One of Brougham's last burlesque productions was his _Much Ado About a
Merchant of Venice_, presented March 8, 1869, at the little theatre on
Twenty-fourth Street, New York, which has since borne so many names, and
now, rebuilt, is known as the Madison Square. He played Shylock, Miss
Effie Germon Lorenzo, and Mrs. J. J. Prior Portia. This was his final
effort at theatrical management. He appeared in _Pocahontas_ as late as
1876, but Shylock was his last original burlesque part which is worthy of
serious mention.
Francis Talfourd's _Shylock; or, The Merchant of Venice Preserved, a
Jerusalem Hearty Joke_, is a much older production than Brougham's
travesty of the same play, with which it should not be confounded.
Frederic Robson was the original Shylock in London, Tom Johnstone in New
York (at Burton's, October 9, 1853). M. W. Leffingwell gave an admirable
performance of Talfourd's _Shylock_ in September, 1867, on the stage of
this same little Twenty-fourth Street theatre, assisted by Miss Lina Edwin
as Jessica. Mr. Leffingwell was a very versatile actor although he
excelled in burlesque and broadly extravagant parts. He will be remembered
as Romeo Jaffier Jenkins, in _Too Much for Good Nature_, and in travesties
of _Cinderella_ and _Fra Diavolo_. In the last absurdity, as Beppo, made
up in very clever imitation of Forrest as the Gladiator, and enormously
padded, he strutted about the stage for many moments, entirely unconscious
of a large carving-fork stuck into the sawdust which formed the calf of
his gladiatorial leg. His look of agony and his roar of anguish--perfect
reflections of Forrest's voice and action--when his attention was called
to his physical suffering, made one of the most ludicrous scenes in the
whole history of American burlesque. Mr. Forrest is said to have remarked
of a lithograph of Leffingwell in this part, that while the portrait of
himself was not so bad, the characteristics were somewhat exaggerated!
Leffingwell was, no doubt, the original of the full length, life-sized
effigy of Forrest which serves as the sign for a cigar store on one of
the leading thoroughfares of New York to-day.
[Illustration: GEORGE L. FOX AS HAMLET.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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