ÆäÀÌÁö À̹ÌÁö
PDF
ePub

rite actors hung on the walls. There were James Wallack as Rolla, and Edwin Forrest, bearing an unlimited number of persons off of the stage under each arm. Tawdry dresses, looking tarnished and mouldy in the daylight, littered the rooms. Theatrical properties served the most foreign purposes. The coals were kept in a Scotch targe, and a two-handed sword of the German middle-age period, was stuck in the window sash to keep it from rattling. Mrs. Sollerman Isaacs, in the privacy of her domestic circle, usually appeared in a cotton velvet coronation robe, by way of a dressing gown. Helmets, shields, doublets, green, red and blue, trunk hose, and elastic tights, jack and Spanish boots, together with a thousand other garish and illscented articles of attire, lay all over the house, with the dirt and craziness of which, these festal garments contrasted strangely.

Mynus, poor fellow, after his final resolve to cut literature, entered his abode in rather dull spirits. He stole upstairs, so that his landlord might not hear him, and advert to the unsettled account, on the stair-case, which event would be nuts and cheese to his fellow-lodgers, who would be sure to listen at their doors. Mynus was to a certain extent careless about being dunned in private, but a publie dun was more than he was accustomed to bear with equanimity.

Ile sat down at his table, and revolved his present position. It was by no means brilliant. One shilling and threepence was not an immoderate capital to commence life over again with; and without capital what was to become of his invention?

"A curse on all publishers and capitalists," he muttered, jingling the one and threepence in his left trousers pocket, the only one that had no holes in it. "They might have made a fortune out of me had they chosen. There were my collected tales which I offered to Plebbins, the best things of the kind ever published in this country, and he refused them, forsooth, because the subjects were revolting.' As if a publisher could tell whether a thing was revolting or not! Then there was my Romance, The Infernal Machine, or, the Celestial Conjurer,' that was unsuited to publication too, because the hero happened to be a cannibal, who eventually devours the young lady to whom he is attached. An idea in itself so original and striking that it would be the making of any book. The fact of it is, an original man has no chance in the world. 'Tis only your common-place scribblers who

get on. Fellows who write wishy-washy domestic stories, with a pretty girl and good old man in each. These things sell. These go down; while the man who, like me, labors to produce an artistic and original work, may starve! Oh! a curse on all publishers. I'll never write a line again as long as I live!"

So saying, Mr. Belisarius seized a pen, dipped it in his ink-bottle, and commenced a three act comedy on the spot.

He had got to a very exciting situation in the first act, when his hero, having disguised himself in a bear's skin in order to carry out an intrigue, was seized by the keeper of a menagerie and locked up with other wild animals, he not daring to disclose his identity, for some reason that Mynus was just then trying to hit upon, when the door of his room opened, and a deep bass voice cried,

"Mister Mynus!"

K

Well!" said Mynus, doggedly. "Did Henry the Eighth wear shoebuckles ?"

"No. Rosettes."

"And the toes to his shoes?"
"Broad and round."

"Mister Mynus," and here the door was opened wider, and a large, greasy faced man, with a three days' beard, entered. "Mister Mynus. About that little bill. If you can settle it to-day, I shall be glad, for I am short of money, and I must buy the stuff for Cromwell's breeches."

"I haven't got any money at all, Mr. Isaacs," said Mynus, turning round desperately, and facing the dun. "It's no use coming to me now. I'm writing a play for Mr. Tiddles of the Mulberry Theatre, and he's to give me five hundred dollars for it when it's finished. I'll pay you then."

A sort of keen light glittered in the Jew's black eyes. He knew perfectly well that Mynus was telling a lie, but he gave no indication whatever of any consciousness about the matter beyond a thick, oily grunt, which might be interpreted any way.

"Well Mister Mynus," he said, "you know it's hard for a working man with a family to be kept out of his money, but still I'm unwilling to press you too hard. I'm sure you'd pay if you could. Now you might do me a service, sir, and if you would, why, we could talk about the rent another time."

