Chapter 14

Punch and "the Duse"

Loyalty to old favourites was another matter, as whenPunch, under the heading "Little Nell," pleaded in support of the "Nellie Farren" Benefit on behalf of that famous Gaiety heroine in 1898; or when in 1899 he offered his parting salute to Mrs. Keeley, who throughout her long career in burlesque, melodrama, and legitimate drama had never been vulgar or tawdry, but always brave and gay, and who lived to the patriarchal age of ninety-four. Sardou'sRobespierre, written for Sir Henry Irving and his company, gavePunchthe opening for a graceful compliment to father and son, for Mr. Lawrence Irving translated the play and appeared in the part of Tallien. Sarah Bernhardt'sHamletis regarded rather as atour de forcethan a legitimate interpretation, andPunch, who could not accept her reading of the Prince as a mischievous, spoilt and conceited boy of eighteen, suggested, in a whimsical picture, that she ought to get Irving to play the part of Ophelia. The same year, 1899, was notable for the coming of theRevue. The pioneer effort, which was launched at the Avenue Theatre, was more or less on French lines, but even at the outset the Varietyelement was prominent in a series of imitations of popular actors and actresses. Tree's production ofKing John, with Lewis Waller as Falconbridge and Miss Julia Neilson as Constance, is pronounced "a superb revival," but the English version ofCyrano de Bergeracfailed to convertPunchto the majority view, though he now admitted that the piece contained brilliant poetry. He preferred Wyndham to Coquelin, but liked neither of them in the titlerôle, and he sums up by declaring the piece to be a fine dramatic poemnotto be acted, but read. Still,Punchwas never wholly insular or inaccessible to new and foreign influences. He describes in 1900 how an enthusiastic friend accosted him in broken Anglo-Italian and swept him off to see Mme. Duse in the Italian version ofThe Second Mrs. Tanqueray.Punchbegan by scoffing at the grotesque costumes of the cast, but succumbed to the magic of this wonderful actress, who owed nothing to physique, discarded all make-up, even in a part where artificiality was in keeping with the character, and triumphed by sheer force of genius.

Two men talking.Conversationalist: "Do you play Ping-Pong?"Actor: "No, I playHamlet!"

Conversationalist: "Do you play Ping-Pong?"

Actor: "No, I playHamlet!"

The vogue of musical comedy was now at its height.Punchhas some amusing suggestions in 1900 for adaptingThe School for Scandaland Mr. Henry Arthur Jones'sMrs. Dane's Defenceto suit the fashion of the hour, with appropriate casts, including Dan Leno and Miss Marie Lloyd. His rhymed extravaganza on "The Evolution of Musical Comedy" accurately describes the prevalent method in this quatrain:—

In musical comedy books(Chiefly frivol and froth)You do not spoil the brothBy employing a number of cooks.

In musical comedy books

(Chiefly frivol and froth)

You do not spoil the broth

By employing a number of cooks.

With the opening of the new century, the "poetic drama" was revived with a certain measure of success by the production of Mr. Stephen Phillips's plays. Mr. Phillips had graduated as an actor, butPunchfound him lacking in the theatrical sense, while acknowledging the pomp and pageantry of his verse.Herod, with Sir Herbert Tree in the titlerôle, is condemned for its repulsive realism, and the lack of any character that engaged sympathy. The notice ofPaolo and Francescain 1902 is long, critical and by no means unfriendly, but the resultant impression is of "a negative achievement" in which the purple patches failed to redeem the lack of consistent characterization or of stage-craft. Mr. Henry Ainley is mentioned, but without any recognition of the qualities which have since earned for him distinction and popularity.Nero, by the same author, produced in 1906, is described as "out-herodingHerod." There were many fine lines but little dramatic action.Punchpraises Miss Constance Collier as Poppaea, but cannot take the part seriously. "She looked the Roman lady, played the unfaithful wife, and died effectively as an invalid after a long and inexplicable illness. Perhaps she was poisoned. Nero knows; nobody else does except, perhaps, Mr. Stephen Phillips." Tree's make-up as Nero was most artistic, but he had not one really fine scene given him; Mrs. Tree was an admirable Agrippina; butPunchwas not thrilled by the final conflagration, which he describes as a "weird, maniacal but dramatically unsatisfactory finish."

Barrie and Shaw

Meanwhile Sir James Barrie and Mr. Bernard Shaw were coming along with leaps and bounds, but neither of them owed much toPunchin the early years of the century. He hadnothing but praise for H. B. Irving's acting inThe Admirable Crichton, but it was a triumph for the actor rather than the playwright. The hero was "a perplexing creation," and the play "a queer mixture of comedy, extravaganza, farce and tragedy." Even less sympathetic was the first notice ofPeter Pan, in 1905. AsPunchhad detected resemblances toThe Overland RouteandFoul PlayinThe Admirable Crichton, so he now found reminiscences ofPeter SchlemihlandSnowdropin the new play. For the rest, he could find little either to amuse or that could even be acknowledged as new or original in the extravaganza. He could not even tell whether the children present enjoyed it.Punchacknowledges that Barrie was the pet of the critics, and congratulates him on having his pieces perfectly acted by first-rate comedians. He frankly admits that he (Punch) was in the minority. A year laterPeter Panis recognized as a popular favourite in a much more sympathetic notice. Mr. Shaw was a much tougher morsel to digest, but here, too, one notes a progressive appreciation from the days whenPunchpronouncedMan and Supermanto be "unpresentable," not on moral grounds, but because it was not a mirror of humanity in point either of character or action. Similar reserves are expressed in the notice ofThe Doctor's Dilemmain 1906. The general verdict is summed up in the epigram that "unfortunately, by steady abuse of it, Mr. Shaw has long ago forfeited his claim to be taken seriously." Yet the play contains "some very excellent phagocytes which enjoy a strong numerical advantage over its malevolent germs." So, again,Cæsar and Cleopatra, while affording in many ways a rare intellectual entertainment, was spoiled by the author's passion for being instructive; the piece fell between two stools, for it was neither frankly sacrilegious nor purely serious.

