In this department the artists in travestie have not done so much as might have been expected. Even when we include in the word "history" such things as myths, legends, and traditions, we find that the historical, in comparison with the other fields open to the parodists, has been quite "second favourite." Particularly little has been achieved in the burlesque of foreign persons and events; and, in the case of our own celebrities, the only really familiar figure on the comic stage has been that of "Bluff King Hal." King Arthur, Alfred the Great, Elizabeth, Oliver Cromwell, have made rare appearances in motley. In the by-paths of history, general and local, the burlesque writers have devoted themselves most frequently to popular personages like Herne the Hunter, the Lady Godiva, Robin Hood, Dick Whittington, Guy Fawkes, Claude Duval, and Richard Turpin. The story of Rome has supplied subjects for two of the most notable burlesques of the past twenty years--the "Romulus and Remus" of Mr. Reece, and the "Field Marshal Julius Cnæsar" of Mr. Burnand. The former was played at the Vaudeville in 1872, and had for its chief interpreters Messrs. James and Thorne, who had not yet wholly surrendered burlesque for comedy. Mr. James was Romulus, and Mr. Thorne was Remus; and they came on in the first scene as children, dressed in pinafores and socks, and carrying toys. The pair begin by quarrelling as to which of them was born first. Remus rests his claim on his superior size:-- Nature, perceiving "true grit" and "no shoddy," Made me thus "double stout" with "extra body." To which Romulus replies:-- Though at our birth (when both kicked up a shine) His cry was _stout_, mine was the _elder whine_! Hence this thin body, wise folks say who've been here, "We're sure you are the _elder_, now we've _seen yer_." When the two grow up (as they do between the first scene and the second), the question is, which is to be King of Rome--a question decided eventually by personal combat, in which Remus falls. Ultimately the pair decide to be partners in the throne--an obvious allusion to the position held by the two actors in reference to the Vaudeville Theatre. The date of the production of "Romulus and Remus" (1872) could be fixed by the aid of a brief passage introduced in travestie of a scene between Cromwell and the King in Mr. Wills's "Charles I.," then "running" at the Lyceum. Early in the piece we have these lines:-- _Remus._ The public will have (though to me it's pills) The classic drama. Well, they have their _Wills_. _Apollo._ One manager this line keeps without swerving-- _Baccharia._ And he succeeds! _Romulus._ But not without des-_erving_. Later, Remus says to Romulus:-- I can't express to you the pain I suffer In saying it; but, brother, you're a duffer! I am the happy man! Pride has a tumble! Your hopes of reigning, sir, are _all of a crumble_!