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A Brief Life and Times of the Victorian Music-Hall

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A Brief Life and Times of the Victorian Music-Hall A brief life and times of the Victorian music-hall The Harvard community has made this article openly available. Please share how this access benefits you. Your story matters Citation Senelick, Laurence. 1971. A brief life and times of the Victorian music-hall. Harvard Library Bulletin XIX (4), October 1971: 375-398. Citable link https://nrs.harvard.edu/URN-3:HUL.INSTREPOS:37364174 Terms of Use This article was downloaded from Harvard University’s DASH repository, and is made available under the terms and conditions applicable to Other Posted Material, as set forth at http:// nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:dash.current.terms-of- use#LAA I A Brief Life a11d Times of the Victorian Music-Hall Laurence Senelick Several years ago, ,v hlle a graduate sru dent 1n th c Comp ara ti ,re Li tc.m t urc 1) e~ partn1cnt at l-Irarl·nrd, l hcgan a $tndy of the Eng]ish n111sic-haUsong and its influence on litcra turc. J\1u ch. of tn y ,v ork \\ 1 as :rnade p ossib]e by the Ba rvard Theatre CoHcction's va5t hulding~, of nineteenth-century sheet n1usic and its in val u ablc clip pj ng filcst ably adn1in.i stered by- its c nra tort 1\1i ss Helen Vl HJard. Field ,vork in England enrjched this fund of material. The fol1o,ving article first nppcarcd in so1uc'tvhat different forn1 a~ n c:nuserie before the Con1parative Literature Conference in I 966~ a:nd is intended as a pro}ego111cnonto -a 1norc extended study of its subjec.:t. J shou]d ]ike to dedicate it to Professor 1-Iarry Levin~ ,vhose encourage1nent and appreciation fostered this ·w·ork from its in~ ccptiona ~--- VER since the Rornans offered pn11e111et circe11resas a vulgar diversion, popu1ar entertain1ncnt has proved an e1nbarrassment to the scholar. \ 7 audevi1le,.1nusic-hal], circuses, bcar-baitings, . ..... and Tin Pan AlJey- nn1uscn1cntsoffered to and sustained by the grounu]ings - a.re usually disdained by social historians like Hui- zinga,.,vho consider them at best side-effects of the hysteria evoked by th c Industrial ll ev o]u ti on. Folklorists, anxious to record rnan ifcs ta ti ons of crentivity on a popular level, arc disturbed by the urban., co111- n1crcial~and non-anony1nouschnracteristics of.n1ass cntcrt~inrncnt., ':11- though, as A. L. Lloyd hgs n1adc cle::ir, 'tthc idea of the ~folk' as an autonomons, soci-a.lcategory alien to book learning ~nd 111echanical industry 1 and evolving their olvn un\vTjtten culture in isolation1 is n scntin1enral absrrnctiont par ti cu]ar 1)7 ,vherc '-'' estern J~urope js con- cerned~~"1 So these art forn1s are left to exploiters of Pop culture, the high pries ts of Ca111 p. For tun a.tel y, th c vita.lity of popular en tcrta in- mcn t can ,vith stand .such cphctncral diddling.. The English 1nusic-hal1in its heyda)7 ,vas a short-lived phenomenon, but its h1flucnce ,v-as vast. lts songs 2nd the personalities ,vho .sang 1 A. L. I ~loydt uForc"·ord,.U The Bro~1dride Ballad Ly Leslie Shepard (London, i962 ), P· 5· 375 Harvard University - Houghton Library / Harvard University. Harvard Library bulletin. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Library. Volume XIX, Number 4 (October 1971) 1-/ar·vardLibrary Bulletin then1 entered the national consciousness to such an extcntt that tod:1y teen~agers,vho have never been jusidc a n1usic-hal1can sing the lyrics of ''Any Old Iron.,.,or HGoodbye'!Dolly Gray/' having absorbed these verses as n1ost children absorb nursery rhy·n1es.To n1any,the origins of such catch phrases as ~'everything in the garden's lovely'~ or '\vhere did you get that hat?'l 1nay be unkno,vn., but th~ phrases thetnsclvcs a.re stiH vigorously current Although the songs \Vere ,vritten by ill- p~id hacks or fashionable dilctcanti, although the halls ,verc 1nanagcd by b11sincssn1cn,,rhose chief concern , 1.:rasprofit~ 1nusic-haH touched a genuine chord in the popular in1agination! fulfilled the need for an urhanizcd mytho]ogy, and ,vas a true expression of both the real ]ifc and the fantasies of irs au dicnces '' i\1usic h al] and var i etv are real r " native art," John Berjen1an ,vas to ,vritc in a rc1nini~ccncc. ""The truth about v·ariety i~that it is unselfconsciously the poetry and song of the people.'' 