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DIDASCALIA.

COVENT GARDEN, DRURY LANE,
HAYMARKET.

The winter theatres have opened their campaign, and but for the non-arrival of Pope the actor, the metropolis was to have been treated (gentle reader !) with that famous piece of pantominic mummery-the joint effusion of German Kotzebue and English Sheridan,PIZARRO!-as a fit and proper play for the opening of Covent Garden theatre, in these awful and afflicting times!-However, Macbeth,-Ilear this, ye admirers of one of Shakespeare's sublimest productions-Macbeth, was deemed no unworthy substitute for ponderous Pizarro !

At length the great actor arriving, the public were favoured with a representation, on Monday, Sept. 19, of the Germanico-Anglican performance; chosen, we suppose, to insult the Spanish Deputies now in London, and their intrepid countrymen who are fighting for themselves, for England, and for the whole civilized world !-It must be acknowledged, that the managers, and their whole corps, could not have selected a better piece for this purpose than one which exhibits the most atrocious incident of Spanish history!

of hospitality and politeness, so vilely out,
raged, and we do hope that the Spanish no-
blemen, who are here upon mission, will not
consider this idioci as the act of the people,
but solely of the managers and the play actors.
We beg of them to believe that we revere as
we ought the duties of hospitality, and that
we hail them and their noble countrymen,

To the dignity and height of fortune,
The high imperial type of this earth's glory!

The benediction of these covering heavens
Fall on their heads like dew!.. for they are worthy
To inlay Heaven with stars!

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Forty years ago no manager would have dared to have thus insulted the public feelings-Garrick would have shuddered at the idea of intruding his own individual opinion in such a case against the united voice of the metropolis, if he had even been so obstinate and base as to have entertained an opinion against, not the metropolis of England alone, but of the world, who are looking up to us for examples.-Do our dramatic caterers think that performances against the allies of the Corsican would be tolerated in Paris?For the solution of such a question, we advise our theatrical gentlemen and ladies to look at Buonaparte's inflexible Police of the It is strange that the directors of our na- Theatres, inserted in Panorama, Vol. III. p. tional theatres, should be so deficient in pa- 181, Vol. IV. p. 581, and as they have a triotism, or so destitute of common sense, as happy knack at quotation, we recommend to present pieces whose direct tendency is in to them Sterne's remark, they order these complete opposition to the wishes of the things better in France." Napoleon is deterwhole nation-so that, while our good old mined to make his companies behave with King, and his ministers, are sending our propriety and decorca, er, he scourges and regular soldiers, pecuniary supplies, and assist-imprisons them. Though formerly they were ance of all kinds, out of the country, while his patrons, yet he will not spare them; not they are straining every nerve to assist the no- will he allow the managers to perform pieces, ble minded Spaniards, with the enthusiastic that may contribute to lower the public spiapprobation of all, and while we are depend-rit; if they play those tricks with him, off ing on the protection of our Volunteers, the theatres Royal, Drury Lane, Covent Garden, and suffocating Haymarket, are either ridiculing the one or consigning to execration the other. [Compare Panorama, Vol. IV., pp. 516, 713, 923.] If our immortal bard were living to witness such anti-patriotic exertions, would he describe, "the players as the brief chronicles of the times?" Would he not coincide with a late writer, who tells us that the players form a mixture of baseness, dissimulation, ridiculous pride, and a littleness which fits them to represent every kind of personage, except the noblest of all, THAT OF MAN!". (Panorama, Vol. IV. p. 696.) If the Spaniards have heretofore committed excesses in the New World, is this the time to tell their Representatives of it, when they are seeking our protection, and making common cause with us, for the sole purpose of saving the Old?-Truly, we feel for our country, and we feel for the laws

they march to the prisons of la Force or St. Lazare !-For it cannot be too often repeated, that the players of Paris, to our own knowledge, were the ringleaders of the greatest atrocities during the revolution: this Buonaparte well knows; he was then a subaltern; and his experience justifies him in saying,

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though you performed plays against the allies "of your King Louis XVI-you shall not "against MY allies!"-Verbum sat!

