A Book of Burlesque: Sketches of English Stage Travestie and ParodyAdams, William Davenport
History
A Book of Burlesque: Sketches of English Stage Travestie and Parody
Adams, William Davenport
Burlesque (Literature); English literature -- History and criticism; Parody
_Rep._ No, no; that's not the sort of thing to make up the business
that I do!
* * * * *
_Rep._ I'm a literary man, and I can put a blot
On a proud snob's scutcheon----
_Leofric and Godwin._ Hey! what? what? what?
_Rep._ And if I mention the people's woes,
And show you up, why down you goes;
And the flow of language that I possess
Will open the tide of the Public----
_Leo._ Water Companies?
_Godwin._ Baths and Washhouses?
_Leo._ I have it--Press!
_Rep._ Just so! Now you know the sort of thing that makes up the
business that I do!
Three burlesques have been devoted to the life and adventures of Sir
Richard Whittington. There was, first, the "Whittington Junior, and
his Sensation Cat," of Mr. Reece (Royalty, 1870); next, the "Young
Dick Whittington" of Mr. Wilton Jones (Leicester, 1881); and next, the
"Whittington and his Cat" of Mr. Burnand (Gaiety, 1881). Mr. Reece had
Miss Henrietta Hodson (Mrs. Labouchere) for his Whittington, while Miss
Farren was Mr. Burnand's. Robin Hood has had at least as many burlesque
biographies as Whittington. A travestie, written by Stocqueler, Shirley
Brooks, and Charles Kenny, and produced at the Lyceum in 1846, with
the Keeleys, Wigan and Frank Matthews, was followed in 1862, at the
Olympic, by one from the pen of Mr. Burnand. Mr. Reece wrote one,
called "Little Robin Hood," which was seen at the Royalty in 1871,
and this was revived--in three-act form--at the Gaiety in 1882, with
Mr. Arthur Williams as a particularly droll Richard I. Robin Hood, it
may also be noted, was a prominent character in Mr. Burnand's "Hit or
'Miss,'" at the Olympic in 1868. Herne the Hunter (who has a place in
Mr. Burnand's "Windsor Castle") was made the leading personage in, and
gave the title to, a travestie composed by Messrs. Reece and Yardley,
and performed at the Gaiety in 1881. Five years later, at the Folly,
we had "Herne the Hunted," in which Mr. H. P. Stephens had a hand,
as well as Messrs. Yardley and Reece. Claude Duval was turned into a
burlesque hero by Mr. Burnand, and strutted his hour upon the stage at
the Royalty in 1869; followed _longo intervallo_ by Turpin--here called
"Dandy Dick Turpin, the Mashing Highwayman,"--whom Mr. Geoffrey Thorn
(Charles Townley) made the chief personage of a travestie performed in
London in 1889.
VI.
BURLESQUE OF SHAKESPEARE.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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