So much for the travestie of English melodrama. When we come to deal with the burlesque of melodrama derived from the French, a large field opens out before us. Going back to 1850, we find that Hugo's "Nôtre Dame," as dramatised in England, has suggested to Albert Smith a comic piece called "Esmeralda," brought out at the Adelphi. The subject is next taken up by H. J. Byron, whose "Esmeralda or the 'Sensation' Goat" belongs to the Strand and 1861. Then Fanny Josephs was the Esmeralda, Marie Wilton the Gringoire, Eleanor Bufton the Phoebus, Clarke the Quasimodo, and Rogers the Claude Frollo. Gringoire was made to introduce himself in this punning fashion:-- I am a comic, tragic, epic poet. I'll knock you off a satire or ode Venice on, Aye, or write any song like Alfred T_enny-song_. Something from my last new extravaganza-- Come now (_to Clopin_), a trifling stanza shall I stand, sir? Let me in some way merit your esteem: _Ode to a creditor_--a first-rate theme. _Clop._ Thankee, I'd rather not; the fact is, you're---- _Gring._ But a poor author--that is, _rauther poor_. The baker, a most villainous character, Has stopped supplies.... The milk purveyor to my chalk cried "Whoa," Because I did a trifling _milk-bill owe_. My tailor, who for years this youth hath made for, Closed his account, _account o' clothes_ not paid for. The gasman, looking on me as a cheater, Finished my rhyme by cutting off my _metre_. Esmeralda, who is a dancer, expresses her "delight in all things saltatory":-- Some people like dear wine, give me cheap _hops_, Where fountains spout and where the weasel pops; My love for trifling _trips_ I can't conceal: E'en when I read I always _skip_ a deal; I prefer _columbine_ before all plants, And, at the play, give me a piece by _Dance_. Phoebus, declaring his love for Esmeralda, makes use of a pun somewhat above the Byronic average:-- Alonzo Cora loved with all his might, And Petrarch was forlorn for Laura quite: You're worth to me, dear maid, a score o' Coras; Yes, to this bachelor, a _batch o' Lauras_. In 1879, at the Gaiety, Byron returned to the topic, and produced the piece which he called "Pretty Esmeralda." At the same theatre, in 1887, one saw the same subject treated in the "Miss Esmeralda" of Messrs. F. Leslie and H. Mills--a piece in which Miss Marion Hood, as the heroine, played prettily to the Frollo of Mr. E. J. Lonnen, and in which the late George Stone laid the foundation of his too brief success.