The ingenious burlesque account of an imaginary meeting of "The Decayed Drama and Submerged Stage Rescue Society" in 1903 is in the main hostile to the societies which confined their activities to the revival of old plays that failed to attract the general public. ButPunchwas by no means enamoured of all the manifestations of modernity, and the rumour in 1906 that Mr. Seymour Hicks was going to producea musical comedy based onAs You Like Itprompted a diverting retort inPunch's: "As We Certainly Don't Like It, a Musical Comedy in Two Acts, by Hicks von Rubenstammer and William Shakespeare."

Punchadds the note:—

"Great care has been taken to follow the usual musical-comedy plan of making the Second Act even worse than the first."

His success may be judged by the extract that follows:—

ACT II

A wild place in Shepherd's BushEnter the melancholyJames(footman to the banishedDuke)with one or two Lords, like Bushmen.James[looking at his watch]:'Tis but an hour ago since it was nineAnd after one hour more 'twill be eleven;And thereby hangs a song.[Sings it.][Mr. Punch: Excuse me a moment, but is this Actverybad?Mr. Hicks von Rubenstammer: Very bad indeed.Mr. Punch: Personally I fear that I shall not be able to survive it.Mr. H. v. R.: Oh, two or three of us will re-write it after the first night, you know.Mr. Punch: Then by all means let us wait for that occasion.]

A wild place in Shepherd's Bush

Enter the melancholyJames(footman to the banishedDuke)with one or two Lords, like Bushmen.

James[looking at his watch]:

'Tis but an hour ago since it was nineAnd after one hour more 'twill be eleven;And thereby hangs a song.

'Tis but an hour ago since it was nine

And after one hour more 'twill be eleven;

And thereby hangs a song.

[Sings it.]

[Mr. Punch: Excuse me a moment, but is this Actverybad?

Mr. Hicks von Rubenstammer: Very bad indeed.

Mr. Punch: Personally I fear that I shall not be able to survive it.

Mr. H. v. R.: Oh, two or three of us will re-write it after the first night, you know.

Mr. Punch: Then by all means let us wait for that occasion.]

Irving had met with various vicissitudes of criticism atPunch'shands during his career. But latterly admiration prevailed, and, when the end came, real affection shines through the brief memorial quatrain printed in October, 1905:—

Ring down the curtain, for the play is done.Let the brief lights die out, and darkness fall.Yonder to that real life he has his call;And the loved face beholds the Eternal Sun.

Ring down the curtain, for the play is done.

Let the brief lights die out, and darkness fall.

Yonder to that real life he has his call;

And the loved face beholds the Eternal Sun.

Ellen Terry's Jubilee

Irving, asPunchnoted in his review of Mr. Bram Stoker's Life, was if possible more loved by his company than by the idolizing public. The financial misfortunes which dogged the last years of his life were due more to bad luck than bad management, and did not impair his serenity. He died inharness, and there was more tragedy in the latter years of his contemporary and friend, the famous and prosperous comedian J. L. Toole, for they were clouded by bereavement as well as infirmity; andPunch'sfarewell to his friend in July, 1906, emphasizes the contrast:—

While Summer's laughter thrills the golden air,Come, gently lay within the lap of earthThis heart that loved to let us share its mirthBut bore alone the sorrow none might share.

While Summer's laughter thrills the golden air,

Come, gently lay within the lap of earth

This heart that loved to let us share its mirth

But bore alone the sorrow none might share.

Cartoon. Punch watching a presentation on a stage.FIFTY YEARS A QUEEN(An Author's Tribute.)(A scheme is on foot for presenting a National Tribute to Miss Ellen Terry on April 28, the fiftieth anniversary of her first appearance on the stage.)

FIFTY YEARS A QUEEN

(An Author's Tribute.)

(A scheme is on foot for presenting a National Tribute to Miss Ellen Terry on April 28, the fiftieth anniversary of her first appearance on the stage.)

Ellen Terry's Jubilee in the same year was honoured in a cartoon; but a new and formidable rival to the Muses of legitimate Comedy and Tragedy reared its menacing head in the following year. The visit of theGrand Guignolto London in 1907 inspired a prophetic fantasy on the new cult of "Shrieks and Shudders" which has been easily eclipsed by the realities of the Little Theatre. As I write these lines the leading serious weekly, among "Plays worth seeing," includes the "unabated horrors" of the London Grand Guignol. I have spoken elsewhere of the dancing mania. In 1909 thefuroreexcited by Miss Maud Allan led to the following squib in which burlesque is mingled with caustic ridicule:—

HER RETURN

Being a wholly imaginative anticipation of the Proceedings at the Palace on the historic night.... Before the dancing began an ode to the artiste from the emotional pen of Sir Ernest Cassel was read by Sir John Fisher, containing these memorable lines:—Barefooted Bacchanal, would that I were KiplingTo celebrate thy marvellous arm-rippling!... The new dances were four in number, and in them She personated in turn Pharaoh's Daughter in her famous fandango known tastefully as the Bull Rush; Jephthah's Daughter in her final macabre Hebrew fling, on hearing of her father's vow and her own fate; Uriah's wife in herpas de libertéafter the battle; and Jezebel in her defiant tarantella before a waxen Elijah—all new and all marvellously restrained (not only in dress) and full of scriptural tact.... At the end of the turn the applause lasted fourteen minutes, and She was led on eleven times. Free restoratives were then distributed in the theatre, ambulances removed those admirers who were too far gone to remain any longer, and the programme proceeded. Late at night She was drawn to her residence at Frognal in a carriage from which the horses had been removed, the Prime Minister, Mr. Walkley, Mr. Alfred Butt and a number of other talented gentlemen taking their places. Never was there such a triumph.

Being a wholly imaginative anticipation of the Proceedings at the Palace on the historic night.

