THEATRICAL.

Otago Witness, Issue 1921, 14 September 1888, Page 28

THEATRICAL.

(Contributions from the Profession chronicling their tn 'Vements rend doings are invited. Allcommunicationt bi addresed to "Pasqvin," Otago Witness Office.)

NOTES BY PASQUIN.

There is still nothing to record in the dramatic line, unless the proposed visit of a Native Haka Dancing Company may be included under the heading. They are en route for the Melbourne Exhibition, but will kick up their heels a Dunedin as they pass through. It is as well that there is some one to take up the cudgels on behalf of unlucky Shakespeare in these days. Professor Rlainwaring Brown made one timely slap at the Baconians in his capacity as chairman at the Shakespeare Club's entertainment on Tuesday evening. The Baconians, he said, found it necessary to their theory to insist upon the fact of Shakespeare being an ignorant, illiterate boor, and they also found it necessary to picture Bacon as a briefless barrister, in terrible want of money and in fear of forfeiting his position if it were known he wrote for the stage. But they represented that the rewards of dramatic authorship were so rich that he wrote plays secretly and induced Shakespeare to put them on the stage and pass them off as his own. This view of Bacon was, he took it, just as ridiculous as the Baconians' view of Shakespeare. It was a great mistake to imagine that Bacon was a briefless barrister, or was even poor except in the sense that anyone is poor who outruns his income.' About the time of the Armada, when Shakespeare's plays first appeared in London, Bacon was 28 years of age, a member of Parliament, and was already in the confidence of the Secretary of State to such an extent that he was employed to draft a most important letter touching the Queen's conduct to the Roman Catholics, intended to conciliate the French King. He was already a prominent member of Parliament, and soon afterwards his stout opposition to subsidies drew on him the extreme displeasure of the Queen. That was the only period at which it was possible to conceive that he could have thought of writing for the stage. Although risen high, he was not in lucrative employment, but afterwards he was known to be always in receipt of a large income. In 1594, soon after incurring the Queen's displeasure, he was found already engaged as counsel for tbo Crown, and sent outho most important business. Having failed to secure the post of Attorneygoueral, his patron, the Earl of Essex, made him a present of land worth £1800, which must bo multiplied five or ten times to get at its present value. But, according to the Baconians, this did not diminish his ardour for stage work, aud he produced about this time " The Merchant of Venice," &c. His busy career contiuued,and simultaneously with his other work wo were to suppose that he produced now Falstaff and " The Taming of the Shrew." In '98 Bacon was arrested for debt, but he was by no means in extreme poverty. We found him writing an indignant letter as to the insult to the Crown in arresting him while on Crown business, and he wished summary vengeance taken on his creditor, the goldsmith Simpson. He was arrested for £300, of which he said he had £100 and could find the rest. For the next few years Bacon was in great trouble because his old patron, Essex, had turned traitor and rebel, and Bacon was employed first to prosecute him and then to blacken his memory. Bacon became very unpopular over this matter, but the stake he was playing for was large, so he did the will of the Crown. Through all these troublous times the plays regularly continued, and in 1602 " Hamlet " was produced. To show Bacon's circumstances, he wrote shortly after this to Cecil, saying he should be able to sell the skirts of his living in Hertfordshire and save the body, yet leave himself out of debt with some money in his pocket, an income of £300 a year, and some timber on the land. Passing on co the time when Bacon was busy, not only with his parliamentary and legal duties, but also his work on philosophy, he was said to have re-written this work seven times over, a process which compared strangely with the extreme haste and carelessness of Shakespeare. After this Bacon married an heiress, became Solicitor-general, with an income of at least £1000 a year, and was still progressing with his system of philosophy. The same story of incessant work continued ; he was sonducting the most important cases for the Crown until, in 1612, he became Attorney-gen6ral, and then the plays ceased. The Baconians' contention was that with his Attorney-generalship he became too busy to write for the stage any longer, but he had been as busy as he could be for years before; he had been Solicitor-general for six years, and his new office made really no broak in his career. He became Lord Chancellor in 1619, was dismissed and impeached in 1621; in 1623 the first collected edition of Shakespeare's plays was issued, and in 1624 Bacon died, leaving £22,000 worth of debts. Such was his extravagance that young Charles, who meji him with his train after his disgrace, remarked, "My lord of St. Albans scorns to go out in a snuff." Professor Brown went on to refer next to the temptation to do stage work in that time, and quoted extracts from Henslow to show the absurdly trivjal amouuts paid then for plays. £11 was given for a piece by two such renowned authors as Ben Johnson and Decker, but the average was about £6 for a play. Bonuses were added, but these were all for the same amount— viz., 10s. — (Laughter.) Yet we were asked to believe that such rewards tempted the wealthy and extravagant Bacon to pursue secretly' this dangerous .career in which he was so constantly in dread of meeting exposure. Mr Reeves, M.H.R. for Inangahua, has been at N>w Plymouth forming a Maori Haka Company. He has made an excellent start in getting the Natives into training. At a rehearsal held at Waitara on Thursday the Natives performed with great skill all the Maori dances, the programme beiug elaborate. Mr Reeves left for the South to-day well pleased with the result. The. Natives are expected to make a tour of the principal towns of the colony before proceeding to the exhibition at Melbourne. According to Mr Julian Hawthorne, novelists have as much to complain of us dramatists in the matter of royalties. He sends the following curious challenge to an American periodical : — " I will engage to entertain at dinner, at a round table sft in diameter, all the American novelists who make more than lOOOdol a year out of the royalty on any one of their novels, and to give them all they want to eat and drink, and three of the best cigars apiece afterward, and a hack to take them homo in ; and I will agree to forfeit lOOOdol to the Home for Imbeciles if 25d0l does not liquidate the bill and leave enough over to buy a cloth copy of each of tho works in question, with the author's autograph on the fly-leaf. One hack would be sufficient, and would allow of their putting up their feet on the seat in front of them."