"Name it," cried Mynus, catching eagerly at this straw.

"Why, sir, you see I'm not much given to walking of late. I'm getting into flesh,

sir, and it tires me. Still I have to run about a great deal from theatre to theatre, and to carry a heavy bag with me to hold the dresses in. Now, sir, I thought, that you're a young, strong gentleman. and if you'd help me to carry the bag -"

"What," said Mynus, getting very red in the face, and starting from his chair at this indignity. "I carry your bag!"

"Well, no offence, sir," interposed Mr. Isaacs, with a horrible Jewish leer on his tallowy face. No offence. I wouldn't have asked you, sir, only I thought you'd like the exercise. I'm going down to see Mr. Tiddles, the gentleman wot has promised you five hundred dollars for the play you're writing, and I've no doubt, he'll recommend me some one who will carry the bag for me."

Mynus blushed scarlet. If Isaacs went to Tiddles, he'd ask him about the play, and Tiddles would, of course, say that he never heard of such a man as Mynus in his life. It was very awkward.

66 Stay-stay-don't be so hasty, Mr. Isaacs," stammered Belisarius, "I didn't refuse altogether. I think I should like a little exercise very well. Sedentary habits-my chest; yes! my chest wants expansion," and here he threw back his shoulders as if he was trying to hit some one behind him, with his elbows. "I've no doubt that carrying-your bag would be most beneficial to me. Is it heavy ?"

"Lord bless you, no, sir. A mere feather to a gentleman like you. Quite an amusement I may say. I'm going to the Bowery to-night with some armor for Richard the Third, and if it's not inconvenient, why, you can come. There's capital fun behind the scenes, sometimes, sir, just the thing for an edicated gent like you.”

"I'll go," said Mynus, faintly, yielding to the remorseless destiny that seemed to pursue him. "I'll go, Isaacs; but-but -you needn't say who I am."

Poor Mynus! he had his little idea of Fame, too. He whose name was not known to twenty people in the world shrank from having his identity disclosed, and perhaps his Future blotted by some man with a good memory recollecting that he had once seen him carrying a costumier's bag to a theatre.

Mr. Isaacs departed perfectly satisfied with the result of his negotiation. He had long felt the want of an active assistant to do all the hard work of his business, and he inwardly resolved that Mynus, once broken in, should be that necessary slave.

Poor Mynus, on his side, felt the hu

[merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small]

But

Bella had certainly a semi-theatrical appearance. She looked remarkably like a Fairy-Queen out of employment. Her gown had once been a celestial affair of pink gauze with gold spangles on it, and had no doubt ascended to heaven in many a tableau with considerable effect. now it was, torn, and soiled under the arms, and the spangles were fallen off, though the gummy spots to which they had once adhered still remained; in short, it was no longer available for even the lowest description of fairy. Her dirty white kid sandals added somewhat to her disreputable appearance, and when in the bosom of this rumpled, tawdry, faded dress, one saw gleaming one of those large old-fashioned miniature brooches, containing the likeness of a handsome, respectable looking old gentleman, in a buff waistcoat and blue coat, one could scarcely get over the idea that she kept a pawnbroker's shop, and dressed herself in the unredeemed goods.

This incongruous attire terminated at the neck, and emerging from this chaos of finery, there rose a glorious head. Large, deep blue, expressive eyes, wicked and soft by turns. Pale skin, but smooth, and seemingly tinged by a sort of under glow, like firelight seen through dulled glass. Irregular but mobile, and, so to speak, energetic features; with ardor and vivacity in every motion, yet

with sleep seeming to hang ever upon her white, heavy eyelids, such was Bella as she was breaking into the promise of a glorious womanhood.

"Old Isaacs was up here just now; what did he want?" demanded Miss Bella, half seating herself on the edge of the small table. that rocked with her weight, and gazing with an air of inquisitive boldness at Belisarius.

"Oh! the usual thing," said Mynus; "he came for his rent."

