Edmund Kean--Mystery of his Parentage--Saunders's Circus--Scowton's
Theatre--Belzoni--The Nondescript--Richardson's Theatre--The Carey
Family--Kean, a Circus Performer--Oxberry, the Comedian--James
Wallack--Last Appearance of the Irish Giant--Miss Biffin and the Earl
of Morton--Bartholomew Fair Incidents--Josephine Girardelli, the
Female Salamander--James England, the Flying Pieman--Elliston as a
Showman--Simon Paap, the Dutch Dwarf--Ballard's Menagerie--A Learned
Pig--Madame Gobert, the Athlete--Cartlich, the Original
Mazeppa--Barnes, the Pantaloon--Nelson Lee--Cooke's Circus--The
Gyngell Family
With the present century commenced a period of the history of shows and
showmen specially interesting to the generation which remembers the London
fairs as they were forty or fifty years ago, and to which the names of
Gyngell, Scowton, Samwell, Richardson, Clarke, Atkins, and Wombwell have
a familiar sound. It introduces us, in its earliest years, to the
celebrated Edmund Kean, "the stripling known in a certain wayfaring troop
of _Atellanæ_ by the name of Carey," as Raymond wrote, and whom we find
performing at the London fairs, sometimes tumbling in Saunders's circus,
and sometimes playing juvenile characters in the travelling theatres of
Scowton and Richardson. The early life of this remarkable man is as
strange as any that has ever afforded materials for the biographer, and
the mystery surrounding his parentage as inscrutable a problem as the
authorship of the letters of Junius.
Phippen, the earliest biographer of Kean, says that he was born in 1788,
and was the illegitimate offspring of _Aaron_ Kean, a tailor, and Anne
Carey, an actress. Proctor, whose account is repeated by Hawkins, states
that his parentage was unknown, but that, according to the best conclusion
he was able to form, he was the son of _Edmund_ Kean, a mechanic employed
by a London builder, and Anne Carey, an actress. Raymond says, on the
authority of Miss Tidswell, who was many years at Drury Lane Theatre, that
he was the son of _Edward_ Kean, a carpenter, and Nancy Carey, the
actress. While these various writers agree as to the name and profession
of the future great tragedian's mother, and the patronymic of his father,
they give us the choice of three baptismal names for the latter, and at
least two occupations. There seems no doubt, however, that his father,
whether he was a carpenter or a tailor, was the brother of Moses Kean, a
popular reciter and imitator of the leading actors at the beginning of the
present century.
No register of his birth or baptism has ever been discovered, and it is
even a matter of doubt whether he was born in Westminster or in Southwark.
Miss Tidswell seems to have been the only person who possessed any
knowledge of his birth and parentage that was ever revealed, a
circumstance which caused her to be suspected of herself standing in the
maternal relationship to him. Kean, when a child, called her sometimes
mother, and sometimes aunt; but, according to her own account, she was in
no way related to him, but had adopted him on his being deserted by his
real mother, Anne Carey.
His first appearance in public was made in the character of a monkey, in
the show of Abraham Saunders, at Bartholomew Fair, probably in 1801. He
was then twelve or thirteen years of age, and already innured to a
wandering and vagabond mode of life; being in the habit of absenting
himself for days together from the lodging of Miss Tidswell, in order to
visit the fairs, and sleeping under the trees in St. James's Park, to
avoid being locked up by his guardian, and thus prevented from gazing at
the parades of Saunders and Scowton on the morrow.
Proctor says, somewhat vaguely, though probably with as much exactness as
the materials for a memoir of Kean's boyhood render possible, that when
about fourteen years of age, he was sometimes in Richardson's company, and
sometimes in Scowton's or Saunders's; and that, besides tumbling in the
circus of the latter, he rode and danced on the tight-rope. In performing
an equestrian act at Bartholomew Fair, he once fell from the pad, and hurt
his legs, which never quite recovered from the effects of the accident.
In 1803, another notability of the age made his appearance at Bartholomew
Fair, namely, Belzoni, afterwards famous as an explorer of the pyramids
and royal tombs of Egypt. He was a remarkably handsome and finely
proportioned man, and of almost gigantic stature, his height being six
feet six inches. His muscular strength being proportionate to his size, he
was engaged by Gyngell to exhibit feats of strength, as the young
Hercules, _alias_ the Patagonian Samson, in which character he lifted four
men of average weight off the ground, and held out prodigious weights at
arm's length. He afterwards went to Edmonton Fair, where he performed in
a field behind the Bell Inn. Of his engagements during the following six
or seven years we have no account, but in 1810 he sustained the character
of Orson at the Edinburgh theatre, when he was hissed for not being
sufficiently demonstrative in his attentions to the maternal bear. Five
years later, he was exploring the pyramids and sarcophagi of Egypt, as
assistant to the British Consul at Alexandria, and in 1820 his name was
famous.
In the same year that Belzoni performed his feats of strength in Gyngell's
show, there was exhibited in Bartholomew Fair, together with a two-headed
calf, and a double-bodied calf, "a surprising large fish, the
Nondescript," which "surprising inhabitant of the watery kingdom was,"
according to the bill, "drawn on the shore by seven horses and about a
hundred men. She measured twenty-five feet in length and about eighteen in
circumference, and had in her belly when found, one thousand seven hundred
mackerel."
The first mention of Richardson's theatre in the annals of the London
Fairs occurs in 1804. Of his early career there is no record; probably it
did not differ much from that of his pupil, Kean, or his successor, Nelson
Lee, or of the famous "roving English clown," Charlie Keith, and numerous
others whose lives have been passed in wandering from place to place,
amusing the public as actors, jugglers, conjurors, acrobats, etc. Whatever
his antecedents may have been, there is no doubt as to his character, all
who knew him concurring in representing him as illiterate and ignorant,
but possessing a large fund of shrewdness and common sense; irritable in
temper, but agreeable in his manners so long as nothing occurred to excite
his irascibility; sensitive to any unprovoked insult, which he never
failed to revenge, but always ready and willing to lend a helping hand to
those who had been less fortunate than himself.