We have no authority for believing that Buonaparte has distributed any part of the plunder that has fallen into his hands by the fortune of war, among the chiefs of our national theatres; but this we know, that they could not choose plays more calculated to ob tain the favour of Buonaparte than Bonduca, Caractacus, the Critic, Pizarro, the Mayor of Garratt, &c. and we had hoped from what we had previously said on this subject that they would have presented the publie with something better than what would be

palatable to our enemies only. Animated, round sum; and, you know, we should supe

with these sentiments, as we not only confess, but even boast, we attended the representation of the wonderful Pizarro, and rejoice to say that it went off very flat.-Mr. John Kemble, the Manager, seemingly, by the languor of his performance, felt that he was doing wrong, even Rolla's clap-trap speech had but a faint effect.—Mr, C. Kemble was insipidity itself, nor could his distracted Cora, nor the consideration of his being a noble, heroie Spaniard, deliver him from the frozen ardour of German dulness. Mrs. Siddons was certainly very impressive; but her abilities are too eminent to set off such trash as Pizarro's kept mistress. The audience seemed so strongly impressed with a conviction of the impropriety of playing this piece, that instead of enthusi asm, it created general disgust.

These thoughts were committed to paper, before we had received the slightest information of the destruction that has befallen the property of this theatre: a truly distressing catastrophe indeed! This melancholy even shall restrain our further remarks, and we conclude by saying, that the manager, we understand, was warned in explicit terms of the impropriety of his designs; and that he had letters from various quarters requesting him to abandon his intention of presenting Pizarro, at the present juncture.

But, with a more general reference to the subject we might ask, what there is in this so wonderfully favourite Pizarro, that should induce a manager to stem the tide of Liberty, Loyalty, and Patriotism, in order to force it on the Public? By the help of the Scene-painter and costly decorations, indeed, it furnishes a spectacle; and if it had been written-we mean

translated-assembled-compiled-put together-by the Machinist of the theatre, we should have thought him deserving of the praise due to the author of a splendid Pantomine. We know that, on the first perforinance of this piece at Drury Lane theatre, the editors of the diurnal prints universally condemned it as a most flagrant imposition on the good sense of the public. They mutually expressed this opinion to each other in the lobby: it was trash,-mummery-shocking staff-a splendid exhibition, fine scenery, fine music, but as for literary merit, it possessed none;-" very true, egad," says one, "but we must be favourable; for, you know, our friend SHERRY, has had a hand in it." Sher rya hand in it!"—said another who passed for a wit; "that's impossible! The author of the Rivals, the School for Scandal, and the Critic, have a hand in Pizarro, that's impossible! besides he's too lazy; no, no, you mean a certain somebody has put his foot in it. However, we must do what we can for it, as well on his account as for the house; for the spectacle, must have cost them a good

port the managers!"-This conversatione euded in an agreement to puff this wretched production as a chef-d'œuvre of literature, taste, elegance and patriotism over the four quarters of the world.-Alas! alas! that it should now be the delight of our enemies only, and the bye word to taunt our heroic allies with!We may add to this opinion of these conscious but not conscientious Editors, the sarcasm with which the late Charles James Fox honoured Mr. Sheridan, on the subject of Pizar ro. Certainly that gentleman was a compe tept judge of dramatic merit: and he, after learning particulars as to the success of the piece, replied, "I tell you what, Sherry,

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make such another successful piece, and your reputation, as a writer, will be ruined!"

CONSIDERATIONS

ON THE NECESSITY OF EASY EGRESS FROM PLACES OF PUBLIC RESORT.

What is the nature of that kind of presentiment which sometimes anticipates events with a sensation too strong to be repressed? Is it the result of past ideas revived by accidental association with present objects? or is it a feeble whisper of that prophetic voice with which our nature is endowed,

