A FAMOUS PLAYHOUSE
IT is impossible for the present reviewer to write in cold blood about the " Old Vic," for to him it is a part of his childhood, a part of those " trailing elouds of glory." It meant, and means still, the interpretation and gathering up of those vast uneasinesses, those aganiei of joy, by which every child is beset. Still can be remembered performances—watched by a little feverish fellowsitting on father's knee at the back of the pit—of Fra Diavolo, Faust, Tratviata. It was all so splendid— the great stage, so up, a blaze of _light ; the throbbing music ; the barely endUred recitatives ; the rapturous and fervid choruses and climaxes. The " Old Vic " was a Temple, the home of a Mystery. • It called a little brain to life, and gave it the food of passion-and curiosity to taste ; gave it a sense of its own miniature kingship, and its right to the fruit of life.
What the " Old Vic " did for one is typical of what it has done, is doing, and will do for ininurnbered thousands. Mini many hungry little mouths has it taught to forget their hunger how many little slum-laden hearts, preinaturely old and weary, has it persuaded with wonder and joy, the natural blood of childhood ?
This book is a history of the place. It is the work of the author of Diana of Dobson's and Marriage as a Trade. Its adequacy, therefore, is guaranteed. And what a story of struggle, degradation, and triumph it gives us.
The building of Waterloo Bridge in 1817 opened up the marshes and market gardens of Lambeth and brought them to the eye of the speculator. Two worthies, Jones and Dunn, felt that the time had come for them to try their fortune as theatrical managers in rivalry to the only south bank theatre, the " Surrey." With the help of John Thomas Serres, marine painter to the King, they scraped together sufficient capital, . chose a site on the junction Of the New Cut and the Waterloo Road, and built their theatre. Serres obtained the Royal. patronage, and the house was christened the " Royal Coburg," after that ill-fated Princess Charlotte of Wales and her husband Leopold of Saxe-Coburg--whose pitiable love-story has been told by Mr. Lytton Strachey in the early part of his Queen Victoria.
Then began a bombastic competition with Covent Garden and Drury Lane, those proud possessors of the Royal Patent. This struggle went on under a series of managements until 1834. The playbill announcing the opening Performance guaranteed that " extra patiolei are engaged -for the Bridge and Roads leading to the theatre, and particular attention will be paid to lighting same." . .
A 'century ago audiences liked their entertainment long and strong. What we now call an evening's perfcirmance was only a third of theirs. Their first course might-be a performance of Othello. - This would be followed by a blood-and-thunder melo- drama, a very gory and spectacular composite, to which would be admitted the half-timers, who came with reinforcements of bottled beer, sausages, bread and oranges, thins adding _con- siderably to the strength of the orchestra. -Then to finish the aesthetic repast there would follow a "-Historical Spectacle of George III," or " Dr. Preston of New York with his exhibition of the powers of laughing gas."
- These audiences were emphatically the patrons of- the theatre, and the poor actors were their trembling slaves. There was none of the present-day demureness and public good manners. DiSapproval was expressed by means of cat- calls, oranges and empty bottles hurled at the offending mummer. '-The audience at the " Royal Coburg ". was par- ticularly notorious, and even the mighty Edmund Kean could not repress it. It called him once before the curtain—then a gestrfre not of approVid but criticism—and he appeared, his fury augmented by much brandy and water. To the horror Of the management, instead of placating-the mob, he shouted : " I have acted in every theatre-in-the-kingdom orGreat Britain and -Ireland, and in all the principal _towns throughout_, the -United States of America, but in my life I never-acted to such a set of ignorant, unmitigated brutes as I now see before me," saying which, he -flung a corner of his cloak over one shoulder and slowly made his exit.
But those were great days. There followed degradation, whe.r, as the " Royal Victoria," the theatre became a sort of
mixture of music-hall, boozing den, and brothel, until in 1871 it closed down altogether. Then appeared Emma Conns, whose life is.a story in-itself,-and is here briefly sketched by her niece, Miss ,_Baylis. 'Mai helpers, Ennia Corms secured. the " Old Vic," and ran it as a temperance music-hall. She introduced lectures, and later established Morley College, whose class- rooms ran under and above the stage of the " Vic." Then came Miss Baylis, and the perforniance of operas, and finally in 1912 of Shakespeare. Since then the " Old Vic " has taken its place naturally, without legislation, as a national institution. Long
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