COOKE, ZOYARA, AND WILSON'S GREAT WOULD CIRCUS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume IV, Issue 1130, 28 June 1867, Page 3

COOKE, ZOYARA, AND WILSON'S GREAT WOULD CIRCUS.

It is extremely gratifying to see illustrated the power which a man can wield over inferior creation. It is the pleasure thus derived that drew crowds to see Mr. Rarey or Van Ainburgh. One likes also to sec in tlio illustrators of these superior iTifluence, an appropriate exhibition of .strength, for one could hard.'y faucy a liorsctamcr or lion-hunter without being fitted by muscular power for such employment. If we add to this the influenco which cultivation has over human beings at all times, we will comprehend pretty nearly the sort of attraction which fills this pavilion from ground to eauvas every evening. Notwithstanding the inclement weather last evening, the Circus was exceedingly well attended, and the performances were on the whole as spirited and enlivening as need be. There was the astonishing performance of hi jwcftc, the feats of balancing and tumbling, all which were so effectively performed as to elicit very emphatic and general applause. But the perfection of horse training is seen in Mr. Cooke's equestrian spectacle and drama, Pick Turpin's Hide to York, ending in the " dentil of Black Bess," the name of the mare ridden by that redoubtable highwayman. The performer i or exhibitor seems to do almost anything with the sagacious animal, who lies down, gets up, turns on this side or that, rears or kneels, and at last feigns dead, all as it is set down for her, and with an apparent yet careful ease, which provokes the heartiest manifestations of pleasure. Then there are the " stars " of the circus—the graceful and intrepid horsewomen, who are. so skilful in the management of their horses, as well as the exceedingly limited space within which they hare to go through the most intricate)

and complicated movements. And again, Mr. Cooke throws in the most gratuitous jokes, producing fits of merriment—fun which bears uo taint of vulgarity, and through which there runs occasionally a vein of moralizing which was, we trust, not tho less efficacious because crowned with the cap and bells and clothed in motley. But there was a performance last evening on tho double trapeze, by Messrs. Wallace and Carlo, of which we must speak in terms of unqualified eulogy. The ropes were slippery from wet, and the exercises were in themselves of the most perilous description, yet they were gone through with completeness and finish which produced round after round of applause as each change disclosed itself. The performance is of tho most exciting kind, and no person can form the slightest conception of the resources of calisthenic art without seeing it. This performance, on such a night as last, bespeaks the fidelity with which this company fulfil the promises contained in their announcements.