"And got the usual answer, I suppose. To wait till next week;" and Miss Bella burst into a loud, coarse fit of laughter.

"Hush! shut up. What do you think he had the impudence to propose to me?" "How should I know?"

[ocr errors]

Why, to carry his bag for him, when he goes to the theatres."

"Well, a capital offer it was, too. I suppose he'll give you something for your trouble."

"But the indignity, Bella!"

"Pshaw. What business have you to have any dignity, without a cent in your pocket."

"I have one and threepence," said Mynus, in a tone of mild reproach, as he drew from his pocket the remnants of his fortune.

"Oh!" cried Bella, with sudden vivacity, "give me sixpence to buy sixpenn'orth of China crackers to frighten old Mrs. Isaacs."

"Independent of the considerations of economy, Bella," said Mynus, sententiously, "which in themselves are solid enough to oppose an impassable barrier to your request, the impropriety of your meditated attack on your guardian's wife, is sufficient reason for my declining to advance the necessary funds."

"Bother!" said Bella, pettishly spattering the ink about with the quill end of Mynus's pen; "old Isaacs ain't my guardian."

"Yes he is, for want of a better. When you, a tender infant, Bella," said Mynus, this time assuming a paterno-pathetic tone-"when you, a tender infant, got lost in the streets of Boston, and old Isaacs, as you very profanely call him, picked you up and took you home, and advertised for your parents in all the papers-"

"He did it for the reward he thought he'd get," interrupted Bella.

"But he didn't get any reward, consequently he couldn't have done it with that view," answered Mynus, with a majestic logic, that placed the matter beyond all doubt.

"Well, I don't care, any how," said Bella. with a toss of her head. "I don't like him a bit, or his old wife either. And I know very well all that they want is to make money out of me."

"When do you make your first appearance. Bella?""

"Why, Mr. Tiddles has promised old Isaacs that he'll let me go into the Dance of the Lilies, in the Flower Queen. But I don't like ballet. I want to play in tragedy."

"In tragedy, do you? it appears to me that you're rather ambitious, Bella."

66 Well, you may laugh as you like, Mr. Belisarius, but I've practised ever so much, I can tell you. Ask Mrs. Isaacs if I haven't. I know all Lady Macbeth off."

And without a word, she flew into a corner of the room and began Lady Macbeth. It certainly was a most extraordinary performance. Totally uneducated, and consequently quite unable to comprehend, much less to interpret the poet's meaning, still there flashed through her very ridiculous declamation, something of fierce and unconquerable genius. Her voice was rich and powerful, and her whole form seemed to dilate with passion, as she recited with the most atrociously bombastic manner, passage after passage. Mynus, who knew nothing of the stage, was struck, spite of himself, with this glimpse of inarticulate genius, so to speak.

66

By Jupiter!" he cried, starting up enthusiastically, when the girl having finished, stood quivering in a corner with departing passion; "By Jupiter, Bella, I tell you what I'll do; I'll write a play for you, and you shall come out in it, and make both our fortunes!"

"Oh! Jeminy, won't that be splendid?" shrieked Bella, suddenly shaking off the tragedy attitude, and dancing round the room like an elfin creature. "What is it going to be? tragedy, comedy, melodrama, or what? only give me a beautiful part, for I want to be murdered and dieno, I think I ought to end by being married. And then I must have a lover, who swears continually that—”

"Pshaw!" said Mynus contemptuously, as he paced up and down the room with majestic strides. "None of your common-place forms for me; I despise conventional rules. I'll not write a comedy or tragedy divided into acts, and with entrances and exits, and such trash. No, I'll have a wild-strange-unearthly, inexplicable, original sort of thing, with no acts or scenery, or characters, or any thing of that kind in it; but it shall be

full of startling effects, and unexpected situations, and the plot shall be unlike any thing that was ever before seen or heard of. By Jove! I'll show those contemptible, cringing publishers, how a man of genius can rise above them all."

"But you'll give me a nice part, Mr.. Belisarius," pleaded Bella, seeming alarmed lest in her friend's rage for originality, he should forget the characters.

