AMUSEMENTS.

Globe, Volume VI, Issue 679, 23 August 1876, Page 2

AMUSEMENTS.

THE LYDIA HOWARDS TROUPE. “ Ivanhoe” was repeated last evening at the Hall, and drew a fair honse. Miss Howarde, who was in good voice, sang “ Let me like a soldier fall” with great spirit and expression, and Misses Nye and Nayaro were also very successfnl in their musical efforts. Messrs Hill and Power and the rest of the company did full justice to their respective parts, and as a whole the piece was well played. The same programme will be repeated this evening and to-morrow, when it will be withdrawn for the “Beggar’s Opera.” THE BEGGAR'S OPERA. The following account of the origin of the above opera is taken from Chambers’s “ Book of Days,” and shows the estimation in which the play has been held byithe theatrical world in general, which, no doubt, will be equally as well appreciated by the patrons of the drama in Christchurch : In the spring and early summer of 1728, the “Beggar’s Opera” of Gay had its unprecedented run of sixty-two nights in the theatre of Lincoln’s-inn-tields. No theatrical success of Dryden or Congreve had ever approached this ; probably the best of Shakspeare’s fell far short of it. We learn from Spence, that the idea of a play, with malefactors amongst its characters, took its rise in a remark of Swift to Gay, “ What an odd, pretty sort of thing a Newgate pastoral might make.” And, Gay proceeding to work out the idea in the form of a comedy, Swift gave him his advice, and now and then a correction, but believed the piece would not succeed, Congreve was not so sure—he said it would either take greatly or be condemned extremely. The poet, who was in his fortieth year, and had hitherto been but moderately successful in his attempts to please the public, offered the play to Colley Cibber for the Drury Lane Theatre, and only on its being rejected there took it to Mr Rich, of the playhouse just mentioned, where it was presented for the first time on the 2!)th of January, 1727-8. Strange to say, the success of the piece was considered doubtful for the greater part of the first act, and was not quite determined till Polly sang her pathetic appeal to her parents; “ Oh, ponder well, be not severe, To save a wretched wife, For on the rope that hangs my dear, Depends poor Polly’s life.” Then the audience, completely captivated, broke out into an applause which established the success of the play. It has ever since becnja stock piece of the British stage, notwithstanding questionable morality, and moderate literary merit both in the dialogue and the songs ; the fifty beautiful airs introduced into it being what apparently has chiefly given it its hold upon the public. It is to be remarked, that in the same season the play was presented for at least twenty nights in succession at Dublin; and even into Scotland, which had not then one regular theatre, it found its way very soon after. The author, according to usage, got the entire receipts of the third, sixth, ninth, and fifteenth nights, amounting in the aggregate to £693 13s fid. In a letter to Swift he takes credit for having “ pushed through this precarious affair without servility or flattery;” and when the play was published, Pope complimented him on not prefacing it with a dedication, thus deliberately foregoing twenty guineas (the established price of such things in those days). So early as the 20th of March, when the piece had only been acted thirty-six times, Mr Rich had profited to the extent of near four thousand pounds. So it might well be said that this play had made Rich gay, and Gay rich. Amongst other consequences of the furore for the play, was a sad decline in the receipts at the Italian Opera, which Gay had all along meant to rival. The wags had it that that should be called the “ Beggar’s Opera.” The king, queen, and princesses came tp see the “Beggar’s Opera” on the twentyfirst night of its performance. What was more remrakable, it was honoured on another night with the presence of the prime minister, Sir Robert Walpole, whose corrupt practices in the management of a majority in the House of Commons were understood to be glanced at in the dialogues of Peachum and Lockit. Sir Robert, whose good humor was seldom at fault, is said to have laughed heartily at Lockit’s song : i When you censure the age, Be cautious and sage, Lest the courtiers offended should be; If you mention vice or bribe, ’Tis so fit to all the tribe, Each cries—That was levelled at me;’ and so he disarmed the audience. We do not hear much of any of the first actors of the “Beggar’s Opera,” excepting Lavinia Fenton, who personated Polly, She was a young lady of elegant figure, but not striking beauty, a good sipger, and of very agreeable conversation and manners. The performance of this part stood conspicuous in its success, and brought her much notice. Her portrait was published in mezzotint; there was also a memoir of her hitherto obscure life. Her songs were printed on ladies’ fans. The fictitious namp became so identified with her, that her benefit was announced as Polly’s night. One • benefit having been given her on the 29thj'of April, when the “ Beaux Stratagem ” was performed, the public were so dissatisfied that the “ Beggar’s Opera ” had to be played for a second benefit to her on the 4th May The Duke of Bolton, a nobleman then in the prime of life, living apart from his wife, became inflamed with a violent passion for Miss Fenton, and came frequently to see the play. There is a large print by Hogarth, representing the performance, at that scene in Newgate, towards the second act, where Polly kneels to Peachum, to intercede for her husband.

There we see two groups of fashionable figures in boxes raised at the sides; the Duke of Bolton is the nearest on the right hand side, dressed in wig, riband, and afar, and with his eyes fixed on the kneeling Polly. On the 29th of Janury, 1728, the “ Beggar’s Opera,” of all Gay’s works the most celebrated, except, perhaps, the “Fables,” was brought out at Drury Lane with the following cast:—Macheath, Mr Walker ; Peachum, Mr Hippisley; Lockit, Mr Hall ; Filch, Mr Clark; Jemmy Twitcher, Mr Bullock ; Robin of Bagshot, Mr Lacy ; Mat-o’-the-Mint, Mr Spiller; Ben Budge, Mr Morgan ; Beggar, Mr Chapman ; Player, Mr Milward ; Polly Peachum, Miss Fenton ; Lucy Lockit, Mrs Bgleton ; Mrs Peachum, Mrs Martin ; Mrs Coaxer, Mrs Holiday ; Mrs Vixen, Mrs Rice; Jenny Diver, Mrs Clarke; Mrs Slammekin, Mr Morgan. In latter days the most celebrated Macheath has been Mr Sims Beeves, and Lucy, Madame Yestris.