Ada Rohau, the leading lady of Daly's American Company, who has achieved such brilllput success iv London is said to be engaged in marriage to Mr Harry Peto, eldest son of Sir Morton Peto.

"Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde" has been burlesqued rather neatly by Mr Maurice Barry more. A reverend gentleman is shown lying sick and at the point of death. The physicians advise an

infusion of blood. This is done, but with unexpected results. The blood was taken from an habitual drunkard and thus it happens that after the patient has recovered he leads a pious and sober life daring the day and gets roaring drunk at night.

An extremely delicate attention — an attention so delicate that it would almost break into fragments if touched — was recently paid to Mrs Langtry by Mr E. Gilmore, of Niblo's Garden, New York. Mrs Langtry had a birthday, and, although the time has come with her when such occasions must almost be passed over in silence, the gallant Gilmore would not do it. He sent her 25 lilies in a box. Twenty-five ! Could anything be more tactful than that !

The famous Hare and Kendal management at the St. James' Theatre has come to any end.

The following are some of the new plays for which Londoners are making ready: — "The Balloon," a farcical comedy by George Manville Fenn (novelist) and J. H. Darnley (actor). "One Hundred Years Ago," an al~ fresco one act comedy, which Alec Nelson (otherwise Dr Aveling) has written for Mr and Mrs Edouin, for prompt production at the Strand by way of curtain-raiser ; and " A Lesson for Landlords," a "rustic absurdity." The latter has already been produced at a Strand matinee, and is pronounced an absurdity indeed.

The small and scurrilous theatrical print called the Bat, wherein its proprietor — Mr Davis— perpetuated so many libels, is defunct, and has been succeeded by the Hawk, the editor of which — Mr Augustus Moore— has lost no time in following ia the footsteps of his predecessor. He said something nasty about Mr Charles E. Brookfield, the character-actor of the Haymarket Theatre, and that gentleman promptly punched the editorial bead. Court proceedings followed, and Brookfield was fined, but was the recipient of cordial expressions of sympathy.

The complimentary dinner to Clement Scott on the completion of his 25th year of dramatic criticism was given by the Arts Club. Mr J. L. Toole was in the chair.

The famous American conductor Theodore Thomas, is likely to visit Europe next summer with some members of his orchestra, and will give concerts both at the Paris Exhibition and in London. He will probably bring with him the Hungarian pianist Joseffy, a pupil of Moscheles aud Thalberg, who, during the past eight years or thereabouts, has resided in the United States.

