3-065-573 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Christmas Pantomimes: scene from "Red Riding Hood and Her Sister Little Bo-Peep", 1874. London stage production. 'Mr. Charles Rice...has striven hard to convince the world that he has not miscalculated his power in undertaking the conduct of Covent-Garden Theatre...he has thought that no one could do the work better than himself, and has determined, at any rate, that it shall be well done. Red Riding Hood and her sister Little Bo-Peep find in him their laureate, who has furnished them with verses and lyrics that truly adorn the fairy-tale, and shed around the performance a poetic lustre of the very pleasantest kind. Mr. Rice's pantomime has a tragic scene...which forms the subject of our Illustration. The pictorial surrounding is of itself very charming. The Lily Dell in the Glowworm Glen is worthy to be the home of the loveliest elves, but is really the haunt of a voracious dragon. It is the destiny of Marmion, the brother of Red Riding Hood (Miss Lizzie Marshall), to wound the Wolf that pursues her to the place, but, offending fairy law by drawing blood in the enchanted dell, to perish himself of his heroic act. The transformation scene transports all into a better world, where beauty and virtue are eternal co-mates'. From "Illustrated London News", 1874.