Before the Curtain

by William Makepeace Thackeray

　　As the manager of the Performance sits before the curtainon the boards and looks into the Fair, a feeling of profoundmelancholy comes over him in his survey of the bustling place.There is a great quantity of eating and drinking, making loveand jilting, laughing and the contrary, smoking, cheating,fighting, dancing and fiddling; there are bullies pushing about,bucks ogling the women, knaves picking pockets, policemenon the look-out, quacks (other quacks, plague take them!)bawling in front of their booths, and yokels looking up atthe tinselled dancers and poor old rouged tumblers, while thelight-fingered folk are operating upon their pockets behind.Yes, this is Vanity Fair; not a moral place certainly; nor amerry one, though very noisy. Look at the faces of the actorsand buffoons when they come off from their business; andTom Fool washing the paint off his cheeks before he sits downto dinner with his wife and the little Jack Puddings behindthe canvas. The curtain will be up presently, and he will beturning over head and heels, and crying, "How are you?"

　　A man with a reflective turn of mind, walking through anexhibition of this sort, will not be oppressed, I take it, by hisown or other people's hilarity. An episode of humour or kindnesstouches and amuses him here and there--a pretty childlooking at a gingerbread stall; a pretty girl blushing whilst herlover talks to her and chooses her fairing; poor Tom Fool,yonder behind the waggon, mumbling his bone with the honestfamily which lives by his tumbling; but the general impressionis one more melancholy than mirthful. When you come homeyou sit down in a sober, contemplative, not uncharitable frameof mind, and apply yourself to your books or your business.

　　I have no other moral than this to tag to the present storyof "Vanity Fair." Some people consider Fairs immoral altogether,and eschew such, with their servants and families: verylikely they are right. But persons who think otherwise, and areof a lazy, or a benevolent, or a sarcastic mood, may perhapslike to step in for half an hour, and look at the performances.There are scenes of all sorts; some dreadful combats, somegrand and lofty horse-riding, some scenes of high life, andsome of very middling indeed; some love-making for thesentimental, and some light comic business; the wholeaccompanied by appropriate scenery and brilliantly illuminatedwith the Author's own candles.

　　What more has the Manager of the Performance to say?--To acknowledge the kindness with which it has been receivedin all the principal towns of England through which the Showhas passed, and where it has been most favourably noticed bythe respected conductors of the public Press, and by the Nobilityand Gentry. He is proud to think that his Puppets have givensatisfaction to the very best company in this empire. Thefamous little Becky Puppet has been pronounced to be uncommonlyflexible in the joints, and lively on the wire; the AmeliaDoll, though it has had a smaller circle of admirers, has yetbeen carved and dressed with the greatest care by the artist; theDobbin Figure, though apparently clumsy, yet dances in a veryamusing and natural manner; the Little Boys' Dance has beenliked by some; and please to remark the richly dressed figureof the Wicked Nobleman, on which no expense has beenspared, and which Old Nick will fetch away at the end of thissingular performance.

　　And with this, and a profound bow to his patrons, theManager retires, and the curtain rises.

　　London, June 28, 1848