3-021-348 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Scenes from the Christmas pantomimes: Sadler's Wells Theatre: "Cock-a-Doodle-Doo" - escape of Finfin and Rosytint from Chanticleer Castle, 1865. London stage production of "Cock-a-doodle-doo; or, Harlequin Prince Chanticleer and the Princess of the Golden Valley" by Charles Millward. '...we make the acquaintance of a wicked magician, Grinderpest (Mr. John Rouse), King of the Chanticleers, who defies Finfin. The Genius of Spring (Miss Fitzwilliam) instructs Finfin as to his journey towards the Golden Valley, and warns him against four perils, three of which may be overcome by three enchanted roses, her gift. In Cockcrow Dell, in the Forest of the Bantams, we learn more, for there the courtiers are lamenting the disappearance of their late king's son, Prince Chanticleer. A Lord Kokolorum gets up an insurrection; however, Grinderpest is too much for them. This fiend also has captured the charming Princess Rosytint (Miss Leigh), the daughter of the Queen of the Golden Valley, but she is happily rescued by Finfin, who, however, falls into the tyrant's power, and is threatened with death. But Finfin drops a magic rose, and by so doing paralyses Grinderpest and his followers, so that he is able to escape'. From "Illustrated London News", 1865.