufactured the properties all the stage furniture and paraphernalia

447
00:32:57,039 --> 00:33:01,319
required during the performance of a play look around you

448
00:33:01,680 --> 00:33:06,559
and wonder. The walls and ceiling are hung, the floor

449
00:33:06,640 --> 00:33:13,880
and tables cumbered with properties Shylock's knife and scales, Ophelia's coffin,

450
00:33:14,640 --> 00:33:20,119
paul prize umbrella, Macbeth's truncheon, the cauldron of the Witches,

451
00:33:20,680 --> 00:33:30,160
Harlequin's bat, the sickle of Norma, Mambrino's helmet, swords, lanterns, banners, belts, hats, daggers,

452
00:33:30,440 --> 00:33:36,319
wooden surloins of beef, Louis Catore's chairs, papier mache, goblets,

453
00:33:36,839 --> 00:33:48,400
pantomime masks, stage money, whips, spears, lutes, flasks of rich burgundy, fruit, rattles, fish, plaster, images, drums,

454
00:33:48,480 --> 00:33:53,240
cocked hats, spurs, and bugle horns are strewn about without

455
00:33:53,279 --> 00:33:59,559
the slightest attempt at arrangement or classification. Tilted against the wall,

456
00:33:59,640 --> 00:34:03,920
on one is a four legged banqueting table, very grand, indeed,

457
00:34:04,440 --> 00:34:09,400
white marble top and golden legs. At this table will

458
00:34:09,519 --> 00:34:15,039
noble knights and ladies feast richly off, wooden fowls and

459
00:34:15,239 --> 00:34:20,480
brown paper pies coughing. Meanwhile, deep potations of toast and

460
00:34:20,559 --> 00:34:25,280
water sherry, or happily golden goblets full of nothing at all.

461
00:34:26,440 --> 00:34:30,760
Some of the goblets, together with elaborate flasks of exhilarating

462
00:34:30,800 --> 00:34:35,639
emptiness and dishes of rich fruit, more deceptive than dead

463
00:34:35,639 --> 00:34:39,239
sea apples, for they have not even got ashes inside them,

464
00:34:39,599 --> 00:34:44,719
are nailed to the festive board itself. On very great occasions,

465
00:34:44,760 --> 00:34:48,119
the bowl is wreathed with cotton wool, and the irons

466
00:34:48,360 --> 00:34:54,199
smoke with a cloud of powdered lime. Dreadfully deceptive are

467
00:34:54,199 --> 00:34:59,800
these stage banquets and stage purses. The haughty hospited aar

468
00:35:00,079 --> 00:35:05,079
of hungary drinks confusion to bold bandit of Bulgaria in

469
00:35:05,159 --> 00:35:09,800
a liquorless cup, vainly thirsting meanwhile for a pint of

470
00:35:09,880 --> 00:35:14,840
mild porter from the adjacent Hostelry deep are his retainers

471
00:35:14,920 --> 00:35:18,880
in the enjoyment of warden pies and lusty capons, while

472
00:35:18,920 --> 00:35:23,519
they're too often empty interiors cry dolorously for three pennece

473
00:35:23,599 --> 00:35:28,440
of cold boiled beef. Liberal is he also of broad

474
00:35:28,639 --> 00:35:33,360
florins and purses of moy doors, accidentally drawing, perchance at

475
00:35:33,360 --> 00:35:37,239
the same time a Lombardian debenture for his boots from

476
00:35:37,280 --> 00:35:40,960
the breast of his doublets. The meat is a sham,

477
00:35:41,239 --> 00:35:44,840
and the wine is a sham, and the money a sham.

478
00:35:44,920 --> 00:35:48,360
But are there no other shams, o, brothers and sisters

479
00:35:48,559 --> 00:35:52,760
besides those of the footlights. Have I not dined with

480
00:35:52,840 --> 00:35:57,800
my legs under sham mahogany illuminated by sham wax lights?

481
00:35:58,719 --> 00:36:03,079
Has not a sham ghostairs helped me to sham boiled turkey?

482
00:36:04,159 --> 00:36:07,960
Has not my sham health been drunk by sham? Friends?

