Part 55
“Prithee, what’s the play? The first I visited this twelvemonth day. They say--‘A new invented boy of purle, That jeoparded his neck to steale a girl Of twelve, and lying fast impounded for’t, Has hither sent his bearde to act his part, Against all those in open malice bent, That would not freely to the theft consent: Faines all to ’s wish, and in the epilogue Goes out applauded for a famous--rogue.’ --Now hang me if I did not look at first, For some such stuff, by the fond-people’s thrust.”
In 1642, the players, who till the subversion of the kingly prerogative in the preceding year, basked in the sunshine of court favour, and publicly acknowledged the patronage of royalty, provoked, by their loyalty, the vengeance of the stern unyielding men in power. The lords and commons, assembled on the second day of September in the former year, suppressed stage plays, during these calamitous times, by the following
_Ordinance._
“Whereas the distressed estate of Ireland, steeped in her own blood, and the distracted estate of England, threatened with a cloud of blood, by a Civill Warre; call for all possible meanes to appease and avert the wrath of God, appearing in these judgments; amongst which, fasting and prayer having been often tried to be very effectuall, have bin lately, and are still enjoyned: And whereas public sports doe not well agree with public calamities, nor publike Stage Playes with the seasons of humiliation, this being an exercise of sad and pious solemnity, and the other spectacles of pleasure, too commonly expressing lascivious mirth and levitie: It is therefore thought fit, and ordeined by the Lords and Commons in this Parliament assembled, that while these sad causes, and set times of humiliation doe continue, publike Stage Playes shall cease, and bee forborne. Instead of which, are recommended to the people of this land, the profitable and seasonable considerations of repentance, reconciliation, and peace with God, which probably may produce outward peace and prosperity, and bring againe times of joy and gladnesse to these nations.”
The tenour of this ordinance was strictly enforced; many young and vigorous actors joined the king’s army, in which for the most part they obtained commissions, and others retired on the scanty pittances they had earned, till on the restoration, the theatre burst forth with new effulgence. The play-bill that announced the opening of the new theatre, in Drury-lane, April 8, 1663, has been already printed in the _Every-Day Book_. The actors’ names were then, for the first time, affixed to the characters they represented; and, to evince their loyalty, “Vivat Rex et Regina,” was appended at the foot of the bills, as it continues to this day.
In the reign of the licentious Charles II., wherein monopolies of all kinds were granted to court favourites, licenses were obtained for the sole printing of play-bills. There is evidence in Bagford’s Collections, Harl. MSS. No. 5910, vol. ii., that in August, 1663, Roger L’Estrange, as surveyor of the imprimery and printing presses, had the “sole license and grant of printing and publishing all ballads, plays, &c. not previously printed, play-bills, &c.” These privileges he sold to operative printers. When that license ceased, I have yet to learn.
The play-bills at Bartholomew-fair were in form the same as those used at the regular theatres; but, as they were given among the populace, they were only half the size. One that Dogget published recently, in my possession, had W. R. in the upper corners, as those printed in the reign of Charles II., had C. R., the royal arms being in the centre.
The luxurious mode of printing in alternate black and red lines, was adopted in Cibber’s time; the bills of Covent-garden theatre were generally printed in that manner. The bills of Drury-lane theatre, within the last ten years, have issued from a private press, set up in a room below the stage of that theatre. The bills for the royal box, on his majesty’s visit to either theatre, are printed on white satin.
Connected with these notices of playbills, are the means by which they were dispersed. A century ago, they were sold in the theatres by young women, called “orange-girls,” some of whom, Sally Harris and others, obtained considerable celebrity; these were succeeded by others, who neither coveted nor obtained notoriety. The “orange-girls” have _gone out_, and staid married women, who pay a weekly stipend to the box-lobby fruit-woman, now vend play-bills in the theatre, but derive most of their emolument from the sale of the “book of the play,” or “the songs” of the evening. The old cry about the streets, “Choice fruit, and a bill of the play--Drury-lane or Covent-garden,” is almost extinct; the barrow-women are obliged to obtain special permission to remain opposite some friendly shopkeeper’s door; and the play-bills are chiefly hawked by little beggarly boys.
