THE SPANIARD'S SOLILOQUY.

To fight or not to fight, that is the question,
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind

To bear a patient drubbing by the French
Or take up arms against old Louis

And by opposing end him

And exterminate the Bourbons?

To fight-to beat-no more;

And by our beating end a thousand ills

Which we were born to.

'Tis a consummation devoutly to be wished.
To fight-to beat-perchance to be beat
Ah! there's the rub.

For by our being beat what ills may come ;
There's the respect that makes our liberty so dear,
For who would bear the sneers and scoffs of tyrants,
The oppressor's wrong, the insolence of office
When we can still our liberty maintain
With the bare rapier?

Who would mind our constitution being altered
But that a dread of something more

(That Alliance from whose unholy laws

No state is free) puzzles the will,

And makes us rather bear these ills we have
Than fly to others that we know not of.

The Mirror, April 5, 1823.

accept it. A good many intrigues are believed to exist at the Danish Court, and two noblemen named Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are suspected of being employed on a delicate and dangerous mission. Gertrude, the Queen, does not appear to enjoy good health, and rumours are rife of violent scenes between her and Hamlet. The death of the the late Lord Chamberlain does not seem to have been at all satisfactorily accounted for; and the consequent derangement of his daughter, who it appears has been going about singing very improper songs, has occasioned a great deal of scandal. The King, however, swills his draught of Rhenish down as usual, and even had some private theatricals lately. The monarch, however, could not sit out the first piece, and no wonder, for entre nous being legitimate it was awfully slow. Meantime Hamlet's conduct is quite unaccountable: some people hint that he is mad; and the fact of his having got up a cock-and-bull story of a ghost, which he says is always walking about with a certain MARSHALL STALK, supposed to be a Prussian from the name, would seem to countenance the theory. For my own part, whether he be mad or no, I think his proceedings very stupid and tiresome. The Man in the Moon.-Vol. III, 1848.

MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING IN THE CITY.

SIGH no more, dealers, sigh no more,
Shares were unstable ever,

They often have been down before,
At high rates constant never.
Then sigh not so,

Soon up they'll go,

And you'll be blithe and funny,
Converting all your notes of woe
Into hey, money, money.

Write no more letters, write no mo
On stocks so dull and heavy.
At times on 'Change 'tis always so,
When bears a tribute levy.
Then sigh not so,

And don't be low,

In sunshine you'll make honey,

Converting all your notes of woe

Into hey money, money.

Punch, September 28, 1867.

THE TEMPEST.

"THE ENCHANTED ISLE; or Raising the Wind on the most approved principles; a Drama without the smallest claim to Legitimacy, Consistency, Probability, or anything else but absurdity; in which will be found much that is unaccountably coincident with Shakespeare's Tempest." This burlesque, written by the Brothers R. B. and W. Brough, was first performed at the Adelphi Theatre, London, on Monday, November 26, 1848. Beyond the general foundation of the plot, it contains no parodies of Shakespeare, but is full of allusions. to the political revolutions and events of 1848, and has many parodies of songs which were then popular, but which are now, for the most part, obsolete. It was no doubt a very amusing burlesque, having a good deal of lively music, songs, and dances, and the cast was a powerful one, including Paul Bedford, Miss Woolgar, Madame Celeste, and O. Smith. It was afterwards revived at the Haymarket Theatre, when Miss P. Horton, Mrs. Fitzwilliam, Mr. Buckstone, Mr. Rogers, and Mr. Clark performed the leading parts. The following amusing parody of the Ghost-scene in "Hamlet" was spoken as a

PROLOGUE.

SCENE-representing various illustrations of the life of Shakespeare.

Enter the GHOST of SHAKESPEARE, followed by the POPULAR COMEDIAN. The GHOST paces round the stage.

P. Com. Whither wilt thou lead me?

Speak- I'll go no farther.

Ghost. Mark me!

P. Com. Ghost.

I will.

I am old Shakespeare's spirit,

Doomed for a certain term to walk the earth,
And on the stage draw tolerable houses,-
Till by the taste of a discerning age,

For monster drums and Ethiopian bards
Driven to make a way; but that I am forbid
To charm the public is not what has caused
My troubled spirit to revisit earth :

I can a tale unfold of recent wrongs,

Whose lightest word would harrow up a soul
Of gutta-percha toughness-freeze thy blood-
Make thy two eyes like cabs start from their stands-
And each particular orb to roll and stretch

Like pictures of the fretful hippopotamus

At the Zoological! List! List! oh, list!

If e'er thou did'st old Stratford William love

P. Com. Good gracious!
Ghost.

Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder.
P. Com. Murder?
Ghost.

Murder most foul I've been accustomed to-
And in the ordinary way don't mind it—
But this most foul, strange and unnatural-

P. Com. Haste me to know it, that I,

P. Com. Some time ago. Ghost.

Ah-well-'twas given out that-(pardon me,
A ghost must have his feelings)—rumour reached me,
That the whole ear of London

Was by a forged process of my "TEMPEST"
Rankly abus'd-and know, thou noble youth-
With serpents and trombones disguised, my piece
Now scares the town.

