He concluded, however, by modestly calling himself the dutiful and
generously paid agent and servant of these high potentates, all of whom
he honoured equally, let the state of politics be what it might; for,
said he, laughing, "I never like to quarrel with my bread and butter."
It shows great prudence in Mr. R---- to have accepted neither title nor
order, and thus to have preserved a far more respectable independence.
He doubtless owes much to the good advice of his extremely amiable and
judicious wife, who excels him in tact and knowledge of the world,
though not perhaps in acuteness and talents for business.
On our way there we had been tempted to alight to see the state-carriage
of another monarch of Asiatic origin, the King of the Birmans. It was
taken in the late war. It is crowded with precious stones, valued at six
thousand pounds, and has a splendid effect by candlelight: its
canopy-like pyramidal form seemed to me in better taste than that of our
carriages. The attendants sitting on it were odd enough,--two little
boys and two peacocks, carved in wood and beautifully painted and
varnished. At the time it was taken, it was drawn by two white
elephants; and fifteen thousand precious stones, great and small, all
unpolished, still adorn the gilded wood of which it is made. A number of
curious and costly Birman arms were placed, as trophies, round the
spacious apartment, which gave a doubly rich and interesting effect to
the whole exhibition. As people always give a great deal for money here,
there was a Poecilorama in an adjoining room, consisting also of
Birman and Indian views, over which the light is ingeniously thrown so
as to produce very lively and varied effects.
I don't know why such things are not used as decorations for rooms. At a
fête, for instance, a room thus fitted up would surely be a much greater
novelty than the hackneyed ornaments of gay draperies, orange trees, and
flowers.
_December 8th._
On my way home from a dinner at M. de Polignac's, a very agreeable but
highly orthodox representative of 'l'ancien regime,' I was in time to
find the celebrated Mathews "At Home" at his theatre. The curtain was
dropped, and Mr. Mathews sitting in front of it at a table covered with
a cloth.
He began by discursively relating to the public that he was just
returned from a journey to Paris, where he had met with many original
individuals and droll adventures. Imperceptibly he passed from the
narrative style to a perfectly dramatic performance, in which, with
almost inconceivable talent and memory, he placed before the eyes of his
audience all that he had witnessed; while he so totally altered his
face, speech, and whole exterior, with the rapidity of lightning, that
one must have seen it to believe it possible. His outward helps consist
only of a cap, a cloak, a false nose, a wig, &c., which he draws from
under the table cover, and with these slender means produces an entire
and instant transformation. The applause was tumultuous and the laughter
incessant. The principal persons (who were introduced in various
situations,) were an old Englishman, who found fault with everything
abroad and praised everything at home; a provincial lady who never
walked in the street without a French dictionary in her hand, worried
the passers-by with incessant questions, and seized every opportunity of
assisting other English people with her superior knowledge, in doing
which, as may be imagined, she stumbled upon the most perverted,
burlesque, and often equivocal expressions; a dandy from the city, who
affected 'le grand air;' and his opposite, a fat farmer from Yorkshire,
who played pretty much the part of farmer Feldkümmel. The most amusing
thing to me was an English lecture on craniology by Spurzheim. The
likeness to that person, so well known in England,--to his whole manner
and his German accent,--was so perfect, that the theatre shook with
incessant laughter.
I was less pleased with some other imitations; particularly that of
Talma, who is far above the reach of any mere mimic, be his talents what
they may. Besides, his death is too recent, and sorrow for his
irreparable loss too great in the mind of every lover of art, to render
such a parody agreeable.
The performance concluded with a little farce, for which the curtain was
drawn up, and in which Mathews again played alone. He filled seven or
eight different parts, exclusive of those of a dog and a child, which
were indeed personated by puppets, but which he barked and prattled, in
as masterly a manner as he spoke the others. At first he is a French
tutor, who is going to travel with a little lord ten years old, whom he
shuts into a guitar-case that he may save the fare of the diligence, and
at the same time charge it to the papa. At every stage he takes him out,
to give him air and make him say his lesson. He carries on the
conversation with infinite drollery, and surprising skill as a
ventriloquist. The boy's resistance to being shut up in his box
again,--the way in which his murmurs and complaints die away, like the
waltz in the Freischütz, till at length the lid is clapped to, and the
last tones come from the shut case like a faint echo,--are inconceivably
comic.
After many adventures which beset the diligence and its passengers, an
old maid (again Mathews) makes her appearance. She has a favourite
lapdog, which is not suffered to travel inside, but which she is trying
to smuggle in, and fixes her eye on the guitar-case as a fit
hiding-place for her darling. In her hurry to accomplish her purpose she
does not observe that the place is already occupied. But hardly has she
laid the case out of her hand, when the dog begins to growl and bark,
the boy to howl, and she to scream for help; which trio made the gallery
almost frantic with delight.
The whole affair is, as you perceive, not exactly æsthetic, and rather
fitted to an English stomach than to any other. It is, indeed, almost
painful to see such skill devoted to such absurd buffooneries; the
talent, however, is still most remarkable; and even the physical powers
wonderful, which can support these efforts of acting and continual
speaking, with all these fatiguing disguises, without a single slip or
stumble, for hours together.
Not to require as great an exertion of patience from you, I will now
conclude. I wish heartily that my display of the meagre peep-shows of
the town may not tire you too much. You asked for pictures of daily
life; you expect from me no statistical work, no topography, no regular
enumeration of the so-called sights of London, and no systematic
treatise on England; nor am I in any condition to afford you such.
Receive, therefore, the unpretending humble fare I send you, in good
part. It is at all events now and then seasoned with a grain of pepper.
Your faithful L----.