John Leech, His Life and Work Volume I Part 9

[Ill.u.s.tration: "IN THE CONSERVATORY."]

It would be a grave omission if "The Belle of the Evening" were left out of these extracts from the "Physiology of Evening Parties." Let me present her, then. Now listen to the flourish with which the author introduces her:

"Room for beauty! The belle of the evening claims our next attention, the lovely dark-eyed girl so plainly yet so elegantly dressed, who wears her hair in simple bands over her fair forehead, unenc.u.mbered by flower or ornament of any kind, and moves in the light of her own beauty as the presiding G.o.ddess of the room, imparting fragrance to the enamoured air that plays around her!"

[Ill.u.s.tration: "THE BELLE OF THE EVENING."]

Rather tall talk, this, but excusable, perhaps, as applied to the lovely creature Leech has drawn for us.

I feel I cannot close these extracts more appropriately than by allowing Mr. Ledbury to appear again at the moment of his departure from a scene in which he has so distinguished himself by his conversational, as well as by his terpsich.o.r.ean, powers. He was destined to be guilty of one more folly--that of thinking he had but to ask for his hat to get it.

[Ill.u.s.tration: "MR. LEDBURY'S HAT."]

"He walks downstairs," says Mr. Smith, "under the insane expectation of finding his own hat, or madly deeming that the ticket pinned upon it corresponds with the one in his waistcoat pocket."

Here I take my leave of "The Physiology of Evening Parties" in presenting my reader with this charming little drawing, in which one scarcely knows which to admire most--the bewildered expression of Mr.

Ledbury as he ruefully contemplates the rim of his hat, or the sympathetic, half-laughing face of the perfect little maid. The artistic qualities of this ill.u.s.tration are excellent. I say good-bye to "Evening Parties" only to meet Mr. Albert Smith again in a work by him called "Comic Tales and Pictures of Life," published, I think, about the time of the "Evening Parties," or perhaps earlier, for the ill.u.s.trations are, on the whole, inferior to those in the latter production. The work under notice is composed of a series of short stories, in which love, comedy, and deep tragedy play alternate parts. Leech's attention is mainly devoted to the comic scenes.

We are told of a Mr. Percival Jenks, whose frequent visits to the theatre have led to the loss of his heart to a beauteous ballet-girl.

"The third ballet-girl from the left-hand stage-box, with the golden belt and green wreath, in the Pas des Guirlandes, or lyres, or umbrellas, or something of the kind, had enslaved his susceptible affections."

[Ill.u.s.tration: "MR. PERCIVAL JENKS."]

No one knew who Mr. Jenks was, or what he was. Even his landlady's information about him was confined to the idea that he was "something in a house in the City." That idea proved to be well founded, for Mr. J.

was discovered by the head-clerk at the house in the City, spoiling blotting-paper by drawing little opera-dancers all over it; thus neglecting his accounts, which he had to "stay two hours after time to make up. At half price, nevertheless, he was at the play again, his whole existence centred on an airy compound of clear muslin and white satin that was twirling about the stage." Mr. Jenks burned to know his enslaver's name with a view to an introduction; and for that purpose he haunted the stage-door, but utterly failed to recognise, amongst the faded cloaks, and drabby bonnets that issued from that portal, the angelic form of his charmer. He then took to haunting the places where minor actors and other employes of the theatre most do congregate for the purpose of social intercourse and refreshment; here at last he is rewarded.

"Do you know the young lady," he says to a habitue, "who dances in the ballet with a green wreath round her head?"

"And a gilt belt round her waist?" asked the friend in turn. "Oh, it's Miss--Miss--I shall forget my own name next."

Percival was about to suggest Rosiere, Celeste, Amadee, and other pretty cognomens, when his companion caught the name, and exclaimed:

"Miss Jukes; I thought I should recollect it."

The name certainly was not what Percival had expected; still, what was in a name? Jenks was not poetical, and Jukes was something like it.

"Could you favour me with an introduction to her?" he asked.

"In a minute, if you wish it," replied his companion.

"You know her intimately then?"

"Very; I buy all my green-grocery of her."

The introduction takes place. Gracious powers! how a minute broke the enchantment of many weeks! "The nymph of the Danube was habited in a faded green cloak and straw bonnet, with limp and half-bleached pink ribbons clinging to its form. Her pallid and almost doughy face was deeply pitted with smallpox; her skin was rough from the constant layers of red and white paint it had to endure," etc., etc. He fell back with a convulsive start.

From internal evidence I find the date of "Comic Tales," etc., to be 1841, contemporary, therefore, with the establishment of _Punch_. There is a drawing of so pretty a conceit as to warrant my selecting it, though artistically it is inferior to Leech's work even at that time.

The drawing heads a paper ent.i.tled "Speculations on Marriage and Young Ladies," and as it tells its own story, quotation from Mr. Smith is needless.

In one amusing paper in "Comic Tales," the author treats us to "an Act for amending the representation of certain public sights, termed equestrian spectacles, in the habit of being represented at a favourite place of resort, termed the Royal Amphitheatre, Westminster Bridge." The paper is framed in the form of an Act of Parliament, and the author forbids the use of ancient jokes or stereotyped phrases in a very humorous manner.

