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
Farewell, a long farewell to all imbibing!
This is the state of man as I'm describing:
To-day he takes a glass because he's dry,
To-morrow, one to wet the other eye;
The third day takes one extra, just to shed
A tear--he feels it gets into his head:
The fourth day takes two extra ones, and feels
'Stead of his head it's got into his heels;
And in the morning, with perhaps two suits on,
He finds himself--in bed, but with two boots on;
Then after that he's nowhere; and that's how
He falls as I did--which I won't do now.[43]
[43] Another burlesque on the same subject, called "Ups and Downs of
Deal, and Black-eyed Susan," was seen at the Marylebone in 1867, with
Miss Augusta Thomson as Captain Crosstree.
Five years after the production of Jerrold's play, the London stage was
surfeited for a time with adaptations from the French, all bearing upon
the evils of the gaming-table. These bore such titles as "The Gambler's
Fate," "Thirty Years of a Gambler's Life," and so on, and were brought
out at Drury Lane, the Surrey (by Elliston), and the Adelphi (by Terry
and Yates). They did not last, however; and "The Elbow-Shakers, or
Thirty Years of a Rattler's Life," in which Fox Cooper made fun of
them, was scarcely needed to effect their overthrow. Reeve and Yates
were the two Elbow-Shakers, but the piece had little intrinsic value.
In 1867, at the Haymarket, Mr. Gilbert Arthur a'Beckett brought out
a travestie of Planché's "Brigand" (1829), under the title of "The
Brigand, or New Lines to an Old Ban-Ditty." In this, Massaroni, the
hero, was represented by Compton as a poltroon, objecting very much to
the dictation of Marie Grazia as portrayed by Ione Burke. Young Mr.
Kendal also had a part in this production. Nor had we yet done with the
old school of melodrama. Yet another specimen thereof was destined to
come under the lash of the parodist--namely, the piece called "My Poll
and my Partner Joe," written by J. T. Haines, first seen at the Surrey
in 1838, and interpreted by T. P. Cooke as Harry Halyard, R. Honner as
Joe Tiller, and Miss Honner as Poll (Mary Maybud). The "happy thought"
of burlesquing this typical piece came to Mr. Burnand, who, in his
travestie named after the original, made, at the St. James's in 1871,
a success second only to that of "Black-ey'd Susan." It was in this
burlesque that Mrs. John Wood (as Mary) had so notable a triumph with
her song, "His Heart was true to Poll," which she still sings sometimes
in public. Miss Emma Chambers was the Harry in this piece, and Mr.
Lionel Brough the Black Brandon, with Harry Cox, Gaston Murray, and
Miss Sallie Turner in other parts.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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