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MR. PUNCH, SIR,--If I start a butcher's business, and give my shop the
special title of The _Welsh_ Meat Shop, is the great British Public
so narrow-minded as to expect me to sell them only Welsh meat, the
produce of Welsh farms only? If so, the Public, with all due respect,
is a hass. For if I who have to live,--though perhaps others may not
see the necessity for my existence,--by my trade, find that the Welsh
meat, which the Public had expected to be ready and waiting, is not
forthcoming, only one of two things can I do; the one is to shut
up shop (which I won't), and the other is to provide my intending
customers with French, Indian, English, Irish, Scotch, American,
Australian, New Zealandian, Cape Colonial, in fact with any meat I can
get from anywhere, and as long as it is toothsome, and I can afford
to sell it at an average price, why should it not be sold at my Royal
Welsh Meat Shop?
When I call my shop The Royal Welsh Meat Shop, do I thereby bar myself
from dealing in English or foreign meats? Do I bar myself from dealing
in Indian pickles or China oranges? No, certainly not; nor do I bar
myself from selling neckties, gloves, ginger-beer, and Brazil nuts.
So, when a House of Musical Entertainment is styled The English Opera
House, it must be understood, "all to the contrary nevertheless
and notwithstanding," to mean an English House where Opera may be
performed, and not a Theatre where only English Opera is Housed. "My
soul can not be fettered," as the poet says,--what poet, I don't know
and don't care, but he said it, whoever he was, and _he was right_. If
there is no English Opera for my House, then I get a French Opera, or
a Dutch one, just as at an oyster-shop--but perhaps this is not quite
the illustration I should like, as, at an oyster-shop, they _do_ ask
you which you will have, "Natives," or "Seconds," or "Anglo-Dutch";
and, when you can't afford Natives, you put up with an inferior
quality at a lesser price. But if that oyster-seller called his shop
"The Native-Oyster Shop," should I have any ground of action against
him for selling any other oysters except Natives? No. But then he
would ask me "If I wanted Natives or not?" And if I said "Yes," he
would give me Natives. Now I admit I do not ask the Public at the
doors Which will you have? because I may not be able to have an
English Opera always on tap, so to speak. Metaphors a bit confused,
but you know what I mean. If I had a few English Operas on tap I might
turn 'em on, say, on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays: English Opera by
English Composers on those days, and on the other days, any Operas
by any Composers. But if the Public _won't_ come on the English Opera
nights, and _will_ come on the other nights? What then? Why obviously
I must keep my Natives (if I have any) in a barrel, and deal only
with the foreign supply. "Blame not the Bard"--I mean blame not the
patriotic man of business, but let our cry be "Art for Art's sake,"
and the English Opera for ever! that is, as long as Art and English
Opera pay.
Yours,