CHRISTCHURCH.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XVI, Issue 42, 8 February 1889, Page 29

CHRISTCHURCH.

(From o*t own Correspondent.) Thb event of the week has, of course, been tne opening of the great Shakespearian Festival, Bverything went off splendidly. On Wednesday night, by eight o'clock, tke vast ball was packed. There were over tbree thousand persona present. The hall presented a very attractive appearance. The buildings were in place on Tuesday night, and on Wednesday the stalls were dressed and furnished by the ladies. The blocks of Elizabethan buildings are placed down each side of the hall. In the interior of tbeee buildings are the stalls, and over each stall the name of the play represented by the Btall-holders is painted. The Boar's Head is there with aa admirable representative of Hostess Quickley as presiding genius. The buildings are gaily decora<ed with bunting. Aa the Shikespearians in their strange garb flitted in and out of the quaint buildings, putting finishing touches to their stalls upon the opeuing night, the scene was a strange and interesting one. Here oue ran against Shyluck, there against Poloniouß. At one corner pale Hermione was to be met, at another Anna Boleyn, whose face gave no indication of a consciousness that the shadow of the axe was upon her fair throat. In retired corners Danes chatted with Venetians, and Brutus dia -usaed with classically-garbed Romans the prospects of the succeps of the show, while queens and clowns.kiog&ftnd shepherdtsses.ainkingall thoughtof social inequality, mildly flirted with each other in Shakespeare's house. Shakespeare himself, with a half timid, half guilty look in Mb face, as though he feared that Sir I'homaß Lacy was on bis trail, moved noiselessly about the hall, lookiDg with a kind of dazed pleasure at the brightly-clad offspring of his brain. About half-past seven bis Lordship Bishop Grimes, the local •lergy, Father O Donnell, Father Eickham, Fatuer O'Connor, and a number of invited guests, among whom were Dean Jacobs, the Hon. George Fisher, the Mayor, Messrs. Joyce and Khodea, and other men of light and leading took their places upon the plattorm. Boon after, the Oiand March, led by Mr. Donnolly and Miss Conway, began. The gay and glittering procersion passed up the cectre of the hall, made the circuit of the building, and wound in and out eig-zag fashion through the stalls several times. The movements of those engaged in the March were very graceful. As the procession swept past, ike on-lookers had an opportunity of observing the dresses of the Shakespeanans, and of juicing with what degree of fidelity the creations ot the poet were impeisondted, both in regard to dre*w and physique. I thiuk m>self, and I have heard several Shakespearian scholars say bo, too, tLat among the ladies, Hermione bore off the palm for the correctness ana tastefulness of her costume. She evidently kept in her mini tke advice of Folonious to Laertes that his garb should be "rich, not gaudy, and not expresseJ in faacy." Her dress waa simple, gr«celul, atd poetical. The combination of white and gold, and the toft folds of the drapery produced an effect which did ciedit to the Utta of Miss Courtney. Mrs. Rjbert Loughnan's Nemsa, arid Mrs. T. Lonargau's Catherine of Aragon were aUo careful siudiea of costume. Neribsa was bright and piquant, and lookei charming in her short, coquettish drees of old gold Liberty silk and blacs velvet. Upon ncr hr-ad ehe wore a kind of turban of the gold Bilk, with banking ends at ihe back. The headdress was burUeied around the torehead with gold beadn. lira. Lonargan was ai ideal The familiar costume of the noblest and %enA< st of Shaket-peare's British queens was carried out in every detail. The pear's around the velvet uead-iress, the sleeves, and square-cut bjdice, gave to the costume a very distinct character. BesidtS, Mr<. .LoLargau's ap^eirauce coincided exactly with ones ideas of the oigmtied Spaniard. In regard to Hcnniotie, Qaeen Catherine, and Ni n^a, the conectness ot tlieir costumes was piovin by the fact thai everyone readily recognised them. This remark, alto applies to Shyluck, tbu Qhoat, and Poll nius. Miss Saieln, as Auua Bolejn ; Miss Ivess, as Queen Khzabeih ; and Miss Conway, as Lady Jane Grey, were all very ncnly aii'l appropnately dressed. I before •xplaiuea the reaton for Elizabeth's resuscitation, but what plea Ann* of (Xercti and Lady Jane Grey could advance for being present at a

Shakespearian festival I cannot say. Possibly they thought that tf Shakespeare did not write about them he ought to have dene so, Desdemona was robed in blue satin, bat she was much plumper than when I last saw her at Cyprus. Othello, on the contrary, was mot nearly so tall as he was in the days when he took the malignant and tnrbaned Turk by the beard, at Aleppo, a*d smote the trvducer of Venice. Bemorse for his weak, unssanly flight after Cleopatra's sails at Actium seemed to have weighed heavily upon the spirits of Mark Antony. The great general, whose sword once quartered the world, bad lost much of his old fire. He looked as if he had yielded to the fortunes of war and bad completely