P. Com. O, my prophetic soul ! the opera!
Ghost.

Aye, that most queer and het'rogeneous dish,—
With witchcraft and old fairy tales dress'd up,-
(Singular taste! that could on Shakespeare graft
Old Mother Bunch ") bringing to
"Tom

66

Thumb's" level

The plot of my most seeming perfect play.
Oh, gracious! what a dreadful sight was there
For me, or any other anxious parent!
My tricksy Ariel in a ballet skirt-
The fairy of a Christmas pantomime!
My Caliban a melodrama villain-
Bearing Miranda off-(stol'n incident
From Grindoff in the "Miller and his Men !")
And then resorting to an ancient scheme
From "Harlequin and the Three Wishes" borrowed
Oh horrible! oh horrible !—most horrible !-
If thou hast nature in thee, bear it not-
Do something, please-I'm not particular what-
But soft-an odour wafts along the wall-
Methinks I scent an early breakfast stall.
I must get home-I'm not allowed a key-
Adieu! adieu! adieu ! remember me?

[Exit.

P. Com. Remember thee! Aye, thou poor Ghost! e'en

while

Memory holds seat 'neath this distracted tile,
I will avenge thee for this outrage vile,
But how? Stop! yes-"THE ENCHANTED ISLE."
Beat them on their own ground, the play's the thing.
We'll out-burlesque them!-Ho! there! Promp-
ter, ring!

From this it will be seen that something in the nature of an apology was deemed necessary for this burlesque on "The Tempest," and more recently when Mr. Burnand produced his "Ariel," there was an angry discussion in the press, in which many maintained that it was not in good taste, nor was it advisable for the credit of our stage, that this beautiful play (supposed to have been the last written by Shakespeare), should be thus irreverently treated. On page 144 of "Parodies" will be "Ariel" found extracts from this correspondence.

was produced at the Gaiety Theatre, in October, 1883, and though a very harmless burlesque in itself, and in far better taste than the Broughs, "Enchanted Isle," it was received with many signs of disapprobation, and had but a short run. There

was nothing very original, nor very comical, in the conception of Prospero as a magician, entirely dependent upon his conjuring apparatus without which he was absolutely powerless, whilst as to the plot, it was that of the "Tempest " with modern variations cut to a comic pattern, and represented by a clever company, among whom were Miss Phyllis Broughton as Ferdinand, Miss Farren as Ariel, Miss Harcourt as the Captain, Mr. Wyatt as Sebastian, and Mr. Elton as Caliban. The burlesque teemed with popular allusions, and the Fisheries Exhibition, naturally, was not in high favour; there were some lively songs, and, of course, plenty of dances for Miss E. Farren, and Miss Connie Gilchrist.

ARIEL sings

·:0:

WHERE the bee sucks, there suck I :
In a cowslip's bell I lie;

There I couch when owls do cry,

On the bats back I do fly

After summer merrily.

Merrily, merrily shall I live now

Under the blossom that hangs on the bough.

Parody sung by J. P. Harley in Planché's Sleeping Beauty, Covent Garden, April 20, 1840.

WHO would be Great Grand Lord High?
All the blame on him must lie ;
Everywhere for him they cry

Up and down stairs he must fly-
After all folks verily !-

Verily Verily !-Few could live now

Under the honours beneath which I bow!

Prospero

:0:

OUR revels now are ended. These our actors, As I foretold you, were all spirits and

Are melted into air, into thin air:
And, like the baseless fabric of this vision,
The cloud-capp'd towers, the gorgeous palaces,
The solemn temples, the great globe itself,
Yea, all which it inherit shall dissolve
And, like this insubstantial pageant faded,
Leave not a rack behind.

It is possible that this passage was suggested to Shakespeare by some lines in Lord Stirling's Tragedie of Darius, 1604:

THOSE golden pallaces, those gorgeous halles,
With fourniture superfluouslie faire;

Those statelie courts, those sky encountring walles,
Evanish all like vapours in the aire.

END OF THE PARODIES.

OUR parodies are ended. These our authors,
As we foretold you, were all Spirits, and
Are melted into air, into thin air.

And, like the baseless fabric of these verses,
The Critic's puff, the Trade's advertisement,
The Patron's promise, and the World's applause,
Yea, all the hopes of poets,-shall dissolve,
And, like this insubstantial fable fated,
Leave not a groat behind!
Posthumous Parodies, 1814.

A FEW PARODIES OF DETACHED PASSAGES. 'FLIRTING."

(After Portia.)

THE quality of flirting is not strained;

It droppeth like the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the favoured ones. It is twice blest :

It blesses her that flirts, and him that's flirted with.
It profiteth the husband better than

His deeds; and he becomes in truth renowned

The time his wife doth gad about and flirt

With men. It's mightiest in the ugliest. Oh!

It is the attribute of love itself;

And wives do think themselves most loved when they

Do drive or walk with other man than they

Who are their lawful husbands. But, O wife!
Though loving be thy plea, remember this,
That flirting doth beget unto the pair
A reputation far from enviable.

