The most famous of all the Ali Baba travesties was that "joint-stock" burlesque, "The Forty Thieves," written by members of the Savage Club, and performed by the authors themselves at the Lyceum, in 1860, for the benefit of the families of two literary men just then deceased. Planché wrote the prologue for this piece, and it was at once so brilliant and so admirably delivered by Leicester Buckingham that it nearly obtained the extraordinary honour of an encore. It was followed, three years later, by H. J. Byron's "Ali Baba, or the Thirty-Nine Thieves (in accordance with the author's habit of taking one off!)."[27] Abdallah, the captain of the thieves (played by Miss Ada Swanborough), was here depicted as a rascal of the quiet, elegant order, in sharp contrast to the Surrey-side villainy of his lieutenant, Hassarac. A colloquy between these gave Byron an opportunity of satirising the melodramatic criminal of the "good old times":-- [27] Miss P. Marshall, Ganem; George Honey, Hassarac; Miss Bufton, Cogia; Miss F. Hughes, Zaide; Miss C. Saunders, Morgiana (Strand, 1863). _Abdal._ From all you say, my friend, you see it's plain That vulgar violence is on the wane; Therefore become more polished in your style, And, like King Richard, murder when you smile. I go into society, and none Know I'm a thief, or could conceive me one; I start new companies--obtain their pelf, And, having started them, I start myself; Swindle the widow--the poor _orphan_ do-- And then myself become an _off 'un_ too. _Hassarac._ Bother! that's not of villainy my notion; Give me the tangled wood or stormy ocean-- A knife--dark lantern--lots of horrid things, With lightning, every minute, at the wings; A pistol, big enough for any crime, Which never goes off at the proper time; Deep rumbling, grumbling music on the drums-- A chord whenever one observes "She comes"; An opening chorus, about "Glorious wine"; A broadsword combat every sixteenth line; Guttural vows of direst vengeance wreaking, And thunder always when one isn't speaking. That was the style--exciting, if not true, At the old Cobourg; _Abdal._ Oh, _coburg_lar, do--(_crosses to R._) You're horrifying me! _Hassarac_ (_draws_). Spoon! sappy! duffer! Ha, ha! lay on, you milk-and-water muff-a, And _hem'd_ be he who first cries hold enough-a! In 1872 Mr. Reece wrote for the Gaiety a piece called "Ali Baba à la Mode"; in 1880 he prepared for the same theatre another version called "The Forty Thieves."[28] This latter, if I remember rightly, was the first of the burlesques in three acts. It presented in Mr. Terry (Ali Baba), Miss Farren (Ganem), Mr. Royce (Hassarac), and Miss Vaughan (Morgiana), a quartett which is specially well remembered for the _verve_ and vivacity of its performance. [28] A burlesque on the subject of "Ali Baba" was written by Mr. Gilbert Arthur a'Beckett.