"You shall have a splendid part, Bella; a part that'll make your hair stand on end!"

Poor Bella, whose rich brown tresses were looped up into numerous graceful but intricate festoons, appeared to think this rather an undesirable feature in the performance, but she probably made some allowance for the license of a poet.

"It will be a tremendous success," continued Belisarius, growing more excited as the idea grew defined. "That is, if the mean, cowardly public, will not combine to crush the efforts of the eagle to soar into space. You will be called before the curtain, Bella, six times, and at the seventh call. the shouts of author, author,' will be heard, and then you will lead me across the stage, knee-deep in bouquets. That play will run a thousand nights. I feel convinced that it will, Bella, and we shall make loads of money. I tell you what I'll do, Bella; if it succeeds I'll marry you."

[ocr errors]

Yes, that's a good idea," answered Bella gravely, "I suppose you'd better marry me, that's if I don't fall in love with some one else in the mean time."

"That would be impossible," said Mynus proudly, laying his hand upon his manuscript, as if to call her attention to the fact of his being a man of transcendent genius, "you're a goose to think of such a thing. Do you think old Isaacs has got any paper, that he could spare me? set to work at once."

I'll

"I'll go and see," answered Bella, as she left the room.

"The Staircase of Death," continued Mynus, soliloquizing. "That will do. The very name. Striking. Original. People will wonder what it means. Besides, it's so easy to hang a plot on to such a name. They had some place in Venice, or Italy, I think, where people were killed; some sort of balcony, or bridge. Any way it's suggestive. Got the paper, Bella?"

"Yes," said Bella, panting with her run up stairs. "But old Isaacs says it's time for you to go."

"Go! where? Oh! that infernal bag. Surely he's not going out in the broad daylight?"

"Yes, he is though. He's got it ready packed, and precious heavy it is, too. There's all the army in it." "All the army!"

"Yes! all the army's clothes. King Richard's army, you know; and I never saw such jackets."

"Mr. Mynus! I'm a waiting for you," came rolling up the stairs in old Isaacs' bass voice. "Stir yourself a little, sir."

"It's that girl that's keeping him, she's always up there," chorused a shrill, feminine voice, belonging to Mrs. Isaacs, a lady who seldom made her appearance in any thing less than queenly attire. At the present moment, she had on an old mantle of Anne Boleyn's, while she stood at the bottom of the stairs, with a sausage on the top of a toasting fork, she having evidently interrupted some culinary task, to come and bellow after her ward.

"I suppose I must go," said Mynus, sullenly. "Good-by, Bella. Keep up your spirits for the play. Now then," he continued, as he proceeded to join old Isaacs, “to bear my humiliations like a Shakespeare."

CHAPTER IV.

DEGRADATION OF GENIUS.

BELISARIUS MINUS, like other great and good men, had contracted many little debts in various places about the city, on the strength of his dubious connection with the press. These liabilities frequently interfered with his promenades of a morning. His course from point to point often assumed a zig-zag character, that certainly prolonged his walk, and induced exercise, if it did not contribute to his comfort. The motto, or popular phrase of " ahead," was inapplicable to Mynus, he couldn't go ahead. There were too many obstacles in the way. Broadway had unseen barricades for him. Invisible ramparts that at certain spots arrested his progress like some of the enchantments of the olden time.

"go

The Mulberry Theatre fronted on Broadway, and as Mynus, bag in hand, and fancying that every body knew who he was, and was looking at him, promenaded along with Mr. Isaacs, passing shop after shop inhabited by furious tailors, and revengeful bootmakers, his heart palpitated, I can tell you. His stratagems to escape observation were many. The number of objects of interest that he found in the centre of the street, and which attracted his attention so much, as to keep his face

continually turned away from the shop doors was wonderful. The animated conversation into which he would enter with Isaacs, when he beheld a creditor looming up in the distance; the dexterous manner in which he would retire behind the stalwart person of that worthy Jew, when passing any spot of peculiar danger, using him as the hunters use leafy boughs to conceal them from the wild animals they are reconnoitering; the rapidity of his pace in some places; and the clever excuses by which he would induce his companion to cross and recross the street, all displayed a profound strategetic ability, not surpassed by the way in which Napoleon avoided the Russians in his famous retreat from Moscow. Thanks to these manoeuvres, and the singular position he occupied as bagman in waiting to Mr. Sollerman Isaacs, Mynus reached his destination in safety, and following Isaacs, soon found himself within the walls of the Mulberry Theatre.