483
00:36:09,039 --> 00:36:14,639
Do I know no haughty hospitedar of Hungary myself? There

484
00:36:14,719 --> 00:36:18,440
is one piece, and one piece only on the stage

485
00:36:18,519 --> 00:36:23,000
in which a real banquet, a genuine spread is provided.

486
00:36:24,159 --> 00:36:29,400
That piece is no song, no supper, however small may be.

487
00:36:29,519 --> 00:36:32,800
The theater, however low the state of the finances, the

488
00:36:32,920 --> 00:36:37,760
immemorial tradition is respected, and a real leg of mutton

489
00:36:38,079 --> 00:36:43,440
graces the board once the chronicle goes. There was a

490
00:36:43,480 --> 00:36:48,960
heartless monster in property man's shape who substituted a dish

491
00:36:49,000 --> 00:36:56,960
of mutton chops for the historical jiggot execration. Abhorrence expulsion

492
00:36:57,400 --> 00:37:01,639
followed his iniquitous fraud, and he was from that day

493
00:37:02,159 --> 00:37:08,199
a property man accursed curiously enough, While the leg of

494
00:37:08,320 --> 00:37:12,679
mutton in no song, no supper is always real. The

495
00:37:12,719 --> 00:37:17,079
cake introduced in the same piece is as invariably a

496
00:37:17,239 --> 00:37:22,519
counterfeit the old stock wooden cake of the theater. When

497
00:37:22,519 --> 00:37:26,480
it shall be known why waiters wear white neckcloths and

498
00:37:26,679 --> 00:37:31,079
dustman shorts and ankle jacks, the proximate cause of this

499
00:37:31,199 --> 00:37:36,880
discrepancy will perhaps be pointed out. To return to the

500
00:37:36,920 --> 00:37:41,599
property room of the theatre, Royal Hatton Garden. Mister Gorge,

501
00:37:41,679 --> 00:37:44,920
the property master, as he is called, is working with

502
00:37:45,079 --> 00:37:50,480
almost delirious industry. He has an imperial crown on his head,

503
00:37:50,880 --> 00:37:55,320
recently gilt the crown, not the head, and placed there

504
00:37:55,360 --> 00:37:58,599
to dry. While on the table before him lies a

505
00:37:58,599 --> 00:38:01,920
mass of modeling clay on which his nimble fingers are

506
00:38:01,960 --> 00:38:05,639
shaping out the matrix of a monstrous human face for

507
00:38:05,719 --> 00:38:10,960
a pandomimic mask. How quickly and with what facility he

508
00:38:11,079 --> 00:38:17,480
molds the hideous physiognomy into shape, squeezing the eyelids, flattening

509
00:38:17,519 --> 00:38:22,719
the nose, elongating the mouth, furrowing the cheeks. When this

510
00:38:22,880 --> 00:38:25,800
clay model is finished, it will be well oiled, and

511
00:38:25,880 --> 00:38:29,719
a cast taken from it in plaster of Paris. Into

512
00:38:29,760 --> 00:38:34,519
this cast oiled again strips of brown paper, well glued

513
00:38:34,559 --> 00:38:38,760
and sized, will be pasted till a proper thickness is obtained.

514
00:38:39,480 --> 00:38:43,039
When dry, the cast is removed and the hardened paper

515
00:38:43,119 --> 00:38:48,480
mask ready for coloring. At this latter process, an assistant,

516
00:38:48,599 --> 00:38:52,440
whose nose and cheeks are plentifully enriched with Dutch metal

517
00:38:52,519 --> 00:38:56,639
and splashes of glue, is at work. He is very liberal,

518
00:38:56,760 --> 00:38:59,960
with rose pink to the noses, black to the eye,

519
00:39:00,480 --> 00:39:04,480
and white to the eye. Then missus Gage, a mild

520
00:39:04,519 --> 00:39:08,199
little woman who has been assiduously spangling a demon's helmet,

521
00:39:08,480 --> 00:39:12,760
proceeds to ornament the masks with huge masses of oakum

522
00:39:12,800 --> 00:39:16,639
and horsehair, red brown and black, which are destined to

523
00:39:16,800 --> 00:39:22,599
serve as their coiffure. Busily other assistance of painting tables,

524
00:39:22,800 --> 00:39:29,000
gilding goblets, and manufacturing the multifarious and bewilderingly miscellaneous articles

525
00:39:29,039 --> 00:39:33,760
required in the comic business of a pantomime. The sausages

526
00:39:33,880 --> 00:39:37,679
which the clown purloins, the bustle he takes from the

527
00:39:37,719 --> 00:39:44,159
young lady, the fish, eggs, poultry, warming pans, babies, pint pots,

528
00:39:44,360 --> 00:39:49,039
butchers trays, and legs of mutton incidental to his checkered career.

