WAKING HIM UP;
OR, THE SLEEPING BEAUTY OF THE HOME OFFICE
'TIS THE VOICE
OF THE SLUGGARD--
I HEARD HIM
COMPLAIN
|
Waking Him Up HORROR on horror comes, and to the light |
E'evn the most hardened sinner's callous heart. How long shall we endure such infamies As needs must bring a burning flush of shame To every honest cheek? A growing sense Of wrong unheeded, and discarded right Extorts a cry unto the powers that be-- "Awake! nor longer let this canker-worm Prey on our lives and suck the nation's blood. Cleanse the Augean stable how you may, But cleansed it must be, till the festering sore Is heal'd, and miscreants are taught to know That punishment will surely pay for guilt Whilst Innocence is free to spread her wings!" |
THE LYCEUM.--Not the utmost stretch of the politeness due to a stranger could induce me to characterise Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde as a pleasant play, and I quite failed myself to see where the alleged "impressiveness" of Mr. Mansfield in the part came on the scene. Mr. Stevenson's conception is in itself impressive, possibly (in degree varying with the spectator's imagination), but for any force contributed by Mr. Mansfield the debt is small. If, however, Dr. Jekyll, &c., as a play was something of a bore, what is to be said of A Parisian Romance? And if the sole interest in Mr. Mansfield's Jekyll-Hyde centred in a skilfully performed stage trick, what is to be said of his Baron Chevrial, which is all stage trick together, all of it over-elaborated, and some of it ludicrous? The performance has a certain mediocre cleverness of a kind apt to be popular, and is not without a certain charm either, but it has no artistic depth or real truth--a mass of mannerisms, not a man--a clever piece of surface acting, in short, supported by an (apparently) extensive knowledge and (certainly) an apt application of the "tricks of the actor's trade."
Here's a Bobby in rubber-soled
boots faily springing,
While cookey cor-rubberates
Robert's swing winging.