I am, sir, &c.
WILL O’ THE WISP.
_March, 1827._
* * * * *
THE LINNET FANCY.
_To the Editor of the Table Book._
It is my fantasie to have these things, For they amuse me in my moody hours: Their voices waft my soul into the woods: Where bends th’ enamour’d willow o’er the stream, They make sweet melody.
Of all the earthly things by which the brain of man is twisted and twirled, heated and cooled, fancy is the most powerful. Like a froward wife, she invariably leads him by the nose, and almost every man is in some degree ruled by her. One fancies a horse, another an ass--one a dog, another a rabbit--one’s delight is in dress, another’s in negligence--one is a lover of flowers, another of insects--one’s mind runs on a pigeon, another’s on a hawk--one fancies himself sick, the doctor fancies he can cure him: death--that stern reality--settles the matter, by fancying both. One, because he has a little of this life’s evil assail him, fancies himself miserable, another, as ragged as a colt, fancies himself happy. One, as ugly as sin, and as hideous as death, fancies himself handsome--another, a little higher than six-penn’orth of halfpence, fancies himself a second Saul. In short, it would take a monthly part of the _Table Book_ to enumerate the different vagaries of fancy--so multifarious are her forms. Leaving this, proceed we to one of the fancies which amuse and divert the mind of man in his leisure and lonely hours--the “_Linnet_ Fancy.”
“Linnet fancy!” I think I hear some taker-up of the _Table Book_ say, “What’s in a linnet?--rubbish--
A bird that, when caught, May be had for a groat.”
Music! I answer--melody, unrivalled melody--equal to Philomel’s, that ever _she_-bird of the poets.--I wish they would call things by their proper names; for, after all, it is a cock--hens never make harmonious sounds. The fancy is possessed but by a few, and those, generally, of the “lower orders”--the weavers and cobblers of Whitechapel and Spitalfields, for instance. A good bird has been known to fetch ten sovereigns. I have frequently seen three and four given for one.
Whence the song of the linnet was obtained I cannot tell; but, from what I have heard the tit-lark and sky-lark do, I incline to believe that a good deal of theirs is in the song of the linnet. This song consists of a number of _jerks_, as they are called, some of which a bird will dwell on, and time with the most beautiful exactness: this is termed a “_weighed_ bird.” Others rattle through it in a hurried manner, and take to what is termed _battling_; these are birds often “sung” against others. It is with them as in a party where many are inclined to sing, the loudest and quickest tires them out; or, as the phrase is, “knocks them down.” These _jerks_ are as under. Old fanciers remember more, and regret the spoliation and loss of the good old strain. I have heard some of them say, that even larks are not so good as they were forty years ago. The reader must not suppose that the _jerks_ are warbled in the apple-pie order in which he sees them here: the birds put them forth as they please: good birds always _finish_ them.
_Jerks._
Tuck--Tuck--Fear.
Tuck, Tuck, Fear--Ic, Ic, Ic.
Tuck, Tuck, Fear--Ic quake-e-weet. This is a _finished jerk_.
Tuck, Tuck, Joey.
Tuck, Tuck, Tuck, Tuck, Joey--Tolloc cha, Ic quake-e-weet.
Tuck, Tuck, Wizzey.
Tuck, Tuck, Wizzey--Tyr, Tyr, Tyr, Cher--Wye wye Cher.
Tolloc, Ejup, R--Weet, weet, weet.
Tolloc, Ejup, R--Weet, cheer.
Tolloc, Ejup, R--Weet, weet, weet--cheer.
Tolloc, Tolloc, cha--Ic, Ic, Ic, Ic quake--Ic, Ic.
Tolloc, Tolloc, cha--Ic, Ic, Ic, Ic, quake--Ic, Ic, Tyr, Fear.
Tolloc, Tolloc, R--Weet, weet, weet, cheer--Tolloc, cha--Ejup.
Tolloc, Tolloc, R--Ejup.
Tolloc, Tolloc, R--Cha, cea--Pipe, Pipe, Pipe.