Many stories are current among showmen and the theatrical profession of
Richardson's goodness of heart and his occasional eccentricities of
conduct. On one occasion, while his portable theatre was at St. Albans, a
fire occurred in the town, and many small houses were destroyed, the poor
tenants of which by that means lost all their furniture, and almost
everything they possessed. A subscription was immediately opened for their
relief, and a public meeting was held to promote the benevolent purpose.
Richardson attended, and when the Mayor, who presided, had read a list of
donations, varying in amount from five shillings to twice as many pounds,
he advanced to the table, and presented a Bank of England note for a
hundred pounds.
"To whom is the fund indebted for this munificent donation?" inquired the
astonished Mayor.
"Put it down to Muster Richardson, the showman," replied the donor, who
then walked quietly from the room.
He often paid the ground-rent of the poorer proprietors of travelling
shows, booths, and stalls, whose receipts, owing to bad weather, had not
enabled them to pay the claims of the owner of the field, and who, but for
Richardson's kindness, would have been obliged to remain on the ground,
losing the chance of making money elsewhere, until they could raise the
required sum. He never seemed to expect repayment in such cases, and never
referred to them afterwards. Saunders, who seems to have passed through an
unusually long life in a chronic condition of impecuniosity, once borrowed
ten pounds of him, and honourably and punctually repaid the money at the
appointed time. Richardson seemed surprised, but he took the money, and
made no remark. No very long time elapsed before Saunders wanted another
loan, when, to his surprise, Richardson met his application with a decided
refusal.
"I paid you honourably the money you lent me before," observed Saunders
with an aggrieved air.
"That's it, Muster Saunders," rejoined Richardson. "You did pay me that
money, and I was never more surprised in my life; and I mean to take care
you don't surprise me again, either in that way, _or any other way_."
In recruiting his company, he preferred actors who had learned a trade,
such being, in his opinion, steadier and more to be depended upon than
those who, like Kean, had been strollers from childhood. His pay-table was
the head of the big drum, and his way of discharging an actor or musician
with whom he was dissatisfied was to ask him, when giving him his week's
salary, to leave his name and address with the stage-manager, who was also
wardrobe-keeper and scene-shifter. This post was held for many years by a
man named Lewis, who was also the general servant of Richardson's "living
carriage," and at his winter quarters, Woodland Cottage, Horsemonger Lane,
long since pulled down, the site being occupied by a respectable row of
houses, called Woodland Terrace.
He always strengthened his company, and produced his best dresses, for the
London fairs, where his theatre, decked with banners and a good display of
steel and brass armour, presented a striking appearance. His wardrobe and
scene-waggon were always well stocked, and the dresses were not, as some
persons imagined, the off castings of the theatres, but were made for him,
and, having to be worn by daylight, were of really excellent quality.
Cloaks were provided for the company to wear on parade when the weather
happened to be wet.
It was a frequent boast of Richardson, that many of the most eminent
members of the theatrical profession had graduated in his company, and it
is known that Edmund Kean, James Wallack, Oxberry, and Saville Faucit were
of the number. Kean always acknowledged that he made his first appearance
in a principal part as Young Norval in Richardson's theatre; but it is
obvious from what is known of his boyhood that he must have been in the
company several years before he could have essayed that character. So far
as can be made out from his supposed age, he seems to have joined
Richardson's company in 1804, to the early part of which year we must
assign the story told by Davis, who was afterwards associated in
partnership with the younger Astley in the lesseeship of the Amphitheatre.
"I was passing down Great Surrey Street one morning," Davis is reported to
have said, "when just as I came to the place where the Riding House now
stands, at the corner of the Magdalen as they call it, I saw Master
Saunders packing up his traps. His booth, you see, had been standing
there for some three or four days, or thereabouts; and on the
parade-waggon I saw a slim young chap with marks of paint--and bad paint
it was, for all the world like raddle on the back of a sheep--on his face,
tying up some of the canvas. And when I had shook hands with Master
Saunders, he turns him right round to this young chap, who had just threw
a somerset behind his back, and says, 'I say, you Mr. King Dick, if you
don't mind what you're arter, and pack up that wan pretty tight and
nimble, we shan't be off afore to-morrow; and so, you mind your eye, my
lad.' That Mr. King Dick, as Master Saunders called him, was young Carey,
that's now your great Mr. Kean."
Kean's engagement with Richardson brings us to a portion of his personal
history which is involved in the profoundest mystery. His biographers
state that his mother, Anne Carey, was at the time a member of
Richardson's company, that Kean was unaware of the fact when he engaged,
and that he left the _troupe_ not very long afterwards, in consequence of
his mother claiming and receiving his salary, the last circumstance being
said to rest on the authority of Kean himself. Not much credence is due to
the story on that account; for the great actor exercised his imagination
on the subject of his origin and antecedents as freely as the Josiah
Bounderby of the inimitable Dickens. But the results of a patient search
among the gatherings relating to Bartholomew Fair in the library of the
British Museum clearly prove that Kean's mother was, when a member of
Richardson's company, the wife of an actor named Carey.
The only Careys whose names are to be found in any of the bills of
Richardson's theatre which have been preserved were a married couple, who
for many years, including the whole period of Kean's engagement, sustained
the principal parts in those wonderful melodramas for which the
establishment was so famous. If these people were Kean's parents, what
becomes of the story which has been told by his biographers, on the
authority of Miss Tidswell? That they assumed to be his parents is
undoubted, and it is equally beyond doubt that the relationship was
unquestioned by Richardson, and the claims founded upon it acquiesced in
by Kean.
