SPEECH OF MR. CHAS. DICKENS AT THE GENERAL THEATRICAL FUND BANQUET.

Southland Times, Volume 2, Issue 79, 7 August 1863, Page 5 (Supplement)

SPEECH OF MR. CHAS. DICKENS AT THE GENERAL THEATRICAL FUND BANQUET.

On Saturday last, Mr. Chas. I^kemv Resided at the eighteenth annual banEof this admirableinstitution wh>ch ?ook Place at the Freemasons Hall. was supported on the occasion by a company Sorer 200, amongst whom ,-eotevfd Mr. Buckstone.Mr.T P. -Cooke Mr. Alfred Wgau Captam /Ward ana Mr. Sergeant Ballanhne, ir Canton, Dr. Hastings Dr Day, Messrs. Stirling, Coyne »;*»*■. "iKSSSS-.-. Carles C), nents, Howe, Hill, Fjwcett, &c About one hundred elegantly dressed laches occupied seats on the dais at- the back of the Chairman, and the gallery at the end of the hall was filled with others * Equally active. Mr C Dicken's, *in proposingJhe toast of the evening, Jfoe Royal General Theatrical Fun^Hß"^ ' "Ladie^BP^Gentlemen,— With my present responsibilities impending over me I happened the other night, as 1 gat' alone, to be reading » paper in the Toiler referring to the time when Mr. Powell's company of performing puppets was in high vogue with person. o\ iuality.. In that number of the latter Vliatbriliaiii essayist gives a humorous description of a contest then raging between two ladies at Bath— Prudentia and Fiorimei-as to which of them should -set "the fashion to the greatest number of imitators. In the course of this noble struggle, Florimel bespoke Alexander the Great, to be acted by the players; and Prudentia bespoke The Creation of the World, to be acted by the puppets, at the same time puttin a it round, for the .corifusi. n and ridicule of her rival, that the puppet "Eve— who might have been indifferently modelled (laughter)— would be found to be in figure the most like Florimel that ever was. (Laughter.) Now, K what were the missing charms, what r " were the defective points," in this , wooden lady's anatomy does not appea>y otherwise I should have the honor of delicately stating them to the company ; but it does not appear that His Worship the Mayor inclined to the wooden side of the "question, and that on high moral grounds, he greatly preferred - those innocent creatures, the puppets, ■'■ to those wicked "players. (Laughter). Now, lacj s and gentlemen, as I ha<e j a profound veneration for mayors and ':,such like (laughter), this sentiment ' caused me to close the book, and to /: . consider, how much we should gain if ■-there were no managers but Mr Powell no actors but the puppets (loud "laughter). In the first place — and on % the immense advantage to be reaped : hare, I have no doubt we shall be all 1 agreed, there would be no fund, no , ; dinuev, no chairman, no speech. (Laughter). Then on Saturdays there would be no treasury, although I am r told that that great point has been gained occasionally under the existing system (laughter)-, there would never .'-; be any throwing up parts, thero would never be any colds ; there would never "'■' be any jealousies or dissensions ; the '!. two ladies might dress for any length ; of time in the same room, without the danger of ever coming to * words, and the loftiest tragedian that ever was or will be might be doubled •" up with his legs round his neck, and „ put away in the same box with the red-dest-nosed and raost flowered-waist- : coated of the comic countrymen (loud : laughter). Now these, I considered to ■f myself, were points to be gained. On Hhe other hand there would be lost , human interests, the human face, which after all stood for a little, and though ; not least, it was the last, that great , amount of comfort, satisfaction, and gratification, which was derived by a I well-meaning people from disparaging ■ ; those who entertain them (lau .liter). ■ Now this high moral gratification, this ■ cheap, this complacent, self-assertion, ■■'I felt could not possibly be parted with, ■ and, therefore, I quickly came to the ■ conclusion, that we must have these wwicked players aftar all (cheers and B-'iJaughter). It is an astonishing thing ■ to me, that within my range of observaB^tion and experience, it is true that there ■ should be, and that there is, in some of MeWnat we cill the ''world, this curious ■ ■propensity to rurf up a little score ■■against, so as to be even, those who ■jamuse them. 'Says Portman- square, H .Esq., at breakfast, " The man in the ■ farce last night made me laugh so B|niucb that I hope there is nothing absoR^utely wrong about him ; but I think ■ ihis morning there must be" (laughter). ■ " My dear," says Mr. Baron Hill to Mrs. ■jffill, " I was so profoundly affected at ■ ;the theatre, last night, and I felt it so ■ difficult to repress my shouts when the ■ poor mad king listened in vain for the ■ breathing of his dead daughter, that I ■ really felt it due to myself rather to ■ patronise that gentleman this morning. ■ I feel it a kind of compensation to my■iself to regard Vhim as an extraordinary ■ man, having bo recognised business ■that can be found in the ' Post-office (laughter). I feel.it necesto put up with him, as it were, as kind of unaccountable creature, who 8 . n ° counting-house anywhere; in *B(act, to bear with him as a sort of marchild in a Shaksperian go-cart ■(roars of laughter.) Now, ladies and this is quite true, in a greater MP r \ es . se r degree, ] think, of all artists ; ■^tifcis particularly true of the dramatic ■jfftist, and it is to me so framed, cerit cannot be because he dresses ■"niself up for his part, for as you all very .well there is an enormous ■"nount of dressing and making up U^ing on iu high stations all around us. never saw a worse make-up in the U»umblest country theatre than I can |B^ e in the House of Commons any night |BWien there is a message from the Lords

(langhter). I assure you, on my personal veracity, that I have personally known a Lord High Chancellor, at 25s i week, who, in his wig ancl robes, ooked better than the real article (pro-' onged laughter). I think the secret sannot lie here ; the truth is that this ittle harmless disposition occupies a ittle quiet out of the way corner of our lature, and I think it a little ungra;ious and a little ungenerous, and ceriainly more so than it is meant to be, and I always, wl- ether in public or in private, on principle determinedly op- ' posed myself to it, for the reasons I have endeavored to explain to you. Although I am now going to urge upon you the case of, and am going to entreat your active sympathy with, the General Theatrical Fund, on this eighteenth anniversary, you shall hear from me nothing conventional about the " Poor player Who strata and frets his hour upon the stage," which shall in any way separate him otherwise than favorably from us, the great community of poor players, who all of us strut our hours upon this stage of life. His worth, if he be worth any thing to himself or aay other man, is as real to him as the banker's to him, or the broker's to him, or the professional man's to him, or the merchant's to him. His fund is a business fund, and is collected on sound, business, honorable, independent principles. It is a fund, as is known already to many here, for granting annuities to such members as may be disqualified by age, sickness, or infirmity, from pursuing the theatrical profession, and also for extending aid to the sick, I think, in some cases even when they are not members, and to the bereaved sufferers of the dead. It is a fund to which the members contribute periodically, according to certain carefully calculated scales, very often out of very imperfect and very uncertain earnings. It is a fund which knows no distinction whatsoever of theatre, and knows no grades whatever of actors. I have had the honor of being one of its trustees from the hour of its first establishment (cheers), and I can bear testimony with the greatest admiration to the extraordinary patience, steadiness, and perseverance with which these payments are made (cheers), Therefore it is, as you may observe, ladies and gentlemen, i that I occupy a vantage ground of enj treating you to help those who do really I and truly help themselves, who do not | come here to-night for a mere field- ! night or a mere theatrical display, but who, as it were, rise to the surface | once in every twelve months to assure you of their constancy and good faith, and then burrow down to woik again." ! The toast was heartily drunk.