[26] In this the original Aladdin was Miss Marie Wilton; the Princess Badroulbadour, Miss Bufton; Widow Twankay, Rogers; Abanazar, Clarke; The Sultan, Miss Charlotte Saunders; and Pekoe, Miss Fanny Josephs (Strand, 1861). The tea! the tea! Refreshing tea. The green, the fresh, the ever free From all impurity. I may remark that I'll be bound Full shillings six was this the pound-- Full shillings six was this the pound. I'm on for tea--I'm on for tea! For the savour sweet that doth belong To the curly leaf of the rough Souchong, Is like nectar to me, nectar to me, nectar to me. Let others delight in their _eau de vie_-- What matter, what matter? I'm on for tea. During the last twenty years there have been four other notable burlesques on the "Aladdin" subject--Mr. Alfred Thompson's (1870), Mr. Green's (1874), Mr. Reece's (1881), and Mr. Geoffrey Thorn's (1890). With Mr. Reece's are associated pleasant memories of the bright "street boy" of Miss Farren, Mr. Edward Terry's whimsical magician, and the grace and refinement of Miss Kate Vaughan's Badroulbadour. Second only to "Aladdin" in acceptability both to authors and to public, is the story of "Ali Baba, or the Forty Thieves." Here, again, A'Beckett is (with Mark Lemon) to the fore with the travestie called "Open Sesame, or a Night with the Forty Thieves." This was produced at the Lyceum Theatre, and had Mr. Frank Matthews for its Ali Baba, Mrs. Alfred Wigan for its Ganem, Wigan himself for its O'Mustapha (he was an Irish Mussulman), the beautiful Miss Fairbrother for its Abdallah, Keeley for its Hassarac, Miss Georgina Hodson for its Cogia, and Mrs. Keeley for its Morgiana. _There_ was a cast for you! How many burlesque casts of our own time could lay claim to so much talent and beauty? Cassim, in this piece, had to make one admirable pun:-- Such heaps of gems I never saw before: E'en Mortimer can't boast of such a Storr. Elsewhere, O'Mustapha, who was a shoemaker, had to say:-- Business is dreadful bad--what's to be done? Where I sold fifty boots, I don't mend one. No longer Wellingtons are all the go: High-lows alone are worn by high and low. In vain upon my door this bill I fix-- "Five thousand Bluchers, all at 8_s._ 6_d._, Strong boys' at 3_s._ 9_d._"--folks once would use, But now it's quite another pair of shoes. A'Beckett, however, did not lay himself out for punning in and out of season. His chief merit is the neatness of his style and the pervading nature of his wit.