"Windsor Fair," said Richardson, in relating the story of Kean's
professional visit to Windsor Castle, "commenced on a Friday, and after
all our impediments we arrived safe, and lost no time in erecting our
booth. We opened with _Tom Thumb_ and the _Magic Oak_. To my great
astonishment, I received a note from the Castle, commanding Master Carey
to recite several passages from different plays before his Majesty King
George the Third at the Palace. I was highly gratified at the receipt of
the above note; but I was equally perplexed to comply with the commands of
the King. The letter came to me on Saturday night; and as Master Carey's
wardrobe was very scanty, it was necessary to add to it before he could
appear in the presence of royalty. My purse was nearly empty, and to
increase my dilemma, all shops belonging to Jews were shut, and the only
chance we had left was their being open on Sunday morning.
"Among the Jews, however, we at last purchased a smart little jacket,
trousers, and body linen; we tied the collar of his shirt through the
button-holes with a piece of black ribbon; and when dressed in his new
apparel, Master Carey appeared a smart little fellow, and fit to exhibit
his talents before any monarch in the world. The King was highly delighted
with him, and so were all the nobility who were present. Two hours were
occupied in recitations; and his abilities were so conspicuous to every
person present that he was pronounced an astonishing boy, and a lad of
great promise. The present he received for his performance was rather
small, being only two guineas, though, upon the whole, it turned out
fortunate for the family. The principal conversation in Windsor for a few
days was about the talents displayed by Master Carey before the King. His
mother, therefore, took advantage of the circumstance, and engaged the
market-hall for three nights for Edmund's recitations. This was an
excellent speculation, and the hall overflowed with company every night.
"Mrs. Carey joined me on the following Monday at Ewell Fair; and all the
family, owing to their great success, came so nicely dressed that I
scarcely knew them. Mrs. Carey and her children did not quit my standard
during the summer. After a short period, I again got my company together,
and with hired horses went to Waltham Abbey. I took a small theatre in
that town, the rent of which was fifteen shillings per week. It was all
the money too much. My company I considered very strong, consisting of Mr.
Vaughan, Mr. Thwaites, Master Edmund, his mother, and the whole of his
family, Mr. Saville Faucit, Mr. Grosette, Mr. and Mrs. Jefferies, Mr.
Reed, Mrs. Wells, and several other performers, who are now engaged at the
different theatres in the kingdom. Notwithstanding we acted the most
popular pieces, the best night produced only nine shillings and sixpence.
Starvation stared us in the face, and our situation was so truly pitiable
that the magistrate of the town, out of compassion for our misfortunes,
bespoke a night."
It is singular that Richardson does not mention Carey, his chief actor, in
this communication; but the words "the whole of his family" must be
supposed to include Carey and, I believe, a daughter. In every bill of the
period the names of Mr. H. Carey and Mrs. H. Carey appear as the
representatives of the heroes and heroines of the Richardsonian drama; and
the absence of any direct mention of the former is much less remarkable
than the fact that he has been altogether ignored by every biographer of
Kean, while the supposed mother of the tragedian is invariably styled
_Miss_ Carey.
It is exceedingly improbable that the mystery involved in these
discrepancies and contradictions will now ever be cleared up in a
satisfactory manner. One thing alone, amidst all the confusion and
obscurity, seems certain; namely, that the Careys were in Richardson's
company before Kean joined it, and that, whether or not he believed them
to be his parents, he dropped their acquaintance when he threw off their
authority. Raymond says that when Kean, after his marriage, visited
Bartholomew Fair, he was recognised by Carey, who was standing on the
parade of Richardson's theatre, and ran down the steps to greet him; the
tragedian seemed mortified, treated the strolling actor coldly, and
"slunk away, literally like a dog in a fair."
In pondering the probabilities of the case, it is obvious that
considerable allowance must be made for the obscurity which envelopes the
origin of Kean's existence. Their only authority being Miss Tidswell, it
is natural that the biographers should suppose the woman who passed for
Kean's mother with Richardson and his company to be the Nancy Carey of her
story, and mention her as Miss Carey. But the evidence of the bills, which
cannot have been known to them, forces upon us the re-consideration of the
story of Kean's parentage which has hitherto passed current. Miss
Tidswell's story can be reconciled with the facts only by the hypothesis
that Anne Carey, subsequently to Kean's birth, became the wife of H.
Carey, the sameness of name being due to cousinship, or perhaps merely a
coincidence. Kean's illegitimacy may have been known to Richardson, whose
knowledge of the circumstance would explain the reason of his speaking of
Mrs. Carey as the mother of Master Carey, while he says nothing to warrant
the supposition that he regarded her husband as the lad's father.
But everything about Kean's early life is mysterious and obscure. How and
when did he acquire the classical lore which he seems to have possessed?
Certainly not while he was roaming the streets of London, frequenting all
the fairs, and practising flip-flaps; nor while travelling with Saunders,
Scowton, and Richardson, and rejoicing in the cognomen of Mr. King Dick.
As little likely does it seem that he could have acquired it at that
subsequent period of his life when the leisure which his profession left
him was passed in disreputable taverns, in low orgies with the worst
companions.
"You see this inequality in the bridge of my nose?" he once observed to
Benson Hill, the author of a couple of amusing volumes of theatrical
anecdotes and adventures. "It was dealt me by a demmed pewter pot, hurled
from the hand of Jack Thurtell. We were borne, drunk and bleeding, to the
watch-house, for the night. When I was taken out, washed, plastered, left
to cogitate on any lie, of an accident in a stage fight, I told it, and
was believed, for the next day I dined with the Bishop of Norwich."