... Before the dancing began an ode to the artiste from the emotional pen of Sir Ernest Cassel was read by Sir John Fisher, containing these memorable lines:—

Barefooted Bacchanal, would that I were KiplingTo celebrate thy marvellous arm-rippling!

Barefooted Bacchanal, would that I were Kipling

To celebrate thy marvellous arm-rippling!

... The new dances were four in number, and in them She personated in turn Pharaoh's Daughter in her famous fandango known tastefully as the Bull Rush; Jephthah's Daughter in her final macabre Hebrew fling, on hearing of her father's vow and her own fate; Uriah's wife in herpas de libertéafter the battle; and Jezebel in her defiant tarantella before a waxen Elijah—all new and all marvellously restrained (not only in dress) and full of scriptural tact.... At the end of the turn the applause lasted fourteen minutes, and She was led on eleven times. Free restoratives were then distributed in the theatre, ambulances removed those admirers who were too far gone to remain any longer, and the programme proceeded. Late at night She was drawn to her residence at Frognal in a carriage from which the horses had been removed, the Prime Minister, Mr. Walkley, Mr. Alfred Butt and a number of other talented gentlemen taking their places. Never was there such a triumph.

The "Follies"

Happily there were antidotes to the plague of Biblical Bacchanals; none better than that supplied for several seasonsby the late Mr. Pélissier and his "Follies," to whomPunchexpressed his gratitude in 1910. It was a "priceless" entertainment, with its "Potted Plays," admirable burlesques of the music-hall stage, opera, the Russian ballet, and on occasion, as in "Everybody's Benefit," really acute satire of the histrionic temperament. "The Follies" have had reincarnations and successors and imitators, butPunch'sdoggerel is not a bad picture of the troupe at its best, before the late Miss Gwennie Mars left them, and when Mr. Lewis Sydney, Mr. Dan Everard, Mr. Morris Harvey, and Miss Muriel George contributed nightly to the gaiety of the London public:—

When life seems drear and hollow,When Fortune wears a frown,I haste to the ApolloAnd plank my dollar down.Outside the tempest volliesAgainst uplifted brollies;I care not, for "the Follies"Are back in London town.Pélissier, prince of "Potters,"You earn our grateful thanks,You and your fellow plotters—Co-partners in your pranks—For slating smart inanity,Or Fashion's last insanity,Or histrionic vanity,Or madnessà laManx.From introspective thinkingIn every minor key,Good Sydney, grimly blinking,You set my spirit free.If laughing makes one fatter,Then listening to your patter,O very harebrained hatter,Has added pounds to me.Nor must my brief laudationsOmit the genial Dan,Or Harvey's imitationsFramed on a novel plan,Or Ben, that priceless superMoustachioed like a trooper,Who plays like Margaret CooperWere she a Superman.'Twould need the fire of UrielTo hymn your female starsFor Muriel's most MercurialAnd Gwennie's surnamed Mars.O Gwennie, you're a miracleOf mimicry satirical,Yet when your mood is lyricalThere's not a note that jars.

When life seems drear and hollow,

When Fortune wears a frown,

I haste to the Apollo

And plank my dollar down.

Outside the tempest vollies

Against uplifted brollies;

I care not, for "the Follies"

Are back in London town.

Pélissier, prince of "Potters,"You earn our grateful thanks,You and your fellow plotters—Co-partners in your pranks—For slating smart inanity,Or Fashion's last insanity,Or histrionic vanity,Or madnessà laManx.

Pélissier, prince of "Potters,"

You earn our grateful thanks,

You and your fellow plotters—

Co-partners in your pranks—

For slating smart inanity,

Or Fashion's last insanity,

Or histrionic vanity,

Or madnessà laManx.

From introspective thinkingIn every minor key,Good Sydney, grimly blinking,You set my spirit free.If laughing makes one fatter,Then listening to your patter,O very harebrained hatter,Has added pounds to me.

From introspective thinking

In every minor key,

Good Sydney, grimly blinking,

You set my spirit free.

If laughing makes one fatter,

Then listening to your patter,

O very harebrained hatter,

Has added pounds to me.

Nor must my brief laudationsOmit the genial Dan,Or Harvey's imitationsFramed on a novel plan,Or Ben, that priceless superMoustachioed like a trooper,Who plays like Margaret CooperWere she a Superman.

Nor must my brief laudations

Omit the genial Dan,

Or Harvey's imitations

Framed on a novel plan,

Or Ben, that priceless super

Moustachioed like a trooper,

Who plays like Margaret Cooper

Were she a Superman.

'Twould need the fire of UrielTo hymn your female starsFor Muriel's most MercurialAnd Gwennie's surnamed Mars.O Gwennie, you're a miracleOf mimicry satirical,Yet when your mood is lyricalThere's not a note that jars.

'Twould need the fire of Uriel

To hymn your female stars

For Muriel's most Mercurial

And Gwennie's surnamed Mars.

O Gwennie, you're a miracle

Of mimicry satirical,

Yet when your mood is lyrical

There's not a note that jars.

The "Follies" were benefactors; their satire was in the main most genial; and they did not cause their audiences "furiously to think." These aims accorded largely withPunch'sown conception of the function of public entertainers; none the less in his later years he was by no means antagonistic to the serious drama. In 1907 Mr. Galsworthy'sStrifeis welcomed as a great play, greatly acted.Punch'sdramatic critic has nothing but praise for it, though he did not think that the author bothered about a moral. It was his business to make other people uncomfortable, to make them think and "do something." "IfStrifehas a moral it is simply that the problem of Capital and Labour will have to be settled."

Sir Beerbohm surrounde by artists.THE ENEMY THAT WASChorus of Music-Hall Artists: "Glad you're one of us now, Sir Beerbohm."

THE ENEMY THAT WAS

Chorus of Music-Hall Artists: "Glad you're one of us now, Sir Beerbohm."