"Did not this muddy vesture of decay

So grossly close us in we cannot hear it?" However this may be, we speak but too feelingly when we describe our uneasiness as extreme during the whole of the representation of Pizarro, at Covent Garden theatre, as already noticed. When seated in the critical station, the pit, struck with the question which we happened to ask ourselves :-By what ways could this numerous asseinbly escape, in case of an accident?-we cast our eyes around, and could discover nothing but narrow doors scarcely adequate to the purposes of a common dwelling house, and leading to passages so narrow and so winding, that inevitable confusion, and consequently inevitable destruction to an incalculable ex-1 tent, must have ensued. Amidst all the sympathy, then, that we feel for what has happened, we are thankful to Providence that the awful calamity which has visited this theatre, did not happen while the house was crowded. The loss of fifty valuable lives is a subject of unfeigned regret, and sorrow, but the same cause a few hours carlier must, speaking on human probabilities, must have cost ten times that number. What a dreadful

gloom would have overspread the city of London on the morning of that day which should announce the loss of fire hundred lives at the theatre, on the over-night! We shudder at the very idea, and the recollection of our personal disquiet gives additional strength to our

sensations.

but to insist, with all the urgency in our power, in the name of reason, common sense, humanity, policy, personal preservation, and every other inducement that can affect the public on one hand, or the manager on the other, that before a single stone of the foundation of any NEW THEATRE, or of other place of public resort be laid, that most scrupulous attention be paid to ample and effectual modes of exit, places by which company may retire, places to which company may retire: additional doors that may be readily opened when required, and that communicate with spaces capable of affording relief to a multitude, and of tranquillizing minds suffering under terror, or at least, under alarm. The new theatre should be instr ❘ited ;" and we insist that no door be suffered to open inwards only: but that the greatest solicitude be exercised to render them easy, and that the public be satisfied of this quality be ing completely annexed to them.

We had, on a former occasion, (vide Pancrama, Vol.III. p. 410,) the melancholy duty to perform of relating the disastrous event that took place at Sadler's Wells, and we then distinctly suggested* some of those principles that ought never to be lost sight of in constructing places of public resort. Happily our parish churches are mostly substantial buildings of stone: though some in the city are so closely connected with houses, to which | they adjoin, that should an auditory be under any inducement to press suddenly out of them, many lives must be lost before the mass of people could arrive at a space capable of containing them, But though our parish churches, for the greater part, may be safe, there are many chapels, meeting houses, assembly rooms, taverns, and other buildings, in which numbers of people meet, and where they remain together for some hours, which cannot be described as places of safety, in case of accident, to a numerous concourse of persons. The laws of our land take cog. nizance of the solidity of walls, and the scantling of timbers, in structures intended to contain great bodies of people: why shouldly they not also prescribe due attention, and make it imperative on some (the magistrates of a district, for instance) to see that equal attention be strictly enforced, to the local situation of such places: the leading avenues from the public streets to the number, size, and disposition of the doors, and to their facilities for ready and unencumbered exit. We say erit, because we have heretofore explained the difference between admission by twos and threes at most, and exit by as many hundreds, all intent on being foremost, at the same instant of time.

The result of our considerations is, not to accuse the managers of places already built, where no improvement REALLY can be made,

We do also censure in the severest terms, all chapels having but one door; or doors. at one end, or on one side, only : all assemblyrooms placed so high up in taverns, &c. that the company has several flights of stairs to descend before it can land on solid ground, on the level with the street: also, such as have only one staircase: for we have only to imagine the confusion attending any impedi ment to free passage at the bottom of the onway of egress, to perceive that a considerable portion of the company must be lost. The same precautions attach to provincial theatres, booths at fairs, and temporary erections of all kinds : but we are at this time most peculiarly affected by the recent event, the calamity of which will be felt for a long time to come, and we earnestly insist that Covent Garden Theatre be not suffered to be rebuilt, till every precaution has been taken, that art, and not only art, but good sense and enlightened understanding, can suggest.

TOTAL DESTRUCTION

OF COVENT-GARDEN THEATRE, BY FIRE.

The foregoing observations are introductory to a history of one of the most afflictive events of the kind, that London has witnessed for a We likewise hinted, in page 999 of the long series of years. Our memory indeed same volume, the absolute necessity of mak furnishes us with recollections of several theaing two additional central doors in the pit o tres consumed by conflagration, but no inCovent Garden theatre, to be opened only fortance in which the attendant circumstances departure from the theatre. were so extremely calamitous. Loss of

property, to whatever amount, may be replaced after a time: but loss of lives is irreparable. We have already stated the reflections that arose in our minds, on the evening of Monday, Sept. 19. while in the theatre at CoventGarden: Intle however, did we really, anticipate the melancholy incidents of a few hours.

