* Pannard, a minor French poet, whom Marmontel styles the La
Fontaine of Vaudeville, has written some verses admirably
descriptive of an opera behind the scenes.
“J'ai vu le soleil et la lune
Qui tenoient des discours en l'air:
J'ai vu le terrible Neptune
Sortir tout frisé de la mer.
“J'ai vu l'aimable Cythéré
Au doux regard, au teint fleuri,
Dans un machine entourée
D'amours natifs de Chambérie.”
And, after having seen a great number of other things
equally curious, he concludes with,—
“J'ai vu des ombres très-palpables Se trémousser aux bords
du Styx;
J'ai vu l'enfer et tous les diables A quinze pieds du
Paradis,”
Some years ago, a strolling company at Ludlow, in
Shropshire, printed a playbill nearly as large as their
drop-scene. It announced “The Doleful History of King Lear
and his Three Daughters, with the Merry Conceits of his
Majesty's Fool, and the valorous exploits of the Duke of
Gloucester's Bastard; all written by one William
Shakespeare, a mighty great poet, who was born in
Warwickshire, and held horses for gentlemen at the sign of
the Red Bull in St. John's Street, where was just such
another playhouse as this (I!!), at which we hope the
company of all friends round the Wrekin.
“All you who would wish to cry or laugh,
Had better spend your money here than in the alehouse by
half;
And if you wish more about these things to know,
Come at six o'clock to the barn in the High Street, Ludlow,
Where, presented by live actors, the whole may be seen,
So Vivat Rex, God save the King, not forgetting the Queen.”
Just as a strolling actor at Newcastle had advertised his
benefit, a remarkable stranger, no less than the Prince
Annamaboo arrived, and placarded the town that he granted
audiences at a shilling a-head. The stroller, without delay,
waited on the proprietor of the Prince, and for a good round
sum prevailed on him to command his Serene Highness to
exhibit his august person on his benefit night. The bills of
the day announced, that between the acts of the comedy
Prince Annumaboo would give a lively representation of the
scalping operation* sound the Indian war-whoop in all its
melodious tones, practise the tomahawk exercise, and dine à
la cannibal. An intelligent mob were collected to witness
these interesting exploits. At the conclusion of the third
act, his Highness marched forward flourishing his tomahawk,
and shouting, “Ha, ha!—ho, ho!” Next entered a man Avith
his face blacked, and a piece of bladder fastened to his
head with gum; the Prince, with an enormous carving-knife,
began the scalping part of the entertainment, which he
performed in a truly imperial style, holding up the piece of
bladder as a token of triumph. Next came the war-whoop, an
unearthly combination of discordant sounds; and lastly, the
banquet, consisting of raw beef-steaks, which he rolled up
into rouleaus, and devoured with right royal avidity. Having
finished his delicate repast, he wielded his tomahawk in an
exulting manner, bellowed “Ha, ha!—ho, ho!” and made his
exit. The beneficiare strolling through the marketplace the
following day, spied the most puissant Prince Annama-boo
selling pen-knives, scissors, and quills, in the character
of a Jew pedlar. “What!” said the astonished Lord Townley,
“my Prince, is it you? Are you not a pretty circumcised
little scoundrel to impose upon us in this manner?” Moses
turned round, and with an arch look, replied, “Princh be d—d!
I vash no Princh; I vash acting, like you. Your troop
vash Lords and Ladies last night; and to-night dey vil be
Kings, Prinches, and Emperors! I vash hum pugs, you vash
humpugs, all vash humpugs!”
There is a fair,—an extraordinary one,—the holding of which depends not on the caprice of magisterial wiggery. Jack Frost—a bold fellow! for he has taken Marlborough and Wellington by the nose—twice or thrice in a century proclaims his fair. No sooner is the joyful tidings bruited abroad, than the dutiful sons and daughters of Old Father Thames flock to his paternal bosom, which, being icy cold, they warm by roasting an ox upon it, and then transfer to its glassy surface the turmoil, traffic, and monstrosities of dry land.
