too; but I make little account of you. | ful, and the ludicrous, and incredible, You might just as well have been brought which melted all sterner feelings. The up in my shop or in trade. But there's idea that Janet might be my lady filled something about Paul, mind you, that's him with a subdued pleasure and amusewhere it is; he's got that grand air, and ment, and a subtle pride which veiled that hot-headed way. I hate social dis- itself in the humor of the notion. It tinctions, but he's above them. The made him smile in spite of himself. As power of money is to me like a horrible for Fairfax, this had so completely taken monster, but he scorns it. Do you see his breath away that he seemed beyond what I mean? A man like me, he rea- the power of speech, and Spears went on sons it all out, he sees the harm of it, and musingly for a minute or two walking bethe devilry of it, and it fires his blood. side him, his active thoughts lulled by But Paul, he holds his head in the air, the fantastic pleasure of that vision, and and treats it like the dirt below his feet. the smile still lingered about his closelyThat's fire that takes hold of the imag- sharp lips. At last he started from the ination. I don't mean to hurt your feel weakness of this reverie. ings, Fairfax," said Spears, giving him another friendly tap on the shoulder, "but you're just a careless fellow, one thing doesn't matter more than another to you." "Quite true. I am not offended," said Fairfax, laughing. "You discriminate very well, Spears, as you always do." "Yes, I suppose I have a knack that way," said the demagogue, simply. "I shouldn't wonder," he added, "though it is not a subject that a man can question his daughter about, that it was just the same thing that attracted my girl." "There is to be a meeting to-night," he said, "down in one of these streets, and I am going to give them an address. I've got the name of the street here in my pocket and the house and all that if you like to come." Certainly I will come," said Fairfax with alacrity. He had not much to occupy his evenings, and he took a kind of careless, speculative interest, not like Paul's impassioned adoption of the scheme and all its issues, in Spears's political crusade. The demagogue patted him on the shoulders once more as he left him. He had always half patronized, half stood in awe of Fairfax, whose careless humor sometimes threw a passing light of ridicule even on the cause. "If Fairfax turned round upon him with quick surprise; he had not heard anything about Janet. "What!" he said, "has Markham- "and then paused; for Spears, though indulgent to freedom of speech, was in this one point a danger- you see Markham, bring him along with ous person to meddle with. He turned you, and tell him I must understand what round, with all the force of his rugged he means," he said. features and broad shoulders, and looked the questioner in the face. "Yes," he said, "Markham has a fancy for my Janet. There is nothing very wonderful in that. His mother tried to persuade me that this was the entire cause of his devotion to my principles and me. But that is a way women have. They think nothing comparable to their own influence. He satisfied me as to that. Yes," said Spears, with a softened, meditative tone, "that is the secondary motive I spoke of; and, to tell the truth, when I heard of the old fellow's death I was sorry. I said to myself, the girl will never be able to resist the temptation of being my lady.”” A smile began to creep about the corners of his mouth. For himself, it is very likely that Spears would have had virtue enough to carry out his own prin. ciples and resist all bribes of rank had they been thrown in his way, but he contemplated the possible elevation of his child with a tender sense of the wonder But Fairfax did not see Paul again. He did not indeed put himself in the way of Paul, though his mind was full of him, for the rest of the day. Janet Spears was a new complication in Paul's way; The whole situation was dreary and hopeless enough. His position as head of the house and the family, his importance, his wealth, his power of influencing others, all taken from him in a day, and Spears's daughter - Janet Spears hung round his neck like a millstone. Paul! of all men in the world to get into such a vulgar complication, Paul was about the last. And yet there could be no mistake about it. Fairfax, who honestly felt himself Paul's inferior in everything, heard this news with the wondering dismay of one whose own thoughts had taken a direction as much above him (he thought) as the others were beneath him. With a painful flush of bewilderment, he thought of himself floated up into regions above himself into a different atmosphere, another world, by means of the woman who had been Paul's companion all his life, and Paul- He had heard of such things; of men falling into the mire out of the purest places, of rebellions from the best to the worst. They were common enough. But that it should be Paul! even by the usual glass globe. There was a constant shuffling of feet, a murmur of conversation, sometimes the joke of a privileged wit whispered about with earthquakes of suppressed laughter. For the men, on the whole, suppressed themselves with the sense of the dignity of a meeting and the expectation of Spears's address. "He's a fellow from