"A DOSE OF GREGORY."
The Ruffled Hare. "This is your umbrella!"
It is some time since I have tasted a dramatic mixture so much to my liking as Mr. Grundy's Gregory's Mixture, known to the public, and likely to be highly popular with the public too, as A Pair of Spectacles. Art more refined than Mr. Hare's, as Benjamin Goldfinch in this piece, has not been seen on the stage for many a long day; nor, except in A Quiet Rubber, do I remember Mr. Hare having had anything like this particular chance of displaying his rare skill as a genuine comedian of the very first rank.
Everyone remembers, or ought to remember, Dickens's "Brothers Cheeryble." Well, Benjamin Goldfinch has all the milk of human kindness which characterised these philanthropic Gemini. As to moral characteristics, he is these two single gentlemen rolled into one, while physically, his exterior rather conjures up the picture of Harold Skimpole, though his eyes beam with the youthful impetuosity of old Martin Chuzzlewit when he caned Pecksniff. To this delightfully guileless good Samaritan, the rough, nay brutal, Uncle Gregory from Sheffield, with a heart apparently as hard as his own ware, is a contrast most skilfully brought out by Mr. Charles Grove. Though the part of Uncle Gregory does not require the delicate treatment demanded by that of Goldfinch, yet it might very easily be overdone; but never once does Mr. Grove overshoot the mark, although the author has imperilled its success by too frequent repetition of a catch-phrase, "I know that man," "I know that father," "I know that friend," and so forth, which is sometimes on the verge of becoming wearisome. Indeed, even now, I should be inclined to cut out at least half a dozen of these variations of the original phrase. His short but sufficient representation of the effects of too much lunch on Uncle Gregory is masterly. So realistic, in the best sense of the word, is the impersonation of these two characters, that one is inclined to resent the brutality of Uncle Gregory, when one sees the change suddenly effected in the sweet and sympathetic nature of Benjamin Goldfinch, and when we see him suspicious of everybody, and even of his young wife, whom he loves so dearly, we murmur, "Oh, what a noble mind is here o'erthrown!" And, indeed, but that it is impossible to help laughing from first to last, the final scenes of this charming piece, replete with touches of real human nature, would send an audience away crying with joy, to think of the possible goodness existent in the world, of which one occasionally hears, but so seldom sees, except on the stage.
Mr. Grove as Gregory the Grater.
Not a part in this piece is even indifferently played. The two young men, Mr. Rudge Harding, and Mr. Sydney Brough, both very good, the latter having better dramatic opportunities, and making the most of them. Mr. Dodsworth just the very man for Friend Lorimer; Mr. Cathcart is Joyce, the Butler; and of the two Shoemakers, respectively played by Mr. Knight and Mr. Byron, I can only say, "I know those shoemakers."
As for the Ladies, Miss Kate Rorke looks very pretty, and acts charmingly as young Mrs. Goldfinch; Miss Horlock is very nice as Lucy Lorimer, delivering herself of a little bit of picturesque sentiment about feeding the birds (Les Petits Oiseaux is the title of the old French piece, if I remember rightly) in a rather too forcedly ingenuous manner, but behaving most naturally in the interrupted courtship scene, and being generally very sympathetic. I mustn't omit Miss Hunter, pink of parlour-maids, not the conventional flirty soubrette nor the low-comedy waiting-woman, but a self-respecting, responsible young person, conscious of her own and her young man's moral rectitude, and satisfied with quarter-day and the Post-Office Savings Bank.
Only one single fault have I to find with the piece, and as it cannot be entirely remedied, though it might be modified, I will mention it. The title is a mistake; that can't be altered now: but the attempt at illustrating the double-meaning conveyed in the title by the practical "business" of changing the material glasses and thus hampering the actor by the necessity of altering his expression and his manner in accordance with his deposition or his resumption of these spectacles, seems to me to be childish to a degree, and tends towards turning this simple tale into a kind of fairy story, in which the spectacles play the part of a magic potion or charm, such as Mr. W. S. Gilbert would use in his Creatures of Impulse, his Fogarty's Fairy, and his Sorcerer, whenever he wishes to bring about a sudden and otherwise inexplicable transition from one mental attitude to another, and entirely opposite. But for the earnestness of the actors, this reductio ad Fairydum would have imparted an air of unreality to the characters and incidents which does not belong to them. The plot is a model of neat construction; and, to everyone at all in doubt as to where to pass an agreeable evening, I say, "Go to the Garrick Theatre." By the way, a Correspondent suggests that A Pair of Spectacles is an illustration of "The Hares Preservation Bill,"
Jack in a Box.
A Disclaimer.—The Right Hon. Mr. Henry Chaplin, M.P., Anti-muzzle-man and Minister of Agriculture, wishes to deny explicitly that, when, by a lapsus calami, he was made to describe Mr. Tay Pay O'Connor as "peeping from behind the Speaker's chair," he ever intended to fix upon that honourable gentleman the sobriquet of "Peeping Tom"; nor had he any idea of sending him to Coventry. What he did say was—— but it doesn't much matter what "he did say," what he didn't say is so much more to the point.
The Stanley and African Exhibition.—One of the largest contributors will be Mr. Bonny. This sounds well; at all events, it's Bonny. The French, who are now welcoming their own private African hero, le Capitaine Trivier, back to his native land, may be induced to place their trophies under Mr. Bonny's care, as, if Imperialists, they can then say they have a Bonny-part in this Exhibition.
From an Indignant Correspondent.—"Sir,—I sent you a joke three months ago, which you have not used. Since then I have made arrangements for the joke to appear elsewhere." [What a chance we have lost!—Ed.]
