HENRY LYTTON

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1034, 26 July 1930, Page 24

HENRY LYTTON

Gilbert and Sullivan and a Labour Title OLD PREJUDICE AGAINST ACTORS Henry Lytton, who has played in Gilbert and Sullivan operas for many years in London, was knighted in the last birthday honours. Robert Lynd, the well-known author, writes as follows of the knighthood and Gilbert and Sullivan in the “Daily Mail.” It makes interesting reading. Nothing, I imagine, would have surprised W. S. Gilbert more than if he had been told that an actor who played the parts of Ko-Ko In “The Mikado” and the Duke of Plaza-Toro in “The Gondoliers” would one day be created a knight under a Labour Government. Being a Tory, he would probably have been more startled by the prospect of a Labour Government’s coming into power than by the prospect of a comic opera star's receiving a titie; but to most of the Victorians even the knighting of a Duke of Plaza-Toro would have seemed dangerously revolutionary. The Thin End * It is a significant fact. Indeed, that no English actor, not even a great Shakespearian actor, had ever received a title till Henry Irving was knighted in 1895. It is said that Irving had previously been offered a knighthood in 1883, and had refused it. But the prejudice against the stage as a not quite reputable profession was still strong enough even in 1895 to make many people question the propriety of the appearance of an actor’s name in the list of Honours. Even the wealth of eminent actors did not persuade a large part of the Victorian world of their respectability any more than it bad persuaded Dr. Johnson of their merit in the preceding century. It will be remembered that Boswell used the argument of wealth to convince Johnson of the merit of Garrick. “As a proof of the merit of great acting,” said Boswell, “and of the value which mankind set upon it, Garrick has got a hundred thousand pounds.” “Is getting a hundred thousand pounds,” demanded Johnson, “a proof of excellence? That has been done by a scoundrel commissary.” “You talk of respect for a player!” he gibed, during the same conversation. . . Do you respect a rope-dancer or a ballad-singer?” As a result of the feeling of which this was an extreme expression, it was easier during the greater part of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries for an actress of no genius to become a peeress than for an actor of genius ‘ to become a knight. Made Fun of Titles Not that the world for which Gilbert wrote can have had an absolute veneration of titles. There was never a wit who made more fun of titles —of Peers, Lord Chancellors, Archbishops, Princes and every kind of bigwig in robes or uniform. For a Tory, indeed, he had a remarkable record of social irreverence. Not only was “The Mikado” temporarily 1 banned (by request of King Edward) lest it should offend Royalty in Japan, but “lolanthe,” unless I am mistaken, 1 was withheld from revival in London for a number of years lest it should I encourage the popular agitation against the House of Lords. And. indeed, British Peers have never been put to better comic uses than in that opera in which the procession of Peers ! enters siugiug the chorus: XVe are peers of highest station: Paragons of legislation. Pillars of the British nation! Tantantara! Tztng! Boom! And the Earl of Mountararat’s song in the same opera, in which he recalls how in the days of Napoleon: The House of Lords, throughout the war, l>ia nothing in particular. And did it very well cannot be accused of Tory bias. If Gilbert allowed his wit to play freely on the world of Debrett, however, there was nothing profound or ! propagandist in his mockery. He took I Lord Chancellors and other peers as ! characters largely because he realised that for purposes of musical comedy \ peers in their robes are more pict- 1 uresque and better subjects for bur- 1 lesque than the members of a Board I of Guardians. A Lord Chancellor 1 behaving ridiculously is for some , reason funnier than a shopkeeper be- : having ridiculously, and a burlesque Duke appeals to the popular sense of i

humour more than a burlesque bricklayer.

Utopia Unlimited If Gilbert caricatured shows and i ceremonies, indeed, he caricatured ‘ much more heartily the notion of a Utopian world in which such tilings ' would be abolished or iu which all i men would share them equally—a world foreshadowed in “The Gondoliers,” in which— The Chancellor in his peruke. The Earl, the Marquis and the Book, The Groom, the Butler, and the Cook— They all shall equal be. Probably, if he had foreseen a Labour Government in power in England he would have thought of this as evidence that the world was already well on its way to this Utopia that seemed to him so ridiculous. This would have seemed to him the final topsy-turvy-dom, and, no doubt, if he were living today he would be writing quite different parts for Sir Henry Lytton, and the Duke of Plaza-Toro's place would be taken by a Labour Cabinet Minister something on the model of the grotesque Ministers in Bernard Shaw’s “Apple Cart.”

“She doesn't make you a very good wife, does she?” “She makes me a very good husband.” * * * From “Mr. Cinders,” now playing in Sydney:— “You ought to know your place by now. I know mine.” “Yes; but you U have to die to get there.” * ♦ * Doris Fitton has set her heart, aud. what is more, her mind, on establishing a repertory society again iu Sydney, and she has taken the St James’s Hall for eight successive Wednesday evenings. “By Candle Light" will be done on the first four : and “The Marquise” on the others, j She calls her movement the Indepeud- | ent Theatre, and Harry Tighe is pro ducing her first play. Later it is ; likely that Gaston Mervale will take over the duties of producer.