Evelyn has given an interesting description of Frost Fair in 1683-4. This amusing chronicler of passing events possessed more than Athenian curiosity. He entered the penetralia of the court of King Charles the Second; and while he whispered in his closet pathetic Jeremiads over its immorality, he shocked his averted vision day after day with its impurities—still peeping! still praying! For all and sundry of the merry Monarch's “misses,” and for poor Nelly (by far the best of them) in particular, he expressed a becoming horror in his private meditations; yet his outward bearing towards them indicated no such compunctious visitings. He was an excellent tactician. He crept into the privy councils of the regicides, and, mirabile dictu! retired from the enemy's camp in a whole skin; and while fortunes were being confiscated, and heads were falling on all sides, he kept his own snug in his pocket, and erect on his shoulders. Monarchy, Anarchy, High Church, Low Church, No Church, Catholicism, Anything-ism, Every-thing-ism.! plain John (he declined a baronetcy) passed over the red-hot ploughshares of political and religious persecution unsinged. And we rejoice at his good luck; for whether he treat of London's great Plague or Fire, the liaisons of his “kind master” King Charles the Second, the naughtiness of Nelly and her nymphs, or the ludicrous outbreaks of Southwark, St. Bartholomew, and Frost Fairs, he is a delightful, gentlemanly old gossiper!
On the 1st of January 1683-4, the cold was so intense, that booths (a novel spectacle) were erected on the Thames, and Jack Frost proclaimed his earliest recorded fair.
“I went crosse the Thames,” says Evelyn, January 9, 1683-4, “on the ice, which now became so thick as to bear not only streetes of boothes, in which they roasted meate, and had divers shops of wares, quite acrosse as in a towne, but coaches, carts, and horses passed over. So I went from Westminster Stay res to Lambeth, and din'd with the Archbishop. I walked over the ice (after dinner) from Lambeth Stayres to the Horseferry.”
“The Thames (Jany 16) was filled with people and tents, selling all sorts of wares as in a citty. The frost (Jany 24) continuing more and more severe, the Thames before London was still planned with boothes in formal streetes, all sorts of trades and shops furnished and full of commodities, even to a printing-presse, where the people and ladyes tooke a fancy to have their names printed on the Thames. This humour tooke so universally, that 'twas estimated the printer gain'd 51. a-day, for printing a line only, at sixpence a name, besides what he got by ballads, &c. Coaches plied from Westminster to the Temple, and from several other staires to and fro, as in the streetes, sleds, sliding with skeates, a bull-baiting, horse and coach races, puppet playes and interludes, cookes, tipling, and other lewd places, so that it seem'd to be a bacchanalian triumph, or carnival on the water.”
“It began to thaw (Feb. 5), but froze againe. My coach crossed from Lambeth to the Horseferry at Millbank, Westminster. The booths were almost all taken downe; but there was first a map, or landskip, * cut in copper, representing all the manner of the camp, and the several actions, sports, and pastimes thereon, in memory of so signal a frost.”
* These “Landskips” are interesting, and very difficult to
be obtained. Thirteen, representing the Frost Fairs of 1683,
—1715-16,—and 1739-40, now lie before us. “An exact and
lively Mapp or Representation of Booths, and all the
varieties of Showes and Humours upon the Ice on the River
of Thames, by London, during that memorable Frost in the
35th yeare of the reigne of his Sacred Maty King Charles the
2d. Anno Dni 1683. With an Alphabetical Explanation of the
most remarkable figures,” exhibits “The Temple Staires, with
people going upon the ice to Temple Street—The Duke of
Yorkes Coffee House—The Tory Booth—The Booth with a
Phoenix on it, and Insured as long as the Foundation Stand—
The Roast Beefe Booth—The Half-way House—The Beare Garden
Shire Booth—The Musiek Booth—The Printing Booth—The
Lottery Booth—The Horne Tavern Booth—The Temple Garden,
with Crowds of People looking over the wall—The Boat
drawnc with a Hors—The Drum Boat—The Boat drawne upon
vehiceles—The Bull-baiting—The Chair sliding in the Ring—
The Boyes Sliding—The Nine Pinn Playing—The sliding on
Scates—The Sledge drawing Coales from the other side of the
Thames—The Boyes climbing up the Tree in the Temple Garden
to sec ye Bull Baiting—The Toy Shoops—London Bridge.”