My task does not, however, require me to follow Kean's fortunes from the
time when he left Richardson's company, and obtained an engagement at a
provincial theatre. The date is uncertain, but his name does not appear in
the bills of 1807, and he had probably turned his back on the travelling
theatre in the preceding year.
Patrick O'Brien, the Irish giant, exhibited himself for the last time in
1804, when he advertised as follows:--
"Just arrived in town, and to be seen in a commodious room, at No. 11,
Haymarket, nearly opposite the Opera House, the celebrated Irish Giant,
Mr. O'Brien, of the Kingdom of Ireland, indisputably the tallest man ever
shown; is a lineal descendant of the old puissant king, Brien Boreau, and
has, in person and appearance, all the similitudes of that great and grand
potentate. It is remarkable of this family, that, however various the
revolutions in point of fortune and alliance, the lineal descendants
thereof have been favoured by Providence with the original size and
stature, which have been so peculiar to their family. The gentleman
alluded to measures nearly nine feet high. Admittance one shilling."
O'Brien had now realised a considerable fortune, and he resolved to retire
from the public gaze. Having purchased an old mansion near Epping, and on
the borders of the forest, he took up his abode there, keeping a carriage
and pair of horses, and living quietly and unostentatiously the brief
remainder of his life. He died in 1806, in his forty-seventh year, when
his servants made use of his fame and his wardrobe for their own
emolument, dressing a wax figure in his clothes, and exhibiting it at
rooms in the Haymarket, the Strand, and other parts of the metropolis.
The rival theatres of Richardson and Scowton attended Bartholomew Fair in
1807, when the former produced a romantic and highly sensational drama,
called _The Monk and the Murderer_, in which Carey played the principal
character, Baron Montaldi, and his wife that of Emilina, the Baron's
daughter. The following announcement appears in the head of the bill:--
"Mr. Richardson has the honour to inform the Public, that for the
extraordinary Patronage he has experienced, it has been his great object
to contribute to the convenience and gratification of his audience. Mr. R.
has a splendid collection of Scenery, unrivalled in any Theatre; and, as
they are painted and designed by the first Artists in England, he hopes
with such Decorations, and a Change of Performances each day, the Public
will continue him that Patronage it has been his greatest pride to
deserve."
The scenery of the drama comprised a Gothic hall in the Baron's castle, a
rocky pass in Calabria, a forest, a rustic bridge, with a distant view of
the castle, a Gothic chamber, and a baronial hall, decorated with banners
and trophies. In the fourth scene a chivalric procession was introduced,
and in the last a combat with battle-axes. The drama was followed, as
usual, by a pantomime entitled _Mirth and Magic_, which concluded with a
"grand panoramic view of Gibraltar, painted by the first artists."
Saunders was there, with a circus, and seems to have attended the fair
with considerable regularity. He was often in difficulties, however, and
on one occasion, after borrowing a trick horse of Astley, his stud was
taken in execution for debt, and the borrowed horse was sold with the
rest. Some time afterwards, two equestrians of Astley's company were
passing a public-house, when they recognised Billy, harnessed to a cart
which was standing before the door. Hearing their voices, the horse
erected his ears, and, at a signal from one of them, stood up on his hind
legs, and performed such extraordinary evolutions that a crowd collected
to witness them. On the driver of the cart coming from the public-house,
an explanation of Billy's appearance in cart-harness was obtained with the
observation that "he was a werry good 'orse, but so full o' tricks that we
calls 'im the mountebank." Billy, I scarcely need say, was returned to his
stall in Astley's stables very soon after this discovery.
Miss Biffin was still attending the fairs, painting portraits with her
right shoulder, and in 1808 attracted the attention of the Earl of Morton,
who sat to her for his likeness, and visited her "living carriage" several
times for that purpose. In order to test her ability, he took the portrait
away with him, after each sitting, and thus became satisfied that it was
entirely the work of her own hand, or rather shoulder. Finding that the
armless little lady really possessed artistic talent, he showed the
portrait to George III., who was pleased to direct that she should receive
instruction in drawing at his expense.
The Earl of Morton corresponded with this remarkable artist during a
period of twenty years. She was patronised by three successive sovereigns,
and from William IV. she received a small pension. She then yielded to the
wish of the Earl of Morton that she should cease to travel, and settled at
Birmingham, where, several years afterwards, she married, and resumed, as
Mrs. Wright, the pursuit of her profession.
Ballard's menagerie held a respectable position between the time of Polito
and Miles and that of Wombwell and Atkins. The newspapers of the period do
not inform us, however, from whose menagerie it was that the leopard
escaped which created so much consternation one summer night in 1810. The
caravans were on their way to Bartholomew Fair, when, between ten and
eleven o'clock at night, while passing along Piccadilly, the horses
attached to one of them were scared by some noise, or other cause of
alarm, and became restive. The caravan was overturned and broken, and a
leopard and two monkeys made their escape. The leopard ran into the
basement of an unfinished house near St. James's Church, and one of the
monkeys into an oyster-shop, the proprietor of which, hearing that a
leopard was loose, immediately closed the door. What became of the other
monkey is not stated.
The keepers ran about, calling for a blanket and cords, to secure the
leopard; but every person they accosted shut their doors, or took to their
heels, on learning the purpose for which such appliances were required.
After some delay, a cage was backed against the opening by which the
leopard had entered the building, below which it growled threateningly as
it crouched in the darkness. With some risk and difficulty, it was got
into the cage, but not until it had bitten the arm of one of the keepers
so severely that he was obliged to proceed to St. George's hospital for
surgical aid.