About 4 o'clock, on the morning of Tuesday, a female servant, one of those who reside in the theatre, awoke Mr. Hughes, the treasurer, who inhabits a part of it, with the alarming intelligence that the building was on fire. The flames burst out in the upper part of the theatre; and, happily, by this cir. cumstance all the persons who were resident in it, had time to escape. The quantity and quality of the combustible materials that are contained in the interior of a theatre, left no hope that this disaster could be prevented from spreading throughout the whole structure, especially as there was reason to conclude that the fire had been some hours in kindling, and that it had seized on many extensive articles.

It appears from the evidence of one of the stage carpenters, that he left all safe, as he supposed, at about half past eleven o'clock, on the over-night: it is affirmed also, as certain, that the usual precautions were taken, by those entrusted with that duty; the persons who had lighted the lamps and candles had extinguished them: the housekeeper had gone over the building; and the watchman of the theatre had been his rounds during the night. It is not for us to say, what other precautions might have been taken. After in accident has happened, to suggest means by which it might have been prevented, is one of the easiest operations of thought: and those who are least competent to foresee such misfortunes, are the most forward to point out, with the greatest precision, what ought to have been done, to prevent them. That character we do not intend shall attach to us.

without betraying its ravages either to the eye, or to the smell, almost immediately in that part of the theatre, which certainly some persons visited in the course of their duty.

It is certain, say some, who atteinpt to account for the accident, that there had been much confusion in the shilling gallery the preceding evening: and some unfortunate spark might have fallen unheeded, during these scuffles. But our objection to this, also is, that it must have fallen on wood, and the smell issuing from burning wood must have been sensible, and it must have been in a state to be detected by cursory observation, before the theatre was examined for the night.

Those who think the fire originated in the mechanist's work-room, which is between the roof and the ceiling, have, in support of their opinion, the fact, that the Opera House at the Pantheon, was certainly burnt down by a fire that originated in a like apartment : and the fire at the Opera House in the Haymarket, was reported to have been first discovered by flakes of fire falling from the upper parts on to the stage below.

Our observations go to prove the necessity of a better arrrangement of the apartments of a theatre, and a more than us,l attention in the architect who may have the direction of the structure hereafter to be erected, to interpose effectual defences between all such working-rooms, and the main body of the theatre. In fact, to place apart all combus tibles by nature, or-so far as their uses in' the theatre is concerned-by possibility.

From general appearance, it is concluded, that the fire must have broken out in the upper part of the theatre, in the quarter of Hart-street: and nothing could prevent its spreading from end to end of the building. It is true, there was a reservoir of water on the upper parts of the structure: but that was unapproachable; and there was an engine on the premises; but the hose did not fit: of course, that was useless, even had there been sufficient assistance to work it.

Conjecture has fancied, that the wadding of the gun fired off in the representation of Pizarro, had risen high in the roof of the The whole of the property is consumed, Theatre, and there had set on fire some part together with the building: the wardrobe; where it lodged: this is possible, no doubt; the music; the instruments of the perform. and it may be recollected, that that magnifiers; and all other articles on the premises. cent vessel the Queen Charlotte, was burnt Among the music, were several original in the Mediterranean, from the wadding of scores of Handel, Arne, and other celebrathe musquets fired by the marines at their custed composers; of which there were no tomary exercise. Their presentation being copies extant; they having never been transto windward, the flaming paper was carried cribed, much less printed. Those of Handel into a window of the ship, that happened to were composed for what was called the Little be open, and falling on some loose papers, Theatre in Lincoln's Inn-Fields, and were 500n communicated a blaze throughout that the property of the patent. Handel's celebranoble structure. Had the marines fired to ted organ, which that eminent composer leeward, this could not have happened. We bequeathed to Covent Garden theatre, is recall this event to the memory of all naval consumed. It was heard only in the Oratoofficers. rios performed during Lent. Several of the instruments lost by musicians are estimated at hundreds of pounds in value: and the

It is scarcely possible, however, that a flaming substance should have beçu thus act.ye

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suits of character-dresses lost by some of the the Piazza, which they were working, directly performers, are said to have cost as much under this room; the explosion of this gunas £200 or £300. There was also a Society powder, meeting with materials already more held in the theatre, the losses of which in than half consuined, threw these down, and plate, wines, &c. is very heavy. We con- the mass falling on the -people below proved ceive, however, that the valuation of the | fatal to many. damage at £150,000 is, so far as concerns the theatre, excessive but the damages sustained by property adjoining, ought, no doubt, to be valued at something considerable.

