I could not resist the temptation, nor the eloquence of Tom
Dribble, who was a truant to the very heart's core. We hired seats, and
set off full of boyish expectation. I promised myself that I would but
take a peep at the land of promise, and hasten back again before my
absence should be noticed.
Heavens! how happy I was on arriving at the fair! How I was enchanted
with the world of fun and pageantry around me! The humors of Punch; the
feats of the equestrians; the magical tricks of the conjurors! But what
principally caught my attention was - an itinerant theatre; where a
tragedy, pantomime, and farce were all acted in the course of half an
hour, and more of the dramatis personae murdered, than at either Drury
Lane or Covent Garden in a whole evening. I have since seen many a play
performed by the best actors in the world, but never have I derived
half the delight from any that I did from this first representation.
There was a ferocious tyrant in a skull cap like an inverted porringer,
and a dress of red baize, magnificently embroidered with gilt leather;
with his face so be-whiskered and his eyebrows so knit and expanded
with burnt cork, that he made my heart quake within me as he stamped
about the little stage. I was enraptured too with the surpassing beauty
of a distressed damsel, in faded pink silk, and dirty white muslin,
whom he held in cruel captivity by way of gaining her affections; and
who wept and wrung her hands and flourished a ragged pocket
handkerchief from the top of an impregnable tower, of the size of a
band-box.
Even after I had come out from the play, I could not tear myself from
the vicinity of the theatre; but lingered, gazing, and wondering, and
laughing at the dramatis personae, as they performed their antics, or
danced upon a stage in front of the booth, to decoy a new set of
spectators.
I was so bewildered by the scene, and so lost in the crowd of
sensations that kept swarming upon me that I was like one entranced. I
lost my companion Tom Dribble, in a tumult and scuffle that took place
near one of the shows, but I was too much occupied in mind to think
long about him. I strolled about until dark, when the fair was lighted
up, and a new scene of magic opened upon me. The illumination of the
tents and booths; the brilliant effect of the stages decorated with
lamps, with dramatic groups flaunting about them in gaudy dresses,
contrasted splendidly with the surrounding darkness; while the uproar
of drums, trumpets, fiddles, hautboys, and cymbals, mingled with the
harangues of the showmen, the squeaking of Punch, and the shouts and
laughter of the crowd, all united to complete my giddy distraction.