Malcolm, describing Bartholomew Fair as it was seventy years ago,
says,--"Those who wish to form an idea of this scene of depravity may go
at eleven o'clock in the evening. They may then form some conception of
the dreadful scenes that have been acted there in former days. The visitor
will find all uproar. Shouts, drums, trumpets, organs, the roaring of
beasts, assailing the ear; while the blaze of torches and glare of candles
confuse sight, and present as well the horror of executions, and the
burning of martyrs, and the humours of a fair." Though, "the blaze of
torches and glare of candles" cannot be said to constitute a "scene of
depravity," and "shouts, drums, trumpets, organs, the roaring of beasts,"
though tending to produce an "uproar," cannot be accepted as evidence of
vice, since the former sounds accompany the civic procession of the 9th of
November, and the latter are heard in the Zoological Gardens, the
newspapers of the period bear testimony to the existence of a considerable
amount of riot and disorder at the late hour mentioned by Malcolm.
In those days, when the lighting was defective and the police inefficient,
it is not surprising that the "roughs" had their way when the more
respectable portion of the frequenters of the fair had retired, and that
scenes occurred such as the more efficient police of the present day have
had some difficulty in suppressing on Sunday evenings in the principal
thoroughfares of Islington and Pentonville. The newspapers of the period
referred to by Malcolm afford no other support to his statement than
accounts of the disorder and mischief produced by the rushing through the
fair at night of hordes of young men and boys, apparently without anything
being attempted for the prevention of the evil. In 1810, two bands of
these ruffians met, and their collision caused two stalls to be knocked
down, when the upsetting of a lamp on a stove caused the canvas to ignite,
and a terrible disaster was only prevented by the exertions of a gentleman
who was on the spot in extinguishing the flames. In 1812 many persons were
thrown down in one of the wild rushes of the "roughs," and an infant was
dashed from its mother's arms, and trampled to death.
Richardson, who was always on the alert for novelties, introduced in 1814,
at Portsmouth, the famous Josephine Girardelli, who in the same year
exhibited her remarkable feats in a room in New Bond Street. The following
hand-bill sufficiently indicates their nature:--
"Wonders will never cease!--The great Phenomena of Nature. Signora
Josephine Girardelli (just arrived from the Continent), who has had the
honour of appearing before most of the Crowned Heads of Europe, will
exhibit the Powers of Resistance against Heat, every day, until further
notice, at Mr. Laxton's Rooms, 23, New Bond Street. She will, without the
least symptoms of pain, put boiling melted lead into her mouth, and emit
the same with the imprint of her teeth thereon; red-hot irons will be
passed over various parts of her body; she will walk over a bar of red-hot
iron with her naked feet; will wash her hands in aquafortis; put boiling
oil in her mouth! The above are but a few of the wonderful feats she is
able to go through. Her performances will commence at 12, 2, 4, and 6
o'clock. Admission 3_s._ Any lady or gentleman being dubious of the above
performances taking place, may witness the same, gratis, if not satisfied.
Parties may be accommodated by a private performance, by applying to the
Conductor."
The portrait of this Fire Queen, as she would be styled at the present
day, was engraved by Page, and published by Smeeton, St. Martin's Lane. It
represents her in her performing costume, a short spangled jacket, worn
over a dress of the fashion of that day; the features are regular and
striking, but their beauty is of a rather masculine type. The hair appears
dark, and is arranged in short curls.
Elliston engaged in a show speculation at this time, having contracted
with a Dutchman, named Sampoeman, for the exhibition of a dwarf, named
Simon Paap. He hired a room in Piccadilly for the purpose and engaged an
interpreter; but the speculation was a failure, and Elliston was glad to
obtain Sampoeman's consent to the cancelling of the contract. He made a
more successful venture when, at the close of a bad theatrical season at
Birmingham, he announced the advent of a Bohemian giant, who would toss
about, like a ball, a stone weighing nearly a ton. Few modern giants have
possessed the strength ascribed to the seven-feet men of old, and such an
athlete as the Bohemian would have been worth a visit. The theatre was
filled, therefore, for the first time that season; but when the overture
had been performed, and the occupants of the gallery were beginning to
testify impatience, Elliston appeared before the curtain, looking grave
and anxious, as on such occasions he could look to perfection. Evincing
the deepest emotion, he informed the expectant audience that the
perfidious Bohemian had disappointed him, and had not arrived.
"Here," said he, producing a number of letters from his pockets, "are
letters which must satisfy every one that I am not to blame for this
disappointment, which I assure you, ladies and gentlemen, is to me one of
the bitterest of my existence. As they are numerous and lengthy, and are
all written in German, you will, I am sure, excuse me from reading them;
but, as further evidence of the good faith in which I have acted in this
matter, you shall see the stone."
The curtain was drawn half-way up, and the disappointed Brums were
consoled with the sight of an enormous mass of stone, and with the
announcement that they would receive, on leaving the theatre, vouchers
entitling them to admission to the boxes on the following night, on
payment of a shilling. Elliston thus obtained two good houses at no other
extra expense than a few shillings for the cartage of the pretended
giant's stone ball, the Bohemian being merely a creation of his own
fertile imagination.
Sampoeman's arrangement with Elliston having proved a failure, the little
Dutchman was transferred to Gyngell, who exhibited him in his show in
Bartholomew Fair and elsewhere, in 1815. There are three portraits of
Simon Paap in existence, showing a striking resemblance to little Mr.
Stratton, commonly known as Tom Thumb. One of them, drawn by Woolley, and
engraved by Worship, probably for advertising purposes, bears the
following inscription:--
MR. SIMON PAAP.
