Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 108, January 26, 1895

Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 108, January 26, 1895

It was a pleasant sight, on the premire of King Arthur, to see Mr. Comyns Carr, poet, littrateur, art-critic, theatrical manager, orator, journalist, dramatist, and not a few other things beside, gravely bowing his acknowledgments as "the Arthur of the piece" at the Lyceum. Beshrew me, and by my halidome, he hath done his work with so deft and cunning a hand as to puzzle not a little those who have their Goethe, their Tennyson, and some of the most favourite plays of William Shakspeare at their fingers' ends, and who are also more or less acquainted with Wagnerian trilogies. We all know "Kettle began it." Well, Wagner begins this, in the Prologue, with spirits and water, i.e., mere spirits getting along swimmingly in a kind of Niebelungen lake-and-cavern scene. Not until the curtain rose was any sort of attention paid to the music, which might have therefore been the composition of Noakes or Stokes, instead of having been exquisitely written by King Arthur Sullivan. Enter King Arthur Irving and Merlin ("Charles his friend"), suggestive of Macbeth and Banquo, to see Wagnerian water-witches in The Colleen Bawn's cave. Wagnerian water-witches, disturbed by the approach of gentlemen, swim away to regain, presumably, their bathing-machines. Then Charles-his-friend Merlin undertakes the part of a kind of half-converted Mephistopheles, and shows the Faust-King-Arthur a "living picture" of Guinevere as Marguerite in a vision. After this up comes a hand out of the water, bearing a magnificently jewelled scabbard, in which, of course, is that blade of the very first water, "Excalibur." ......Buy Now (To Read More)

Product details

Ebook Number: 42481
Author: Various
Release Date: Apr 7, 2013
Format: eBook
Language: English

Contributors

Editor: Burnand, F. C. (Francis Cowley), 1836-1917