Cirrus@Austlit

Buggins comments on the use of opera glasses before proceeding to review and discuss the Royal Victoria Theatre's production of John Augustin Daly's Under the Gaslight.

Buggins concludes his thoughts on the play thus:

'I believe a Mr. Daly claims to be the author of Under the Gaslight, it should be adapter – not author. In a Christmas work entitled 'Fireflash', (written by Mr. Garnet Walch) at page 34 I read the following: – "Neither poison, the knife, nor the pistol, was this murderous weapon. He had led his half stupefied [sic] victim to within twenty yards of the railway. There was no embankment hereabouts; it was all level ground. In five minutes the remorseless wretch had dragged him over the rough ballast and had placed him with his head across the nearest rail. The down express would pass over that spot in ten minutes, and there would be no such person as Alice Marshall in existence to come between him and his coveted prize." I think the Dramatist has borrowed a good idea from a young and promising colonial author and failed to acknowledge the obligation.'

It should be noted that Daly's play was first produced in New York on 12 August 1867; Walch's 'Fireflash' probably went to press in December 1867.