Part 9 (1/2)

[Ill.u.s.tration: THEODORE LANE. _From ”Life of an Actor,” 1824._

”THE GALLERY.--POWERFUL ATTRACTION OF TALENTS!”]

[Ill.u.s.tration: THEODORE LANE. _From ”Life of an Actor,” 1824._

”THE NON-PAYING AUDIENCE.”

_Face p. 85._]

THEODORE LANE.

On the walls of some old-fas.h.i.+oned dining-rooms, and the parlours of provincial inns, may still be seen an engraving, called _The Enthusiast_, which some of my readers may remember to have seen in the print shops of some twenty or five-and-twenty years ago. It represents an old disciple of Izaac Walton, whom the gout has incapacitated from following his favourite pursuit, so devoted to the sport, that we see him fis.h.i.+ng for minnows in a water-tub, instead of the rippling stream out of which he has been accustomed to whip his favourite speckle-backed beauties. The painting from which this engraving was taken was the work of Theodore Lane, who, although his work is limited to the short s.p.a.ce of five or six years, seems to call for special mention by virtue of his tragic ending, the short span allotted to his life and labours, and the superiority of his talent and genius to those of many of his contemporaries. Lane was literally a comic artist of the nineteenth century, having been born at Isleworth in 1800. He was apprenticed to a colourer of prints at Battle Bridge, named Barrow; and, shortly after completing his time, produced (in 1822) six designs ill.u.s.trative of ”The Life of an Actor,” and with these in a small portfolio under his arm, went out into the world to seek his fortune as other comic artists have done before him and since. Pierce Egan, at this time, was the most popular man in town; his name (on very insufficient literary merits) was identified with the success of the most famous book of the century--we allude to the ”Life in London.” To his residence in Spann's Buildings, St. Pancras, Lane betook himself; showed him his sketches, and said if Egan would only undertake the letterpress, he should find no difficulty in getting Ackermann, Sherwood, or any of the art publishers of the day, to undertake its publication. But Egan's hands were full, and he declined the offer. Two years later on, author and artist again met, and the result was that ”The Life of an Actor, Peregrine Proteus,” made its appearance, ”ill.u.s.trated by twenty-seven coloured scenes and nine woodcuts, representing the vicissitudes of the stage”. The publisher was Arnold, of Tavistock Street, Covent Garden, who paid the young artist one hundred and fifty pounds fifteen s.h.i.+llings for his share of the work. ”The Life of an Actor” was published at a guinea, and dedicated to Edmund Kean; and a contemporary critic describes it as ”one of the best exemplifications of Mr. Egan's peculiar talent. It is impossible for us,” he continues, ”to do justice to the spirit of the designs, many of which would [of course] not discredit the pencil of Hogarth.” Lane's a.s.sociation with one of the most noted sporting characters of the day opened the way to him for further engagements, and for another work, ent.i.tled, ”A Complete Panorama of the Sporting World,” he executed thirteen original etchings, and an equal number of designs on wood.

Among the number of Theodore Lane's social satires may be mentioned _Scientific Pursuits, or Hobbyhorse Races to the Temple of Fame_, four folio plates; _The Parson's Clerk_ (a comic song), four ill.u.s.trations in ridicule of cant and hypocrisy; _Legal Ill.u.s.trations_ (seventy humorous applications of law terms); _The Masquerade at the Argyll Rooms_ (a large plate full of vigour, life, and character); _New Year's Morning: the Old One out, and the New One coming in_, a party of topers, one of whom--the chairman, with the empty punch-bowl on his head (representing ”the old one out”)--merrily points at the waiter bringing a full bowl (”the new one”) in; _Sunday Morning--the Barber's Shop_; _s.h.i.+lling Fare to a Christmas Dinner, or Just in Pudding Time_; _The Rival Whiskers_; and _Amorous, Clamorous, Uproarious, and Glorious_ (a pair of admirable and amusing satires of the prevailing features, vices, and follies of the day); _Crowding to the Pit_ and _Contending for a Seat_ (two capital theatrical subjects). Lane also made a sketch ent.i.tled, _Paul Pry's First Night in a Boarding House_, intended to be succeeded by eleven others, the publication of which was however prevented by the death of Liston. McLean published a large and clever design, bearing the somewhat lengthy t.i.tle of _Law Gorging on the Spoils of Fools and Rogues, and Honest Men among Knavery, producing Repentance and Ruin; or, the Fatal Effects of Legal Rapacity_,--wherein the highway of Law conducts to Ruin through a series of toll-gates labelled respectively, ”Opinion of Counsel,” ”Injunction,” ”Filing the Bill,” ”Consultation,”

”Procrastination,” etc.

