FUN JI.


[JANUARY 11, 1862.


 PAN AT THE PLAY.
 SOW, what shall the fare be, roast beef or
 "puddock pies," punch or Hippocras, humble
 port or imperial tokay? Burlesque or panto-
 I mime, scenery and science, or fun and frolic ?
 PAN twines a bouquet for the season, and
 wreathes in Drury Lane, the Olympic, and
 the St. Janmes's. Drury shall be his central
 li flower. First, for old association sake; then,
 because rumour says it is the rose of the
 s' eason; and next, because it is not a bur-
 1 lesque, but a pantomime.
 Old Mlotlher Hubbard andm the House that
 Ja cl Built. Who was Jack? Why was he
 ld. famous? Was he of that great family of
 SWaENs who have been builders from tima of
 legal memory, and of which one KIT WREN
 risked his life daily in a basket for 200 per
 & -- year to build St. Paul's? There runs acoup-
 let about one "JOiHNY WREN," and is not
 Jl~ack but another instance of the author's
 familiarity, after having saluted MRs. Hun-
 mARi as Old, Mother HubbaLrd ? What is his
 place in history? Fortunately, he is honoured in his architecture.
 Can the architects of to-day hope as much? Whatever his fame,
 repute, or status, M3[. BLANCII-Ai has well entwined the stories of
 theso historic celebrities. Briskly, and with much moving incident
 by flood and field, is the tale told, and on the whole fairly are the
 laurels of the piece won. There is magic in the woft of the opening story.
 Jack's house is built as by enchantment. The drilling of its tiny
 masons and builders has been admirable. He bears with him in
 memory a long vista of fairy forms, like a grove of orange trees in
 blossom. A charmingly devised vision of the Fairy Queen falling
 like a star from mid heaven into realms of eternal night, forming but
 thb centre of a series of illusions.
 At the St. James's the fare is of another sort. Mn. W. BROUGH
 burlesques the story of Perseus and Andromeda.' He chains to a rock
 Miss HEiERIEiir, and who does not wish he were that rock to which
 Andromeda is chained, or thatPerscus torescue her? Perseus, attend!
 A burlesque is not a farce. It is supposed (charitably, of course)
 to be written in metre. Let it be so spoken. Miss HERBERT in
 her second, not in her first dress, looked the classical Andromeda,
 and no heroine of burlesque. MR. BROUGH as author has to be
 commenced, and his subject has been well chosen. Some of his
 situations are admirable, albeit that in which Minerva delivers
 her sacred gifts was cruelly murdered. Fancy nACHEL receiving
 and Ris'rom bestowing such gifts! Perseus, like the fated ship,
 should have been rigged in the eclipse. The modern dramatic
 critic-should be a forlorn artist, not a ruined poetaster. 'Tis the
 insatiable eye that is addressed, yet that the music was good did not
escape PAN. But the scenery filled up the witchery of this classical
revival. It has begn for the most part painted with a genuinely
artistic taste and feeling. The ship that bears away Perseus and
his prize is worthy Ulysses' self and another Odyssey. The whole
makes a coup d 'oil like to another Eden.
 Iail to thee, RoBsoN! PAN, image of nature, bows his head to
thee. He references art. Ho knows thee a great artist still. PAN
laughs at the critics who cry out for good pieces, that scenery and
spectacle ruin the stage, and straightway turn their backs on a well-
written burlesque and good acting to feast their eyes on mere scenery,
PAN admires that love of beauty which seeks enjoyment in the pride
of the eye, in picturesque elegance, and artistic grace; but he also
reveres good acting, and artistic discrimination in the actor. Thou
art not thyself, but still great. That blow which struck thee to
earth so recently had been thy enemy indeed, but that thy cloak was
better than was thought. Thou art not quenched, but much dimmed
by the atmosphere in which thou appearest. One great actor, sup-
ported, it may be, by one of the most graceful and polished actresses
on the stage, is hardly enough, when so depressed, to make an enter-
tainment pass without flagging. PAN has no time to tell the story,
but just pauses to do thee reverence as a great artist in, it is true, an
ignoble art, but still one that sits close to nature and true art, as the
shadow to the substance. He hopes thee a speedy restoration to
health as an old favourite, and, with the new year, a brightening
future of happy prospects.

