[
    {
        "id": 211813,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "RAS-1989",
        "page_number": 228,
        "title": "RAS-1989",
        "content_text": "203\n\n21.1.1858 (Thur)\n\nEntertainment by Mr. George Henri.\n\nR: As there appeared no review of Mr. George HENRI's miracles on December 29 there is some doubt as to whether they were indeed performed on that date: perhaps they were postponed to January 21. Then the Herald showed itself “so astonished that had he asked us what we wished him to do next we should have requested him to produce Yeh before our eyes\". This alluded to Yeh Ming-ch'en, the Chinese Imperial Commissioner for Foreign Affairs who had played a major role in the second Anglo-Chinese war. He had been captured on January 5 1858 and taken to Calcutta by the British. (NCH 23.1.1858).\n\n9.2.1858 (Tue)\n\nT.J. DIBDIN: \"The Birthday” (1799)\n\nT: Comedy (3 acts)\n\nC. DANCE: \"The Dustman's Belle\" (1846)\n\nT: Comedy (2 acts)\n\nJ. KENNEY: \"Raising the Wind\" (1803)\n\nT: Farce (2 acts)\n\nC: Officers of H.M.S. Pique\n\nTh: On board ship\n\nR: The description of the circumstances under which the Herald's reporter was drawn to the \"Pique\" (a British frigate with crew of 350) is too vivid for the reader to forgo: Tuesday last was a depressing day for a melancholic tempered man, and even we, not constitutionally sad, felt its influence. The morning dawned through an atmosphere in which rain and mist were struggling to see which should do its worst to make everything look disagreeable. As the day moved on, the rain gained the ascendancy and pelted down most pitilessly; overhead the sky looked dull and murky; underfoot the soil of Shanghai, mingling lovingly with the weeping clouds, produced a mixture as tenacious as the grasp of a miser, and dirty as the soul of a time-serving parasite. The mail, with the usual fatality which crowds one mishap upon another, though overdue, had not arrived. To take the gun was simply to commit a felo de se in a sea of mud; and to hum a snatch of a tune was as great an exertion as to dance an Irish jig in fetters, or laugh at the present Sir R. Peel's facetiousness.* In this desolate mood we were plunged, when suddenly a bright recollection flashed upon us. We rose hastily from our chair and consulted a paper which had been lying neglected in a corner: it was the Pique's playbill. The sight of the 'Birthday', the 'Dustman's Belle' and 'Raising the Wind' acted like a charm upon us, and a few minutes afterwards we had crossed the Bund, escaped the insidious dangers of those man-traps of jetties which the Municipal Council are daily suffering to grow more and more like that bridge with many pitfalls invented in the vision of Mirza (this is a reference to \"The Vision of Mirza\" by Joseph Addison, first published in \"The Spectator\" in 1711 and reprinted in 1856 – JH); and committed the safety of our person to a China-boatman and his magnified eggshell. The rain pelted, but we laughed at it; the gusts blew spitefully, but we clutched the tighter and defied them; the darkness did its best to mislead us, but the bright glow from a sailor's pipe guided us with more trustworthiness and safety than a beacon light under certain auspices could have done, and we reached the Pique in safety. Here we found all light, bustle and tiptoe expectation. The main deck had been cleared of its grim everyday tenants - the cold frowning implements of old Mars and their room occupied by the flimsy, but joy-inspiring fripperies of Thespis. We passed along row after row of happy, eager faces and took our seat in front, amongst the guests whom the ship's company of the\n\n* Sir Robert Peel (1822-1895), diplomat and politician; popular in social life and gifted with \"rare powers of irony, but also \"absence of dignity\" and a \"want of moral fiber in his volatile character\" (Dictionary of National Biography, Vol. 44, p. 223-224).",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 211814,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "RAS-1989",
        "page_number": 229,
        "title": "RAS-1989",
        "content_text": "204\n\nPique delighted to honour, Marvellous is the ingenuity of Jack. Difficulties which would appal the ghost of Richardson* — that prince of theatrical improvisers, he makes nothing of it. Whether it be to prepare a great banquet hall or to erect a theatre, it is all the same to him and comes to his hands as readily as the marlin-spike. Huge guns disappear and hatchways vanish from the sight and are replaced by draperies and benches with all the quickness of enchantment. We sat looking around us at the proscenium, the footlights and the drop scene, representing a view on the late of Como, and fell difficult to remain in the belief that we were on board of one of H.M. 'ships of war' and not seated in a neat little theatre\". Thus far the impression of the surroundings.\n\nAbout the acting qualities the reviewer was equally in high spirits: in the Birthday, Captain Bertram R.N. proved to be “a gouty, choleric old gentleman, a very positive, perverse individual to boot and more than becomingly addicted to the occasional use of strong language\". All these little eccentricities were him forgiven, however, when \"we saw him yield to the impulses of nature and even felt a degree of alarm when he well nigh became smothered in the affectionate embrace of his loving and pretty — but somewhat bulky niece. (...) The songs of Dibdin appear to be no longer the prime favorites afloat they were half a century ago; and although we cannot but regret this, we were glad to find, from the specimens we listened to, that they have been superseded by not unworthy successors.\n\nThe trill of \n\nI've heard of foreign countries.\n\nThat are very fair to see\n\nBut England! dear old England!\n\nIs quite fair enough for me\n\nwas ringing in our ear, when it was joined in by notes of a different kind — the cheering notes, to wit, of the Dustman's Bell. We are quite converts to the doctrine that believes, for the moment, in the mimic scene which is enacting before us. How could we do otherwise at the sight of such a Dustman and such a Sally! It did one's heart good to look upon such a fresh, comely and good-looking face as Miss Sally's, and to hear the praise of it sung with such evident gusto by her honest lover in the lines:\n\nOf all the girls that dress so smart\n\nThere's none like pretty Sally\n\nShe is the darling of my heart\n\nAnd she lives in our Alley.\"\n\nRaising the Wind the reporter found not \"so brilliantly successful but not without its merit\".\n\nSumming up, his **still aching sides\" testified sufficiently to the \"care and trouble which the performers had taken to entertain their numerous audience'' (NCH 13.2.1858)\n\n10.2.1858 (Wedn)\n\nPELHAM HARDWICKE (= C. MATHEWS): \"A Bachelor of Arts\" (1853) T: Comic drama (2 acts)\n\nJ.M. MORTON: \"Done on Both Sides\" (1847)\n\nT: Farce (1 act)\n\nC: Amateurs\n\nF: Music by \"Messrs Phu & Mor\"\n\nTh: Theatre Royal (C)\n\n+\n\n* An allusion to John Richardson (1767?-1837), nicknamed \"the penny showman\"; in his performance of J.S. Knowles' (?) \"Virginius\" the ghost was the great effect (Dict. of Nat. Biogr., Vol. 48, p. 230-231).",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h",
        "rank": 0
    }
]