A Book of Burlesque: Sketches of English Stage Travestie and Parody. Adams William Davenport

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СКАЧАТЬ I heard on Afric's burning shore

      A hungry lion give a grievous roar;

      The grievous roar echo'd along the shore.

      King. So have I heard on Afric's burning shore

      Another lion give a grievous roar,

      And the first lion thought the last a bore.

      Next comes the fight between the monarch and the warrior; the King is killed, and then Fusbos kills Bombastes. Finally, the two deceased (despite the assertion of Fusbos that they are "dead as herrings – herrings that are red") come to life again, and all ends happily.

      Of ordinary parody there is little in the piece, and what there is can scarcely be said to be of the best. There is a suggestion, in one ditty, of "Hope told a flattering Tale." But better than this is the song suggested by "My Lodging is on the Cold Ground," which is happy both intrinsically and as an imitation. Fusbos is the singer: —

      My lodging is in Leather Lane,

      A parlour that's next to the sky;

      'Tis exposed to the wind and the rain,

      But the wind and the rain I defy:

      Such love warms the coldest of spots,

      As I feel for Scrubinda the fair;

      Oh, she lives by the scouring of pots,

      In Dyot Street, Bloomsbury Square.

      Oh, were I a quart, pint, or gill,

      To be scrubb'd by her delicate hands,

      Let others possess what they will

      Of learning, and houses, and lands;

      My parlour that's next to the sky

      I'd quit, her blest mansion to share;

      So happy to live and to die

      In Dyot Street, Bloomsbury Square.

      And oh, would this damsel be mine,

      No other provision I'd seek;

      On a look I could breakfast and dine,

      And feast on a smile for a week.

      But ah! should she false-hearted prove,

      Suspended, I'll dangle in air;

      A victim to delicate love,

      In Dyot Street, Bloomsbury Square.

      At this point, English stage burlesque suddenly takes a new departure, combining, with satire of the contemporary native "boards," satire not less keen of certain products of the foreign muse. The incident came about in this way: – Just before the close of the eighteenth century, the English book-market had been flooded with translations of certain German plays, including Schiller's "Robbers" and "Cabal and Love," Goethe's "Stella," and Kotzebue's "Misanthropy and Repentance" ("The Stranger") and "Count Benyowsky." Canning, Ellis, and Frere, who were then bringing out The Anti-Jacobin, were struck by the absurdities contained within these dramas, and accordingly composed and printed (in June 1798) that well-known skit, "The Rovers, or the Double Arrangement." In this the plays chiefly parodied are "Stella," "The Stranger," and "Count Benyowsky." By "Stella" was suggested not only "the double arrangement" (by which Matilda and Cecilia share the affections of their lover Casimere), but the famous scene in which the two women, before they know they are rivals, become, on the instant, bosom friends. Both admit that they are in love, and then —

      Cecilia. Your countenance grows animated, my dear madam.

      Matilda. And yours is glowing with illumination.

      Cecilia. I had long been looking out for a congenial spirit! My heart was withered, but the beams of yours have rekindled it.

      Matilda. A sudden thought strikes me: let us swear an eternal friendship.

      Cecilia. Let us agree to live together!

      Matilda. Willingly.

      Cecilia. Let us embrace.(They embrace.)

      "The Rovers," however, would hardly come within the scope of the present volume, were it not that, in 1811, at the Haymarket, there was produced, by Colman junior, a piece called "The Quadrupeds of Quedlinburgh, or the Rovers of Weimar," in which the adapter made use of the squib in The Anti-Jacobin. Colman's aim in this work was to ridicule not only the German plays, including Kotzebue's "Spaniards in Peru" ("Pizarro"), which had lately been brought before the English playgoer, but also the prevailing fancy for bringing animals upon the stage. At Astley's horses had figured both in "Blue Beard" and in "Timour the Tartar," and dogs had previously been seen in "The Caravan." To this, as well as to the unhealthy importations from Germany, allusion was made in the prologue: —

      To lull the soul by spurious strokes of art,

      To warp the genius and mislead the heart,

      To make mankind revere wives gone astray,

      (a hit at "The Stranger"),

      Love pious sons who rob on the highway,

      For this the foreign muses trod our stage,

      Commanding German schools to be the rage…

      Your taste, recovered half from foreign quacks,

      Takes airings now on English horses' backs;

      While every modern bard may raise his name,

      If not on lasting praise, on stable fame.

      "The Quadrupeds of Quedlinburgh" was not printed, and one does not know to what extent Colman took advantage of the text of "The Rovers." It is certain, however, that Casimere, Matilda, and Cecilia, as well as Rogero (a creation of the original parodists), all appeared in the burlesque, being enacted respectively by Munden, Mrs. Glover, Mrs. Gibbs, and Liston, Elliston taking the rôle of Bartholomew Bathos, a lineal descendant (no doubt) of Bayes and Puff. We read that, in addition to the travestie supplied by The Anti-Jacobin, fun was poked at the sentimental sentinel in "Pizarro," and the last scene of "Timour the Tartar" was closely imitated. The piece was acted thirty-nine times, and must therefore have been what, in those days, was accounted a success.

      We come now to a travestie of the old-fashioned tragedy which helps to connect the Old burlesque with the New, inasmuch as it was the production of James Robinson Planché. Of his "Amoroso, King of Little Britain: a serio-comick bombastick operatick interlude," played at Drury Lane in 1818, Planché was not particularly proud. He was very young when he wrote it; he wrote it for amateur performance; and it got on to the stage of Drury Lane without his knowledge and consent. Harley, the comedian, appears to have seen or read the little trifle, and to have recommended it to the manager of "the national theatre." He himself represented Amoroso; Knight was Roastando (a cook); Smith was Blusterbus (a yeoman of the guard); Mrs. Bland was Coquetinda (the Queen of Little Britain), and Mrs. Orger was Mollidusta (a chambermaid). The piece was much applauded, and had the distinction of being quoted in the Times. It opens with the King being awakened by his courtiers, to whom he angrily exclaims: —

      Leave at what time you please your truckle beds —

      But if you break my rest I'll break your heads.

      I swear I'm quite disordered with this rout.

      Ahem! My lords and gentlemen – get out!

      The Times applied the last line to a Parliamentary incident which had just occurred; and Planché admits that he was flattered by the compliment. But he would not include "Amoroso" in the testimonial edition of his burlesques and extravaganzas, – mainly, I imagine, because the piece is so obviously an imitation of "Bombastes Furioso," which it by no means equals in literary distinction.

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