Tolloc, Tolloc, R--Ejup--Pipe, Pipe, Pipe.
Lug, Lug, G--Cher, Cher, Cher.
Lug, Lug--Orchee, weet.
Lug, Lug, G--Pipe, Pipe, Pipe.
Lug, Lug, G--Ic, Ic, Ic, Ic, quake, e Pipe Chow.
Lug, Lug, E chow--Lug, Ic, Ic, quake e weet.
Lug, Lug, or--cha cea.
Ic Ic R--Ejup--Pipe chow.
Lug, Lug, E chow, Lug, Ic, Ic, quake-e-weet.
Ic, Ic, R--Ejup, Pipe.
Ic, Ic, R--Ejup, Pipe, chow.
Ic Ic--R cher--Wye, wye, cher.
Ic, Ic R, cher--Weet, cheer.
Ic, Ic--quake-e-weet.
Ic, chow--E chow--Ejup, weet.
Tyr, Tyr, Cher--Wye, wye, cher.
Bell, Bell, Tyr.
Ejup, Ejup, Pipe, Chow.
Ejup, Ejup, Pipe.
Ejup, Ejup, Poy.
Peu Poy--Peu Poy. This is when calling to each other.
Cluck, Cluck, Cha.
Cluck, Cluck, Cha, Wisk--R, Wisk.
Ic, quake-e-weet--R Cher.
Ic, Quake-e-Pipe--Tolloc Ic--Tolloc Ic Tolloc Ic--R Cher.
Fear, Fear, weet--Ejup, Pipe, Chow.
Pipe, Pipe, Pipe, Pipe--Ejup, Ejup, Ejup.
Ejup R--Lug, Ic, Ic, quake-e-weet.
Ic, Ic, R, Chow, Ic, Ic, R--Ic, Ic, quake, tyr, fear.
Most of these my own birds do. Several strains have been known of the linnet, the best of which I believe was Wilder’s.
The method of raising is this. Get a good bird--as soon as _nestlings_ can be had, purchase four, or even six; put them in a large cage, and feed them with boiled or scalded rape-seed, mixed with bread. This will do till about three weeks old; then throw in dry seed, rape, flax, and canary, bruised; they will pick it up, and so be weaned from the moist food. You may then cage them off in back-cages, and hang them under the old ones.
If you do not want the trouble of feeding them, buy them at a shop about a month old, when they are able to crack the seed. Some persons prefer _branchers_ to nestlings; these are birds caught about July. When they are just able to fly among the trees, they are in some cases better than the others; and invariably so, if they take your old bird’s song, being stronger and steadier. Nestlings lose half their time in playing about the cage.
As two heads are said to be better than one, so are two birds, therefore he who wants to raise a strain, should get two good ones, about the end of May--_stop_ one of them. This is done by putting your cage in a box, just big enough to hold it, having a door in front to pull up. Some have a glass in the door to enable them to see the birds; others keep them in total darkness, only opening their prison to give them food and water. The common way is to put the cage in the box, and close the door, by a little at a time, daily, keeping it in a warm place. This is a brutal practice, which I have never subscribed to, nor ever shall; yet it _does_ improve the bird, both in feather and song. By the time he has “moulted off,” the other bird will “come in” stout, and your young ones will take from him; thus you will obtain good birds.
To render your birds tame, and free in song, move them about; tie them in handkerchiefs, and put them on the table, or any where that you safely can; only let their usual place of hanging be out of sight of each other. Their seeing one another makes them fretful. To prevent this, have tin covers over their water-pots.
The man who keeps birds _should_ pay attention to them: they cannot speak, but their motions will often tell him that something is wrong; and it will then be his business to discover what. He who confines birds and neglects them, deserves to be confined himself; they merit all we can do for them, and are grateful. What a fluttering of wings--what a stretching of necks and legs--what tappings with the bill against the wires of their cages have I heard, when coming down to breakfast; what a burst of song--as much as to say, “Here’s master!”
