CHAP. III.
A VISIT TO THE THEATRE.
Charles had never seen a play; but his papa and mamma had always promised him that when he was seven years old, they would take him to Covent-Garden Theatre, and as that time had now nearly come, he did not forget to remind them of their promise. His birth-day was the fifteenth of January, which was lucky, because they always perform pantomimes in the Christmas holidays, and he was very desirous of seeing harlequin and columbine, and the clown, as he had heard a great deal about them from his young friends in the square, who had been to see them. As the day approached, Charles could think of nothing but the play, and said he thought it would be the happiest day of his life; but his mamma told him she hoped he would have much greater cause to be happy many days of his life, than going to a theatre; however Charles did not think there could be any greater cause for happiness, and his mamma said, it was as well for him to think so: The night before his birth-day, he went to bed in high spirits, saying he was sure he should not be able to sleep all night; but that was a mistake, for he went to sleep almost directly; and did not wake till the morning.
As soon as he was dressed, he ran down stairs to breakfast, with a smiling face. "Here is the day come at last!" he said, "I am so glad mamma, I wish it was night; I am seven years old to-day."
"Yes, my dear," said his mamma, "and I wish you many happy returns of the day."
"Thank you, mamma, but I have a great favour to ask you."
"What is it? Charles."
"I am afraid you will not do it."
"If it is any thing very unreasonable, perhaps I shall not," said his mamma; "but if it is not very unreasonable, I think, as it is your birth-day, I may venture to promise that I will do it."
"Then this is it," said Charles; "Peter has never been to the play in his life, and he said yesterday, he should like to go with me; so I wish you would take him with us; he would be so pleased."
"Well then, we will take him with us," said Mrs. Barker; "and I am glad to find that you think of other people's pleasure, as well as your own; it shows that you are not selfish."
A message was then sent to Peter's uncle, who readily gave his consent, which made Charles happier than he was before.
At six o'clock Peter came; and very much delighted he looked, as well he might, for he had not expected so great a pleasure; and then both the boys watched at the window for Mr. Barker, who had not yet come home; but he soon came, when they all got into a coach, and away they drove.
The play was to be Macbeth, which Charles said was very fortunate, because he had read about him in 'Tales of a Grandfather,' but Peter had never read 'Tales of Grandfather,' nor any history of Scotland, so he did not know who Macbeth was, therefore Mr. Barker was kind enough to tell him the whole story as they went along; that he might be able to understand what he was going to see. Perhaps some other little boys would like to hear it too, so I will tell it.
"There was once a king of Scotland, named Duncan, who was a good man, and much beloved by his subjects. This king had a cousin named Macbeth, who being the bravest general in Scotland, was employed by Duncan to fight all his battles for him, when he was too old to fight them himself; but Macbeth, although a brave man, was not a good man, and besides that, he had a very wicked wife, who wanted to be a queen, and therefore she tried to persuade her husband to kill Duncan, that he might be made king in his stead.
"At this time the Danes, who came from Denmark, invaded Scotland; that is, they came there to fight the Scots, and try to conquer the country: but they were disappointed, for Macbeth went with a large army to the place where they had landed, and having killed a great number of them in a battle, he forced the rest to return to Denmark.
"When Duncan heard that Macbeth had gained this victory, and driven his enemies out of Scotland, he was so much pleased, that he went, with his two sons, to pay him a visit at his castle; but he little thought, poor old man, what was going to happen, for in the middle of the night, when he was fast asleep, Macbeth went softly into his room, and killed him with a dagger. So in the morning, when it became known that the king was murdered, Macbeth pretended to be very much surprised and grieved at it, and although the people all thought he had done it himself, they were afraid to say so; and he was made king of Scotland. But wickedness is sure to be punished, as you shall hear; for the two young Princes, Malcolm and Donald Bane, as soon as they heard their father was dead, escaped from the castle, fearing that if they staid they might be killed too.
"Now happened that at that very time there was in England a very good king, called Edward the Confessor, who was an enemy to all bad men; therefore the Scottish princes determined to go to his court, and tell him what Macbeth had done; for they did not doubt that when he heard of it, he would render them some assistance; and they were not mistaken. The English king declared that he would revenge the death of Duncan, and place Malcolm on the throne; so he sent a large army into Scotland, to fight for the young prince, and Macbeth was killed in a battle, which gave great joy to the people, who were very glad to have Malcolm for their king. All this happened nearly eight hundred years ago, and Malcolm, who is called in the history of Scotland, Malcolm Canmore, was one of the best kings that ever reigned over that country."
By the time Mr. Barker had finished this story they had arrived at the theatre, and were just seated in the front row of a box, as the curtain drew up. The two boys liked the play very much, although it made them rather dull; but they were merry enough when the pantomime began, for it was full of fun, from beginning to end, and Charles could not help exclaiming every now and then, "Oh, what capital fun!"
He was very much astonished at the wonderful tricks performed by harlequin with his magic sword, for to those who have never seen a pantomime before, it must be rather surprising to see a wheelbarrow turned into a steam carriage, and an umbrella into an arm chair. But what amused Charles and Peter more than all the rest, was a large pie which was brought in and placed on a table, where the king and queen, with several lords and ladies were sitting at dinner, all seemingly very anxious to taste of this pie. But the moment it was cut, a whistling noise was heard, and a number of little birds hopped out of the pie, and flew away, leaving the dish quite empty, to the great amusement of all the boys and girls in the theatre, who laughed very loud indeed.
But pleasure cannot last for ever. The pantomime was soon over, and as Charles went home, he said he should like to go to the play every night, all the rest of his life—"Ah, Charles,"—said his papa, "we are all apt to like what is new to us, but you will find out, my boy, that people get tired even of pleasure, if they have too much of it."