PUNCH,
OR, THE LONDON CHARIVARI.
VOLUME 98.
APRIL 19, 1890.
IN THE LANE.
Monday.—Carmen exceptionally excellent. Miss Zélie de Lussan, gifted with a light, pleasant voice, sang admirably. Can't have "Trop de Zélie." Mr. Barton McGuckin, as Don Jim-along-José, did all that can be done with this weak-minded soldier. No holes to be picked in Mr. McG.'s performance, though there was a portion of his costume that would have been the better for the attention of Signor Soanso, the Spanish tailor. Perhaps he is one of the "Renters" of Drury Lane. The strongest and most novel situation was the entrance of a horse, which, like the old woman who "lived on nothing but victuals and drink," "wouldn't be quiet," and nearly gave poor Carmen fits. If it had given Mr. Barton McGuckin fits—a pair of them—my previous allusion to the tailor would have lacked a tangible basis of fact. Fancy Carmen frightened by an ordinary horse, not even a dray-horse, of which no Carmen would have been afraid!