Punchstill intermittently bewailed the decline of the Harlequinade. His Lament for King Pantomime in 1910 was based on an article in theDaily Telegraphwelcoming the beneficent revolution which had substitutedPeter Panfor the old Christmas carnival of Clown and Pantaloon. At the same timePunchhad himself become more than reconciled to the new children's idol and had compared Maeterlinck'sBlue Birdunfavourably with the perennial Peter. The competition of the film play had not yet become acute, and the Music-Hall, whichPunchhad so frequently and even fiercely assailed in its earlier phases, was now a formidable and fashionable rival of the theatre. In 1908 Harry Lauder's salary, alleged to average £250 a week, is compared with that of the Lord Chancellor. There was no longer any talk of "indignity" in appearing onthe boards of the variety stage, andPunchnotices Sarah Bernhardt's appearance at the Coliseum, in 1910, as putting the crown on the new movement, and providing the Halls with their apotheosis, for she was "still the greatest star in the Thespian firmament." Her "turn" was in the second Act ofL'Aiglon; the only other feature in the programme that called for notice was the performance of the "Balalaika Orchestra"; the rest of the "artists" were "very small minnows alongside of this great Tritoness." The "divine Sarah" could do no wrong, but, when Sir Herbert Tree appeared in the Halls, in 1911,Punch'scartoon was certainly not honorific. Nor is the note of "indignity" altogether lacking in the dialogue between the two knockabout comedians in Mr. Townsend's picture in 1912:—

First Music-Hall Artist(watching Mr. J. M. Barrie's "The Twelve Pound Look" from the wings): "I like this yer sketch; the patter's so good. 'Oo wrote it?"Second M.-H. A.: "Bloke called Barrie, I think."First M.-H. A.: "Arst for 'is address. 'E writes our next."

First Music-Hall Artist(watching Mr. J. M. Barrie's "The Twelve Pound Look" from the wings): "I like this yer sketch; the patter's so good. 'Oo wrote it?"

Second M.-H. A.: "Bloke called Barrie, I think."

First M.-H. A.: "Arst for 'is address. 'E writes our next."

The "Balalaika Orchestra," by the way, was a minor sign of the Russian invasion already at its height. Miss Maud Allan had been unfavourably received in 1909 in Manchester, and about the same time the Chicago "Wheat King," Mr. Patten, had been mobbed on the Manchester Exchange, andPunchingeniously "synthesised" the two events in the following stanza:

The types that make the market madNo doubt inspire the self-same loathingIn spots that spin, as those whose fadIs chucking up all kinds of clothing.

The types that make the market mad

No doubt inspire the self-same loathing

In spots that spin, as those whose fad

Is chucking up all kinds of clothing.

The March of Music

The Russian Ballet was a very different thing from the poses and wrigglings of barefooted Bacchantes, andPunchbecame lyrical in his eulogies of these "spring-heeled Jacks and Jills." The exquisite romance and fantasy of "The Spectre of the Rose," the "Carnival" and the "Sylphides" were a revelation to those who, like Carlyle, only saw in the old opera-ballet the conversion of the human frame into a pair of animated compasses.

The Russian Ballet furnishedPunchin his almanack for 1913 with an excellent formula for caricatures of the idols and butts of the hour, but his admiration for the originals was sincere.

In the years immediately preceding the war the cinema demands an evergrowing if not altogether appreciative attention.Punchpays a left-handed compliment to the versatility of the film actor, but very properly satirizes the extraordinary representations of English life and dress in the foreign films produced for the English market. The invasion of Debrett by chorus girls, recorded in October 1913, is an old story, but if Punch is to be trusted had then reached dimensions unparalleled in the annals of aristocratic condescension.

MUSIC

Music has been called "the youngest of the arts" in view of the fact that, as we now understand it in the Western world, it dates roughly from the year 1600. But the "heavenly maid" had already ceased to be the Cinderella of the Muses, though still condemned in restaurants and places where they feed to the menial function of acting as anobbligatoaccompaniment to conversation, deglutition, and digestion. A pessimistic observer remarked about fifteen years ago that modern life bade fair to be dominated by music and machinery, and the correlation of the two factors has since been abundantly illustrated by the momentous development of the gramophone and the pianola, the cult of "sonority" and the dynamics of the orchestra. When to these influences are added the successive experiments in harmony and tonality and rhythm associated with the names of Strauss and Debussy, Scriabine and Stravinsky, Ravel and Schönberg, one cannot deny that the ferment in letters has been more than matched by the exuberant activities of musical modernists. In the period under review the "whole tone scale" was partially acclimatized and "rag-time" was domesticated, Wagner ceased to be regarded as an anarch of discord, and the "Music of the Future" became the musicof the past. It was no longer a guarantee of enlightenment to worship Brahms or admire Beethoven. Of the three "B's" Bach alone has maintained his prestige, and to-day counts upon the allegiance of all schools. Otherwise, and in spite of the renown of Strauss, Germany ceased to exercise her old musical supremacy, and, even before the war, Russia, France and Italy had entered into a formidable competition with the "predominant partner" in the domain of opera. And though opera is an artificial blend of incompatibles and must always remain on a lower plane than abstract or absolute music—the most transcendental thing in the whole range of art—it claims priority of notice in this record for two sufficient reasons: its social prestige and the amount of space devoted to it byPunch.

Wagner's operas were now established in the Covent Garden repertory, and as I have already noticed, their new-found and fashionable popularity was largely due to the appeal of the great singers, notably Jean and Edouard de Reszke and Mlle. Ternina, who proved that Wagnerian melody was all the more effective when sung beautifully and not declaimed or barked as by so many German singers. Moreover when, as in the artists mentioned, this vocal lustre was combined with a splendid presence, dignity of bearing, and dramatic intelligence, the appeal was well-nigh irresistible. I insert the qualification advisedly on behalf ofPunchwho, in these years at any rate, was never reconciled to Wagner, and when he heard Jean de Reszke and his brother in theMeistersingerin 1897 could not refrain from jocular disparagement of the score.