529
00:39:50,760 --> 00:39:54,480
Others Besides, adults are useful in the property room. A

530
00:39:54,519 --> 00:39:59,639
bright eyed little girl, mister Gorges's youngest, is gravely speckling

531
00:39:59,679 --> 00:40:03,480
a place pudding, while her brother, a stalwart rogue of

532
00:40:03,480 --> 00:40:06,039
eleven sits on a stool with a pot full of

533
00:40:06,119 --> 00:40:08,760
yellow ochre in one hand and a brush in the other,

534
00:40:09,000 --> 00:40:11,639
with which he is giving a plentiful coat of bright

535
00:40:11,760 --> 00:40:14,679
yellow color to a row containing a dozen pairs of

536
00:40:14,760 --> 00:40:19,280
hunting boots. These articles of costume will gleam to night

537
00:40:19,440 --> 00:40:22,039
on the legs and feet of the huntsmen of His Highness,

538
00:40:22,079 --> 00:40:26,719
the hospitar with whom you are already acquainted. Their wearers

539
00:40:26,760 --> 00:40:30,480
will stamp their souls on the merry green sword Ha ha,

540
00:40:31,280 --> 00:40:35,679
waving above their heads, the tin porringers supposed to contain

541
00:40:35,880 --> 00:40:41,519
Riine wine or Birisher beer. Mister Gorge will have no

542
00:40:41,679 --> 00:40:45,039
easy task for the next three weeks. He will have

543
00:40:45,159 --> 00:40:48,159
to be up early and late until fi Fo FuMB

544
00:40:48,320 --> 00:40:53,280
is produced. The nightly performances have meanwhile to be attended to,

545
00:40:53,679 --> 00:40:56,840
and any new properties wanted must be made, and any

546
00:40:56,840 --> 00:41:00,039
old one spoilt must be replaced. In addition to what

547
00:41:00,199 --> 00:41:04,679
is required for the pantomime, and something more than common

548
00:41:04,760 --> 00:41:09,039
abilities must have abiding place in a property man, although

549
00:41:09,039 --> 00:41:14,000
he does not receive uncommonly liberal remuneration. He must be

550
00:41:14,159 --> 00:41:18,800
a decent upholsterer, a carpenter, a weak maker, a painter,

551
00:41:19,159 --> 00:41:25,159
a decorator accurate as regards historical propriety, a skillful modeler,

552
00:41:25,400 --> 00:41:30,760
a facile carver, a tasteful embroiderer, a general handyman and

553
00:41:30,960 --> 00:41:35,320
jack of all trades. He must know something of pyrotechnics,

554
00:41:35,599 --> 00:41:38,440
a good deal of carving and gilding, and a little

555
00:41:38,480 --> 00:41:43,559
of mechanics. For this he gets perhaps fifty shillings a week.

556
00:41:45,519 --> 00:41:48,320
Let us come away from the property room, giving a

557
00:41:48,360 --> 00:41:53,039
glance into that grim, cavernous coal holy place on the left,

558
00:41:53,239 --> 00:41:56,559
where all the broken up, used out properties are thrown,

559
00:41:56,800 --> 00:42:00,800
and is a sort of limbo of departed pantomime, and

560
00:42:01,000 --> 00:42:04,800
peeping curiously also into the room where on racks and

561
00:42:04,840 --> 00:42:09,800
on hooks are arranged the cuirasses, muskets, swords, spears, and

562
00:42:09,880 --> 00:42:15,039
yeomanry helmets which form the armory of the theater. Time presses,

563
00:42:15,320 --> 00:42:17,559
and we must have a look at the proceedings. In

564
00:42:17,599 --> 00:42:23,760
the wardrobe, mister Baster is busily stitching with many other stitches.

