THE NEW GRAND CHRISTMAS PANTOMIME
Lydia Thomson had long been promised to be taken to the next Christmas
Pantomime, and the happy day for this had now arrived. All the morning
long Lydia was so restless she was unable to remain quiet for two
minutes together. If she sat down to work, she was often obliged to get
up and dance, and then to run and look out at the window,--then to run
downstairs singing,--then to hop up again upon one leg,--then to run
and look at the play-bill, and read it all through aloud,--then to try
and read it topsy-turvy, and ask me to help her,--then to dance me up
in the air,--then to run and roll over and over with me on the sofa,
crying out, ‘Oh, Maria! oh, Maria! we’re going to see the New Grand
Christmas Pantomime!’
At last the evening came. We were dressed in good time. My mamma,
Lydia, wore a white frock and blue sash, and looked very nice; but
she made me look beautiful, for she said I should be dressed in a way
to suit a beautiful Pantomime; so she made me a frock of thin white
muslin, and trimmed it with some little pink roses that her mamma gave
her, and put a wreath of little pink roses round my hair. The carriage
came to the door, and we drove off to Drury-Lane Theatre. There were
Lydia’s papa and mamma, and her two cousins, and out they all jumped,
ran past the crowd at the door, and up the stairs, till we reached a
private box, which was exactly over one side of the stage, upon which
we looked down with great expectation. I thought we should have seen
better if we had been in a box in the middle of the theatre, but still
this was very nice. We did nothing but clap our hands and look at the
dark curtain. The play was over. We had not been allowed to come till
the play was over, because Lydia’s papa said he knew we should be tired
if we did.
The house was very full of people, and I began to look round me, and
up and down in all directions. But who shall describe my pleasure and
surprise when, looking up into the two-shilling gallery, whom should I
see sitting in the very front row but the celebrated Mr. Sprat! On one
side of him was his wife, who appeared to be eating periwinkles; on the
other side sat his two sons and daughter; so that they every one of
them had a front seat. Looking down into the pit, who should I next
see but the master of the doll-shop, who had fancied himself Napoleon
in a brown paper cocked hat, with his daughter and little Emmy at his
side; but what gave me far greater pleasure was to see very near them,
though a little in front, Ellen Plummy and her brother Thomas. Oh, my
dear little Ellen Plummy, how I wished you were up here with us! She
sat on the right-hand side of Thomas, and on his left was Nanny Bell. I
now looked again round the house, and in a private box nearly opposite
to ours, but larger and lower down, I saw a pretty, delicate little
girl, most elegantly dressed, whom I at once recognized as my little
lady mamma, Flora. I was so glad to be unable to see the least sign
of any scars from the fire. She was in the middle of this large box,
leaning over. At one side, almost hidden behind a red curtain and her
large silk cloak, sat Lady Flowerdale. Somehow I immediately thought
of Mary Hope, to whom I had been taken by the dog, Nep. I did not see
her, it is true; but while I was thinking of her, and looking down into
the pit, I saw Mr. Johnson, the portrait painter, peeling an orange.
Looking at Mr. Johnson, with gratitude for all he had done for me after
my burning, it naturally made me think of how much more gratitude I
owed to the celebrated Mr. Sprat, who had made me, and I immediately
looked up again towards the gallery where he sat. But happening at
first to look too high, I caught sight, in the one-shilling gallery,
of my little Italian mamma, Brigitta, and her brother Marco. They were
laughing, talking, and cracking nuts.
Now we began to long for the Pantomime to begin. Presently we heard
all manner of sounds going on behind the curtain--all manner of voices
talking and calling, and buzzing and humming. The moving of boards, and
hammering, and the placing of planks and beams, and pushing and pulling
about of heavy things; and now and then through one side of the
curtain we caught a glimpse of something so bright that went by, like
tall flags on painted poles, and tops of spears, and parts of mantles
of people’s dresses; and once, underneath the bottom of the dark green
curtain, we saw run along a little pair of bright silver feet. The
sound of drums and trumpets was also heard to begin in a disorderly
manner, and then stop suddenly, and end in a murmur of many voices, and
hurrying to and fro of many feet.
