Payne Brothers
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Frederick 'Fred' Payne and Harry Payne were members of a popular Victorian dynasty of pantomime entertainers. They were billed as The Payne Brothers.
Harry and Fred Payne were the sons of William Henry Schofield Payne (1804-1878), the classic pantomime artist who was a master of 'dumb show' or comic mime, and who invented much of the Harlequinade action. Known as 'the King of Pantomime', he appeared at Covent Garden in the 1820s and had trained with Joseph Grimaldi and the great Harlequin, Bologna.[1]
Harry Payne (d. September 27, 1895) began his career playing Harlequin at Covent Garden. In 1859 he was playing a bear when he had to take over as Clown in the middle of a performance when Richard Flexmore collapsed.[2] He was so successful in the role that he remained as Covent Garden's Clown until 1870. After other appearances, including an appearance with his brother Fred in Gilbert and Sullivan's Thespis in 1871, and which was choreographed by their father, he went to Drury Lane in 1883, where he played Clown for the last twelve years of his life, with his brother Fred appearing as Harlequin.
In 1892 Punch said of him:
"...Mr. Harry Paynes's scene, besides coming earlier than usual, is, in itself, full of fun of the good old school-boyish kind; and if the Public, as Jury, is to award a palm to either competitor, then it must give a hand--which is much the same thing as "awarding a palm"--to its old friend, Harry Payne, who, with Tully Lewis as Pantaloon, has pulled himself together, and given us a good quarter of an hour of genuine Old English Pantomime[3]
Harry Payne was described by George Grossmith as "the best clown in my time".[4] It is claimed that the slang expression "Here we are again!" was originated by Harry Payne, who commenced each Boxing Day Harlequinade at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane with a somersault followed by a cheerful "Here we are again!"[5]
Harry Payne was also responsible for the creation of one of the biggest Christmas crackers's ever to be made in the Victorian era. Payne was appearing as the Clown in another Drury Lane pantomime when the cracker was delivered. It was over seven feet in length and contained a change of costume for the whole cast as well as hundreds of small crackers that the cast threw to the children in the audience, to their great excitement.[6] He is buried in Highgate Cemetery.
When his father, W.H. Payne, appeared as Baron Pumpoline in Drury Lane's Cinderella in 1865, Fred Payne played his footman. The two
"[were] provided with several scenes in which their inimitable pantomimic acting is seen to advantage. It would be difficult to find anything more truly humorous of its kind, than a combination of a fantastic hornpipe and an equally fantastic minuet, danced by Mr. Frederick Payne in the Baron's kitchen... After the elephant, comes Donato – the great one-legged dancer, and after Donato comes an ingenious three-legged dance by the Paynes – an old pantomimic trick which has not been seen for many years."[7]
References
- ^ [*[1] Harry Payne on the National Museum of the Performing Arts website
- ^ London's Lost Theatres of the Nineteenth Century By Erroll Sherson Published by Ayer Publishing, (1925) pg 29 ISBN 0405089694
- ^ Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 102, January 9, 1892
- ^ 'A Society Clown: Reminiscences by George Grossmith' (1888) Chapter 8
- ^ The Routledge Dictionary of Historical Slang By Eric Partridge and Jacqueline Simpson Published by Routledge, (1973) pg 439 ISBN 0710077610
- ^ [2] What A Cracker
- ^ The London Review of Politics, Society, Literature, Art & Science, London, Saturday, 7 January 1865
External links
- Harry Payne on the National Museum of the Performing Arts website
- Harry Payne in Cinderella in 1883
- 'Death of a Favorite Clown' The New York Times September 28, 1895