3-070-764 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Scenes from Christmas pantomimes at London theatres, 1881. 'Surrey - Hop o' my Thumb; The Dresden Ballet - Mother Goose; Gaiety - Forty Thieves; Drury Lane - The Fight; Covent Garden - Valentine & Orson; Imperial Hanlon - Lees...At Drury Lane, in the pantomime extravaganza of "Mother Goose," there is the scene in which Dr. Syntax and Whimwag enter into conversation with "a human donkey" who looks not the less a real donkey because "so very human." There is also, at the same theatre, the very pretty dance of Dresden China figures, which is like a scene in miniature from the pastorals of Watteau. At Covent Garden, we behold the figures of our old romantic acquaintance, Valentine and Orson, with rapier and club prepared for mutual combat, in which the savage yields to the impersonation of chivalry. At the Gaiety, where "The Forty Thieves" is or are brought upon the stage, we may see Ali Baba, Ganem, Hassarac, and the ingenious Morgiana playing their ancient tricks. At the Surrey, there is Hop-o'-my-Thumb, fighting his duel with the Ogre, in the Frost-bound Glade. The droll travelling exploits of the Hanlon-Lees fraternity, in their "Voyage en Suisse" at the Imperial, have amused a great multitude of visitors to that place of entertainment'. From "Illustrated London News", 1881.