Fun
10 October 1888
WAKING HIM UP;
OR, THE SLEEPING BEAUTY OF THE HOME OFFICE
'TIS THE VOICE
OF THE SLUGGARD--
I HEARD HIM
COMPLAIN
|
Waking Him Up
(SEE CARTOON).
HORROR on horror comes, and to the light
Are slowly dragg'd the plague-spots of the
town,
Which, hidden from the eyes of those that
dwell
In cosy, comfortable ignorance,
Hard by where rank corruption fouls the air,
Must make them learn how lamentably far
Civilization lies from righteousness.
Vice, loathsome vice, yet blossoms in our midst,
Crime undetected follows in its wake;
And hideous Murder stalks abroad at night,
Appalling by its vile deformity
|
E'evn the most hardened sinner's callous
heart.
How long shall we endure such infamies
As needs must bring a burning flush of shame
To every honest cheek? A growing sense
Of wrong unheeded, and discarded right
Extorts a cry unto the powers that be--
"Awake! nor longer let this canker-worm
Prey on our lives and suck the nation's blood.
Cleanse the Augean stable how you may,
But cleansed it must be, till the festering
sore
Is heal'd, and miscreants are taught to know
That punishment will surely pay for guilt
Whilst Innocence is free to spread her wings!"
|
THE LYCEUM.--Not the utmost stretch of
the politeness due to a stranger could induce me to characterise Dr.
Jekyll and Mr. Hyde as a pleasant play, and I quite failed myself
to see where the alleged "impressiveness" of Mr. Mansfield in
the part came on the scene. Mr. Stevenson's conception is in itself impressive,
possibly (in degree varying with the spectator's imagination), but for
any force contributed by Mr. Mansfield the debt is small. If, however,
Dr. Jekyll, &c., as a play was something of a bore, what is
to be said of A Parisian Romance? And if the sole interest
in Mr. Mansfield's Jekyll-Hyde centred in a skilfully performed stage trick,
what is to be said of his Baron Chevrial, which is all stage trick together,
all of it over-elaborated, and some of it ludicrous? The performance
has a certain mediocre cleverness of a kind apt to be popular, and is not
without a certain charm either, but it has no artistic depth or real truth--a
mass of mannerisms, not a man--a clever piece of surface acting, in short,
supported by an (apparently) extensive knowledge and (certainly) an apt
application of the "tricks of the actor's trade."
Here's a Bobby in rubber-soled
boots faily springing,
While cookey cor-rubberates
Robert's swing winging.
