* * *
Shortly afterwards (as subsequently reported in the newspapers) the noble Earl took luncheon at his own home.
"I wonder what wine he has given them?" And he smiled again.
"BOYS AND GIRLS COME OUT TO——PANTOMIME!"
Santa Claus, the afternoon pantomime at the Lyceum, is even better than Mr. Oscar Barrett's Cinderella of last year. There is plenty of splendour in the fairy piece, considered merely as a "spectacle," enough, indeed, to make a "pair of spectacles," and to cause much speculation as to how they manage to stow away all the scenery, properties, and costumes at five o'clock every afternoon, in order to make room for King Arthur, who, on the temporary abdication of Santa Claus (a part admirably acted and declaimed by Mr. William Rignold), reigns at the Lyceum from eight till eleven. But besides the dazzling brilliancy of fairy pantomime, there is in it not only real fun which delights the youngsters, for whom the entertainment is primarily intended, but also a touch of dramatic pathos, as shown in the death of the devoted dog Tatters, a dog who has his day and dies, whose cruel fate excites the compassion of old and young alike. All are rejoiced when they find out that clever Mr. Charles Lauri, of whom it can be complimentarily said that "he is a perfect beast," is restored to life, and that the Heavenly Twins are happily revived.
As the two toy soldiers Messrs. Harry and Fred Kitchen—the front and back kitchen—are first-rate. But where all are so good it is impossible, within the limits of a paragraph, to particularise. Messrs Barrett and Lennard are to be congratulated, and, as Hamlet says, "The Pantomime's the thing," and, as Shakspearian readers will remember, Hamlet's father went to matinées,—wasn't it "his custom always of an afternoon"?—only there's no sleeping here, but everyone very wide awake, and all "going home to tea" thoroughly satisfied with Santa Claus. Who says Le Roi Pantomime est mort, when the Lyceum is crowded for matinées, and, outside the doors of Old Drury, daily and nightly appear the placards, "House Full"?
A "Tit Bit."—When they speak of some one of the Baby Baronets, i.e. the recently created Baronets, they don't say he is among the Old'uns; but "He is among the New'nes."