1860.

TOBACCO.

WELL, don't cry, my little tiny boy,
With hey, ho, the wind and the rain,
Amuse yourself, and break some toy,
For the rain it raineth every day.
Alas, for the grass on papa's estate,

With hey, ho, the wind and the rain,
He'll have to buy hay at an awful rate,
For the rain it raineth every day.
Mamma, she can't go out for a drive,
With hey, ho, the wind and the rain,
How cross she gets about four or five,
For the rain it raineth every day.

If I were you I'd be off to bed,

With hey, ho, the wind and the rain,

Or the damp will give you a cold in the head,
For the rain it raineth every day.

A great while ago this song was done,
With hey, ho, the wind and the rain,

And I, for one, cannot see it's fun,

But the Dyces* and the Colliers* can-they say. SHIRLEY BROOKS.

Carpio, Molière, Milton, Dryden, Pope, Thomson, Voltaire, Diderot, D'Alembert, La Harpe, Gray, Garrick, Mademoiselle Claison, Warburton, Johnson, Malone, Steevens, Susanna Shakespeare, Johna-Combe, Alfieri, R. B. Sheridan, Porson, and a number of other less distinguished persons. Very few of the remarks are either witty or clever, nor have they many of the characteristics of the personages to whom they are ascribed.

-:0;

Coriolanus Travestie, by J. Morgan, was produced in Liverpool in 1846, and a burlesque of King Lear, entitled, King Queer and his Daughters Three, was played at the Strand Theatre, London, in 1855. It will therefore be seen that travesties have been written upon nearly every one of William Shakespeare's Tragedies, and that not even his comedies, or historical plays, have quite escaped burlesque. The enumeration here given is probably incomplete, as many burlesques which have been produced in provincial towns, and some which have been played in London, enjoyed too short a run to obtain the advantage of being printed.

Before closing this chapter on the burlesques of Shakespeare, the following remarks on the subject which appeared in The Daily News, of October 25, 1884, may be quoted :

Few more striking proofs could be given of the great and growing popularity of the theatre than the most recent fluctuations of stage humour. The experience of the present thus far confirms the judgment formed during the two preceding seasons, that the comic element in stage representation has undergone an important mutation both in motive and in method. Fun is aimed at, and probably achieved, as frequently as of yore; but the kind of fun and the means employed to produce it are entirely different, and possible only under the new conditions of the theatre. Only a few years ago, when London had comparatively few theatres, and supported, after a fashion, two opera-houses, the theatrical world filled a ludicrously small space in English life.

Only when the public are so keenly interested in the dramatic world as they are at present could success attend the profuse introduction of personal parody or caricature into the lightest of stage plays. It would be poor fun to present an elaborate caricature of a serious actor to a spectator who knew little, and cared less about him, and probably had not seen him in the part more especially selected for ridicule. Recent burlesque or travesty depends almost entirely for success upon such caricature, and assumes perfect knowledge of all the mannerisms of prominent actors and actresses. The art of inverting a noble story so that it may appear grotesque occupies quite a secondary position in the category of effects. It would not, for instance, be considered funny at this present juncture to travesty the Venetian Senate into policemen drinking pots of porter, and Othello himself into a negro, with plantation songs, dances and accent, Nor would it be thought amusing to dress Shylock with three hats upon his head, and make him in the intervals of the Trial Scene try to sell cigars to the young Venetians present in court. Yet this is precisely what

Frank Talfourd, the great master of the word torturing school, and the inventor of the agglutinate system of punning, did. Henry J. Byron, too, made perhaps his greatest burlesque hit in The Lady of Lyons by making up Beauseant as Napoleon III. and Claude Melnotte as Napoleon I. Again, Talfourd in The Merchant of Venice Preserved wrote amazingly funny dialogue and songs for Robson, but depended in no kind of way upon imitations of Charles Kean and Phelps, which Robson could have done to perfection. What would now be required in Othello would be a low-comedy imitation of Signor Salvini with an Iago made up like Mr. Irving, and a Desdemona who could at least give a general impression of Miss Elleh Terry. We are not propounding that the words should be witless and senseless, all that we maintain is that the caricaturists would in theatrical parlance "get all the laughs." An instance in point is that the song of the hermit in Paw Clawdian neatly written by Mr. Burnand, and capitally sung by Mr. E. D. Ward, although received with hearty merriment, by no means threw the audience into the convulsions provoked by Mr. Toole's appearance as Mr. Wilson Barrett. It is not the perveron of motive and character, not the curious piling of

The amusement to be obtained from putting counterfeit presentments of statesmen, lawyers, and soldiers upon the stage has been forbidden in theatres properly so-called, and is only endured in music halls in a modified shape. Plenty of fun in the worst possible taste could be produced by this ancient expedient, but as public opinion and police reasons forbid it, recourse is had to the device of hoisting the histrion with his own petard. All the clever devices of his own art, all his mysteries of "make-up." and his talent for characterization, are devoted to the object, not of parodying either Shakespeare or Sardou, but the aspect of their creations embodied by the foremost artists at present on the stage.