the north, ain't he?" Fairfax heard one man say. "No, he's a miner fellow." "He's one of the cotton - spinners." While another added authoritatively, "None of you know anything about it. It's Spears the delegate. He's been sent about all over the place. There's been some talk of sending him to Parliament." "Parliament, I put no faith in Parliament." "No more do I." "Nor I," the men said. "And yet," said the first speaker, "we've got no chance of getting our rights till they've got a lot like him there." When evening came he took his way to the crowded quarter where he had met Spears, and to the meeting which was held in a back room in an unsavory street. It had begun to rain, the air was wet and warm, the streets muddy, the floor of the room black and stained with many footsteps. There was a number of men packed together in a comparatively small space, which soon became almost insupportable with the flaring gas-lights, the odor from their damp clothes, and their breaths. At one end of it were a few men seated round a table, Spears among them. Fairfax could only get in at the other end, and close to the door, | which was the saving of him. He exer- At this moment one of the men at the cised politeness at a cheap cost by let- table rose, and there was instant silence. ting everybody who came penetrate fur- The lights flared, the rain rained outside ther than he. Some of the men looked with a persistent swish upon the paveat him with suspicion. He had kept on ment, the restless feet shuffled upon the his morning dress, but even that was very floor, but otherwise there was not a sound different from the clothes they wore. to interrupt the stillness. This was They were not very penetrating in re- somewhat tried, however, by the reading spect to looks, and some of them thought of a report still very like a missionary him a policeman in plain clothes. This report in a parish meeting. There was a was not a comfortable notion among a good deal about an S. C. and an L. M. number of hot-blooded men. Fairfax, who had been led to think of higher prinhowever, soon became too much inter- ciples of political morality by the action of ested in the proceedings to observe the the society, and who had now finally looks that were directed to himself. given in their adhesion. The meeting There was a good deal of commonplace greeted the announcement of these new business to be gone through first- small members by knocking with their bootsubscriptions to pay, some of which were heels upon the floor. Then some weekly; little books to produce, with else got up and said that the prospects of little sums marked; reports to be given the society were most hopeful, and that in, or here and there a wavering member, the conversion of S. C. and L. M. was a falling back into the world, a new con- only an earnest of what was to come. vert. It looked to Fairfax at first like a Soon the whole mass of the working parochial meeting about the little chari- classes, as already its highest intelligence, ties of the parish, the schools, and the would be with them. The meeting again almshouses. Perhaps organization of applauded this "highest intelligence. any kind has its inherent vulgarities. They felt it in themselves, and they liked This movement felt grand, heroic, to the the compliment. "Mr. Spears will now men engaged in it, how much above the address the meeting," the last speaker curate and his pennies who could say; said, and then this confused part of the but it seemed inevitable that it should proceeding came to an end, and everybegin in the same way. The walls were thing became clear again when Spears roughly plastered and washed with a spoke. dingy tone of color. The men sat on benches which were very uncomfortable, and showed all the independent curves of backs which toil had not straightened, the rough heads and dingy clothes. Over all this the gas flickered, unmitigated one And yet Fairfax thought, looking on, it was by no means clear what Spears wanted, or wished to persuade the others that they wanted. Very soon, however, he secured their attention, which was one great point, the very feet got disciplined I SE into quiet, and when a late member came | adorned with full-length portraits of threedown the long passage which led straight headed gods and mythic heroes in strange into this room, there was a universal attire. Three uprights one of them a murmur and hush as he bustled in. growing tree-on either side the stage, sustained the "foot-lights". - some twenty kerosene lamps. The auditorium had been excavated from the sand in the form of an amphiFrom Macmillan's Magazine. "CYMBELINE” IN A HINDOO PLAYHOUSE. below the level of the stage. The auditheatre, sloping downwards to three feet THE festivities at Baroda in celebration ence, about five hundred Hindus, men and of the marriages of H. H. the Gaikwar children (ladies seldom appear in such to a Tanjore princess, and his sister, Tara public places *), sat in semicircular rows, Bai, to the Prince of Savantwari, have the first two classes on chairs and couchbeen carried out on a scale of magnifies, and the third on benches, while the cence unusual even in ceremonious India. fourth squatted placidly on the ground. For a month there was nothing but amuse- Although the assembly was essentially ment; business stood still; the schools Hindu, one only heard