2-969-942 - /Heritage Images

The Burning of Covent-Garden Theatre - Flight of the Masqueraders, 1856. Illustration to a poem suggested by a theatre fire. 'Ho! ho! Tramp, tramp go the hurrying feet - Hark, hark to the rush in the crowded street! But wilder, and fiercer, and madder the rout; Shall resound through these walls ere my flames be crushed out; Hurrah! hurrah! for the Carnival, The rushing and crushing - the masque and the ball; Storm-loving rioters, merry men all, Hurrah! hurrah! for your Carnival! Fled - fled are the harpers, and hushed is their tuning, And trampled the women, all shrieking and swooning; Amid crackling and crashing more loud grows the roar - Ho! leap to the portal and batter the door. Hurrah! hurrah! for the Carnival, The gnashing and wailing - the masque and the ball! Self-loving revellers, merry men all, Hurrah ! hurrah! for your Carnival!'. From "Illustrated London News", 1856.