A London Theatre
Haymarket : Theatre of Perfection. By W. MacQueen Pope. (W. H, Allen. 17s. 6d.)
THE Haymarket Theatre was built by John Potter, a carpenter, in 172o. For the next hundred years it was a cockpit for every social movement of the time. The struggles of the political cabals, the pressures of the London mob, even the growth of Methodism, found their echoes on its Stage or—more often—in its turbulent pit. It was the home of a wonderful succession of theatre characters, each of whom deserves his own biographer (" Romeo " Coates, for example, who drove about London in a triumphal car shaped like a tea-kettle, accompanied by a retinue of small boys yelling " Cock-a- doodle-doo ") ; and the celebrities who frequented it often displayed their eccentricities no less forcibly. Butcher Cumberland, for instance, in 1749, led a theatre riot.
"The Duke of Cumberland drew his sword and shouting to the audience to follow him, leapt on to the stage and began to hack at the hangings and scenery. The audience followed with a will. In the melée Cumberland dropped his sword—a diamond-hiked one —and it vanished for ever. He yelled with rage and cursed heartily, and the crowd . . . raised the cry that `Billy the Butcher had lost his knife.' "
Some of our present Cabinet Ministers, who have been heard to complain of the disrespectful attitude shown towards them by musical-hall comedians, must envy Sir Robert Walpole who
" went down to the theatre himself, heard the words spoken and dashed back stage, demanding to know of the prompter if the words were really in the script; On being assured that they were not, but that the actor had ' gagged' them, he gave the player a sound drubbing with his cane."
The style in which this book is written is something of an obstacle until the reader realises that Mr. MacQueen Pope is not writing to him but talking to him, fruitily and fascinatingly. Good writing*, not rambling or inconsequent, but good conversation often is ; and Mr. MacQueen Pope is a wonderful talker, with enough good stories
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