They entered by the front door, and found their way into the parquette. Thence stumbling down the middle aisle, with echoing steps, they passed through the orchestra, and stooping, squeezed in the small door through which the audience is accustomed to behold the musicians in the intervals of performance, pass in and out, for the purpose of snatching their hasty mug of beer. Once through this door, they found themselves under the stage, surrounded by awful fragments of machinery, screws, ropes and "lifts," that in the almost impenetrable darkness of the place loomed out like the terrible apparatus of some Spanish inquisitorial dungeon. Still dependent on Isaacs' guidance, Mynus followed blindly, until after groping along, and ascending a creaking staircase, he suddenly emerged upon the stage.

There was a faint daylight through the place. A few actors with their parts in their hands, were walking about, muttering to themselves, and in front of the stage, at an awful table covered with green baize, and surrounded by the prompter, the stage manager, and the superintendent of scenery, sat the manager himself! Behind him, stretched away into darkness, the body of the theatre; dismal linen covers fell blankly over the gilding and the velvet, and a rush of cold air as from a tomb, swept continually stageward.

The manager was inspecting a scene. Two carpenters had joined the two halves of a shaky green and yellow forest together, while another was erecting in its midst

a species of antique altar, out of what seemed excessively like painted tea-boxes. The flats at the sides of the stage, however, being all turned the wrong way, and representing the interior of a ball-room, interfered somewhat with the effect of the woodland background.

"Now Mrs. Tott," said the manager, in a voice like the crack of a cattle-driver's whip, it was so sharp and short, "we're ready. Are you?"

Here, sir?" said a lady in a deep thick voice, from behind the scenes, emerging as she spoke. She was tall and stout, with fine eyes and a coarse nose, and had on an exceedingly crushed and shabby bonnet.

CC

"Now, Mrs. Tott," said the manager,

go on."

What!" cried Mrs. Tott, with an indignant start, as her eye lit upon the teaboxes. "What! Mr. Tiddles, you surely don't mean to call that thing a haltar?"

Mrs. Tott was a native of England, and retained all her national prejudices; amongst others, that of freedom of speech, and arbitrary ideas about the position of her h's.

"Of course I do,” replied Mr. Tiddles. "A very excellent altar. Why ma'am, when I managed the Haymarket, I'd have been proud of such an altar as that."

"Well, Haymarket or no Haymarket," said Mrs. Tott, "I can't clasp my long lost Hangelina to my bosom on a paltry herection of that kind. I've not been haccustomed to play to such properties, Mr. Tiddles."

"Zounds! madam, look here!" cried Tiddles, rushing indignantly to the altar, and mounting the steps. "There's room enough for an army on it." "Yes-but is it strong enough?" said Mrs. Tott, hesitatingly.

"Oh! that's it, is it?" said Tiddles, while a mocking smile stole over the property man's face. "Look here Mrs. Tott," and Tiddles jumped several times on the platform without inducing any disclosure of weakness in the structure. There, will that satisfy you, ma'am."

Thus encouraged Mrs. Tott mounted the altar, and addressing herself in a conversational tone to Tiddles, said:

"And can it be? My night of sorrow past,

The Sun of Hope bursts through its lurid cloud To cheer my way? My cheyild! my cheyild! my cheyild!

My long lost Hangelina found at last."

Mynus seemed rather astonished at the indifference with which Mrs. Tott delivered herself of this impassioned passage, being occupied nearly the whole time in

« ÀÌÀü°è¼Ó »