"Vert-Vert," an opera bouffe, was recently placed on the stage
of the St. James's Theatre ; the theatrical critic of Vanity Fair considered the piece stupid, the orchestra and singing bad, the ballet-girls incompetent, too much undressed, and too atten- tive to their friends in the audience, and one dance called the "Riparelle" indecent ; and said all this in very vigorous Eng- lish. Mr. Fairlie, the licensee of the theatre, brought an action for libel before the Court of Common Pleas, which ended, on Tuesday, in a verdict for the manager of the paper, Mr. Blenkinsop. The action turned on the character of the dance, and though several employes and Mr. Fairlie and three or four independent witnesses de- posed that they saw nothing indecent, the bulk of the evidence was the other way, and the case was virtually settled by the testimony of the Marquis of Hertford. He had gone as Lord Chamberlain to see the opera, had "decided that the Riparelle ' was neither graceful nor artistic, but decidedly and purposely indecent," and had con- demned it as such. As the Lord Chamberlain is ex-officio super- visor of the stage in London, and not in the least likely to strain his powers, there was, after his evidence, in truth no case. The incident has called much attention to certain tendencies in Lon- don theatres, which every ten years or so require a sharp check, not only in the interest of good morals, but in the interest of good acting, which is driven by undressed evhibitions off the stage. As we have argued elsewhere, we believe this check can be better applied by a competent Lord Chamberlain or Licenser than by any other of the many devices which have been suggested.
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