Like his contemporaries the Cruikshanks, with whom he was familiar, Theodore Lane mixed freely with the young bloods of his day, termed in the slang of his time ”Corinthians,” and the results are shown in his designs. He might often be seen at the ”Craven's Head,” in Drury Lane, kept by a host known to his patrons by the familiar t.i.tle of ”Billy Oxberry”; at the Sat.u.r.day night harmonic meetings held at the ”Kean's Head,” in Russell Court, Drury Lane; at ”The Wrekin,” in Broad Court, Long Acre, at that time frequented by gentlemen of the Press; at ”The Harp,” in Russell Street, Drury Lane, a well known house of call for actors, and appropriately immortalised in one of his ill.u.s.trations to ”The Life of an Actor”; at the ”Cider Cellar”; at the ”Fives Court”; at the numerous ”Masquerades” of the day; at any place of resort, in fact, which offered studies of life and character or subjects of social satire. He figures in his own sketch of _The Masquerade at the Argyll Rooms_, where we recognise him (in one of the right hand boxes) in a white sheet, a tall paper cap on his head, and a staff in his hand. His impersonations were sometimes singularly original. At one of these ”masquerades,” for instance, he represented a ”frozen-out gardener”

soliciting charity, and holding in his hand a cabbage covered with icicles; at another, he appeared as a hospital ”out-patient,” wearing a hideous mask (designed by himself) representing some dreadful disease, from which the bystanders recoiled in horror and amazement. With all this drollery Lane kept himself well out of mischief, and was moreover, in days when young and old were more or less inclined to be topers, a strictly temperate man.

But Lane's talents were not confined to comic etching or designs on wood. He was also an artist in oil and water colour. He painted in oils _The Drunken Gardener_; _The Organ of Murder_, a clumsy, nervous craniologist feeling his own head in doubt and perplexity to ascertain whether the dreadful ”organ” is developed in himself; _An Hour before the Duel_ (exhibited at the Inst.i.tution in Pall Mall). Other subjects of his pictures were: _The Poet reading his Ma.n.u.script Play of Five Acts to a Friend_; _Too many Cooks Spoil the Broth_; _The Nightmare_; _The Mathematician's Abstraction_ (the latter purchased by Lord Northwick).

His most ambitious work in oils (upwards of seventeen feet in length) was called _A Trip to Ascot Races_. His last work, _The Enthusiast_ (the first we have mentioned), was exhibited at Somerset House at the time of his death.

The fate of this clever young artist and satirist was both singular and tragical. It appears that on the 21st of February, 1828, Theodore Lane, who then resided in Judd Street, Brunswick Square, called upon his brother-in-law, Mr. Wakefield, a surgeon of Battle Bridge, intending to proceed in the latter's gig to Hampstead, to join a party of friends who had gone there to spend the day. Mr. Wakefield having to visit a patient in Manchester Street, Gray's Inn Lane, drove there with his brother-in-law, and this was the last time he was seen alive. Close to the place was a horse bazaar, which the artist appears to have entered by way of pa.s.sing the time. The horse and trap were there, but no trace of poor Lane; and on search being made, his body was found lying lifeless at the foot of the auctioneer's stand. He appears to have wandered into the betting-room, and by some unexplained means or other fallen backwards through an insufficiently protected skylight. The clever head was battered so completely out of recognition that he was only identified by his card-case. That Lane was a man of unusual promise is shown by the fact that amongst the subscribers for the benefit of the widow and children of the deceased, we find the names of Sir Thomas Lawrence, president of the Royal Academy; F. Chantrey, R.A.; George Westmacott; Cooper, the celebrated animal painter; and Leahy, the painter of the celebrated picture of ”Mary Stuart's Farewell to France.”

The remains of this ill-fated, talented young fellow lie in the burial ground of old St. Pancras.

FOOTNOTES:

[23] ”Fifty Years of my Life,” by George Thomas, Earl of Albemarle, vol. i. p. 270.

[24] ”Annual Register,” 1813.

[25] _Ibid._ (Chronicle), 342.

[26] See the letter of the Princess of Wales, ”Annual Register,” 1813 (Chronicle), 342.

[27] See speech of Mr. Whitbread, ”Annual Register,” 1813 (20).

[28] ”Annual Register,” 1813 (Chronicle), 345.

[29] ”Annual Register,” 1813, p. 24.

[30] Whitbread.

[31] Sir John and Lady Douglas.