565
00:42:24,000 --> 00:42:28,000
Females all of a row. His place of work is

566
00:42:28,119 --> 00:42:33,119
anything but large, and movement is rendered somewhat inconvenient moreover,

567
00:42:33,320 --> 00:42:36,960
by a number of heavy presses crammed to repletion with

568
00:42:37,039 --> 00:42:41,760
the costumes of the establishment. Mister Baster has been overhauling

569
00:42:41,800 --> 00:42:45,199
his stock to see what he can conveniently use again

570
00:42:45,559 --> 00:42:49,320
and what is really wanted new. He has passed in

571
00:42:49,400 --> 00:42:54,320
review the crimson velvet noblemen, the green surge retainers, the

572
00:42:54,360 --> 00:43:00,800
spangled courtiers, the glazed calico slaves, the shirts, shapes, Rimaldi's

573
00:43:00,840 --> 00:43:04,559
and strips of other days. He has held up to

574
00:43:04,599 --> 00:43:08,079
the light last year's clowns dress, and shakes his head

575
00:43:08,199 --> 00:43:12,360
ruefully when he contemplates the rents and writhings, the rags

576
00:43:12,400 --> 00:43:16,639
and tatters into which that once brilliant costume is reduced.

577
00:43:17,519 --> 00:43:22,840
Clown must evidently be new. All over his forewoman is

578
00:43:22,920 --> 00:43:27,199
busy as spangling Harlequin's patchwork dress, while in the hands

579
00:43:27,199 --> 00:43:31,840
of his assistants, sprites and genii slaves and evil spirits

580
00:43:31,920 --> 00:43:37,280
are in various stages of completion. So in the lady's wardrobe,

581
00:43:37,440 --> 00:43:41,079
where mister Lodgy and her assistants are stitching for dear

582
00:43:41,199 --> 00:43:45,840
life at sea, nymphs and sirens and Elfin's costume, and

583
00:43:45,920 --> 00:43:50,079
where Miss Mezzanine, who is to play Columbine, is agonizingly

584
00:43:50,119 --> 00:43:53,400
inquisitive as to the fit of her skirt and spangles.

585
00:43:55,760 --> 00:44:00,920
Work work everywhere in the bleak morning, and playgoers of

586
00:44:01,000 --> 00:44:05,000
the previous night have scarcely finished their first sleep at

587
00:44:05,119 --> 00:44:08,280
night to the music of the orchestra below, and amid

588
00:44:08,320 --> 00:44:12,840
the hot glare of the gas, mister Tax carries screws

589
00:44:12,880 --> 00:44:16,800
in his waistcoat pockets and screws in his mouth. Mister

590
00:44:16,840 --> 00:44:21,760
Gagey grows absolutely rigid with glue, while his assistants heads

591
00:44:21,760 --> 00:44:26,559
and hands are unpleasantly enriched with Dutch metal and foil paper,

592
00:44:27,400 --> 00:44:31,119
and the staircase is blocked up with frantic waiters laden

593
00:44:31,199 --> 00:44:34,559
with chops and stout. For mister Brush and his assistants,

594
00:44:36,039 --> 00:44:42,400
the management smiles approvingly and winces uneasily. Occasionally as boxing

595
00:44:42,519 --> 00:44:46,840
day draws near, the stage manager is unceasing in his

596
00:44:47,320 --> 00:44:51,400
get ons All day long. The private door of the

597
00:44:51,440 --> 00:44:56,400
management is assailed by emissaries from mister Tax for more nails,

598
00:44:57,000 --> 00:45:00,480
from mister Brush for more Venetian red and burnt Siena

599
00:45:00,960 --> 00:45:05,519
from mister Baster for more velvet from mister Gorge for

600
00:45:05,679 --> 00:45:13,559
more glue. The management moves uneasily in its chair. Great expense,

601
00:45:14,039 --> 00:45:19,480
it says, if it should fail, give us more nails, hands,

602
00:45:19,559 --> 00:45:23,840
Venetian red velvet and glue, and will not fail. Chorus

603
00:45:23,960 --> 00:45:29,480
the ants behind the bays normost you suppose that the

604
00:45:29,480 --> 00:45:35,079
pantomimists clown, Harlequin, pantaloon and Columbine, nor the actors playing

605
00:45:35,119 --> 00:45:38,960
in the opening, nor the fairies who fly, nor the

606
00:45:38,960 --> 00:45:43,480
demons who howl, nor the sprites who tumble, are idle.