 TuROWN OUT BY VESUVIUS.-In consequence of the eruption and
the streams of lava, Torre del Greco seems to have approached the
" Torre"d zone. (Torrid-horrid!)


 TRAIN OIL.
 THERE is a person among us from the other side of the Atlantic
 who "calculates" he can teach the young idea of Old England how to
 shoot ahead in a more economical manner on high-roads by means of
 tramways. England being a free country, this person thinks himself
 at liberty not only to cut up her roads, but has attempted to cut up
 her character, and present her in a small and contemptible aspect to
 rivals. MR. TRAIN has placed himself in a parliamentary train; he
 considers the hospitable and tolerative Britons as sleepers; and having
 laid down some very strong lines of rail in connexion with England,
 he has travelled far out of his station, and gone beyond himself and
 his tramway; and he will find that his course may not only carry him
 hastily out of England, but clean out of mind, as he has surely
 gone out of his own, in throwing down such a gage. MR. TRAIN
 possesses a much overloaded and mixed train of ideas. If lie "calcu-
 lates himself an express TRAI,, he must not be allowed to express
 opinions of an inflammatory and explosive character; and when MR.
 TAINa renders himself a gunpowder train, he must expect a blowing
 up. How delightful to correct and recant false impressions!
 Falstaff, Clristopher Sly, Parolles, Pistol, and other equally important
 personages admitted their errors and wrong conclusions. How
 agreeable, then, to find MR. TRAIN, in a like conciliatory spirit, the
 other day at Darlington, with his graceful first-class carriage,
 explaining his newly-laid street tramway there; while, at the same I
 time he explained himself on the American question,-reversing his
 opinions with as much facility as the horses of his carriages, and
 pulling the other way. Well, circumstances alter cases; and in this
 case the public impression of MR. Taa.I is as sincerely changed as
 his own opinions.



 A MATINADE.
 SIR EDWIN sings from without,-
 The gentle moon her rosy hue,
 Now sheddeth from the eastern gate,
 The flower-decked lawn is gemm'd with dew,
 The throstle carols to his mate;
 Then, lady, leave thy couch of down,
 Come, let us stray through perfum'd bowers,
 And I thy radiant brow shall crown
 With chaplet of my fairest flowers.
 The LADY ANGELINA replies,-
 Sir Knight! Sir Knight! I fain would leave,
 My lonely bower, I fain that thou
 A chaplet of thy flowers shruldst weave,
 To decorate my marble brow;
 But cruel fate my ardour checks,
 For PHiEBE, old CURMnUDGEON'S daughter,
 Who little of my longing recks,
 Has neither brought my boots nor water.


 LATEST FROM POTSDAM.
 WE are happy to say that his MAJESTY has quite recovered from
 the severe attack of Divine Right with which lie was afflicted on the
 day of his coronation, and on several subsequent occasions. It was
 much aggravated by the Kreutz or Cross party, whose reactionary
 habits have done so much towards propagating this fearful scourge of
 nations. His MAJESTY, however, having now got rid of the Cross
 party, and it being intended that affairs shall in future be conducted
 entirely on the square, it is hoped that in time the disease will bo
 completely eradicated.


 THE LATEST FROM. THE PRovINCEs.-"Penny Readings," we are
 informed by a paragraph going the round of the papers, are very
 successful at Norwich, Ipswich, and in the majority of provincial
 towns. The most successful "Penny Reading" to be met with,
 however, is to be found in FUN.
 HINTS TO HOUSEKEEPERS.-UNWHOLESOME PICKLES.-In looking
 out titillating relishes for domestic use, it is as well to avoid "family
jars."
 WIH is a man beaten by DEERFOOT like one of DRnDEN's poems ?
-Because he is the Hind and Panther."
 WHY is a rector's reverend assistant likely to be correct in his
spelling ?-Because he is a(c)curate.


164


_~I~


I