It was during the management of Alfred Wigan at the New Olympic that
Frederick Robson began to be heard of again. An old, and not a very
clever farce, by one of the Brothers Mayhew, entitled "The Wandering
Minstrel," had been revived. In this farce, Robson was engaged to play
the part of _Jem Baggs_, an itinerant vocalist and flageolet-player,
who, in tattered attire, roams about from town to town, making the air
hideous with his performances. The part was a paltry one, and Robson,
who had been engaged mainly at the instance of the manager's wife, a
very shrewd and appreciative lady, who persisted in declaring that the
ex-low-comedian of the Grecian had "something in him," eked it out by
singing an absurd ditty called "Vilikins and his Dinah." The words and
the air of "Vilikins" were, if not literally as old as the hills,
considerably older than the age of Queen Elizabeth. The story told in
the ballad, of a father's cruelty, a daughter's anguish, a sweetheart's
despair, and the ultimate suicide of both the lovers, is, albeit couched
in uncouth and grotesque language, as pathetic as the tragedy of "Romeo
and Juliet." Robson gave every stanza a nonsensical refrain of "Right
tooral lol looral, right tooral lol lay." At times, when his audience
was convulsed with merriment, he would come to a halt, and gravely
observe, "This is not a comic song"; but London, was soon unanimous that
such exquisite comicality had not been heard for many a long year.
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