Another of these “lively Mapps” has a full-length portrait
of Erra Pater, referred to by Hudibras,
“In mathematics he was greater
Than Tycho Brahe or Erra Pater”—
prophesying in the midst of the fair.
“Old Erra Pater, or his rambling Ghost,
Prognosticating of this long strong Frost,
Some Ages past, said. yl ye Ice-bound Thames
Shou'd prove a Theatre for Sports and Games,
Her Wat'ry Green be turn'd into a Bare,
For Men a Citty seem, for Booths a Faire;
And now this Stragling Sprite is once more come
To visit Mortalls and foretel their doom:
When Maids grow modest, ye Dissenting crew
Become all Loyal, the Falsehearted true,
Then you may probably, and not till then,
Expect in England such a Frost agen.
In 1715-16 Jack Frost paid Old Father Thames a second visit. * But whether maids had grown modest, dissenters loyal, and false-hearted men and true,
* “The best prospect of the frozen Thames with the booths
on it, as taken from the Temple Stairs ye 2O day of January
1715-6, by C. Woodfield,” is rich in fun, and a capital
piece of art. We owe great obligations to “Mr. Joshua Bangs”
for the following:—
“Mr. Joshua Bangs.
Printed at Holme's and Broad's Booth, at the Sign of the
Ship, against Old Swan Stairs, where is the Only Real
Printing Press on the Frozen Thames, January the 14th, 1715-
6.
“Where little Wherries once did use to ride,
And mounting Billows dash'd against their side,
Now Booths and Tents are built, whose inward Treasure
Affords to many a one Delight and Pleasure;
Wine, Beer, Cakes, hot Custards, Beef and Pies,
Upon the Thames are sold; there, on the Ice
You may have any
Thing to please the Sight,
Your Names are Printed, tho' you cannot write;
Therefore pray lose no Time, but hasten hither,
To drink a Glass with Broad and Holmes together.”
'Several “Landskips” were published of this Frost Fair, in
which are shown “York Buildings Water Works—A Barge on a
Mountain of Ice—A drinking Tent on a Pile of Ice—
Theodore's Printing Booth—C.'s Piratical Song Booth—Cat in
the Basket Booth—King's Head Printing Booth—The Cap Musiek
Booth—The Hat Musick Booth—Dead Bodies floating in ye
Channel—Westminster Bridge, wh ye Works demolish'd—Skittle
Playing and other Diversions—Tradesmen hiring booths of ye
Watermen—A Number of confus'd Barges and Boats—Frost
Street from Westminster Hall to the Temple.
“This transient scene, a Universe of Glass,
Whose various forms are pictur'd as they pass,
Here future Ages may wth wonder view,
And wl they scarce could think, acknowledge true.
Printed on the River Thames in ye month of January 1740.
“Behold the liquid Thames now frozen o'er
That lately ships of mighty Burthen bore;
Here Watermen, for want to row in boats,
Make use of Bowze to get them Pence and Groats.
Frost Fair. Printed upon the Ice on the River Thames, Jan.
23, 1739-40.”
“The bleak North-East, from rough Tartarian Shores,
O'er Europe's Realms its freezing Rigour pours,
Stagnates the flowing Blood in Human Veins,
And binds the silver Thames in ley Chains.
Their usual Courses Rivulets refrain,
And ev'ry Pond appears a Glassy Plain;
Streets now appear where Water was before,
And Thousands daily walk from Shore to Shore.
Frost Fair. Printed upon the River Thames when Frozen, Jan.
the 28.1739-40.”
“The View of Frost Fair, Jan? 1739-40.
Scythians of old, like us remov'd,
In tents thro' various climes they rov'd;
We, bolder, on the frozen Wave,
To please your fancies toil and slave;
Here a strange group of figures rise,
Sleek beaus in furs salute your eyes;
Stout Soldiers, shiv'ring in their Bed,
Attack the Gin and Gingerbread;
Cits with their Wives, and Lawyers' Clerks,
Gamesters and Thieves, young Girls and Sparks.
This View to Future Times shall
Show The Medley Scene you Visit now.”