"_The celebrated Dutch dwarf, 26 years of age, weighs 27 pounds, and only
28 inches high; had the honour of being presented to the Prince Regent and
the whole of the Royal Family at Carleton House, May 5th, 1815, and was
introduced by Mr. Dan. Gyngell to the Right Honourable the Lord Mayor,
Sept. 1st, 1815; and was exhibited in the course of 4 days in Smithfield
to upwards of 20,000 persons; is universally admitted to be the greatest
wonder of the age._"
Another portrait, engraved by Cooper, and published by Robins and Co., is
better executed; but the third is a poor sketch, taken three years later,
and unsigned.
Richardson presented this year, on the first day of Bartholomew Fair, _The
Maid and the Magpie_, and a pantomime, "expressly written for this
theatre," entitled _Harlequin in the Deep_, terminating with a panorama,
"taken from the spot, by one of our most eminent artists," representing
Longwood, in the island of St. Helena, and the adjacent scenery,
interesting to the public at that time as the place of exile selected by
the Powers lately in arms against France for Napoleon I. Pocock's drama
was, of course, greatly abridged, for drama and pantomime, with a comic
song between, were got through in half an hour, and often in twenty
minutes, when the influx of visitors rendered it expedient to abbreviate
the performance. Shuter's signal, corrupted into _John Orderly_, was used
by Richardson on such occasions.
A daily change of performances had at this time become necessary, and
Richardson presented on the second day "an entire new Chinese romantic
melodrama," called _The Children of the Desert_, and a comic pantomime,
entitled _Harlequin and the Devil_. On the third day the pantomime was the
same, preceded by "an entire new melodrama," called _The Roman Wife_.
This year there first appeared in the fair an eccentric character named
James Sharp England, known as "the flying pieman." He was always neatly
dressed, with a clean white apron before him, but wore no hat, and had his
hair powdered and tied behind in a queue. Like the famous Tiddy-dol of a
century earlier, he aimed at a profitable notoriety through a fantastic
exterior and a droll manner; and he succeeded, his sales of plum-pudding,
which he carried before him on a board, and vended in slices, being very
great wherever he appeared. The present representative of the
perambulating traders of the eccentric order is a man who has for many
years strolled about the western districts of the metropolis, wearing
clean white sleeves and a black velvet cap placed jauntily on his head,
and carrying before him a tray of what, in oily and mellifluous accents,
he proclaims to be, "Brandy balls as big as St. Paul's! Oh, _so_ nice!
They are all sugar and brandy!"
The following year is memorable among showmen, and especially among
menagerists, for the attack of Ballard's lioness on the Exeter mail-coach.
On the night of the 20th of October, the caravans containing the animals
were standing in a line along the side of the road, near the inn called
the Winterslow Hut, seven miles from Salisbury, to the fair of which city
the menagerie was on its way. The coach had just stopped at this inn for
the guard to deliver his bag of local letters, when one of the leaders was
attacked by some large animal. The alarm and confusion produced by this
incident were so great that two of the inside passengers left the coach,
ran into the house, and locked themselves in a room above stairs; while
the horses kicked and plunged so violently that the coachman feared that
the coach would be overturned. It was soon perceived by the coachman and
guard, by the light of the lamps, that the assailant was a large lioness.
A mastiff attacked the beast, which immediately left the horse, and turned
upon him; the dog then fled, but was pursued and killed by the lioness
about forty yards from the coach.
An alarm being given, Ballard and his keepers pursued the lioness to a
granary in a farm-yard, where she ran underneath the building, and was
there barricaded in to prevent her escape. She growled for some time so
loudly as to be heard half a mile distant. The excited spectators called
loudly to the guard to despatch her with his blunderbuss, which he seemed
disposed to attempt, but Ballard cried out, "For God's sake, don't kill
her! She cost me five hundred pounds, and she will be as quiet as a lamb
if not irritated." This arrested the guard's hand, and he did not fire.
The lioness was afterwards easily enticed from beneath the granary by the
keepers, and taken back to her cage. The horse was found to be severely
lacerated about the neck and chest, the lioness having fastened the talons
of her fore feet on each side of his throat, while the talons of her hind
feet were forced into his chest, in which position she hung until attacked
by the dog. Death being inevitable, a fresh horse was procured, and the
coach proceeded on its journey, after having been detained three-quarters
of an hour.
A coloured print of this encounter adorns, or did thirty years ago adorn,
the parlour of the Winterslow Hut, and was executed, according to the
inscription, from the narrative of Joseph Pike, the guard, who, next to
the lioness, is the most conspicuous object in the group. The lioness has
seized the off leader by the throat, and the guard is standing on his seat
with a levelled carbine, as if about to fire. In the foreground is the
dog, which looks small for a mastiff, as if diminished by the artist for
the purpose of making the lioness appear larger by the comparison, as the
human figures on the show-cloths of the menageries always are. The
terrified faces in the inside of the coach, and at the upper windows of
the inn, and the blue coats and yellow vests of the outside passengers,
each grasping an umbrella or a carpet-bag, as if determined not to die
without a struggle, make up a vivid and sensational picture, which would
have found immediate favour with the conductor of the 'Police News,' had
such a periodical existed in those days.
The following year was signalised by the first appearance at Bartholomew
Fair of the learned pig, Toby, who was exhibited by a showman named Hoare.
There seems to have been a succession of learned pigs bearing the same
name, on the same principle, probably, as Richardson's theatre continues
to be advertised at Easter or Whitsuntide as at the Crystal Palace, or the
Agricultural Hall, or the Spaniards, at Hampstead Heath, twenty years
after the component parts of the structure were dispersed under the
auctioneer's hammer.
