MR. PUNCH'S MORAL MUSIC-HALL DRAMAS.
No. IV.
Our present example is pure tragedy of the most ambitious kind, and is, perhaps, a little in advance of the taste of a Music-hall audience of the present day. When the fusion between the Theatres and the Music-Halls is complete—when Miss Bessie Bellwood sings "What Cheer, 'Ria?" at the Lyceum, and Mr. Henry Irving gives his compressed version of Hamlet at the Trocadero; when there is a general levelling-up of culture, and removal of prejudice—then, and not till then, will this powerful little play meet with the appreciation which is its due. The main idea is suggested by the Misses Taylor's well-known poem, The Pin, though the dramatist has gone further than the poetess in working out the notion of Nemesis.
THE FATAL PIN.—A Tragedy.
Dramatis Personæ.
Emily Heedless. By either Miss Vesta Tilley or Mrs. Bernard Beere.
Peter Paragon. Mr. Forbes Robertson or Mr. Arthur Roberts (only he mustn't sing "The Good Young Man who Died").
First and Second Bridesmaids. Miss Maude Millett and Miss Annie Hughes.
Scene.—Emily's Boudoir, sumptuously furnished with a screen and sofa, C. Door, R., leading to Emily's Bed-chamber. Door, L. Emily discovered in loose wrapper, and reclining in uncomfortable position on sofa.
Emily (dreamily). This day do I become the envied bride of Peter, justly surnamed Paragon; and much I wonder what in me he found (he, who Perfection so personifies) that he could condescend an eye to cast on faulty, feather-headed Emily! How solemn is the stillness all around me! (A loud bang is heard behind screen.) Methought I heard the dropping of a pin!—perhaps I should arise and search for it.... Yet why, on second thoughts, disturb myself, since I am, by my settlements, to have a handsome sum allowed for pin-money? Nay, since thou claim'st thy freedom, little pin, I lack the heart to keep thee prisoner. Go, then, and join the great majority of fallen, vagrant, unregarded pinhood—my bliss is too supreme at such an hour to heed such infidelities as thine.