Foreign Stars and Native Composers

Verdi'sFalstaffhad been produced in 1894, butPunchabstains from any criticism of that exhilarating work, merely pronouncing the performance a success, and a few years later further advertised his inability to recognize the supreme achievements of the later Verdi by declaring thatOtelloas an opera was "heavy." In opera he was in the main an inveteratelaudator temporis actiand chiefly enjoyed himself when opportunities arose for indulging in alliterative quips such as "merry Mancinelli," "beaming Bevignani," or puns on the name of the performers, e.g. "Mlle. Bauermeister-singer." Puccini's operas—Manon,La BohêmeandMadama Butterfly—found favour in his sight; they had sparkle, elegance andbrio. But he was not impressed withLa Tosca, holding that the "operaticizing" of successful plays was a mistake; in general his notices are void of musical criticism and only deal with the singing of Melba and Caruso and the admirable Destinn. StillPunchhad lucid intervals of vision when he saw a good or great thing and praised it handsomely. The Santuzza of Calvé, in 1894, was "grand and magnificent" and her Carmen "marvellous" and unique. The epithets were fully deserved, butPunchacutely detected that this great artist and actress suffered from the excess of her qualities, and wittily described her Marguerite inFaustas "aMädchenwith a past." Madame Patti's reappearance in opera in 1895 after many years' absence was genially welcomed, none the less so for her choice ofLa Traviatafor herrentrée, forPunchwas faithful to his old operatic loves. In the next few years English opera and operatic composers claimedPunch'sattention. The scheme of a National Opera House was revived in 1899 whenPunchrepresented Music petitioning the L.C.C. for a site, but the sinews of war were not forthcoming. Sir Charles Stanford'sMuch Ado about Nothing, the libretto adapted from Shakespeare by Mr. Julian Sturgis, with Miss Marie Brema, Miss Suzanne Adams, Mr. David Bispham and M. Plançon in the cast, was pronounced "an undisputed success" in 1901. In 1902 there were two native novelties. In Mr. Herbert Bunning'sPrincesse Osra, founded on "Anthony Hope's" novel,Punchfound little scope for positive praise: it was "musically disappointing save for accidental reminiscences." Nor was he much more enthusiastic over Miss Ethel Smyth'sDer Wald, with its lurid plot "of the penny plain, twopence coloured type" and "interminable duets." Over one stage direction, "Peasants turn pale,"Punchwaxed ribald, and he concludes his notice with the ambiguous sentence: "Miss Smyth was acclaimed vociferously, the Duke of Connaught and the occupants of the Royal box testifying their great pleasure at what may come to be, after judicious elimination, a satisfactory success." The first of theSalomeswho de-decorated the lyric and variety stages was not Strauss's but Massenet's version, produced in thesummer of 1903. Mme. Calvé was in the cast, but the opera provided no scope for her genius, andPunchdamned it with faint praise as not likely to be retained in the repertory, a very safe prediction. In the summary of the seasonPunchputs Richter at the head of the successes, a well-merited recognition of his direction of the Wagner performances; the list of "stars" includes the "two Vans"—Van Rooy, the Dutch baritone, and Van Dyck, the Dutch tenor—Destinn, Calvé and Melba, Caruso and Plançon. In the winter the San Carlo troupe from Naples visited London, with Sammarco and Caruso—or Robinson Caruso, asPunchliked to call him—as the chief male singers, but no new operas were produced.André Chénierin 1907 is described as of theToscaor lurid type. A new hand is observable in the notice which acknowledges an unexpected dignity and refinement in Caruso's always brilliant singing and pronounces Destinn "adorable." Wagner's star was still in the ascendant in 1908, and Richter's splendid conducting of the Tetralogy is commemorated in the cartoon of Hans theRing-master; while the "record operatic duel" between Melba and Tetrazzini is similarly honoured a little later. Never before, unless I am much mistaken, had two cartoons with a musical motive appeared in the same year. In 1910 Strauss was the grand and conspicuous portent of the operatic world, forElektra, was produced in the spring andSalomein the winter. The former was hailed byPunchas a supreme manifestation of theMaladie de Siècle. His verses are quoted not for their literary merit so much as because they are a fairly compendious record of the fashions and foibles of "England de luxe" at the time:—

"Elektra" and "Salome"

O sons of the new generationAthirst for inordinate thrills;O daughters, whose love of sensationIs shown in your frocks and your frills—Come, faithfully answer my queriesIf you would completely assuageThe passionate craving that weariesBoth sinner and sage.Has Ibsen no power to excite you?Can't Maeterlinck make you applaud?Do dancers no longer delight you,Who wriggle aboutà laMaud?Are you tired of the profile of Ainley?The tender falsetto of Tree?Do you envy each bonnet insanelyThat harbours a bee?Is the Metchnikoff treatment a failure?Do you weep when you miss your short putts?Have you ceased with enjoyment to hail yourDiurnal allowance of nuts?Are you bored by the leaders of Spender?Or cloyed by the pathos of Caine?Do you find that "The Follies" engenderA feeling ofgêne?Are you sick of Sicilian grimaces?Unattracted by Chantecler hats?Are you weary of Marathon racesAnd careless in choosing your spats?Are you jaded with aeroplaningAnd sated with social reform?Apathetic alike when it's rainingAnd when it is warm?Do you shy at the strains that are sober?Does Wagner no longer inflame?Do you find that the music of AuberAnd Elgar is equally tame?Do you read without blushing or winkingThe novels of Elinor Glyn?Do you constantly hanker, when rinking,For draughts of sloe gin?If I am correct in diviningThe tortures you daily endure,Don't waste any time in repining,But try this infallible cure:With the sharpest of musicalplectraGo pluck at your soul till it's raw;In a word, go and witnessElektra—Give up the jig-saw.

O sons of the new generation

Athirst for inordinate thrills;

O daughters, whose love of sensation

Is shown in your frocks and your frills—

Come, faithfully answer my queries

If you would completely assuage

The passionate craving that wearies

Both sinner and sage.