The wonder of 1818 was an athletic French woman, who was advertised as
follows:--
"The strongest woman in Europe, the celebrated French Female Hercules,
Madame Gobert, who will lift with her teeth a table five feet long and
three feet wide, with several persons seated upon it; also carry
thirty-six weights, fifty-six pounds each, equal to 2016 lbs. and will
disengage herself from them without any assistance; will carry a barrel
containing 340 bottles; also an anvil 400 pounds weight, on which they
will forge with four hammers at the same time she supports it on her
stomach; she will also lift with her hair the same anvil, swing it from
the ground, and suspend it in that position to the astonishment of every
beholder; will take up a chair by the hind stave with her teeth, and throw
it over her head ten feet from her body. Her travelling caravan (weighing
two tons) on its road from Harwich to Leominster, owing to the neglect of
the driver and badness of the road, sunk in the mud, nearly to the box of
the wheels; the two horses being unable to extricate it, she descended,
and, with apparent ease, disengaged the caravan from its situation,
without any assistance whatever."
Caulfield says that he visited the show "for the purpose of accurately
observing her manner of performance, which was by lying extended at
length on her back on three chairs; pillows were then placed over her
legs, thighs, and stomach, over those two thick blankets, and then a
moderately thick deal board; the thirty-six weights were then placed on
the board, beginning at the bottom of the legs, and extending upwards
above the knees and thighs, but none approaching towards the stomach. She
held the board on each side with her hands, and when the last weight was
put on, she pushed the board upwards on one side, and tumbled the weights
to the ground. On the whole, there appeared more of trick than of personal
strength in this feat. Her next performance was raising the anvil (which
might weigh nearly 200 lbs.) from the ground with her hair, which is
thick, black, and as strong as that in the tail of a horse; this is
platted on each side, and fixed to two cords, which are attached to the
anvil; then rising from a bending to an erect posture, she raises and
swings the anvil several times backwards and forwards through her legs.
Her next feat was raising a table with her teeth, a slight, rickety thing,
made of deal, with a bar across the legs, which, upon her grasping it, is
sustained against her thighs, and enables her more easily to swing it
round several times, maintaining her hold only by her teeth. The chair she
makes nothing of, but canters it over her head like a plaything. That she
is a wonderfully strong woman is evident, but that she can perform what is
promised in her bills is a notorious untruth. She has an infant which now
sucks at her breast, about eleven months old, that lifts, with very little
exertion, a quarter of a hundred weight."
Greenwich and Stepney Fairs became popular places of resort with the
working classes of the metropolis during the second decade of the present
century. Old showmen assert that the former was then declining, a state of
things which they ascribe to the growing popularity of the latter; and it
is certain that the number of persons who resort to a fair is no criterion
of the number, size, and quality of the shows by which it is attended, or
of the gains of the showmen. Croydon Fair was never visited by so many
thousands of persons as in the years of its decadence, which commenced
with the opening of the railway; but the average expenditure of each
person, so far from increasing in the same proportion, must have
considerably diminished.
The Easter Fair at Greenwich was the opening event of the season, and
during its best days Richardson's theatre always occupied the best
position. John Cartlitch, the original representative of Mazeppa, and
James Barnes, afterwards famous as the pantaloon of the Covent Garden
pantomimes, were members of Richardson's company at this time; and it was
joined at Greenwich by Nelson Lee, well known to the present generation as
an enterprising theatrical manager and a prolific producer of pantomimes,
but at that time fresh from school, with no other experience of theatrical
business than he had gained during a brief engagement as a supernumerary
at the old Royalty to serve as the foundation of the fame to which he
aspired.
James and Nelson Lee were the sons of Colonel Lee, who commanded a line
regiment of infantry during the period of the Peninsular war. At their
father's death, the elder boy was articled to a wine merchant in the City
of London, but evinced so much dislike to trade, and such strong
theatrical proclivities, that the articles were cancelled, and he was
placed under the tuition of Bradley, the famous swordsman of the Coburg.
He declined a second time, however, to fulfil his engagement, and, leaving
Bradley at the expiration of the first year, joined Bannister's circus
company, in what capacity my researches have failed to show.
The Whitsuntide Fair at Greenwich was followed at this time by a small
fair at Deptford, on the occasion of the annual official visit of the
Master of the Trinity House, which was always made on the morrow of the
festival of the Trinity. Ealing, Fairlop, Mitcham, and Camberwell
followed; then came Bartholomew; the round of the fairs within ten miles
of the metropolis being completed by Enfield and Croydon.
Richardson generally proceeded from Ealing to Portsmouth, where the three
weeks' town fair was immediately followed by another of a week's duration
on Portsdown Hill. One of the many stories which are current among showmen
and actors of his eccentricities of character has its scene at a
public-house on the Portsmouth road, at which he had, in the preceding
year, been refused water and provender for his horses, the innkeeper
growling that he had been "done" once by a showman, and did not want to
have anything more to do with show folks. Richardson bore the insult in
his mind, and on approaching the house again sent his company forward,
desiring each to order a glass of brandy-and-water, but not to touch it
until he joined them. Twenty glasses of brandy-and-water, all wanted at
once, was an unprecedented demand upon that roadside hostelry; and the
landlord, as he summoned all his staff to assist him, wondered what could
be the cause of such an influx of visitors. While the beverage was being
concocted the waggons came up, with Richardson walking at the head.
"Here we are, governor!" exclaimed one of the actors, who had, in the
meantime, strolled out upon a little green before the inn.
"Hullo!" said Richardson, affecting surprise. "I thought you had gone on
to the Black Bull. What are you all doing here?"
"Waiting for you to pay for the brandy-and-water, governor," replied the
comedian.
