“Gustavus, Elector of Saxony, Mr. Wright. Orsina, Baron of Holstein, Mr. Cooper. Ulric and Albert, Vassals to Orsina, Messrs. Grove and Moore. St. Clair, the Wandering Outlaw, Mr. Smith. Rinalda, the Accusing Spirit, Mr. Darling. Monks, Vassals, Hunters, &c. Rosabella, Wife to the Outlaw, Mrs. Smith. Nuns and Ladies.
“The Piece concludes with the Death of Orsina, and the Appearance of the
ACCUSING SPIRIT!
“The Entertainments to conclude with a New Comic Harlequinade, with New Scenery, Tricks, Dresses, and Decorations, called
“Harlequin Faustus
or, the
Devil will have his own.
“Luciferno, Mr. Thomas. Dæmon Amozor, afterwards Pantaloon, Mr. Wilkinson. Dæmon Ziokos, afterwards Clown, Mr. Hayward. Violencello Player, Mr. Hartem. Baker, Mr. Thompson. Landlord, Mr. Wilkins. Fisherman, Mr. Rae. Doctor Faustus, afterwards Harlequin, Mr. Salter. Adelada, afterwards Columbine, Miss Wilmot. Attendant Dæmons, Sprites, Fairies, Ballad Singers, Flower Girls, &c., &c.
The Pantomime will finish with
A SPLENDID PANORAMA,
Painted by the First Artists.
Boxes, 2s. Pit, 1s. Gallery, 6 d.”
The theatre had an elevation exceeding thirty-feet, and occupied a hundred feet in width. The back of the exterior platform, or parade-waggon, was formed of green baize, before which deeply fringed crimson curtains were festooned, except at two places where the money-takers sat in wide and roomy projections, fitted up like Gothic shrines, with columns and pinnacles. Fifteen hundred variegated lamps were disposed over various parts of this platform, some of them depending from the top in the shape of chandeliers and lustres, and others in wreaths and festoons. A band of ten performers, in scarlet dresses, similar to those worn by the Queen’s yeomen, played continually, passing alternately from the parade-waggon and the orchestra, and from the interior to the open air again.
The auditorium was about a hundred feet long, and thirty feet wide, and was hung with green baize and crimson festoons. The seats were rows of planks, rising gradually from the ground at the end, and facing the stage, without any distinction of boxes, pit, or gallery. The stage was elevated, and there was a painted proscenium, with a green curtain, and the royal arms above, and an orchestra lined with crimson cloth. Between the orchestra and the bottom row of seats was a large space, which, after the seats were filled, and greatly to the discomfiture of the lower seat-holders, was nearly occupied by spectators. There were at least a thousand persons present on the occasion of Hone’s visit.
“The curtain drew up,” he says, “and presented the Wandering Outlaw, with a forest scene and a cottage; the next scene was a castle; the third was another scene in the forest. The second act commenced with a scene of an old church and a market-place. The second scene was a prison, and a ghost appeared to the tune of the evening hymn. The third scene was the castle that formed the second scene in the first act, and the performance was here enlivened by a murder. The fourth scene was rocks, with a cascade, and there was a procession to an unexecuted execution; for a ghost appeared, and saved the Wandering Outlaw from a fierce-looking headsman, and the piece ended. Then a plump little woman sang, ‘He loves, and he rides away,’ and the curtain drew up to Harlequin Faustus, wherein, after Columbine and a Clown, the most flaming character was the devil, with a red face and hands, in a red Spanish mantle and vest, red ‘continuations,’ stockings and shoes ditto to follow, a red Spanish hat and plume above, and a red ‘brass bugle horn.’ As soon as the fate of Faustus was concluded, the sound of a gong announced the happy event, and these performances were, in a quarter of an hour, repeated to another equally intelligent and brilliant audience.”