2 And l\-iax Ecerbohn1., nddressing rn.dio 1istcners in 1942.., broke off a strca111of nostalgia to re111ark''For these too 2rc folk-songs, inalienably Englishl and racy of- 110 1 not of the soil, but of the pave~ 1nents fro111,vhich they sprang .. I can take leave to think that if Shakes- peare had Jivedagain and had heard thcn1 ,varbled in the halls, he n1ight have introduced thcn1 into his piays, just as he introduced - ,vith 111agiculvariations, of course~ the folk-songs of his o,vn tin1c,. He might have done so.. Or again) he 1night not.''~ Sir l\1axls supposition is not as fanciful ~s it sounds: the pave1ncnts glorified jn the \lictorian music-hall n1ay ,Yell have had their antece- dents in the cobblestones of Elizabethan London/ The Elizabethan pta.y·houscs probably harbored fencing exhibitions~ acrobatics, dun1b- sho\vs.,and the celebrated Hjig'tor long hurnorous and of ten extempore song")n1ade fnn1ons by Richard Tarleton. H:unlet\i instructions to the John Betjeman, [[Forc,,·ordi"~British i\.fusic Hnll, a Story i11 Pictures Ly Raymond l'V1JJ.n d er and Joe i.\1itcltc:nso n (London I t 9 6s ) 1 p. tL 1 a.Sir J\1:axBeerbohn1t ''i\•1us.ichalls of my youth 1j]' 1HainJj-on the Air (Ne,\~ Yor'kt 1 95 8) p, 3 7. Dy lau Tl totn~s, on the other h 111d 1 ,vas a \\rn re of the pitfalls cf ovc:r- esdmadng the ardscic rnerit of music-h 111songs. 1 [I agree t h2t music-hall ongs can be good poetry .. but: 1 dori.it like tl1c doublc-blnffit,g ~11proach th:lt pretends to think that il'm one of the ,-uios thcLt CronnvcH knocked nhout a bit 1 is better poetry than, say, the serious~ unfashionable \'Vork of Cowper or I-i~rands Thornp~on. Jes just vct-y diiTerent poetry .. ~n ~<o:i. Poe;:ry/' Quite Early One 1llor:n-ing (K e\v York! 195 4 )1 p. 19:r --c l\1y 9.ccount of antecedents to the rnush.:-h:aB d r:nrs h c:av j ly upon l-1arol d S cotes Tbe E(lrly Doors (London, 1946). Scott, 'Jlong ,vith Els~ Lanchestert ran the Cave of H~r mony 1 a Lo nd un C!=!.baa ret tl 1at sp-eci.ilized in 1nu sic-hall reviv~ l.s. Harvard University - Houghton Library / Harvard University. Harvard Library bulletin. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Library. Volume XIX, Number 4 (October 1971) A Brief Li{e aud Tiuzes of tbe Victorian A1uric-J-lall 377 players to ,,:1ctthose that play your clo\vns speak no n1orc than is set do\vn for thc1n,'' n1ay,vcll have had Tarleton in vie,v-1 for this buffoon ,vas notorious for his ad libs/i One anecdote teHs of Tarleton's attend- ing the performance of Eanhs' Celebrated Trained Horse .. The trainer requested the horse to pick out ''the veriest fool in the company,u and the beast made straight for Tarleton, ,vho cxclain1ed ''God a mercy·, horse!" so inirnitably that it becarne a cant phrase. Other phrases fron1 his son gs, such as "Please one, pl easea 11'' and '.=l'Vhat d 'ye lack?.,, ,vere as comn1011on the lips of his contcn1porarics as '(Get your hair cue, and ~'Has your mother sold her 1nanglc?n \Vere to the \Tictorjans. Like- ,visc~Tarleton had a trick of rnaking sudden appearances bcc,veen the curtains, a comic device later exploited by the great clo,vn Grirnaldi ,vith his abrupt "Herc ,ve are again!" and Dan Leno's "quick run dn,vn to the footlights and a drun1-r.oll\Vith his feet.'' 0 \Tariety entertain1nents continued in diverse for1ns -at Bartho1omc,v Fairt the p]easure gardens, and the ~1usic House at Sadler's ,~leUs, ,vhich Ne<l~'ard the journalist visited in the earl)Teighteenth centur}T· He left a rhymed description of pcrforn1ers and andience ,vhich in n1any details corresponds to the spirjt of the later music-halls: \1/ e began to look d o,vn and exa cnin e the Pj t, \~.There Butchers and BayJj ff s, and such sore of F e1]o,vs Were niixJd "'ith a \r cnnin train'd up to the Ga1lo-v?s. And some ,vith the T'"apstersi,,,ere got in a Fray, Vi7ho ,vithout paying Reck\1ing ,vere stealing :nvay 1 ,~lhich me.de L-s.dySqugb ,vith her l\1oonified Face 1 By the side of the Organ, rc.sun1cher old Placci \\Tith hands on her Belly, she open'd her Throat, And si]enc 1 d the Noise, ,vith her 1\1usit:al Note: The Guests ,vcrc all I.Jush~ and Attention ,vas given, The listcni n g 1\1ob thought th c1nscl\.'es in a I-Ica ven; l f the Rn vjshi n g Song , \' hich she sang~ you \vou] d k nO",\\ It ,-;.,nsRub't rub, ~1,b,·-rub, 11lh 1 rub; iu and out bo. As soon as her S\\Teet,modest l)ittv.. ,vas donct She ,vi thdre,v from her \\:oick er i us Chaste ns a.Nun. Professor C. R.
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