One thing which I am unable to interpret among the oddities of the English,
is their inconsistency respecting dramatic entertainments. I have never
yet been present where two or three of my countrymen were gathered
together, that, after a wrangling review of the weather, they did not turn
their conversation upon the theatres. There is no topic more universally
discussed than the decadence of the drama, or the engagements, merits,
and adventures of the performers. Neither the Lord Chancellor nor the
Archbishop of Canterbury is ever so familiarly known by name and person
to the public, as the first tragedian and comedian of the day; and the
theatrical belles and heroines are either elevated to the peerage by
matrimony, or lowered by the undertaker into Westminster Abbey. As some
French Vaudevillist observed, "Moliere was denied in France the rights of
sepulture, while
"Garrick repose à côté de leur rois!"
Yet, notwithstanding all this clamour of popularity--all this
infatuation--there is no branch of the arts so grossly neglected in
England as the drama. It is no longer the fashion in London to attend the
theatres. Owing partly to the increase of private amusements, and partly
to the late hours gradually adopted during the reign of George the Fourth,
the custom of play-going has declined among the higher classes, and
naturally produces the reaction of bad pieces and indifferent performers.
Even a clever actor, when satisfied that he is to receive judgment from an
unrefined and uneducated audience, will degenerate and grow slovenly; and
from what I have observed of the London stage, I see it is the custom to
daub for the galleries, or to creep through the business under cover of a
cold, tame mediocrity. Without the slightest patronage from the court or
substantial encouragement from the fosterers of literary merit, these
luckless personages are expected to attempt the same exertions and intense
study, which is rewarded, in foreign countries, by the most flattering and
judicious attention; as well as by a pension, to cheer the infirmities of
old age. Although tolerably well paid by his manager, the English actor
has the mortification of being tyrannized and insulted by the gallery, and
overlooked by the higher classes. A few persons of rank and fortune are
provided with private boxes at the national theatres; but these are
usually let by the night to plebeian tenants. It is rare indeed to observe
a family of distinction in the dress circle of either Drury Lane or Covent
Garden; while the French play is never deficient in a fashionable audience.
The Opera, too, is nightly becoming more crowded; while at the two patent
theatres "a beggarly account of empty boxes," and an equally beggarly
account of flat, stale, and unprofitable performances, greets me whenever
I am rash enough to take my post of observation. Lady Romford has a
private box, which she visits only in preference to staying at a still
duller home, on a disengaged evening; and Bagot occasionally drags me to
the play, to make my foreign ignorance and inexperience a pretext for
following Lady Clara to a spot which no one seems to visit without an
apology. People in society give as many reasons for having done so strange
a thing as go to see the new tragedy, as they would invent in Paris to
excuse a similar omission.
Since the Kemble munia, and the Byron mania, there has been a general
affectation of indifference towards poetry and the drama; your true
fashionable never mentions either without ridicule--the natural
consequence of previously exaggerated enthusiasm.
But above all the absurdities connected with this national weakness,
stands that of the public prints. So much importance is given by the
newspapers to every thing relating to the histrionic art, that we are
daily informed of the whereabout of all the third-rate performers of the
minor theatres; that "Mr. Smith, of Sadler's Wells, is engaged to Mr.
Ducrow for the ensuing season;" or that "Miss Brown, belonging to the
ballet department of the Surrey theatre, has sprained her ankle." While
two thirds of a leading print are occupied with details of the Reform Bill,
or a debate on some constitutional question,--or while the foreign
intelligence of two sieges and a battle is concentrated with a degree of
terseness worthy a telegraph, half a column is devoted to the plot of a
new melo-drama at the Coburg; or to a cut and dried criticism upon the
nine hundredth representation of _Hamlet_--beginning with the "immortal
bard," and ending with the waistcoats of the grave-digger!--_The Opera, a
Novel_.
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