And now the band of musicians that played in the long orchestra beneath
us came thronging in, and seized upon all sorts of very great and very
small instruments, and began blowing and twanging, and trying up and
down, and backwards and forwards, and squeaking high and flourishing
about, and rumbling and tumbling, and working very hard to get into
order. Then they were quite silent. Then tap! tap! went the fiddlestick
of the leader of the orchestra, who sat upon his high stool--there
was more silence than ever--and suddenly off they all went, all the
instruments at once, and played away in a most wonderful manner--slow
music, and quick music, and grand marches, and all sorts of dances,
that made everybody’s heart jump within and try to do whatever the
music was doing.
The band ceased playing, and very slowly indeed the dark curtain began
to be drawn up. As it went creeping up towards the high roof, we
gradually saw a great field in winter, all white with snow, and the
snow coming down. As the dark curtain went up and the snow came down,
it seemed that the box we were in was sinking downwards also. However,
it did not.
The scene we looked upon was a very large field of snow, and large
trees at the side all covered with snow, and great woods at the back.
The snow presently ceased to fall, and we saw ranges of hills behind
the woods quite white like the rest. All the time the music continued
to play something that was so slow, and cold, and soft, and melodious,
and grand.
The music was changed to an ugly, broken, hobbling, harsh sound, and
at the farthest end of the field we saw a strong-made, little old man,
in a dark blue cloak, appear, and come down towards the white shrubs
in front, just under us. His hat was the shape of an extinguisher, but
with a broad brim. As he approached, we saw that he had a large blue
nose, and very large uneven teeth, and blue goggle-eyes! Ugh! how we
all shivered, except Lydia’s papa and mamma, who laughed and told us
not to be frightened. The music stopped, and this ugly, strong Dwarf
then repeated these words:--
‘The frosty air shall take them,
And the wintery wind shall shake them,
And frozen boughs shall rake them,
While rocks and ruins break them,--
And years shall always snip them,
While hours for ever trip them,
And constant trouble dip them,
Until Time come and clips them;
All this shall be done to destroy all their dances,
And drive from the world its delightful romances.’
As the ugly, thick-limbed little Dwarf said this, he stamped one
foot,--a loud wind was heard, and in a moment he went straight down
through the earth, and was quite gone! At the same moment we heard a
sweet voice singing in the air, which said:--
‘He thinks he makes what mortals see;
It seems so--but it shall not be.’
Before we had time to recover ourselves, we saw that the whole scene of
frost and snow was changing into a bright summer. The green leaves came
out upon the trees--the sun-beams shot across the sky, and played upon
the distant woods and hills--a warm, glowing color came all over the
scene--and while the music played the prettiest dance, we saw the spire
of a village church slowly rise up among the trees at the back, and
a troop of villagers, with wreaths and garlands of flowers, all came
dancing in, and round and round.
And now came in a very pretty little village girl with her lover;
and the dancers all surrounded them with their garlands, and they
were all going to be very happy, when a cross-looking old man in an
earth-colored flannel gown, who was the father of the pretty little
village girl, hobbled in and separated them,--and would not allow
it,--and made signs that the young man was not rich enough to have his
daughter. He made signs that the young man had no fields, and orchards,
and dogs, and horses, and houses, and money, and these were the things
that he thought most to be loved, and therefore that they made the
best lover. So the young man having none of these, was driven away
by the old father and two of his men with pitchforks. When, just as
they were driving him out, a noise was heard as if a great many penny
trumpets were blown. All the villagers made signs of seeing something
wonderful coming. Then came the sound of one single penny trumpet, and
immediately afterwards there entered, with a very consequential strut,
a figure with a large round head and red cheeks, scarcely anybody, and
very thick grass-green legs, and carrying in both hands an immense
brass trumpet, which, however, had only the sound of a very small penny
one.
‘I come,’ said he, ‘to herald the advance of the King of Bubble
Island,--and I am his chief trumpeter.’ Upon which he lifted up his
immense brass trumpet, which said, ‘Twee, te-twee, twee!’