607
00:45:44,320 --> 00:45:49,239
Every day the opening and comic scenes are rehearsed every day.

608
00:45:49,280 --> 00:45:54,039
A melancholy man called the Repetiteur takes his station on

609
00:45:54,119 --> 00:45:57,840
the stage, which is illumined by one solitary gas jet,

610
00:45:58,280 --> 00:46:01,280
and to the dollar music he cans from his fiddle.

611
00:46:01,480 --> 00:46:06,960
The pantomimests in oversuits, of course, linen, tumble, dance, jump,

612
00:46:07,199 --> 00:46:11,719
and perform other gymnastic exercises in the gloom until their

613
00:46:11,880 --> 00:46:19,280
bones ache and the perspirations streams from their limbs. Work, work, work,

614
00:46:20,000 --> 00:46:25,760
and Christmas Eve is here. Nails, hammers, paint brushes, needles,

615
00:46:25,880 --> 00:46:30,119
muscles and limbs going in every direction. Mister Brush has

616
00:46:30,159 --> 00:46:32,599
not had his boots cleaned for a week and has

617
00:46:32,639 --> 00:46:37,880
forgotten what sheets and counterpanes mean. No snap dragon for

618
00:46:38,000 --> 00:46:43,280
mister tax, no hunt the slipper for mister Gorge. Pleasant

619
00:46:43,400 --> 00:46:48,199
Christmas greetings and good wishes, though, and general surmises that

620
00:46:48,320 --> 00:46:55,400
the pantomime will be a stunning one Christmas Day and alas,

621
00:46:55,440 --> 00:46:59,320
and a lack no Christmas beef and pudding save that

622
00:46:59,440 --> 00:47:03,639
from the bookshop and for chance. The sphare repassed in

623
00:47:03,719 --> 00:47:08,559
the covered basin which little poly brugs bring stalwart Bill Brugs,

624
00:47:08,599 --> 00:47:12,079
a carpenter who is popularly supposed to be able to

625
00:47:12,159 --> 00:47:17,599
carry a pair of wings beneath each arm. Incessant fiddling

626
00:47:17,719 --> 00:47:22,639
from the repetiteur trip, rally and jump for the Pantomimeists

627
00:47:23,360 --> 00:47:26,800
work on the stage, which is covered with canvas and

628
00:47:27,000 --> 00:47:31,760
stooping painters working with brushes stuck in bamboo walking sticks,

629
00:47:32,360 --> 00:47:35,559
work in the flies, and work underneath the stage on

630
00:47:35,639 --> 00:47:39,840
the umbrageous mezzanine floor, where the celamen are busily slinging

631
00:47:39,960 --> 00:47:44,800
sinks and rises and greasing traps. An overflow of properties

632
00:47:44,960 --> 00:47:49,639
deluges the green room. Huge masks leer at you in

633
00:47:49,760 --> 00:47:54,840
narrow passages. Pantomimic wheelbarrows and barrel organs beset you at

634
00:47:54,920 --> 00:48:03,000
every step. So all Christmas night, Hurrah for Boxing Day,

635
00:48:03,639 --> 00:48:09,480
the compliments of the season, and the original dustman. Tommy

636
00:48:09,559 --> 00:48:14,400
and Billy, suffering slightly from indigestion, stand with their noses

637
00:48:14,480 --> 00:48:18,559
glued against the window panes at home, watching anxiously the

638
00:48:18,679 --> 00:48:22,599
rain in the puddles or the accumulating snow on the housetops.

