THE THEATRES.
LENT seems more lugubrious than usual this year. What with the in- fluenza, which has proved to be a more serious visitation than it at first threatened to be—and the unsettled state of the money-market, that barometer of the commercial atmosphere—amid the wretched weather, which seems as if wind and rain bud made England the scene of a struggle for the mastery—the gloom of this season of shabby com- promises between feasting-and fasting, amusement and mortification, is more generally felt than ever. There are no Oratorios this year,—pre. tences "most musical, most melancholy," for keeping open the two Great Theatres on the nights called "holy ;" so that on Wednesday and Friday the two greats are deserted. Covent Garden looks like the mausoleum of the departed Drama—" the tomb of all the Capulets ;" and Drury like a great warehouse of stage properties. The sacredness of these "holy days," by the way, is of a very peculiar character ; it ii only profaned by dramatic performances at the theatres licensed by the Lord Chamberlain. The medley entertainments at the Adelphi, the St. James's, and the New Strand Theatre—which last WEBSTER has engaged for the Lent nights only—bear the same relation to the regular performances on other nights, as those evasive esculents, salt fish, parsnips, and pancakes, do to the flesh and fowl of other days. The poorer class of actors, who by the closing of the theatres on two nights in the week are mulcted in one-third their weekly pittance, dignified with the imposing epithet of salary, are the only people, Catholics ex- cepted, who fast. The " flesh " that is " mos titled " must be that whose absence from the table is so luxuriously supplied by the sophis- tical arts of cookery. It is curious to see how ingeniously mankind contrive to make the galling yoke of formal observance sit easy on the neck of conscience. It reminds its of PETER 1'i:spelt's story of the " Pilgrims and the Peas." Really, it is time that these conventional hypocrisies should be done away with. We wonder Messrs. SHAW and LEFRoy, MAGEE and O'Scaelvear, do not denounce them as relics of Popery. A Protestant crusade against salt fish would be a fine thing: the Pope's bull would stand no chance against the roast beef of old England. Alois revenons a nos moutons.
Previous page