Now came in twenty more trumpeters like the first, all with large
trumpets, blowing ‘Twee! twee! twee!’ After them came marching in an
army, all the soldiers having helmets made of great white turnips, with
the green leaves nodding about for feathers, and carrying shields of
black glass, in the middle of each of which was seen a bowl of white
soap-suds and a pipe. These were followed by the King’s Prime Minister
and the other Wise Men of his court, all of them blowing bubbles, which
rose into the air and looked most beautiful; and as fast as they burst,
the Wise Men blew more, so that there were always a good many floating
in the air. Each was attended by two valiant knights in glass armor of
bottle-green, the one on the right bearing a bowl of soap-suds, and the
one on the left carrying a supply of soap and fresh pipes. After these
came dancing a great many golden Coins of the Realm, all with the same
face, and all of them with thin spider’s legs, and their hands in their
pockets.
[Illustration: His Walk and Air Were Like All the Pride of the Earth
Put into One Chemist’s Bottle!]
And now came the King himself! He had a large round head of glass,
colored with green and pink, and his face was colored with green and
pink, and he wore a golden crown, with spikes like a dog’s collar,
which spouted up a great quantity of froth in the shape of feathers.
His body was quite round, like his head, only very much larger. His
hair was dark purple. He had a short mantle edged with fur like froth,
and his legs were the color of a blue-bottle fly spotted with gold.
His walk and air were like all the pride of the earth put into one
chemist’s bottle! An immense blast of farthing trumpets announced his
actual presence!
‘Poor people!’ exclaimed he, ‘villagers and people, and things!--ye
have dared to harbor among you no less a gentleman than the Prince,
my son, the heir of all these bubbles, who has caused us all these
troubles,--but what my grief doubles, let me say, is the fact that he
has run away, and our Royal Court doth mock----bless my soul! what
young man is that in the brown frock?’
The moment he said this, the poor lover, who was just being driven out
by the three pitchforks, began to run about and try to hide himself.
The Prime Minister and the Wise Men instantly drew from their sides
each a telescope, which they drew out to its full length, and began
to point in all directions to examine the young man, crying out, ‘We
think it is--we think it is--we think it is the Prince!’ The Prime
Minister now jumped pick-a-back upon the back of the King’s Physician,
and pointed the telescope towards the feet of the young peasant,
crying out, ‘Now I shall have him!’ When the Physician, on whose back
he was, heard this, he began to prance very much. The Prime Minister,
whose observations through the telescope were much disturbed by this
prancing, then jumped down and lay flat upon his stomach, pointing his
glass towards the young man’s face, and then called out, ‘I’ve got
him. It is the Prince!’ The moment the King heard his Prime Minister
declare it to be actually his dear, long-lost son, he rushed as if mad
with paternal feelings towards the young man, and being unable to stop
himself in time, he and the Prince together knocked down a cottage! It
fell flat down, and they rolled amidst the ruins! The village girls
extricated the Prince by the shoulders, and the Wise Men pulled out
the King by the legs, drawing him along a good way on the ground, to
be sure that he was extricated. Then the King immediately remembered
how very angry he had been with his son for running away, and was
going to knock him down with his golden sceptre when the father of the
pretty little village girl, that the Prince was in love with, ran up
and received the blow instead, which knocked him down upon his knees;
but instead of getting up, he declared it was the greatest honor of his
life to have been knocked down by the father of his daughter’s lover,
whom he now discovered to be such a great person, and to have so many
fields, and bags of gold, and horses, and people, and soap-bubbles.
‘Base clodpole!’ said his Majesty, ‘is the Prince, my son, in love with
your little peasant girl with open arms, crying out--‘Yes, King of
Bubbles, it is true.’
‘Then,’ said the King, ‘Blow me!’
At the sound of these words, the most terrible that could be heard
in the whole kingdom of Bubble Island, all the army uttered a howl,
and the Prime Minister and other Wise Men rushed to their bowls of
soap-suds, and filling the air with bubbles to try if their pipes were
in the highest degree of perfection, they then advanced towards the
King and applied their pipes to different parts of his body to blow him
as he ordered. But suddenly was heard a great sound of wind and rain,
and the sky got dark, and it began to snow; and while they were all
staring at the fast-falling snow, the ugly, strong-limbed Dwarf, with
the blue nose and goggle-eyes, came walking down among them and said:--
‘I will befriend thee, King of Bubbles,
And all thy foes I’ll fill with troubles:
Come frost and snow! and cover all we see,
And change the face of life’s reality!’