Has Ibsen no power to excite you?Can't Maeterlinck make you applaud?Do dancers no longer delight you,Who wriggle aboutà laMaud?Are you tired of the profile of Ainley?The tender falsetto of Tree?Do you envy each bonnet insanelyThat harbours a bee?

Has Ibsen no power to excite you?

Can't Maeterlinck make you applaud?

Do dancers no longer delight you,

Who wriggle aboutà laMaud?

Are you tired of the profile of Ainley?

The tender falsetto of Tree?

Do you envy each bonnet insanely

That harbours a bee?

Is the Metchnikoff treatment a failure?Do you weep when you miss your short putts?Have you ceased with enjoyment to hail yourDiurnal allowance of nuts?Are you bored by the leaders of Spender?Or cloyed by the pathos of Caine?Do you find that "The Follies" engenderA feeling ofgêne?

Is the Metchnikoff treatment a failure?

Do you weep when you miss your short putts?

Have you ceased with enjoyment to hail your

Diurnal allowance of nuts?

Are you bored by the leaders of Spender?

Or cloyed by the pathos of Caine?

Do you find that "The Follies" engender

A feeling ofgêne?

Are you sick of Sicilian grimaces?Unattracted by Chantecler hats?Are you weary of Marathon racesAnd careless in choosing your spats?Are you jaded with aeroplaningAnd sated with social reform?Apathetic alike when it's rainingAnd when it is warm?

Are you sick of Sicilian grimaces?

Unattracted by Chantecler hats?

Are you weary of Marathon races

And careless in choosing your spats?

Are you jaded with aeroplaning

And sated with social reform?

Apathetic alike when it's raining

And when it is warm?

Do you shy at the strains that are sober?Does Wagner no longer inflame?Do you find that the music of AuberAnd Elgar is equally tame?Do you read without blushing or winkingThe novels of Elinor Glyn?Do you constantly hanker, when rinking,For draughts of sloe gin?

Do you shy at the strains that are sober?

Does Wagner no longer inflame?

Do you find that the music of Auber

And Elgar is equally tame?

Do you read without blushing or winking

The novels of Elinor Glyn?

Do you constantly hanker, when rinking,

For draughts of sloe gin?

If I am correct in diviningThe tortures you daily endure,Don't waste any time in repining,But try this infallible cure:With the sharpest of musicalplectraGo pluck at your soul till it's raw;In a word, go and witnessElektra—Give up the jig-saw.

If I am correct in divining

The tortures you daily endure,

Don't waste any time in repining,

But try this infallible cure:

With the sharpest of musicalplectra

Go pluck at your soul till it's raw;

In a word, go and witnessElektra—

Give up the jig-saw.

Cartoon. Two singers with phonographs.STARS IN OPPOSITION; OR, THE "RECORD" OPERATIC DUEL

STARS IN OPPOSITION; OR, THE "RECORD" OPERATIC DUEL

Salome, so far as the book was concerned, was a tertiary deposit. Heine, in a few masterly stanzas in his fantastic narrative poemAtta Troll, tells the old legend of the unholy love of the daughter of Herodias for John the Baptist. Therein may be found the essence of Wilde's play, adapted to form the libretto of the opera.Punch, who attended the dress rehearsal, gives an interesting account of his experiences, but shirks the task of criticizing the opera: for that, as he observes, "no vocabulary could be too large or peculiar." But he mentions one orchestral interlude, in which "there was one sound, painfully iterated, like the chirrup of a sick hen, which appeared to come from some part of the violin that is usually left alone." At the close of June, 1914, Strauss'sLégende de Josephwas produced at Covent Garden by Sir Thomas Beecham with the Russian Ballet.Punchabstained from detailed musical criticism, but condemned the "vulgar animalism" of the piece which he regarded as "a false move in every way," and his view cannot be laid down to prudery or Philistinism, since it was shared by many of the most devoted admirers ofStrauss. Nor can he be charged with a wholesale depreciation of German music in view of the tribute to Humperdinck'sHänsel und Gretel, which appeared in his pages a few months earlier:—

Homage to Humperdinck

How strange that modern Germany, so gruesome in her Art,Where sheer sardonic satire has expelled the human heart,Should also be the Germany that gives us, to our joy,The perfect children's opera—pure gold without alloy.I know there are admirers of the super-normal StraussWho hold him, matched with others, as a mammoth to a mouse,And, though they often feel obliged his lapses to deplore,His "cerebral significance" increasingly adore.In parts I find him excellent, just like the curate's egg,But not when he is pulling the confiding public's leg;Besides, the height of genius I never could explainAs "an infinite capacity for giving others pain."No, give to me my Engelbert, my gentle Humperdinck,Whose cerebral development is void of any kink;Who represents in music, in the most enchanting light,That good old German quality, to witGemüthlichkeit.I love his gift of melody, now homely in its vein,Now rising, as befits his theme, to the celestial plane;I love the rich orchestral tide that carries you along;I love the cunning counterpoint that underpins the song.Though scientific pedagogues that golden realm have banned,He leads us back by pleasant paths to childhood's fairyland,Till, bald and grey and middle-aged, we watch with childish gleeThe very games we learned long since at our dead mother's knee.

How strange that modern Germany, so gruesome in her Art,

Where sheer sardonic satire has expelled the human heart,

Should also be the Germany that gives us, to our joy,

The perfect children's opera—pure gold without alloy.

I know there are admirers of the super-normal StraussWho hold him, matched with others, as a mammoth to a mouse,And, though they often feel obliged his lapses to deplore,His "cerebral significance" increasingly adore.

I know there are admirers of the super-normal Strauss

Who hold him, matched with others, as a mammoth to a mouse,

And, though they often feel obliged his lapses to deplore,

His "cerebral significance" increasingly adore.

In parts I find him excellent, just like the curate's egg,But not when he is pulling the confiding public's leg;Besides, the height of genius I never could explainAs "an infinite capacity for giving others pain."