Should any one be induced, from this perusal, to become a _fancier_, let him be careful with _whom_, and _how_ he deals, or he will assuredly be taken in. In choosing a bird, let him see that it stands up on its perch boldly; let it be snake-headed, its feathers smooth and sleek, its temper good; this you may know by the state of its tail: a bad-tempered bird generally rubs his tail down to a mere bunch of rags. Hear the bird _sing_; and be sure to keep the seller at a distance from him; a motion of his master’s hand, a turn of his head, may stop a bird when about to do something bad. Let him “go _through_” with his song uninterrupted; you will then discover his faults.
In this dissertation (if it may be so called) I have merely given what has come under my own observation; others, who are partial to linnets, are invited to convey, through the same medium, their knowledge, theoretical and practical, on the subject.
I am, sir, &c.
S. R. J.
* * * * *
FOUNDATION OF THE
LONDON UNIVERSITY.
On Monday, the 30th of April, 1827, his royal highness the duke of Sussex laid the foundation-stone of the London University. The spot selected for the building is situated at the end of Gower-street, and comprehends a very extensive piece of ground. The adjacent streets were crowded with passengers and carriages moving towards the place. The day was one of the finest of this fine season. The visiters, who were admitted by cards, were conducted to an elevated platform, which was so much inclined, that the most distant spectator could readily see every particular of the ceremony. Immediately before this platform, and at about three yards distant from it, was another, upon which the foundation-stone was placed. The persons admitted were upwards of two thousand, the greatest proportion composed of well-dressed ladies. Every house in the neighbourhood, which afforded the smallest opportunity of witnessing the operations, was crowded from the windows to the roof; and even many windows in Gower-street, from which no view of the scene could be any way obtained, were filled with company. At a quarter past three o’clock, the duke of Sussex arrived upon the ground, and was greeted by the acclamations of the people both inside and outside the paling. When he descended from his carriage, the band of the third regiment of foot-guards, which had been upon the ground some time before, playing occasional airs, struck up “God save the king.” The royal duke, attended by the committee and stewards, went in procession to the platform, upon which the foundation-stone was deposited. The stone had been cut exactly in two, and in the lower half was a rectangular hollow, to receive the medals and coins, and an inscription engraved upon a copper-plate:--
DEO OPT. MAX. SEMPITERNO ORBIS ARCHITECTO FAVENTE QVOD FELIX FAVSTVM QVE SIT OCTAVVM REGNI ANNVM INEVNTE GEORGIO QVARTO BRITANNIARVM REGE CELSISSIMVS PRINCEPS AVGVSTVS FREDERICVS SUSSEXIAE DVX OMNIVM BONARVM ARTIVM PATRONVS ANTIQVISSIMI ORDINIS ARCHITECTONICI PRAESES APVD ANGLOS SVMMVS PRIMVM LONDINENSIS ACADEMIAE LAPIDEM INTER CIVIVM ET FRATRVM CIRCVMSTANTIVM PLAVSVS MANV SVA LOCAVIT PRID. KAL. MAII. OPVS DIV MVLTVM QVE DESIDERATVM VRBI PATRIAE COMMODISSIMVM TANDEM ALIQVANDO INCHOATVM EST ANNO SALVTIS HVMANAE MDCCCXXVII ANNO LVCIS NOSTRAE MMMMMDCCCXXVII. NOMINA CLARISSIMORVM VIRORVM QVI SVNT E CONCILIO HENRICVS DVX NORFOLCIAE HENRICVS MARCHIO DE LANSDOWN DOMINVS IOANNES RVSSELL IOANNES VICECOMES DVDLEY ET WARD GEORGIVS BARO DE AVCKLAND HONORABILIS IAC. ABERCROMBIE IACOBVS MACINTOSH EQVES ALEX. BARING GEORGIVS BIRKBECK HEN. BROUGHAM THOMAS CAMPBELL I. L. GOLDSMID OLINTHVS GREGORY GEORGIVS GROTE IOSEPHVS HVME ZAC. MACAULAY IACOBVS MILL BENIAMINVS SHAW IOHANNES SMITH GVLIELMVS TOOKE HEN. WARBVRTON HEN. WAYMOVTH IOANNES WISHAW THOMAS WILSON GVLIELMVS WILKINS, ARCHITECTVS.
