"A nod is as good as a wink to a blind horse," says the old saw, and
a wink is no doubt as good as a smile to a purblind ass. But the wink
is indeed one of the worst uses to which the human eye can he put. It
signifies usually the vulgarisation of humour, and the degradation of
mirth. It is the favourite eye-language of the cynical cad, the coarse
jester, the crapulous clown, and--above all--the chuckling cheat.
[Illustration]
It must be admitted, that the Muse of the Music Hall--in her Momus
mood--has a strong leaning towards the glorification of cynical
'cuteness of the _Autolycus_ sort. It is a weakness which she seems
to share with party scribes and Colonial politicians. If she had any
classic leanings, which she has not, her favourite deity would be
Mercury, the "winking Cyllenian Argophont" of the Homeric Hymn, the
"little cradled rogue," the Apollo-cheating babe, "the lord of those
who swindle, house-break, sheep-steal and shop-lift," under whom
_Autolycus_ prided himself upon having been "littered." _Autolycus's_
complacent self-gratulation, "How bless'd are we that are not simple
men!" would appeal to the heart of the Music-hall votary. "Ha, ha!
what a fool Honesty is! and Trust his sworn brother, a very simple
gentleman" is, virtually, the burthen of dozens of the most favourite
of the Music-hall ditties.
Sly-scheming Hermes "winked" knowingly at Jupiter when he was
"pitching his yarn" about the stolen oxen, and Jupiter "according to
his wont,"
"Laughed heartily to hear the subtle witted
Infant give such a plausible account,
And every word a lie."
So the Music-hall Muse "winks" knowingly, and knavishly, at her
audience, and her audience "laugh heartily," in Jovian guffaws, at her
winks. What wonder then that she should lyrically apostrophise "The
Wink" in laudatory numbers?
"Say, boys, now is it quite the thing?"
she cries in sham deprecation, but all the while she "winks the other
eye" in a way her hearers quite understand. "Cabby knows his fare,"
and the Music-hall Muse knows her clients. What, we wonder, would
be her reception did she really carry out her ironically pretended
protest and sing to the chuckling cads who applaud her, the following
version of her favourite lay?