In parts I find him excellent, just like the curate's egg,

But not when he is pulling the confiding public's leg;

Besides, the height of genius I never could explain

As "an infinite capacity for giving others pain."

No, give to me my Engelbert, my gentle Humperdinck,Whose cerebral development is void of any kink;Who represents in music, in the most enchanting light,That good old German quality, to witGemüthlichkeit.

No, give to me my Engelbert, my gentle Humperdinck,

Whose cerebral development is void of any kink;

Who represents in music, in the most enchanting light,

That good old German quality, to witGemüthlichkeit.

I love his gift of melody, now homely in its vein,Now rising, as befits his theme, to the celestial plane;I love the rich orchestral tide that carries you along;I love the cunning counterpoint that underpins the song.

I love his gift of melody, now homely in its vein,

Now rising, as befits his theme, to the celestial plane;

I love the rich orchestral tide that carries you along;

I love the cunning counterpoint that underpins the song.

Though scientific pedagogues that golden realm have banned,He leads us back by pleasant paths to childhood's fairyland,Till, bald and grey and middle-aged, we watch with childish gleeThe very games we learned long since at our dead mother's knee.

Though scientific pedagogues that golden realm have banned,

He leads us back by pleasant paths to childhood's fairyland,

Till, bald and grey and middle-aged, we watch with childish glee

The very games we learned long since at our dead mother's knee.

There's not a bar ofHänsel'spart that's not exactly right;There's not a note fromGretelthat's not a pure delight;And having heard it lately for (I think) the fifteenth time,I know I'm talking reason though it happens to be rhyme.Then let us thank our lucky stars that in a squalid age,When horror, blood, and ugliness so many pens engage,One of our master-minstrels, by fashion unbeguiled,Keeps the unclouded vision of a tender-hearted child.

There's not a bar ofHänsel'spart that's not exactly right;

There's not a note fromGretelthat's not a pure delight;

And having heard it lately for (I think) the fifteenth time,

I know I'm talking reason though it happens to be rhyme.

Then let us thank our lucky stars that in a squalid age,When horror, blood, and ugliness so many pens engage,One of our master-minstrels, by fashion unbeguiled,Keeps the unclouded vision of a tender-hearted child.

Then let us thank our lucky stars that in a squalid age,

When horror, blood, and ugliness so many pens engage,

One of our master-minstrels, by fashion unbeguiled,

Keeps the unclouded vision of a tender-hearted child.

The sequel is curious, for while the gentle Humperdinck signed the anti-British manifesto issued at the outbreak of the War by leading German professors, men of science and artists, the name of Strauss was conspicuously absent. And as I write Strauss, middle-aged and grey, is revisiting London and, no longer in the van of musical progress, is regarded by our emancipated critics not exactly as a "back number" but certainly as very far from being the "Mad Mullah" of music. Even before the War German operatic music had been superseded in popularity by the Russian school. In June, 1914, Moussorgsky'sBoris Godounovwas the great feature of the season, and to this, as to Borodine'sPrince Igor, Chaliapine, inPunch'sphrase, "brought that gift of the great manner, that ease and splendour of bearing, and those superb qualities of voice which, found together, give him a place apart from his kind."

In the domain of light and comic opera the severance of the Gilbert and Sullivan partnership, though a personal reconciliation was effected, was final so far as collaboration was concerned. Composer and librettist both formed new or renewed old associations—Gilbert with Cellier inThe Mountebanks, and Sullivan with Burnand inThe Chieftain—but without repeating their old triumphs. When Sullivan died in 1900 his services to art and humanity are read aright inPunch'smemorial stanzas:—

In the immortal music rolled from earthHe was content to claim a lowly part,Yet leaves us purer by the grace and mirth,Human, that cling about the common heart.Now on the bound of Music's native sphere,Whereof he faintly caught some earthward strain,At length he reads the "Golden Legend" clear,At length the "Lost Chord" finds itself again.

In the immortal music rolled from earthHe was content to claim a lowly part,Yet leaves us purer by the grace and mirth,Human, that cling about the common heart.

In the immortal music rolled from earth

He was content to claim a lowly part,

Yet leaves us purer by the grace and mirth,

Human, that cling about the common heart.

Now on the bound of Music's native sphere,Whereof he faintly caught some earthward strain,At length he reads the "Golden Legend" clear,At length the "Lost Chord" finds itself again.

Now on the bound of Music's native sphere,

Whereof he faintly caught some earthward strain,

At length he reads the "Golden Legend" clear,

At length the "Lost Chord" finds itself again.

A harpist and a banjo player.SIXTY YEARS OF "PROGRESS"

SIXTY YEARS OF "PROGRESS"

In musical comedy the high-water mark of popularity was attained byThe Geishain 1896, but thoughPunchspeaks handsomely of Mr. Jones's tuneful numbers—as they deserved—he makes it clear that the success of the piece was chiefly due to the talent and humour of the performers—Marie Tempest andLetty Lind; Monkhouse, Huntley Wright and Hayden Coffin. In 1907 the devastating popularity ofThe Merry Widowamounted, inPunch'sview, as expressed in his "Dirge" on the waltz of that name, to a tyranny rather than a delight; and in the spring of 1913 he was moved to protest, in the name of Music, against the wholesale importation of American coon songs, "Hitchy Koo!" and rag-time generally.

In the middle 'nineties the banjo was still fashionable, and the amateur singer a source of grief and wonderment toPunch:—

WHY DOST THOU SING?

Why dost thou sing? Is it because thou deemestWe love to hear thy sorry quavers ring?My poor deluded girl, thou fondly dreamest!Why dost thou sing?Why dost thou sing? I ask thy sad relations—They shake their heads, and answer with a sigh.They can explain thy wild hallucinationsNo more than I.Why dost thou sing? Why wilt thou never weary?Why wilt thou warble half a note too flat?I can conceive no reasonable theoryTo tell me that.Why dost thou sing? O Lady, have we everIn thought or action done thee any wrong?Then wherefore should'st thou visit us for everWith thy one song?

