CONCERNING THE QUEEN'S THEATRE.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume IV, Issue 201, 9 February 1877, Page 15

CONCERNING THE QUEEN'S THEATRE.

During the days of our "boyhood we recollect that there were still maintained in the environs of Dublin yearly Saturnalia, which, under the name of Donneybrook Fair, had gained a wide-spread but most unenviable notoriety, and whither, for the space of a week towards the end of summer, flocked the scum of the adjacent city. The scene was generally avoided by well-disposed people, but if occasionally a reputable individual was weak enough to allow himself to be overcome by the attractions of the hurlyburly and to pay it a visit, he went there in conscious shame, as Britons of respectability, who yield to the license of foreign travel will now and then venture to enter the Jardin Mabille, cringing through the " fierce light" that illumines the pavement before its gates, and repairing with all speed to a retired corner whence they may from a safe distance view the orgies of the situation. But to the boyish mind, Donneybrook during the fair week presented a paradise of delights, and many a truant found his way there determined on enjoying to the top of his bent a treat for which the ferule of the pedagogue or some parental weapon of cane or leather would be sure to exact a penalty. Varied and intense were the pleasures of the place. There were endless rows of booths, •wherein whisky and beer flowed ad libitum, and whose floors were provided with boards, that echoed to the foot of the dancer from sunrise to sunset, and in all probability right through to sunrise back again ; lanes there were of boiling pots, containing comfortable victuals — bacon, cabbage, and potatoes ; rows of stalls piled high with ginger-bread, cakes, and fruit, most tempting to the appetite that did not object to stickiness whose cause was Tinknown, and a general suspicion of mould and uncleanliness. There were merry-go-rounds and swings, boats that described a circle in the air, and games wholly indescribable, without number j but chief amongst the many wonders were the rambling theatres, whereof an unheard of quantity had assembled to reap a harvest, gathered in coppers, at the fair. These latter formed a striking feature in the spectacle, grotesque and not altogether unpicturesque outwardly, whatever might be its moral aspect, for their dramatis persona, their harlequins and columbines, their clowns and mountebanks, their trumpets and big drums did not confine themselves to the interior of the structure wherein they performed, but now and then they sallied forth upon a platform erected in front of this, and there went through a variety of histrionic exercises, by which when they had sufficiently whetted the curiosity of a crowd of spectators, they retired within, drawing after them a numerous audience, who paid at the doors and were rewarded by beholding much that was entertaining, if it did not tend directly to edification. We had hardly expected to be reminded of our school days in this far off land, but a vision of Donneybrook Fair has been once more extended before our eyes, and has, alas, reminded us sadly of the lapse of time. The riot of youth has fled : like the bark of Moore's song, we are stranded upon the beach, and the waters have subsided, leaving us face to face with sober fact, unable to call up from inner depths a halo wherewith to gild a leprous object, and capable of being fully disgusted with all that is disgusting. " Sugar plums " have come to us too late, according to the saying of Lord Lytton j but we suspect that at any time of our lives the plaster of Paris would have been plainly discernible in euch bonbons as those recently set before us. We have, in a word, seen " Conrad and Lizette," and a more revolting farrago of rubbish never came in any shape under our observation. A female part represented by a male, and not altogether inoffensive to delicacy, senseless lilts, jests void of point or pungency, tuneless yoiees, silly antics. A Dutchman chattering stupidities in a tiresome jargon, suggestive too of the parish, fool driven to bay by mischievous urchins, and defending himself by jabbering and grimaces. An Irish character, likewise, copied from a model, the habitue of some low miserable shanty ; a scurvy creature all tatters and ribaldry, who tries to awaken mirth by a coarse and loathsome repetition of idiotic drivel; such are the attractions presented to the public in the piece we speak of. For our own part, on leaving the theatre where we had witnessed the production in question, we felt as if we had stepped ankle deep in unsavory mire, or been spat up, or as if, with reprehensible moral obliquity having forsaken, for a season, our decorous path through life, we bad assisted at a dog-fight.