A new discussion of the Slave question seems to have been much wanted on
the stage. It is, alas, the black truth that "The Slave" _par excellence_,
in spite of the brothers _Sharpset_ and Bishop's music, ceases to
interest. The woes of "Gambia" have been turned into ridicule by the
capers of "Jim Crow," and the twin pleasantries of "Jim along Josey."
Since the moral British public gave away twenty millions to emancipate the
black population, and to raise the price of brown sugars, they are not
nearly so sweet upon the niggers as formerly; for they discover that, now
Cæsar being "massa-pated, him no work--dam if he do!"
To meet this dramatic exigency, the "Quadroon Slave" has been produced. It
may be classed as an argumentative drama; carried on with that stage logic
which always makes the heroine get the best of it. The emancipation side
of the question is supported by _Julie_, ably backed by _Vincent St.
George_, but opposed by _Alfred Pelham_; and the lingual combatants rush
_in medias res_ at the very rising of the curtain--the "house,"
immediately taking sides, vehemently applauding the arguments of their
respective favourites. _Vincent St. George_--ably entrusted to that
interesting advocate Mr. J. Webster--opened the discussion by protesting
against the flogging system, especially as applied to females. _Alfred
Pelham_ answered him; the reply being taken up by the heroine _Julie_ in
broken French, because she is personated by Madlle. Celeste. The state of
parties as here developed turns out to be curious. The heroine, a
quadroon, is on the point of matrimonial union with her antagonist, and
openly resents the tender advances of her ally. "Call ye this backing of
your friends?" _Vincent St. George_, disgusted at such gross
tergiversation, flies entirely away from the point at issue, and applies
those remarks to _Julie_ which all disappointed lovers seem to be bound to
utter in such cases. Indeed, on the re-appearance of his rival, he
challenges him--unblushingly forsaking every branch of the main point, by
engaging in a long and not very lively discourse on the subject of
duelling; amidst, however, impatient cries of "question!" "question!" from
the audience.
This brings _Vincent_ back to the point, and with a vengeance! Like a
great many other orators on the liberal side of the black question, he is
a slave-owner himself, having--as his "attorney" _Vipper_ is careful to
tell us--no fewer than two hundred and eight of those animals. Now, before
he took upon himself to become an emancipationist, he might--one cannot
help thinking--have had the decency--_like Saint Fowell Buxton_--to _sell_
his slaves to somebody else, and to come into court with clean hands. But
so far from doing so, _Vipper_ having discovered that _Julie_ is a
run-away slave from _Vincent's_ estate, just as she is ending the first
act by going to be married, the latter takes the whole of the second act
to claim her!
Though the argufiers change sides on account of the change of
affairs--_Vincent_ insisting, as _liberals_ so often do, upon his vested
rights in _Julie_ as opposed to _Pelham's_ matrimonial ones--though the
heroine renders her pathetics affecting by a prostration or two before the
rivals--though she rushes upon a parapet to commit suicide--though she is
saved, and at length succeeds by force of mere argument to get her
new-found master to give her up to her husband; yet this second act was
somewhat dull; insomuch that the audience did not seem to regret when the
curtain dropped the subject, and announced their own emancipation from the
theatre.
Besides the parts we have named, Webster the elder played a _Telemachus
Hearty_, who, further than skipping about the stage, talking very fast,
and making himself not altogether disagreeable, had no more to do with the
piece than his namesake, or Fénélon Archbishop of Cambray himself.
This attempt to discuss moot points upon the stage--to turn as it were the
theatre into a debating society--will certainly not succeed.
Audiences--especially Haymarket ones--have a taste for being amused rather
than reasoned with; besides, those on that side of the question which the
author chooses shall be the weaker, do not like to see the stage-orators
get the upper hand, without having a chance of answering them. Even
dancing is preferred by them to didactics, though it be
[Illustration: A PAS SEUL TO A BARK-AROLE.]
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