Why dost thou sing? Is it because thou deemestWe love to hear thy sorry quavers ring?My poor deluded girl, thou fondly dreamest!Why dost thou sing?

Why dost thou sing? Is it because thou deemest

We love to hear thy sorry quavers ring?

My poor deluded girl, thou fondly dreamest!

Why dost thou sing?

Why dost thou sing? I ask thy sad relations—They shake their heads, and answer with a sigh.They can explain thy wild hallucinationsNo more than I.

Why dost thou sing? I ask thy sad relations—

They shake their heads, and answer with a sigh.

They can explain thy wild hallucinations

No more than I.

Why dost thou sing? Why wilt thou never weary?Why wilt thou warble half a note too flat?I can conceive no reasonable theoryTo tell me that.

Why dost thou sing? Why wilt thou never weary?

Why wilt thou warble half a note too flat?

I can conceive no reasonable theory

To tell me that.

Why dost thou sing? O Lady, have we everIn thought or action done thee any wrong?Then wherefore should'st thou visit us for everWith thy one song?

Why dost thou sing? O Lady, have we ever

In thought or action done thee any wrong?

Then wherefore should'st thou visit us for ever

With thy one song?

Punchgave it up; but in 1910 he declared that "one of the finest efforts accomplished by the gramophone has been the obliteration of the inferior amateur singer."

Pioneers and Prodigies

The musical education of the million advanced apace. No more potent agency for the diffusion of a taste for orchestral music has existed in our times than the Promenade Concerts, directed since 1895 by Sir Henry Wood. The creation of this new audience is described with sympathy and delightful humour inThe Promenade Ticketby the late and deeply lamentedArthur Hugh Sidgwick. While recognizing these new and beneficent activities,Punchdid not forget the splendid pioneer work done by forerunners—notably Sir August Manns, whose seventieth birthday in 1895 is affectionately celebrated in punning verse. The action of the L.C.C. in 1897, which threatened to put a stop to the Queen's Hall Sunday Concerts, reawakenedPunch'santi-Sabbatarian zeal. Not much account is taken of serious native composers, but the rise of Elgar's "star" is acknowledged as early as 1904 in the picture of Richter conductingThe Dream of Gerontius.

Richter conducting in a garden.A SHOW OF HANS(Richter interprets Elgar'sDream.)

A SHOW OF HANS

(Richter interprets Elgar'sDream.)

In 1903Punchwas seriously perturbed by the glut of prodigies, and in a cartoon addresses the child violinist, "Get thee to anursery. Go!" Yet in 1905, though "not as a rule favourably inclined to infant phenomena," he makes an exception in favour of the thirteen-year-old Mischa Elman. In 1908, in a burlesque account of "A Day in the Life of a Strenuous Statesman," the diarist records his reply to a Socialist Member that "the Government would think not once but twice before they refused to grant special pensions to the parents of infant prodigies earning less than £5,000 a year." On the compulsory musical teaching of the ingenuous youthPunchheld views which may be gathered from his picture in 1911 of the unhappy small boy at the pianoforte, with the legend: "The only thing that comes between us, Mother, isthis wretched music!" WhilePunchwas benevolent to the little musician, he was decidedly hostile to the cult of bigness in musical scores and instrumentation, and more than once assails the prevalent "Jumbomania" as illustrated by huge bands and the extravagant explosion of all the sonorities. When Strauss in 1903 was thedernier criof modernism,Punchaddressed him in perversion of a much-parodied model:—

O teach us that Discord is duty,That Melody maketh for sin:Come down and redeem us from Beauty,Great Despot of Din.

O teach us that Discord is duty,

That Melody maketh for sin:

Come down and redeem us from Beauty,

Great Despot of Din.

Cartoon. Punch speaking to a childPLAY'STHE THING!Hamlet(Mr. Punch) toOphidlia(the Danish infant musical prodigy): "Get thee to anursery. Go!"

PLAY'STHE THING!

Hamlet(Mr. Punch) toOphidlia(the Danish infant musical prodigy): "Get thee to anursery. Go!"

Elegies and Eulogies

Many heroes and heroines of the Victorian musical world passed away in these years. I have already spoken of Sullivan, but may note the tribute to Rubinstein in 1894 and the song to Sims Reeves in 1895, in whichPunch, who had on occasion handled him severely for his failures to fulfil his engagements, was now only concerned to chronicle the triumphs, in ballad and oratorio, of "the king of the tenor tribe" who had fallen in old age on evil days. Sims Reeves, when well over seventy, had been reduced to singing in the Music-Halls, and in 1897Punchcordially supported the appeal for funds issued by theDaily Telegraph. The results of this public subscription, supplemented by a Civil List pension, helped to relieve his few remaining years.

Corney Grain's death in 1895 removed the most popular musical "entertainer" of the time.Punch, in his farewell salute, gave him the highest possible praise by describing him as having successfully succeeded to John Parry. In 1896Punchbestowed the bâton of musical Field-Marshal on Lieut. Dan Godfrey on his retirement from the post of bandmaster to the Grenadier Guards, which he had held for fifty years. Dan Godfrey was the first bandmaster who ever held a commission in the army, and had rendered conspicuous service to the cause of military music.Punch'shonour was well merited, and Dan Godfrey's son, Dan the Second, conductor of the admirable Bournemouth Municipal Orchestra for nearly thirty years, has added fresh lustre to the family name. In the same yearPunchrecords the presentation, at Marlborough House, of a testimonial to Lady Hallé (Madame Norman Néruda). His account of the proceedings border on the burlesque, but there is nothing but admiration for the brilliant artist who had delighted British audiences ever since the days of herdébutas a prodigy nearly fifty years before, and who had been one of the glories of the "Pops" in their golden prime. Nor didPunchforget to add his congratulations to Henry Bird when that fine artist, respected and loved by all who knew him, celebrated his Jubilee in 1910:—

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