The death is announced of Mrs Charles Dillon, formerly well-known in London as an actress of repute, and wife of the late Charles^Dillon, Mrs Dillon, who previous to her marriage was known , as Miss Clara Conquest, is best remembered by ; her many performances of Madelina to her hus- • band's Belphegor, in which, after several appear1 ariSes in Manchester, Liverpool, &c., they api pea'rod first together in London at Sadler's Wells .Theatre in 1856. On Dillon's opening the ,'Lyceum (September 15, 1856) she resumed the ' part, Mr Toole playing Fanfarronade, and Miss Marie Wilton (now Mrs Bancroft) the boy Henri. During the two years Dillon was lessee of the j Lyceum Mrs Dillon appeared in . various | characters with fair success. She retired from the stage some time ago. Both the pianoforte prodigies, Masters Josef Hof mann and Otto Hegner, are at present studying on the Continent, and both are to return and give recitals in London next season. According to • C ii;.,i>ntal paper, when the I remains of Juuethoven were exhumed recently a rich Englishman offered £1000 for the two teeth that remained in the composer's head, and the offer was rejected. • i

A French novelist, M.Dubut de Laforest, has been awarded three months' imprisonment for having written and published " Gaga," a book which the Censor decided was an outrage on public decency. This is rather amazing considering how very tough public decency is in France.

A former queen of comic opera, Sally Holman, died at her home in London, Canada, on Friday, June 8. This ex-queen of light opera was the cleverest of the four Holman children, who were, perhaps, the pioneers in the juvenile opera business 30 years ago. Their mother was first Mrs Harriett Phillips and next Mrs George Holman. From her union with Holman cime Sally, Julia, and Allie, and from the former onion, Benny. The latter is the only survivor of the family. Graduating from the leading roles in children's opera, Sally became a star in light burlesques and musical pieces, and for years she headed the Holman English Opera Company. Her versatility seemed to know no limit. She could play in "The Life of an Actress" and "HTrovatore" on alternatenights. With her, in various years, famous actors and actresses have appeared. William H. Crane, of Robson and Crane, for instance, made his very first appearance on the stage with the Holman Company, just about 25 years ago, at Utica, N.Y., when he played the Notary in " The Child of the Regiment." In that company also were John Chatterton, the " Signor Perugini " of to-day ; young William Davidge, jun., the comedian; and even Kyrle Bellew, though he says it was his brother — but the Holmans used to be positive on this point. Sally was the wife of J. T. Dalton. Mrs Langtry is blooming and prosperous. A New York reporter found her standing en silhouette against the light of her billiard-room window and interviewed her with the following result : —

" Yes, I have returned," said Mrs Langtry lifting her arms over her head gracefully and clasping her hands at the back of her full white neck, the loose sleeves of her gossamer-like house dress of mourning falling down from small wrists until arrested by the larger part of the arm.

" I have been in every State in the Union ; played at every town on the map. How was I received? Cordially everywhere. Oh, you wish to know what I intend to do this summer ? Well, I expect my brother, Mr Clement le Breton, and his wife, and my mother shortly, and with them I am going to my ranch in California. I shall start about the middle of July, and will remain there until the fall seuson begins, meanwhile throwing off all thoughts of business and the stage." Referring to this Californian ranch, Mrs Langtry went on to say : " I will have 5000 acres of forests and vineyards and fields around me there. By the way, it's awfully jolly. We all take to flannel shirts and short skirts. The girls all wear short skirts." " How picturesque !" "And boots ." " Oh !" " Because there are so many rattlesnakes, you know. Yes, it's lovely. I've just laid the lines of a new dairy, with water running through it, and it will be all finished when I go back."

Mr Mansfield's version of "Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde " was to be produced at the Lyceum Theatre on August 4, and Mr Bandmann's version at the Opera Oomique two days later. A certain magazine, a stickler for phonetic exactitude, gives the following as the song of nightingale : — " Zozozozozozozozozozozozo— zir — hading. He— zezezezezezezezezezezeze — cour — dze— hoc. Higaigaigaigaigaig — guiagaigai — couir — dzio — pi." There is some force in the remarks of a contemporary, that a respectable nightingale must be very tipsy indeed to sing in that way.