PAID FOR THEIR FUN. 63 The Belles' Stratagem and the Youthful Queen were the entertainments selected for the important occasion, on which every crevice of the building was occupied. The affair passed off as such things generally do; and on the 18th of July the subjoined letter came to hand, and on the 19th the business was wound up by the receipt of the money at the Treasury: “SIR, "No. 4, Adam Street, Adelphi, "18th July, 1838. "By command of the Lords Commissioners of her Majesty's Treasury, I have to request your personal "attendance at my office as above, on Thursday or Friday morning next, from ten to twelve o'clock, to "receive a certificate according to your tender, for having opened your theatre gratuitously to the "public on the coronation day of her Majesty Queen "Victoria. 66 "I am, Sir, "Your obedient servant, "To A. Bunn, Esq. "Theatre Royal Drury Lane." June 29.-What fools the people are making of poor Soult and themselves, shouting after him wherever he goes, because we thrashed him wherever we found him! Why don't they read the memorable manifesto issued March 8, 1814, by the old hound 64 LOUIS PHILIPPE AND FOREIGN AFFAIRS. against Wellington and this country-" the saviour and the saved," instead of coursing his heels through every alley of the metropolis, while he and his master (Louis-Philippe) are laughing in their sleeves at the helpless Lord who has got it all up, in the absence of any knowledge of foreign diplomacy. The venerable ballad comes in again : "Ri tum ti titherum fit; "I beg you'll never mention it. "A tailor's goose can never fly!" And talk for a century, this is what in the long-run it will come to! CHAPTER III. The end of a Season illustrated by Mr. Ducrow-Mr. Bunn sickAll sorts of Fishing-Spontini-Patent for opening, and Patent for destroying Theatres-Windsor Castle-Ducks and Drakes-Mr. Const and Mr. Munden-Walton and Johnson-Mr. and Mrs. Stafford-Lord Byron and the Dean of Westminster-SuborningInfant's Death-Harrow on the Hill-An Extraordinary Feat of Reynolds the Dramatist-Brighton-Mr. Charles Kean and Mrs. Charles Kemble-The Lord Chamberlain and the German OperaValue of a Patent, and of a Chamberlain-Shakspearian HoaxWright's Champagne-Madame Albartazzi-The Tempest a mere puff-Horses and Asses. THE season of 1837-38 having drawn to a close with so unsatisfactory a result to the treasury of Drury Lane Theatre, I was anxious to bring my connexion with that establishment to a termination. My rival seemed pretty much of the some turn of mind as respected Covent Garden Theatre, or he had relinquished the management towards the latter end of the season, which wound up, if I remember rightly, under the direction of the proprietors. The fag end of the season of a metropolitan theatre is literally disgraceful; arising from the total neglect of business 66 DUCROW'S ILLUSTRATIONS OF by the performers, and the shameful mode of conducting it by all the mechanics and operatives. Ducrow once gave me a much more graphic description of the finale of one of his seasons than I have the power of transcribing. I don't know how you "find it," said he to me, << but as soon as I once 66 announce the last few nights of the season, the beggars begin to show their airs. I went into the "theatre t'other night, and seeing a prime little roasting pig on a nice white napkin in the hall, I "told'em to take it up to Mrs. D———————. The fellow "said it warn't for me-'twas for Mr. Roberts." I naturally inquired who Mr. Roberts was, and Ducrow as naturally replied:-" Why, he's the chap as "orders the corn, and I'm the chap as pays for it; SO he gets the pig, and I don't. Then those b 66 66 carpenters sneak in of a morning with their hands in "their breeches pockets, doubled up as if they'd got "the cholera, and at night they march out as upright as grenadiers, 'cause every one on 'em has got a deal 66 66 plank at his back, up his coat. Then the super"numeraries carry out each a lump of coal in his 66 hat, and, going round the corner, club their priggings together, and make the best part of a chal"dron of it. As to the riders, they come into "rehearsal gallows grand, 'cause they've had all the 66 season a precious deal better salary than they were "worth; and at night they come in gallows drunk, "from having had a good dinner for once in their "lives; and forgetting that they may want to come THE END OF A SEASON. 67 "back another year, they are as saucy as a bit of "Billingsgate." This is about the case with all theatres and while the manager is blamed for all these ill doings, and most assuredly is the only sufferer by them, the real criminals escape unpunished. Scenes such as this add to the disgust a manager must perpetually feel, if he has any feeling at all; and in the state of mind arising from such sensation, I addressed this letter to the Sub-Committee of Drury Lane Theatre : 66 "London, June 30, 1838 "MY LORDS AND GENTLEMEN, "From circumstances to which it is now unneces sary to refer, and which no one can regret more "than myself, I am induced to request that you will "take such steps as you may deem necessary to "obtain another tenant for Drury Lane Theatre; and "to state, that I shall be ready to surrender the "remainder of my term whenever called upon so to do. 66 66 I have the honour to be, "My Lords and Gentlemen, "Your obedient humble servant, "To the Sub-Committee of "Drury Lane Theatre." "A. BUNN. The committee went to work immediately fishing for another tenant, and I went to Hampton fishing for something else, as appears by my journal. |