"Not if I know it!" returned Richardson, with a scowl at the expectant
innkeeper. "That's the crusty fellow that wouldn't give the poor beasts a
pail of water and a mouthful of hay last year, and not a shilling of my
money shall ever go into his pocket. So come on, my lads, and I'll stand
glasses all round at the Black Bull."
And with these words he strode on, followed by his company, leaving the
disappointed innkeeper aghast behind his twenty glasses of
brandy-and-water.
At Portsmouth some dissension arose between Richardson and William Cooke,
whose equestrians, as the consequence or the cause, paraded in front of
the theatre, and prevented free access to it.
"We must move them chaps from before our steps, Lewis," said Richardson to
his stage-manager; and having a basket-horse among his properties, he had
some squibs and crackers affixed to it, and sent one of the company to
caper in it in the rear of Cooke's horses.
Very few of the horses used for circus parades being trained for the
business of the ring, the fireworks no sooner began to fizz and bang than
the equine obstructives became so restive that Cooke found it expedient to
recall them to his own parade waggon.
Richardson always returned to the metropolis for Bartholomew Fair, where
the shows were, in 1820, arranged for the first time in the manner
described by Hone five years later. They had previously formed a block on
the site of the sheep-pens; but this year swings and roundabouts were
excluded, so as to preserve the area open, and the shows were built round
the sides of the quadrangle. As the fair existed at this time, there were
small uncovered stalls from the Skinner Street corner of Giltspur Street,
along the whole length of the churchyard; and on the opposite side of
Giltspur Street there were like stalls from the Newgate Street corner,
along the front of the Compter prison. At these stalls were sold fruit,
oysters, toys, gingerbread, baskets, and other articles of trifling value.
They were held by the small fry of the stall-keeping fraternity, who
lacked means to pay for space and furnish out a tempting display. The
fronts of these standings were towards the passengers in the
carriage-way.
Then, with occasional distances of three or four feet for footways from
the road to the pavement, began lines of covered stalls, with their open
fronts opposite the fronts of the houses and close to the curbstone, and
their enclosed backs to the road. On the St. Sepulchre's side they
extended to Cock Lane, and thence to the Smithfield corner of Giltspur
Street, then, turning the corner into Smithfield, they extended to Hosier
Lane, and from thence all along the west side of Smithfield to Cow Lane,
where, on that side, they terminated in a line with the opposite corner
leading to St. John Street, where the line was resumed, and continued to
Smithfield Bars, and there, on the west side, ended. Crossing over to the
east side, and returning south, these covered stalls commenced opposite to
their termination on the west, and ran towards Smithfield, turning into
which they extended westerly towards the pig-market, and thence to Long
Lane, from which point they ran along the east side of Smithfield to the
great gate of Cloth Fair. From Duke Street they continued along the south
side to the great front gate of St. Bartholomew's Hospital, and from
thence to the carriage entrance of the hospital, from whence they
extended along Giltspur Street to the Compter, where they joined the
uncovered stalls.
These covered stalls, thus surrounding Smithfield, belonged to dealers in
gingerbread, toys, hardwares, pocketbooks, trinkets, and articles of all
prices, from a halfpenny to ten shillings. The largest stalls were those
of the toy-sellers, some of which had a frontage of twenty-five feet, and
many of eighteen feet. The frontage of the majority of the stalls was
eight to twelve feet; they were six or seven feet high in front, and five
at the back, and all formed of canvas stretched upon a light frame-work of
wood; the canvas roofs sloped to the backs, which were enclosed by canvas
to the ground. The fronts were open to the thronging passengers, for whom
a clear way was preserved on the pavements between the stalls and the
houses, all of which, necessarily, had their shutters up and their doors
closed.
The shows had their fronts towards the area of Smithfield, and their backs
to the backs of the stalls, without any passage between them in any part.
The area of Smithfield was thus entirely open, and persons standing in the
carriage-way could see all the shows at one view. They surrounded
Smithfield entirely, except on the north side. Against the pens in the
centre there were no shows, the space between being kept free for
spectators and persons making their way to the exhibitions. Yet, although
no vehicle of any kind was permitted to pass, this immense carriage-way
was always so thronged as to be almost impassable. Officers were stationed
at the Giltspur Street, Hosier Lane, and Duke Street entrances to prevent
carriages and horsemen from entering, the only ways by which these were
allowed ingress to Smithfield being through Cow Lane, Chick Lane,
Smithfield Bars, and Long Lane; and they were to go on and pass, without
stopping, through one or other of these entrances, and without turning
into the body of the fair. The city officers, to whom was committed the
execution of these regulations, enforced them with rigour, never swerving
from their instructions, but giving no just ground of offence to those
whom the regulations displeased.
The shows were very numerous this year. There were four menageries, the
proprietors of which are not named in the newspapers of the day, which
inform us further that there was "the usual variety of conjurors,
wire-dancers, giants, dwarfs, fat children, learned pigs, albinoes, &c."
Ballard, Wombwell, and Atkins were probably among the menagerists, though
I have found no bill or other memorial of either of the two great
menageries of the second quarter of the eighteenth century of an earlier
date than 1825.
Gyngell, like Richardson, never missed Bartholomew Fair in those days; and
he was now supported by a clever grown-up family, consisting of Joseph,
who was a good juggler and balancer; Horatio, who, besides being a dancer,
was a self-taught artist of considerable ability; George, who was a
pyrotechnist; and Louisa, a very beautiful young woman and graceful
tight-rope dancer, who afterwards fell, and broke one of her arms, in
ascending from the stage of Covent Garden Theatre to the gallery. Nelson
Lee joined Gyngell's company on the termination of his engagement with
Richardson; and, having learned the juggling business from a Frenchman in
the _troupe_, shortly afterwards exhibited his skill at the Adelphi, and
other London theatres.