"Be it enacted," he announces, after condemning a variety of objectionable practices, "that the clown shall not, after the first equestrian feat, exclaim: 'Now I'll have a turn to myself!' previous to his toppling like a coach-wheel round the ring; nor shall he fall flat on his face, and then collecting some sawdust in his hand, drop it down from the level of his head, and say his nose bleeds; nor shall he attempt to make the rope-dancers' balance-pole stand on its end by propping it up with the said sawdust; nor shall he, after chalking the performers' shoes, conclude by chalking his own nose, to prevent his foot slipping when he treads upon it; nor shall he pick up a small piece of straw, for fear he should fall over it, and afterwards balance the said straw on his chin as he runs about; neither shall the master of the ring say to the clown, when they are leaving the circus: 'I never follow the fool, sir!' nor shall the fool reply: 'Then I do!' and walk out after him."

I would draw attention to the figure of the clown in this cut, which is simply perfect in expression and character. The affected strut of the ring-master also is admirably caught.

A paper on Christmas pantomimes is ill.u.s.trated by such a perfect clown that I cannot resist my inclination to present him to my readers.

[Ill.u.s.tration: CLOWN: "Oh, see what I've found!"]

"Comic Tales and Pictures of Life" contains, at least, one drawing that is equal to Leech at his best. The cut ill.u.s.trates an article on "Delightful People," a short essay, amusing enough.

[Ill.u.s.tration: "MISS CINTHIA SINGS."]

Music, whether performed by the band or by musical guests, is an important factor in an evening party. Mr. Albert Smith tells us that "a lady of his acquaintance" had secured those "Delightful People, the Lawsons," for a large evening party she was about to give; and after lauding the charming qualities of Mr. and Mrs. Lawson, she put a final touch to the Lawson attractions by informing her friend that their daughter, Miss Cinthia Lawson, was not only a delightful girl, but that "she sings better than anyone you ever heard in private." In the interval of dancing Cinthia sings. "The young lady now dressed in plain white robes, with her hair smoothed very flat round her head _a la Grisi_, whom she thought she resembled both in style of singing and features, and consequently studied all her att.i.tudes from the clever Italian's impersonation of Norma.... At last the lady begun a _bravura_ upon such a high note, and so powerful, that some impudent fellows in the square, who were pa.s.sing at the moment, sang out 'Vari-e-ty' in reply. Presently, a young gentleman, who was standing at her side, chanced to turn over too soon, whereupon she gave him _such_ a look, that, if he had entertained any thoughts of proposing, would effectually have stopped any such rash proceeding; but her equanimity was soon restored, and she went through the aria in most dashing style until she came to the last note, whose appearance she heralded with a _roulade_ of wonderful execution."

I remember Grisi, and I cannot share Miss Lawson's conviction of her resemblance to that great singer--personal resemblance, I mean--and, in all probability, she had as feeble a claim to an equality of genius; but that she had a powerful voice, and that she gave it full effect, is evident by Leech's perfect rendering of that wonderful mouth, from which one can almost hear the _roulade_. All the lines of the figure, with the movement of the hands, and the backward action of the singer, are true to Nature. The a.s.sistant at the music-book and the stolid old gentleman are also excellent.

With this, the best of the drawings in "Comic Tales," I take my leave of the book.

CHAPTER VI.

JOHN LEECH AND THE ETON BOY.

I had been told that a friend whose acquaintance I made many years ago was in possession of some correspondence with Leech of considerable interest. I wrote to him on the subject, and received the following reply:

"DEAR MR. FRITH,

"I had intended waiting till my return to town to see whether I could find John Leech's letters before writing to you; but as you ask for the story, here it is, to the best of my recollection, and it is heartily at your service. When I was a boy at Eton I sent to _Punch_ an incident which happened at a dance. Young Oxford complaining to his partner of the dearth of 'female society' at the University, she retorts, 'What a pity you didn't go to a girls' school instead!' Its appearance beneath an ill.u.s.tration of Leech's caused great excitement in our house at Eton, and as great tales of Mr. Punch's liberality were current--as, for example, that the sender of the advice 'To persons about to marry--_don't_,' had received 100--I began to look anxiously for some tip for my contribution. An enterprising pal said, 'It's a beastly shame; and if you'll go halves, I'll write to _Punch_ and wake 'em up.'

This speedily resulted in the receipt of a post-office order for two guineas from John Leech, accompanied by a rather dry note, to the effect that Mr. Punch considered that he had already done enough in providing an original ill.u.s.tration to my joke. I was indignant, and wrote back to Leech returning the money, but he would not hear of this. He told me I could buy gloves with the money for the young lady if I liked--which I am afraid I didn't. Several kind letters from him followed, with an invitation, gladly accepted, to call and see him in the holidays, and a present, which I still treasure, of two volumes of his 'Life and Character.'

[Ill.u.s.tration: "DREADFUL FOR YOUNG OXFORD."

LADY: "Are you at Eton?"

YOUNG OXFORD: "Aw, no! I'm at Oxford."

LADY: "Oxford! Rather a nice place, is it not?"

YOUNG OXFORD: "Hum!--haw! pretty well; but then I can't get on without female society!"

LADY: "Dear! dear! pity you don't go to a girls' school, then!"]

"At the time I remember my schoolfellows considered me a born caricaturist, an opinion I naturally shared. Leech was most indulgent to my early efforts--gave me some wood-blocks to work upon, and encouraged me to persevere, which, alas! I have not done, etc.

"Yours truly."