About the names of such heroes and heroines as the Lady Godiva, Dick Whittington, Robin Hood, Herne the Hunter, and those distinguished footpads Claude Duval and Dick Turpin, there hangs a good deal that is clearly mythical. Still, some myths have more real vitality than absolute fact; and who does not believe firmly that the Lady Godiva rode round Coventry "clothed on" with nothing but her chastity, and, by taking away a grinding tax, "built herself an everlasting name"? Her adventure has been burlesqued at least twice--once by Francis Talfourd and a collaborator, at another time by Mr. H. Chance Newton. The Talfourd piece was called "Godiva, or Y^e Ladye of Coventrie and Y^e Exyle Fayrie" and produced at the Strand in 1851. Mr. Newton christened his work "Giddy Godiva." In the earlier burlesque, "y^e exyle fayrie" Ignota (Miss Romer) is introduced merely as a _dea ex machinâ_ in the interests of the heroine (Miss Marshall), who, in a passage of Shakespearean reminiscence, discusses the undertaking to which she has been incited by her husband:-- To be, or not to be, at his suggestion, A pose plastique, is yet a doubtful question! To bare my arms against a sea of troubles, And by a pose to end them! Each day doubles The people's wrongs, the proud Earl's heavy tax; To help to ease them I would not be lax; But then to ride--riding, by some low scrub Perhaps be seen!--Ah, bother--there's the rub! The fear that still my courage may be less When I have shuffled off this mortal dress, Must give me pause. A prominent character in the piece is Our Own Reporter, "Y^e Specyall Commyssionere and Correspondente of y^e _Busie Bee_" (John Reeve), who would fain play the part of Peeping Tom, and who, early in the play, sings a song wittily descriptive of his ordinary avocations:-- _Rep._ I'm a mercantile man, and my living is got By selling of articles---- _Leofric and Godwin._ What? what? what? _Rep._ They're white and black, they're short and long, And some of them sometimes go for a song; And during my time, of labour by dint, I've set up many a column of---- _Leo._ Granite? _Godwin._ Iron? _Leo._ Gutta Percha? _Rep._ No, no; that's not the sort of thing to make up the business that I do! * * * * * _Rep._ I'm a military man, for I often have a shot At public foes with---- _Leofric and Godwin._ What? what? what? _Rep._ If I fire at you 'twill be no joke, For you'll hear the report, but see no smoke; And my charge is prepared with what do you think? By a devil and steam, of paper and---- _Leo._ Sulphur and brimstone? _Godwin._ Gunpowder? _Leo._ Gun-cotton?