for a hearty laugh, and a contemporary visitor[45] to Paris merrily wrote that “Polichinel is the very jolliest fellow in the world.”[46]
A comic operetta in one act, Le Vampire by Martin Joseph Mengals which was produced at Ghent, 1 March, 1826, deserves no more than passing mention.
James Robinson Planché speedily adapted Nodier’s Le Vampire as The Vampire, or, The Bride of the Isles, and his version with music by Joseph Binns Hart[47] was brought out at the English Opera House, 9th August, 1820, with T. P. Cooke[48] as Ruthven, Earl of Marsden, the Vampire. Owing to his fine acting in the part, and perhaps a little to the scenic effects—the scene is laid in the Caverns of Staffa—the play was given nightly to packed houses. It is interesting to remark that for this piece the celebrated vampire trap was invented. Of this I quote the following simple description: “A vampire trap consists of two or more flaps, usually india-rubber, through which the sprite can disappear almost instantly, where he falls into a blanket fixed to the under surface of the stage. As with the star trap, this trap is secured against accidents by placing another piece or slide, fitting close beneath when not required, and removed when the prompter’s bell gives the signal to make ready.”
The following account of the production of The Vampire is given by Planché in his Recollections and Reflections, Chapter III.[49] Having just spoken of an Easter piece with which he had furnished Drury Lane, Abudah, or, The Talisman of Oromanes,[50] founded upon one of the Tales of the Genii[51] and which although it had a run of nine nights Planché calls a very poor piece, “miserably put on the stage,” he continues to speak of a subsequent success, and tells us: “A more fortunate melodrama of mine, “The Vampire, or The Bride of the Isles,” was produced at the Lyceum, or English Opera House, as it was then called, 9th August, 1820. Mr. Samuel James Arnold, the proprietor and manager, had placed in my hands, for adaptation, a French melodrama, entitled “Le Vampire,” the scene of which was laid, with the usual recklessness of French dramatists, in Scotland, where the superstition never existed. I vainly endeavoured to induce Mr. Arnold to let me change it to some place in the East of Europe. He had set his heart on Scotch music and dresses—
