BILL-OF-THE-PLAY YARDLEY conjointly with Mr. DRURIOLANUS AUCTOR,
and I daresay it was very witty and rhythmical and poetical, though I
didn't catch much of it, and the songs were neither particularly well
sung, nor remarkably humorous,--one, introduced by Miss VESTA TILLY
(and, therefore, for this our joint authors are not responsible,
except for permitting it to be done), being a distinct mistake, and
utterly out of character with the part of the _Prince_, as written,
which she was representing. And, _a propos_ of songs, the music of
this Pantomime lacks "go." WAGNER borrowed from pantomime his notion
of dramatic music to carry on the action and tell the story of serious
opera; but we don't want our Pantomimes to become Wagnerian; or, at
all events, as the lamented GEORGE HODDER would have said, "Let's have
plenty of the 'Wag,' and none of the 'nerian.'" What he would have
exactly meant by this nobody would have known, but everyone would
have laughed, as he was one of those self-patented jesters at whose
witticisms the company laughed first and wondered afterwards.
DRURIOLANUS MAGNUS, not content with his own special pantomime-pie
and a Drama at Covent Garden, has had a finger,--only a little one,
perhaps, and not the thumb, with which JOHANNES HORNERIUS extracted
the plum,--in the Christmas pie at the Prince of Wales's Theatre, of
which the Manager is HORATIUS SEDGERIUS.
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