" knocked under "to Octavius Csssar. Cleopatra had changed too. She was not the woman she was when she drew Antony's heart through his eyes on the Oydnus. She appeared to have realised the truth of the maxim, vanitaa vanitatwn, to have abandoned her old role of Enchantress of the Bast, and to have become as sober-eyed as the dull Octavia whom she once so heartily despised. A muslin bead-dress, fashioned like the wig of an Egyptian sphinx, showed that she Btill retained memories of her grand Alexandrian home. Hamlet's grief had sufficiently abated to allow him to lighten the sombreness of his suit of woe and don " second mourning." Ophelia looked as if unrequited love was not nearly so desperate a thing beneath the Southern Cross as it used to be in Denmark. Possibly she may have concluded that Hamlet was cot such a masher after all, and that there were others in the world as good as he. At all events the face beneath the wreath of wild flowers looked very jolly and happy. King Claudius and Queen Gertrude did not seem weighed down by a : sense of tbeir guilt. Perhaps the ghost was a lying spirit and had slandered them, or else they had " made up " with him. Anyhow, they did not seem at all disconcerted when they mat him. I was pleased to see that all the tragic bhakespearians had apparently left their woes behind them, though they must have felt pretty tired when their march was over. Mr. Donnolly, who led the hoit, was respondent in a glittering suit of silver mail. Over his shoulders he wore a white cloak, and in his helmet white plumes. But whether he was a Miltoniau warlike angel, one of the great twin brethren, or R*b*rt le Didble, I cannot say. He was not Shakespearian, but he looked, very brilliant, and the white knight was one of the featnres of the procession. Le Diable was there in earnest next night. Mephutopheles, clad from bead to foot in the traditional red, limped after the procession. Possibly his Satanic Majesty thought that it would never do for him to be absent from any large gathering. He did not look happy or triumphant, so I suppose he was not finding many to devour. When the march was over, the choruses from the " Messiah" were magnificently sung. After that the Bishop delivered the opening address, which was somewhat long. His Lordship spoke at consider* able length upon education, or rather why education would be aa appropriate theme upon which to Bpeak, and why it was inadvisable to speak upon it then. The remainder of the Bishop's speech was devoted to eulogising Shakespeare. These eulogiums were sprinkled with a few compliments ia the poet's countrymen, many ef whom were present upon the platform. B/ the way, I am afraid that when his Lordship will have spent a few years in the colony, his confidence in English love of justice

will be shaken. The Bishop, in the coarse of his speech, said, " I feel

confident that with such able men at the helm as we have now got, the old English sensj of justice will soon prevail over everytbiag like party spirit or power." I hope bis Lordship may prove a trns prophet, but for myself I must confess that I have sot much faith in

" t£e old Inglisb sense of justice." In fact I must say that expeneace has t aug tit me, as indeed it has taugat Catbolics in the Ooloay fur eighteen years, and Catholics in Ireland for centuries, that the " old English sense of justice " is a mythical fdtish which has no existence except in the vain-glorious imagination of Englishmen, who flatter their own vanity by making the world believe that they are what they are not. The Bishop has been imposed upon by the JSngliihaaa's plausible stock boast, but, as I have said, I am afraid that a few years'' residence in the colony will causa him to lagurd the boast as what it is, a piece of national stage property which looks well sneugh a loaf way off, bat which will not stand close scrutiny. During the Bishup's speech, the scene in the hall was a memo* rable oue. Seen from the back of the platform, on which the siagers were sitting, the ball appeared to be une sea of faces. Up till tea o'clock it was with the greatest difficulty that people could movt around. In some places the crowd got completely blocked. There were between three and four thousand people present. Immediately the bazaar was declared open, the ladies began t*> push business and a brisk trade wa* done up till eleven o'clock. Each evening during the week the attendance has be«a very large. This was especially soon Saturday. Altogether the Festival promises to be a pronounced succesajanl the committee, the manager, aad the secretary are to be complimented upon the result of their labours. Since the opening of tha Festival there has been sotae correir pondence in one of the morning pipers which shows that bigotry is not an unknown quality inChnstchurcb. A writer in the newspaper objected to the festival being supported by non- Catholics. His objections were admirably answered next day by If r. li. Lonargan who pointed out that the co <veut w u a an educational institution, and that ia patnoDWug the Festival Prottstants were but voluntarily paying back to Catholics a portioa of the money of which the latter are. depr.v^cl for tha purpose of supporting State schooln. I Bee by an advertisement in one of the evening papers that a gentleman at Lyttelton ia agitating tor the celebration of tit. Patrick's Driy. i understood lust year that the banquet was to be an annual affair, and lately that tho Hiberaiaus were going t > celebrate the day by formally opening their bull. 1 hope H.A.G.B.ri, still adhere te their rdsolutio s. In a late number of United Ireland I saw an amusing cartojo illustrating ihc manner in which the 7%m««-Paraell commission is being overwhelmed with irrelevant "testimony." Thecoinainiiuners are utmost covered up with the heaps of stale outrages which a laog line of policemen, convicts, etc., are wheeling in and shooting on top el them; Some of these bsjrow-loadj aro dated at far bacx as iCfc