Part 6 (1/2)

The Lyceum was opened on the 23d of December, 1850, with ”an occasional rigmarole ent.i.tled _Brougham, and Co._,” which introduced the entire company to the public. The next absurdity was _A Row at the Lyceum_, with Mr. Florence in the gallery, Mr. Brougham himself in the pit, and the rest of the _dramatis personae_ upon the stage; and shortly before the abrupt close of Mr. Brougham's management he presented _What Shall We Do for Something New?_ in which Mrs. Brougham appeared as Rudolpho, Mrs. Skerrett as Elvino, and Mr. Johnstone as Amina, in a travesty upon _La Sonnambula_.

Upon the same stage, on Christmas Eve, 1855, but under the management of the elder Wallack, Brougham produced his ”Original, Aboriginal, Erratic, Operatic, Semi-civilized, and Demi-savage Extravaganza of _Pocahontas_.”

The scenery, as announced, was painted from daguerreotypes and other authentic doc.u.ments, the costumes were cut from original plates, and the music was dislocated and reset, by the heads of the different departments of the theatre. Charles Walcot played John Smith, ”according to this story, but somewhat in variance with his story”; Miss Hodson played the t.i.tular part, and Mr. Brougham represented ”Pow-Ha-Tan I., King of the Tuscaroras--a Crotchety Monarch, in fact a Semi-Brave.” At the close of the opening song (to the air of ”Hoky-poky-winky-wum”) he thus addressed his people:

”Well roared, indeed, my jolly Tuscaroras.

Most loyal corps, your King encores your chorus;”

and until the fall of the curtain, at the end of the second and last act, the scintillations of wit and the thunder of puns were incessant and startling. ”May I ask,” says Col-o-gog (J. H. Stoddart), ”in the word _lie_, what vowel do you use, sir, _i_ or _y_?”

”Y, sir, or I, sir, search the vowels through, And find the one most consonant to you.”

Later the King cries:

”Sergeant-at-arms, say, what alarms the crowd; Loud noise annoys us; why is it allowed?”

And Captain Smith, describing his first introduction at the royal court, says:

”I visited his Majesty's abode, A portly savage, plump and pigeon-toed; Like Metamora, both in feet and feature, I never met-a-more-a-musing creature.”

[Ill.u.s.tration: HARRY BECKETT AS THE WIDOW Tw.a.n.kEY, IN ”ALADDIN.”]

In a more serious but not less happy vein is the apostrophe to tobacco, by the smoking, joking Powhatan, as follows:

”While other joys one sense alone can measure, This to all senses gives ecstatic pleasure.

You _feel_ the radiance of the glowing bowl, _Hear_ the soft murmurs of the kindling coal, _Smell_ the sweet fragrance of the honey-dew, _Taste_ its strong pungency the palate through, _See_ the blue cloudlets circling to the dome, Imprisoned skies up-floating to their home-- I like a dhudeen myself!”

And so he joked and smoked his way into a popularity which no stage monarch has enjoyed before or since. _Pocahontas_ ran for many weeks, and was frequently repeated for many years. The story of the sudden departure of the original Pocahontas one night without a word of warning, and the successful performance of the piece by Brougham and Walcot, with no one to play the t.i.tular part at all, is as familiar in the theatrical annals as the sadder stories of Woffington's last appearance, and the death of Palmer on the stage; and no doubt it will be remembered long after _Pocahontas_ itself, despite its cleverness, is quite forgotten.

”_Columbus el Filibustero_, a New and Audaciously Original, Historico-plagiaristic, Ante-national, Pre-patriotic, and Omni-local Confusion of Circ.u.mstances. Running through Two Acts and Four Centuries,”

was first performed at Burton's Theatre (Broadway, opposite Bond Street, afterwards the Winter Garden) on the 31st of December, 1857; Mark Smith playing Ferdinand, Lawrence Barrett Talavera, Miss Lizzie Weston Davenport Columbia, and Mr. Brougham himself Columbus. It is a more serious production than _Pocahontas_; the satire is more subtle, and the thought more delicate. It contains no play upon words, is not filled with startling absurdities, and is pathetic rather than uproariously funny.

While _Pocahontas_ inspires nothing but laughter, _Columbus_ excites sympathy, and oftentimes he has moved his audiences to the verge of tears.

He is a much-abused, simple, honest old man, full of sublime ideas, and long ahead of his times. He dreams prophetic dreams, and in his visions he

”sees a land Where Nature seems to frame with practised hand Her last most wondrous work. Before him rise Mountains of solid rock that rift the skies, Imperial valleys with rich verdure crowned For leagues illimitable smile around, While through them subject seas for rivers run From ice-bound tracks to where the tropic sun Breeds in the teeming ooze strange monstrous things.

He sees, upswelling from exhaustless springs, Great lakes appear, upon whose surface wide The banded navies of the earth may ride.

He sees tremendous cataracts emerge From cloud-aspiring heights, whose slippery verge Tremendous oceans momently roll o'er, a.s.saulting with unmitigated roar The stunned and shattered ear of trembling day, That, wounded, weeps in glistening tears of spray.”

[Ill.u.s.tration: JAMES LEWIS AS SYNTAX, IN ”CINDERELLA AT SCHOOL.”]

In short, he sees so much that is beyond the comprehension of the ordinary play-goer, that for thirty years he has been left in absolute retirement in that Forrest Home for good old plays which is styled _French's Minor Drama_.

One of Brougham's last burlesque productions was his _Much Ado About a Merchant of Venice_, presented March 8, 1869, at the little theatre on Twenty-fourth Street, New York, which has since borne so many names, and now, rebuilt, is known as the Madison Square. He played Shylock, Miss Effie Germon Lorenzo, and Mrs. J. J. Prior Portia. This was his final effort at theatrical management. He appeared in _Pocahontas_ as late as 1876, but Shylock was his last original burlesque part which is worthy of serious mention.

Francis Talfourd's _Shylock; or, The Merchant of Venice Preserved, a Jerusalem Hearty Joke_, is a much older production than Brougham's travesty of the same play, with which it should not be confounded.

Frederic Robson was the original Shylock in London, Tom Johnstone in New York (at Burton's, October 9, 1853). M. W. Leffingwell gave an admirable performance of Talfourd's _Shylock_ in September, 1867, on the stage of this same little Twenty-fourth Street theatre, a.s.sisted by Miss Lina Edwin as Jessica. Mr. Leffingwell was a very versatile actor although he excelled in burlesque and broadly extravagant parts. He will be remembered as Romeo Jaffier Jenkins, in _Too Much for Good Nature_, and in travesties of _Cinderella_ and _Fra Diavolo_. In the last absurdity, as Beppo, made up in very clever imitation of Forrest as the Gladiator, and enormously padded, he strutted about the stage for many moments, entirely unconscious of a large carving-fork stuck into the sawdust which formed the calf of his gladiatorial leg. His look of agony and his roar of anguish--perfect reflections of Forrest's voice and action--when his attention was called to his physical suffering, made one of the most ludicrous scenes in the whole history of American burlesque. Mr. Forrest is said to have remarked of a lithograph of Leffingwell in this part, that while the portrait of himself was not so bad, the characteristics were somewhat exaggerated!

Leffingwell was, no doubt, the original of the full length, life-sized effigy of Forrest which serves as the sign for a cigar store on one of the leading thoroughfares of New York to-day.

[Ill.u.s.tration: GEORGE L. FOX AS HAMLET.]