Guzerathi and Mawere closed; rajahs and sirdars assem- rathi spoken in the back rows, English bled from all parts to honor the solemnities, and many English visitors enjoyed the hospitality of H. H. the Maharani Jamna Bai Saheb. Nor was there any ĺack of variety: illuminations, fêtes, shows, fireworks, durbars, reviews, hunt ing expeditions, picnics, balls, nautches, banquets, and similar támashas (amusements), varied the monotony of station life. Besides the performers hired for the occasion, the festivities attracted to Baroda many itinerant artists: jugglers, snake-charmers, dancers, acrobats, and, not the least interesting, a company of strolling players. Through the kindness of an Indian gentleman, I was enabled to be present at several distinctively native_támashas, not witnessed usually by Europeans. One evening my friendly "intelligencer" wrote: being evidently the fashionable language amongst the occupants of the front seats. Like an English audience, they did not appear at all averse to chaff, and considerable merriment at the expense of an eminent physician (who sat next me) arose, when the Master Doctor Cornelius appeared in Act i., sc. 6, and still more when some wag happened to discover a likeness between old Belarius and a grey. bearded "party" in the second seats. The prominent rôle played by oranges in a British pit was here taken by pan sopari-all the audience, and most of the actors (especially Imogen !) chewing betel-nut vigorously throughout the whole performance. Moreshvar Mahajani, M.A., head master of the Umraoti High School. From the playbill, printed in Marathi, I learned that the actors belonged to the Itchal Karanjikar Company (deriving the name apparently from Itchal Karanji in the southern Mahratta country); and that "The Tara,' an adaptation in Marathi" Tara" had been translated by Vishnu of Shakespeare's Cymbeline,' will be acted in the theatre-house to-night at nine. The fees for admission are, two rupees per seat for the first class, one rupee for the second, eight annas for the third, and four annas for the fourth." Accordingly, provided with the needful rupees and a note-book, I arrived at the theatre at nine punctually. The performance had not begun, so I had time to make a careful survey of the situation. The theatre was a temporary structure of bamboo-poles and canvas. The stage, a whitewashed sandbank forming an oval about three feet in height, twenty feet in breadth, and forty feet in depth, was partly concealed behind a drop-curtain, on which an elephant and tiger fight was depicted, and by a proscenium of canvas, These bills, distributed gratuitously, contained a full outline of the plot. Except that the names of persons and places, and literary allusions, have been Indianized, the adapter has closely followed his | English original. The anachronism of having modern Italians in ancient Rome is got rid of by the cities being made fictitious. Britain has become Suvarnapuri (golden city), and Italy, Vijaipura (land of fame). The chief characters are named: The following extract from the play-bill points a moral: Respectable ladies Naikin wa Kasbin (i.e. disreputable ditto) 4 annas. 8 66 The spectators had no reason to complain of not getting their full money's worth, as the performance lasted for five hours and three-quarters! (9.10 P.M. to 2.55 A.M.) overture her shoulders, and displayed in fan-shape The goddess danced a swift, spasmodic Thus, as amongst other Aryan nations, the religious origin of the drama is indicated. This overture, traditional from the earliest times, and slightly varied sometimes by the introduction of the Sutradhar's wife, is the indispensable preliminary to an Indian theatrical performance. As The play proper now began. I must mention, however, one striking At ten minutes past nine the manager of the company, the leader of the chorus, in Marathi sutradhár (coryphæus), two other singers, a couple of musicians playing a satar (cithana), and a tabla (tabor, It would have been difficult for any tomtom), came before the curtain, and the actress to have given with more womanly a hymn to the god Narayen feeling, or with a sadder and more pleadthat the play might be successful-be-ing voice, the rendering of the part of gan. The manager led the choric music, "Tara" which I saw. an excruciating performance, to my pro- The audience must have been profane ears sounding most like an unavail-foundly touched by the manner in which ing attempt to smother the squeals of two it was played, for in the cave scene, where babies with the din of a bagpipe and a Imogen lay seemingly dead, and was betin kettle. wailed by the two boys, many of the spectators brushed aside their tears, while one old rajah fairly blubbered outright! After a few minutes, however, Silence, like a poultice, came The and but only for a moment's space. Ganpati directed the manager to sing in praise of Sarasvati (goddess of learning and the arts), and after the song a flash of stage-lightning announced the acceptance of the prayer. Sarasvati, dressed in gold brocade, a peacock's head and neck projecting from her girdle, the tail-feathers fastened to Much of this was no doubt a tribute to the original pathos of the character, but some share of credit for so powerfully exciting the emotion of pity must be given to the young actor himself. Imogen (Tara, i.e. Star) being the central figure of the play, the adapter judiciously departs from his original in giving her name to the piece. He has shown equal discrimination in cutting out the whole of that most un-Shakespearian vision in Act v., his deus ex machina being supplied by a voice from behind the scene. With less pleasing effect to one familiar with the English play, the famous dirge: "Fear no more the heat o' the sun," has been replaced by a long disquisition from old Belarius on the doctrine of metempsychosis. The adapter has made the king a ludicrously contemptible personage, lorded over and bullied by his masculine queen. His uxoriousness, and especially his lamentations for his dear departed consort te TH 221 1 25 99 in the last scene, appeared to afford in-| finite amusement to the audience, henpecked husbands being no rarities in the East, despite the zenana system. The soothsayer in Act v. was replaced by a Brahmin astrologer, who promised victory to Iachimo's side if they took care to give the Brahmins a feed. The part of Cloten has also undergone Indians being very little accustomed to considerable modification, and has been sit on chairs, the actors seemed never made more despicably idiotic. His ab- comfortable when doing so the men surdities were greatly heightened by the generally sat cross-legged, and the ladies, actor, who-though rather too conscious Imogen and the queen, invariably placed of his own comicalities, and speaking too one foot on the chair, and tucked the knee manifestly at the audience. -stuttered under the chin in a manner more sugin a manner that greatly tickled his hear-gestive of comfort than elegance. The ers. In Act ii., sc. 3, where the musician players seemed to be most at ease when is asked to sing a "very excellent good standing erect and motionless. They conceited thing," Cloten provoked roars used very little gesture, their action being of applause by his instructions to the declamatory rather than demonstrative. musician, and his preference for a song in There was no ranting or raving, and even which the musician burlesqued classical Posthumus, in his most infuriated tirades, music. The fight between Cloten and maintained complete repose of body. The Guiderius was made very absurd by Clo- defect of gesture was hardly compenten's attempts, and his appeal to Guide- sated for by the very artistic groupings rius for help to draw his sword from its of the characters in each scene, and the sheath. The sword-play would have as-by-play was not always sufficiently distonished Mr. Irving. The combatants, tinct. As on the Elizabethan stage, the making no attempt at defence, and never scenery and stage accessories were of allowing the swords to clash, danced the simplest description, but the costumes round and struck each other alternately were extremely rich and beautiful. Two with the flat of the blades on their lumbar scenes, one, the exterior of an Indian regions! Finally, Cloten was driven off, house, the other, three palm-trees to rephis turban, which had belonged to Post-resent the forest, and half-a-dozen common humus, falling on the ground. This tur- chairs, completed the stock of "properban, and not the headless body, is seen ties." by Tara, and recognized as her husband's. It should be noted also that, widows not remarrying as a rule in India, Cloten is made the queen's nephew, instead of being her "son by a former husband." The dresses, however, deserve description by the court newsman's abler pen. The scene being laid in India, the costumes were strictly Oriental. Imogen wore the ordinary "full dress" of a MaraIn reading the English play, I have tha lady. dark green sari with gold always felt that there was something con- edges, golden armlets, and earrings. Her temptible about Posthumus, and I was face was fair as any English maiden's, and given the same impression of that char- her cheeks bloomed with very conspicuacter by the Marathi version. The actor, ous rouge. Unfortunately, she had not too, had hardly enough "presence to taken the precaution of whitening her dignify the part. The audience seemed arms to match her face, and the contrast rather horrified at the love-scenes between was rather marked when she lifted her Imogen and Posthumus, for the well-nut-brown hand, as she frequently had regulated Indian wife, so far from run- occasion to do, to adjust the cumbersome ning to embrace her husband, usually pearl ornaments which adorned (?) her veils her face at his approach, ventures perhaps to peep timidly towards him from beneath the folds of her sari, but takes refuge in a corner if her lord becomes at all demonstrative in his affection. On the other hand, the spectators expressed loudly their warm approval of the womenhating sentiments uttered by Posthumus ein Act ii., sc. 4-but then, their wives were not present! lily-white nose. A dab of red paint on her forehead, and a large "bob" of black hair projecting from the back of her head, completed the picture. The rani (queen) was similarly attired in a sari of gold tissue. Posthumus wore a red velvet jacket and red turban, and Iachimo was gorgeously arrayed in white and gold turban, and tunic of black velvet with gold embroidery. All the gentlemen carried swords. When the scene was supposed to represent the interior of a house, the performers wore no sandals on their feet. |