"The Siege of Troy," by the way, was the title and subject of a burlesque by Robert Brough (Lyceum, 1858).
Paris, Miss Raynham; Œnone, Mr. Thomas Thorne; Castor, Mr. David James; Orion, J. D. Stoyle; Venus, Miss A. Swanborough; Juno, Maria Simpson; Jupiter, Miss Eliza Johnstone.
Paris, Miss Raynham; Helen, Miss Furtado. "Helen" is described by the writer as a "companion picture to 'Paris,'"
See p. 40. Eleven years later, Mr. Burnand wrote for the Opera Comique his "Ixion Re-Wheeled," the cast of which included, beside Miss Laverne, Miss Amy Sheridan and Miss Eleanor Bufton.
at the Olympic "Cupid and Psyche" (December, 1864), a burlesque on an ever-popular subject. Years before so early as 1837 a piece called "Cupid," written by Joseph Graves, had been represented at the Queen's and Strand, with Wild and Miss Malcolm at the one house and Hammond and Miss Daly at the other as the God of Love and his beloved. In "Cupid," however, there was little verbal wit. The god figured as a gay deceiver, who had promised marriage to Psyche, but had refused to "implement" the undertaking. Whereupon Jupiter decides that Cupid shall be shot dead by Psyche; but she, using the god's own arrows, does but transfix him with the love she yearns for. Cupid sings, early in the piece, a parody of "The Sea! the Sea!" beginning
Psyché! Psyché! my own Psyché,
The pretty, fair, and ever free!
In "Cupid and Psyche" Mr. Burnand made Psyche the daughter of a king, who, because she will not marry and thus relieve him of the anxiety caused by a certain Prophecy, chains her to a rock on the sea-shore. To this he is incited by Venus, who regards Psyche as her rival in beauty. Psyche is duly rescued and espoused by Cupid, who (as in the old myth) remains invisible to her until her curiosity gets the better of her prudence; and, in the end, Venus abates her enmity, and the union of the pair is duly recognised. In one place, Psyche, entering, distractedly, in search of Cupid, cries:
A river! I debate with myself wedder
I'll end my tale with a sensation header
From a small boat. It could not clear the reeds;
One cannot make an oar way through these s (weeds ).
Why should I live? Alas, from me forlorn
Each lad turns on his heel to show his (s)corn !
The county lads to me make no advances;
The county girls avert their county-nances .
Counties! (struck with an idea ) I'll drown myself,
Down hesitation!
Nor men, nor folk , shall stop my suffoc -ation!
Stop, you ill-bred little pup!
Is this the way an 'Arrow boy's brought up?
Your conduct would disgrace the lowest Cretan.
Bacchus. "An 'Arrow boy!" egad, that joke's a neat 'un .
A yawn , however gentle,
Is to the face not very orn amental.
Now, stupid
Why don't you speak the tag and finish, Cupid?
Cupid. Because I'm in a fix, my charming friend.
Psyche. How so?
Cupid. The piece with your name ought to end;
And, though I should give all my mind and time to it,
I know that I shan't get a word to rhyme to it.
King (cleverly ). There's Bikey.
Bacchus (as if he'd hit it rather ). Dikey!
Zephyr (suggestively ).Fikey!
Venus (authoritatively ).Likey!
Cupid (who has shaken his head at each suggestion ).Pooh!
Chrysalis. Oh! (every one interested, as if she'd got it now ) Crikey! (every one disgusted ).
Psyche. Ma'am, that's vulgar, and won't do.
Grubbe (calmly and complacently ). Ikey!
Cupid. Absurd. I yield it in despair.
Come the finale; I'll commence the air (sings two very high notes all shake their heads ).
Mars. Oh no! we cannot sing in such a high key.
Cupid (joyfully to Psyche, catching the rhyme at once ). That's it. (takes her hand to audience ). Pray smile on Cupid.
Psyche. And on Psyché.
Among other "classical" burlesques may be mentioned Mr. Burnand's "Arion," seen at the Strand in 1871, with Mr. Edward Terry, Mr. Harry Paulton, and Miss Augusta Thomson; and H. B. Farnie's "Vesta," produced at the St. James's in the same year, with Mr. John Wood and Mr. Lionel Brough. Mr. Burnand's "Sappho" (1866), and "Olympic Games" (1867), also call for mention. John Brougham's "Life in the Clouds" belongs to 1840; Tom Taylor's "Diogenes and his Lantern" to 1849; the Brothers Brough's "Sphinx" to the same year; William Brough's "Hercules and Omphale" to 1864; and Mr. Reece's "Agamemnon and Cassandra, or The Prophet and Loss of Troy," to 1868.
IV BURLESQUE OF FAËRIE
These fairy pieces of Planché's were not burlesques quite in the sense in which his classical pieces were, but they belong, nevertheless, to the burlesque genre . Each treats lightly and humorously a story already in existence; each includes parodies of popular lyrics, as well as songs written to the airs of popular ditties; and the burlesque spirit animates the whole. Every now and then, the writer, rising superior to parody, produces a lyric which has a definite accent of its own. Here, for example, in "Riquet with the Tuft," is a song accorded to the grotesque and misshapen hero. It has genuine wit as well as genial philosophy:
I'm a strange-looking person, I am,
But contentment for ever my guest is;
I'm by habit an optimist grown,
And fancy that all for the best is.
Each man has of troubles his pack,
And some round their aching hearts wear it;
My burden is placed on my back,
Where I'm much better able to bear it.
Again, tho' I'm blind of one eye,
And have but one ear that of use is,
I but half the world's wickedness spy,
And am deaf to one half its abuses;
And tho' with this odd pair of pegs,
My motions I own serpentine are,
Many folks blest with handsomer legs
Have ways much more crooked than mine are!
Nature gave me but one tuft of hair,
Yet wherefore, kind dame, should I flout her?
If one side of my head must be bare,
I'm delighted she's chosen the outer!
Thus on all things I put a good face,
And however misshapen in feature,
My heart, girl, is in the right place,
And warms towards each fellow-creature!