639
00:48:23,480 --> 00:48:27,079
Little Mary's mind is filled with radiant visions of the

640
00:48:27,159 --> 00:48:31,559
resplendent sashes she is to wear, and the gorgeous fairies

641
00:48:31,760 --> 00:48:35,679
she is to see. John the Footman is to escort

642
00:48:35,719 --> 00:48:39,800
the housemaid into the pit. Even Joe Barrikin of the

643
00:48:39,880 --> 00:48:43,519
New Cut, who sells us our Cauliflowers, will treat his

644
00:48:43,719 --> 00:48:46,480
misses to a seat in the gallery for the first

645
00:48:46,599 --> 00:48:54,199
performance of Harlequin Fie faux fum. There the last clink

646
00:48:54,239 --> 00:48:58,000
of the hammer is heard, the last stroke of the brush,

647
00:48:58,039 --> 00:49:02,960
and the last stitch of the knee. The management glances

648
00:49:03,000 --> 00:49:07,039
with anxious approval at the elaborately funny bill prepared of

649
00:49:07,039 --> 00:49:11,239
the evening's entertainment. It is six o'clock in the evening.

650
00:49:12,199 --> 00:49:17,519
The clown signor Braunarini, of the theater's royal has a

651
00:49:17,599 --> 00:49:21,360
jug of barley water maid his only beverage during his tumbling,

652
00:49:22,000 --> 00:49:25,800
and anxiously assures himself that there is a red hot

653
00:49:25,840 --> 00:49:30,320
poker introduced into the comic business. Else says he the

654
00:49:30,400 --> 00:49:35,320
pantomime is sure to fail. It is astonishing what a

655
00:49:35,360 --> 00:49:39,239
close connection there is between the success of a pantomime

656
00:49:39,480 --> 00:49:44,760
and that red hot poker. Seven o'clock and one last

657
00:49:44,880 --> 00:49:50,079
frantic push to get everything ready. Tommy, Billy, Mary, Papa

658
00:49:50,119 --> 00:49:55,360
and Mamma arrive in flies, brooms or cabs. The footman

659
00:49:55,400 --> 00:49:59,880
and housemaid are smiling in the pit, and Joe Barrikinism

660
00:50:00,000 --> 00:50:04,400
amazingly jolly and thirsty with his missus in the gallery.

661
00:50:05,519 --> 00:50:12,360
Now then music play up, order order and throw him

662
00:50:12,400 --> 00:50:18,880
over George Barnwell or Jane Shaw inaudible, of course, and

663
00:50:19,239 --> 00:50:26,039
then Harlequin, Fie fo FuMB or the enchanted Fairy of

664
00:50:26,159 --> 00:50:33,360
the Island of Abra Cadabra, Fun, frolic and gaiety, splendor,

665
00:50:33,639 --> 00:50:40,039
beauty and blue fire, Hey for fun, How are you tomorrow?

666
00:50:40,920 --> 00:50:45,400
And I hope success and crowded houses till the middle

667
00:50:45,440 --> 00:50:48,559
of February. Both for the sake of the author, the

668
00:50:48,679 --> 00:50:54,679
management and the Theater, Royal Hatton Garden. Generally, the ants

669
00:50:54,840 --> 00:50:58,639
behind the base have worked well, but they have their

670
00:50:58,679 --> 00:51:02,639
reward in the gloryious success of the pantomime they have

671
00:51:02,800 --> 00:51:07,079
labored so hard at They may wash their faces and

672
00:51:07,159 --> 00:51:10,760
have their boots cleaned now, And who shall say that

673
00:51:10,840 --> 00:51:14,199
they do not deserve their beer tonight and their poor

674
00:51:14,360 --> 00:51:20,880
salaries next Saturday. Dear readers, as Christmas time comes on,

675
00:51:21,679 --> 00:51:25,559
poorse a little ere you utterly condemn these poor play

676
00:51:25,559 --> 00:51:31,360
acting people as utter profligates, as irreclaimable rogues and vagabonds.

677
00:51:32,199 --> 00:51:37,119
Consider how hard they work, how precarious is their employment,

678
00:51:37,760 --> 00:51:41,480
how honestly they endeavor to earn their living and to

679
00:51:41,559 --> 00:51:45,400
do their duty in their state of life. Admit that

680
00:51:45,440 --> 00:51:50,480
there is some skills, some industry, some perseverance, in all

681
00:51:50,519 --> 00:51:57,039
this not misdirected, if promoting harmless fancy and innocent mirth.

682
00:51:58,960 --> 00:52:02,800
End of Getting Up a Pantomime by George Augustus Sala