FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   516   517   518   519   520   521   522   523   524   525   526   527   528   529   530   531   532   533   534   535   536   537   538   539   540  
541   542   543   544   545   546   547   548   549   550   551   552   553   554   555   556   557   558   559   560   561   562   563   564   565   >>   >|  
et ready for the second charade-tableau. The three syllables of this charade were to be depicted in pantomime, and the performance took place in the following wise: First syllable. Colonel Rawdon Crawley, C.B., with a slouched hat and a staff, a great-coat, and a lantern borrowed from the stables, passed across the stage bawling out, as if warning the inhabitants of the hour. In the lower window are seen two bagmen playing apparently at the game of cribbage, over which they yawn much. To them enters one looking like Boots (the Honourable G. Ringwood), which character the young gentleman performed to perfection, and divests them of their lower coverings; and presently Chambermaid (the Right Honourable Lord Southdown) with two candlesticks, and a warming-pan. She ascends to the upper apartment and warms the bed. She uses the warming-pan as a weapon wherewith she wards off the attention of the bagmen. She exits. They put on their night-caps and pull down the blinds. Boots comes out and closes the shutters of the ground-floor chamber. You hear him bolting and chaining the door within. All the lights go out. The music plays Dormez, dormez, chers Amours. A voice from behind the curtain says, "First syllable." Second syllable. The lamps are lighted up all of a sudden. The music plays the old air from John of Paris, Ah quel plaisir d'etre en voyage. It is the same scene. Between the first and second floors of the house represented, you behold a sign on which the Steyne arms are painted. All the bells are ringing all over the house. In the lower apartment you see a man with a long slip of paper presenting it to another, who shakes his fists, threatens and vows that it is monstrous. "Ostler, bring round my gig," cries another at the door. He chucks Chambermaid (the Right Honourable Lord Southdown) under the chin; she seems to deplore his absence, as Calypso did that of that other eminent traveller Ulysses. Boots (the Honourable G. Ringwood) passes with a wooden box, containing silver flagons, and cries "Pots" with such exquisite humour and naturalness that the whole house rings with applause, and a bouquet is thrown to him. Crack, crack, crack, go the whips. Landlord, chambermaid, waiter rush to the door, but just as some distinguished guest is arriving, the curtains close, and the invisible theatrical manager cries out "Second syllable." "I think it must be 'Hotel,'" says Captain Grigg of the Life Guards;
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   516   517   518   519   520   521   522   523   524   525   526   527   528   529   530   531   532   533   534   535   536   537   538   539   540  
541   542   543   544   545   546   547   548   549   550   551   552   553   554   555   556   557   558   559   560   561   562   563   564   565   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
syllable
 

Honourable

 

warming

 

Chambermaid

 

Second

 

Southdown

 

apartment

 
Ringwood
 

charade

 
bagmen

Ostler

 

monstrous

 

threatens

 

shakes

 

voyage

 
Between
 

plaisir

 
floors
 

ringing

 

behold


represented

 
Steyne
 

painted

 

presenting

 

deplore

 

distinguished

 

waiter

 
chambermaid
 

thrown

 

bouquet


Landlord
 

arriving

 
curtains
 

Captain

 

Guards

 

invisible

 

theatrical

 

manager

 

applause

 

absence


Calypso

 

eminent

 

chucks

 
traveller
 
Ulysses
 

exquisite

 
humour
 

naturalness

 

flagons

 

wooden