it a little vulgar--well! well! other writers have been
considered vulgar--and as a description of the sports and amusements of
London in the ancient times, more curious than amusing.
But the pictures!--oh! the pictures are noble still! First, there is
Jerry arriving from the country, in a green coat and leather gaiters,
and being measured for a fashionable suit at Corinthian House, by
Corinthian Tom's tailor. Then away for the career of pleasure and
fashion. The park! delicious excitement! The theatre! the saloon!! the
green-room!!! Rapturous bliss--the opera itself! and then perhaps to
Temple Bar, to KNOCK DOWN A CHARLEY there! There are Jerry and Tom, with
their tights and little cocked hats, coming from the opera--very much
as gentlemen in waiting on royalty are habited now. There they are at
Almack's itself, amidst a crowd of high-bred personages, with the Duke
of Clarence himself looking at them dancing. Now, strange change, they
are in Tom Cribb's parlor, where they don't seem to be a whit less at
home than in fashion's gilded halls: and now they are at Newgate, seeing
the irons knocked off the malefactors' legs previous to execution.
What hardened ferocity in the countenance of the desperado in yellow
breeches! What compunction in the face of the gentleman in black (who, I
suppose, has been forging), and who clasps his hands, and listens to
the chaplain! Now we haste away to merrier scenes: to Tattersall's (ah
gracious powers! what a funny fellow that actor was who performed Dicky
Green in that scene at the play!); and now we are at a private party, at
which Corinthian Tom is waltzing (and very gracefully, too, as you
must confess,) with Corinthian Kate, whilst Bob Logic, the Oxonian, is
playing on the piano!
"After," the text says, "THE OXONIAN had played several pieces of
lively music, he requested as a favor that Kate and his friend Tom would
perform a waltz. Kate without any hesitation immediately stood up. Tom
offered his hand to his fascinating partner, and the dance took place.
The plate conveys a correct representation of the 'gay scene' at that
precise moment. The anxiety of THE OXONIAN to witness the attitudes of
the elegant pair had nearly put a stop to their movements. On turning
round from the pianoforte and presenting his comical MUG, Kate could
scarcely suppress a laugh."
And no wonder; just look at it now (as I have copied it to the best of
my humble ability), and compare Master Logic's cou
|