The distribution of the insurances among the Fire Offices we understand to be,

The Royal Exchange.
The Phoenix......
The Union..

The Sun

Total.......

The party working the engine, sundry.volunteers keeping guard, and others looking ou, were all smothered in one common rain, or burnt by the heated mass. We hope, for the sake of the sufferers, that a speedy termination closed their agonies: several who were £5,000 drawn from this dreadtal situation, were the ...15,000 subjects of a lingering torment, ere death re...5,000 | lieved them. Thirteen bodies were found ..25,000 after incessant efforts, by the bye standers, fire men, &c. Sixteen others, mostly hopeless cases, were taken to the Middlesex hospital: several were taken to St. Bartholo mew's hospital: seven persons were killed by the fall of a wall in Hart Street, that was left in a tottering state by the fire: two females, that got on the top of a neighbour's house to examine the fire more closely fell with the house, and were lost.

£50,000

The distress of at least two hundred persons, dependent on the theatre, may be bet ter conceived than described.

The destruction of so large a building, connected as it was with the adjoining houses could not take place without including them in the calamity. The tire raged with the In short, the number of persons to whom utmost violence on the upper side of Bow this calamity has proved immediately fatal, Street, and soon involved eight or nine houses is supposed to be at least fifty and many in ruin. It communicated to several who survive will be severely disfigured. others on the opposite side of the street in Coroners inquests have been held at the Hart Street, but these were saved by great Britannia Coffee-house Covent-Garden, on exertions. Four of them were on fire at the those who suffered at the Piazza entrance; same moment. The quantity of flying flakes the evidence went to prove the falling down of fire, that were carried by the wind which of a heavy stack of chimneys in the Shakes blew strongly from the south west, was pro- peare, which the people without connected digious, and the height of Drury Lane thea- with what they thought to be an explosion tre exposed it eculiarly to an accumulation of of gunpowder: and this immense weight them: the effects they might have produced falling on the arch-way brought it down. were prevented by diligent attention, and the The verdict of the jury was, "That the adoption of every precaution that prudence sufferers were accidentally killed by the could suggest. Other houses in the neigh-falling down of a room in Covent-Garden bourhood, were watched with equal assiduity. The flakes of fire, were picked up, or extinguished the instant they fell. A very

necessary and commendable solicitude.

But the most melancholy part of our duty is to follow, in narrating the events that took place during the couflagration. Very few persons had any conception of the extent of the theatre fewer still could form any idea of the prodigious power of such an immense body of flaming substances; and only those intimately acquainted with the interior distributions of the apartments could tell in what places the most dangerous articles were deposited. This ignorance appears to have led many persons into danger, and to have cost them their lives. Certain rooms, in fact appertaining to the Shakespeare tavern and coffee house, were occupied by the theatre; and in one of them was kept a small quantity of gunpowder. This was wholly unknown to a body of Fire Office men, and others, who had advanced an engine, from

theatre, called the Apollo room.” - The juries held in other places have mostly returned verdicts of accidental death.

We desire to terminate this disastrous history by impressing on the minds of our readers the necessity of taking advice, when advice may be of use, in such cases; for it is affirmed, that Mr. John Kemble, and others, did in express terms caution the sufferers at the Piazza entrance, on the subject of their danger: as to those who lost their lives the next morning, by going too close to the ruins, without occasion, the number of which is greater than we have stated, we must decidedly blame their insensibility. It

was

not courage; it was fool-bardiness. Again we are thankful to Providence, that this calamity did not happen while the house was full and we heartily wish that many years may clapse without any occurrence. taking place in the city of London, to which this dreadful conflagration,, with its cons sequences, may be compared.

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