The merriment at the Haymarket—the very atmosphere of which is
exhilarating as the laughing gas—has this week reached the con- vulsive point, by a combination of Powmi's oil of fun and BERNARD'S spirit of humour. Powsat, on His Last Legs, which he has found in a desperate leap to reach the sublime elevation of an usher's desk at a country "academy," almost reduces the audience to their last breath with excessive laughter. To describe the shifts and dilemmas he is brought to—how he comes to be bribed with twenty guineas to induce him not to betray his own imposture—how a fine girl throws herself into his arms and calls him her "dear papa," and, when the delight of cherishing this extempore, daughter is damped by the intelligence of a wife being at hand, how a good-natured old gentleman comes and re- lieves hint of wife, daughter, name, and profession at once—and how he flings himself into the arms of a bewitched widow, and enters into the estate of matrimony- and an estate of some thousands a year at one and the same time—would not convey any idea of the ludicrous situations, comical incidents, and drolleries of speech and gesture which make you "laugh till your face is like a wet cloth ill laid up." POWER'S practice of Mesmerism is perhaps the best joke of all.
Among the sable throng of Brother Tom's Dear Relations, Brother Jack, the sea-captain, is the most amusing ; even more so than Brother Twit lihnself: and no wonder, for Mr. Exclamation or (as it is abbre-
viated) 0! SMITH is STRICKLAND and SMITH are a choice pair.
Previous page