After this inscription had been read, the upper part of the stone was raised by the help of pullies, and his royal highness having received the coins, medals, and inscription, deposited them in the hollow formed for their reception. The two parts of the stone were then fastened together, and the whole was lifted from the ground. A bed of mortar was next laid upon the ground by the workmen, and his royal highness added more, which he took from a silver plate, and afterwards smoothed the whole with a golden trowel, upon which were inscribed the following words:--“With this trowel was laid the first stone of the London University, by his royal highness Augustus duke of Sussex, on the 30th of April, 1827. William Wilkins, architect; Messrs. Lee and Co., builders.” The stone was then gradually lowered amidst the cheers of the assembly, the band playing “God save the king.” His royal highness, after having proved the stone with a perpendicular, struck it three times with a mallet, at the same time saying, “May God bless this undertaking which we have so happily commenced, and make it prosper for the honour, happiness, and glory, not only of the metropolis, but of the whole country.”
An oration was then delivered by the Rev. Dr. Maltby, in which he offered up a prayer to the Almighty in behalf of the proposed University.
Dr. LUSHINGTON stated, that he had been chosen by the committee as the organ of their opinions. He remarked that the London University must effect good. The clouds of ignorance had passed away, and the sun had broken forth and dispelled the darkness which had hitherto prevailed. No man dared now to assert that the blessings of education should not be extended to every, even the lowest, of his majesty’s subjects. He then expatiated on the advantages which were likely to arise from the establishment of a London University, and especially on its admission of Dissenters, who were excluded from the two great Universities. He concluded by passing an eloquent compliment upon the public conduct of the duke of Sussex, who, attached to no party, was a friend to liberality, and promoted by his encouragement any efforts of the subjects of this realm, whatever their political opinions, if their motives were proper and praiseworthy.
The duke of SUSSEX acknowledged the compliments paid to him, and stated, that the proudest day of his life was that upon which he had laid the first stone of the London University, surrounded as he was by gentlemen of as high rank, fortune, and character, as any in the kingdom. He was quite convinced that the undertaking must be productive of good. It would excite the old Universities to fresh exertions, and force them to reform abuses. His royal highness concluded, amidst the cheers of the assembly, by repeating that the present was the happiest day of his life.
His royal highness and the committee then left the platform, and the spectators dispersed, highly gratified with the exhibition of the day.
In the evening, the friends and subscribers to the new University dined together, in the Freemasons’ Hall. On no previous occasion of a similar nature was that room so crowded; upwards of 420 persons sat down to table, with his royal highness the duke of Sussex in the chair.
The cloth having been removed, “The King” was drank with three times three.
The next toast was “The Duke of Clarence, the Lord High Admiral of England,” and the rest of the royal family. As soon as the royal chairman, in proposing the above toast, stated the title of the new office held by his royal brother, the room rang with acclamations.
The duke of NORFOLK then proposed the health of his royal highness the duke of Sussex, who, he said, had added to the illustrious title which he inherited by birth, that of the friend of the arts, and the patron of every liberal institution in the metropolis. (Cheers.)
The toast was drunk with three times three.
His ROYAL HIGHNESS said, that he received what his noble friend had been pleased to say of him, more as an admonition than as a compliment, because it brought to his recollection the principles on which his family was seated on the throne of this country. He was rejoiced at every circumstance which occurred to refresh his memory on that subject, and never felt so happy as when he had an opportunity of proving by acts, rather than professions, how great was his attachment to the cause of liberty and the diffusion of knowledge. (Cheers.) He repeated what he had stated in the morning, that the University of London had been undertaken with no feelings of jealousy or ill-will towards the two great English Universities already existing, but only to supply a deficiency, which was notoriously felt, and had been created by changes in circumstances and time since the foundation of those two great seminaries of learning. He concluded by once more repeating, that he had never felt more proud in his life than when he was laying the foundation-stone of the new University in the presence of some of the most honest and enlightened men of whom this country could boast. (Applause.) He then proposed “Prosperity to the University of London,” which was drunk with three times three, and loud applause.