At these words there began to descend a number of dark, heavy clouds,
at the same time that a mist rose up from the earth, till the clouds
and the mist met, and out of the middle came a great troop of the
Spirits of the Frost and Snow, all glistening in white snow and
icicles, with branches covered with snow and icicles in their hands,
and they all sang this chorus:--
‘We will the face of Nature change,
And makes its pleasant places strange,
Covering all life with icy wing,
As thou may’st order, Bubble King.’
‘Very good,’ said the King. ‘I’m much obliged to you, Mr. Blue-nosed
Dwarf, and to all you ladies and gentlemen with frosty countenances.
Now then, at once, I will thank you to cover the village, where all
these people live, with snow; to turn that peasant girl, whom my son is
so mad and stupid as to be in love with, into a large icicle, and make
the Prince a man of snow looking at her.’
The Spirits of the Frost instantly seized upon the Prince and the
little peasant girl, when suddenly a rosy light appeared in the middle
of the dark clouds, which got brighter and brighter, and sent out rays
of an orange color, and then rays also of bright purple. Then the
orange began to get golden, and the purple to turn to bright violet;
and then in the middle of all there opened out a brilliant light, and
we saw a wheel of golden fire slowly turning round, and in the centre
of it stood a little Child, who seemed to be dressed in bright silver
gossamer, with beautiful auburn hair, and a silver wand in her hand,
and a bright violet star upon her forehead; and the little voice called
out,--
‘Spirits of the Frost! I charge ye sing again
More truly,--mixing pleasure with the pain.’
Then the Spirits of the Frost sang these words,--
‘We will the face of Nature change,
And make the truest things look strange;
But Nature’s heart will ever be
Deep beyond Fate’s tyranny,
And from King Bubble’s surface free.’
Then said the Dwarf,--
‘But change is mine, and strife and war,--’
Then replied the Child,--
‘Take them--but work within my law.’
The clouds now closed in front of the bright Child-spirit to the sound
of soft music, till each cloud became of a dull leaden color as before.
Presently came a loud sound of instruments from behind the clouds, and
a large silver arrow was seen to fly straight towards the young Prince.
It struck him, and he instantly turned into Harlequin, in a dress of
bright gold and silver and red and blue, and a black mask! Again the
sound of a clang of instruments was heard behind the clouds, and out
dropped a bag of money upon the head of the village girl’s father,
which knocked him down, and when he got up he was poor old Pantaloon,
with a goat’s beard, and a pig-tail, and a short red mantle, and a
stick. Again a clang of instruments was heard, and a great heavy
stone was seen to fly out of the cloud straight at the glass head of
his Majesty, the King of Bubble Island, which it struck,--and, with a
sound like the breaking of six dozen of soda-water bottles, his head
flew into a million of pieces, and up in its place rose the head of the
Clown, with his mouth wide open!--at the same time all the royal robes
of the King flew up into the air, where they were blown about in all
directions, till they were at last blown quite away, and there was the
Clown, in his ridiculous red and white patch-work dress! Once more was
heard the clang of instruments behind the clouds, and out of the clouds
flew a beautiful bouquet of flowers, which fell upon the head of the
little peasant girl, who instantly turned into the prettiest Columbine
that ever was seen in all the world. She was like the brightest,
silver-footed fairy, and yet at the same time she was such a little
dear sweetheart.
But what do you think happened at this moment? Nobody would ever guess.
It was this. My mamma Lydia was in such excessive delight that she sank
back with her arms thrown up, and totally forgetting me, I slipped over
the edge of the box and fell upon the stage, close to the little silver
feet of Columbine. My mamma did not know I had fallen. Columbine had no
idea where I came from; so the next time she passed the spot where I
lay, she caught me up and ran with me to her room behind the scenes.
[Illustration]