2'«« S. No 107., Jajt. 16. '58.] 



NOTES AND QUEKIES. 



41 



LONDON, SATURDAY, JANUARY16. 1858. 



ENGLAND ANX> FRANCE IN 1656 : THE PUBllt OT 

 THE THAMES. 



The following notice of a chapter in the Works 

 of Sir William Davenant will perhaps interest 

 3'our readers. Davenant is now probably less 

 known as a wit than as the cause of the wit of 

 others ; less by the heroic poem Gondibert than 

 for the loss of his nose. However deserving of 

 repute, his name owes much to the myth asso- 

 ciated with his birth, to the satire of Sir John 

 Suckling, and the quips of the " ingenious Mr. 

 Joseph Miller." The paper to which I would 

 direct attention is headed : " The First Dayes 

 Entertainment at llutland House by Declama- 

 tions and Musick, after the Manner of the An- 

 cients." The cause of its composition was as 

 follows. During the dynasty of the Puritan com- 

 monwealth, the playhouse had been rigidly sup- 

 pressed, and for that very reason was cherished 

 by the Cavaliers. Davenant, who distinguished 

 himself on the king's side, had been twice an exile 

 in France, living in Paris at the Louvre with his 

 friend Lord Jarmin, and where he wrote the first 

 two books of Gondibert. About 1650, he, was 

 captured in a French vessel, and subsequently 

 confined in the Tower of London. His life, tra- 

 dition says, was saved by the mediation of Milton 

 — who, similar tradition reports a few years later, 

 was indebted for his life also to the influence of 

 Davenant. Be that as it may, Davenant, on his 

 liberation, sought occupation, and through it the 

 means to live. Having obtained permission, he 

 opened a sort of theatre at Rutland House, in 

 Charter-house Yard ; and the paper now noticed 

 was apparently the first representation. It has 

 its interest, as noticing the comparative aspect of 

 London and Paris, the manners and customs of 

 the people, and of those " che vanno per via " in 

 their various street occupations. Davenant sought 

 by it the reestablishment of the theatre. The 

 piece consists of a prologue, succeeded by music ; 

 after which the curtains are opened, and on two 

 gilded rostras appear, sitting, Diogenes and Ari- 

 stophanes, — designed perhaps to represent the 

 ideas of the Puritan and the Cavalier as regards 

 the stage. Their declamation ended, the rostras 

 are occupied by a Parisian and a Londoner, who 

 declaim concerning the preeminence of London 

 and Paris. Let your readers contrast the cities as 

 they now are, and as then described : especially is 

 it worthy of attention that the Londoner claims 

 the preeminence due to his city because of the 

 purity of the Thames ! " Uli robur et ses triplex," 

 — much moral courage and threefold brass to 

 him who could venture to assert that now ! 



The Parisiati taunts the Londoner in this'wise. 



Sure your ancestors contrived your narrow streets 

 in the days of wheel-barrows, and asks : " Is your 

 climate so hot that as you walk you need um- 

 brellas of tiles to intercept the sun ? " Then he 

 remarks on the multiform aspect of Old Fish 

 Street, the variety of deformity in the construc- 

 tion of the streets ; next, the noise of the water- 

 men, their incivility, their peascod boats, the 

 aspect of the river side : here dwells a lord — 

 there a dyer, — and between both Duomo Co- 

 mune. He reverts again to the streets, notices 

 the lowness of the roofs of the houses, the smell 

 of tobacco in the rooms, and of lavender in the 

 linen, to which he considers the sea-coal smoke 

 a very Portugal perfume. He is severe on the 

 domestic economy. The bread is too heavy ; beds 

 too much resemble coffins ; kitchens indeed well 

 lined with beef, but swarming with pampered ser- 

 vants. The drink too thick, and yet you are 

 seldom over curious in washing your glasses. The 

 coaches in the streets so narrow they resemble 

 sedan-chairs on wheels ; nor is it, he adds, safe for 

 a noble to use them until the quarrel be decided 

 whether six of your nobles sitting together shall 

 stop and give place to as many barrels of beer. 



To all this the Londoner replies, as regards 

 Paris : " Your Louvre has a singular way of 

 being wonderful — the fame of the palace consist- 

 ing more in the vast design of what it was meant to 

 be, than in the largeness of what it is ; the struc- 

 ture being remarkable for what is old, but more 

 even for the antiquity of what is new, having been 

 begun some ages past, so as to be finished many 

 ages hence (1656 — 1856); which I take it may 

 be a sign of the glory, but not of the wealth of your 

 rulers" He now dilates on the river — notices the 

 broken arch of Pont Rouge, and the boats on the 

 Seine, — much after the fashion of common wher- 

 ries ; the Basteller, not so turbulently active as our 

 watermen, but who gives us such a tedious waft 

 across, as we were all the while poaching for eels. 

 We neither descend by stairs when we come in, 

 nor ascend when we go out, but crawl through 

 the mud Ifke cray-fish, or anglers in a new planta- 

 tion. Contrast this with the Louvre, the bridges, 

 and the quais of Paris at the present day. 



The internal police of Paris appears also to dis- 

 advantage, for the Londoner remarks : " You are 

 disordered with the rudeness of our streets, but 

 have more reason to be terrified with the frequent 

 insurrections in your own — whole armies of lackeys 

 invade the peace of public justice; whilst, on 

 Pont Neuf robbing is as constant and as heredi- 

 tary a trade as amongst the Arabs." 



The following song concludes the entertain- 

 ment : — 



" London is smothered with sulphurous fires ! 

 Still she Avears a black Hood and cloak 

 Of sea-coal smoke, 

 As if she mourned for Brewers and Dyers. 



