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absurd actors Alfred Bunn amongst amusements appeared asked audience Bank blithering idiot called Carnival carriage Charles Kemble Charles Mathews Charley Charley's chimney City coat Comédie Française concert-rooms Covent Garden dancing Davenant patents dinner dramatic authors dress dress-coat Drury Lane Edendale Encyclopædical engagement England English entertainments fact fifty French theatres Gaiety Theatre gentleman Government half Haymarket Theatre Hermann Vezin inventor Joblochskoff journal journalist Kickingshire Killigrew patent less light little Truffles London theatre look Lord Chamberlain Lord Chamberlain's Office magistrates ment Metropolitan Board millions morning music-halls mysterious nearly never night o'clock Omnipotent Opéra Comique owner Paris patent theatres performance person Phelps piece popular probably proprietors Radical waiter replied respect salaries seats so-called stage stage-door Street Théâtre Français theatrical manager thought tion told town train of pleasure umbrella week window young Electro-plater
Popular passages
Page 113 - His reception was the most enthusiastic burst of feeling I ever witnessed or can imagine, and the one who seemed the least moved by it was the chief actor. He played for ten weeks, going through many of his favourite parts, ' Used Up,'
Page 108 - ... of them specially engaged for The Merry Wives of Windsor — he was soon on the very best of terms. Instead of sitting in state in his dressing-room, he passed much of his time in the green-room, and entered into all the little amusements of the place in the most pleasant manner. Fines were instituted to punish those who were found tripping in the text of Shakespeare, and once or twice Mr.
Page 59 - ... the spot on which I have been more or less settled for years before the GAIETY THEATRE was built or thought of — is the spot on which that theatre and its surroundings now stand. The first periodical that ever excited my literary ambition — the pioneer of all the cheap weekly magazines — was published in the Strand, at a little stationer's shop which now forms part of the Field office. It was called the Mirror, and its proprietor was a Mr. Limbird. The Mirror died long before its proprietor,...
Page 97 - III. granted a license to Betterton and his company of actors, to set up another theatre, and from that time forward there were again two theatres in London. The license granted to Betterton was renewed from time to time, and at last converted into a patent of 21 years...
Page 108 - ... Furtado, Miss Rose Leclercq, and Mrs. John Wood. Probably the most pleasant member of the company was Mr. Phelps. He had an amiable faculty of " making himself at home." When he first joined the regular Gaiety company — a company not generally associated with the so-called "legitimate drama" — he behaved as if he had been amongst them all his life ; and with the company mentioned above — some of them specially engaged for the 'Merry Wives of Windsor" — he was soon on the very best of...
Page 105 - Theatre was in the week before Christmas, 1873, when he was engaged to give nine special representations of certain old comedies, in conjunction with Mr. Charles Matthews, Mr. JL Toole, Mr. Hermann Vezin, Mr. Lionel Brough, &c. He made his first entry as Dr. Cantwell in The Hypocrite, Mr. Toole playing Mawworm for the first time after a very short period of study, and the rest of the characters being represented by Miss Farren and members of the Gaiety company. This piece was played for six nights...
Page 176 - Hollingshead — self-described as "licensed dealer in legs, short skirts, French adaptations, Shakespeare, Taste, and the musical glasses" — and for Thomas German Reed, whose abode was the haunt of politeness and piety. The German Reed pieces are by a Gilbert who walks gingerly on eggs. It is interesting to see how he adapts, to the special requirements of his new public, the puns and disguises of his burlesques — how in his very...
Page 18 - My attention was directed to the portrait of Moliere, as it was afterwards directed in another part of the theatre to the statue of Voltaire, said to be the best statue of that author in France ; and after paying full reverence to Moliere's be.wigged head, I asked if Victor Hugo had yet been admitted into this...