The Weekly Dispatch Parody Competitions.

On September 26, 1880, the following Prize Parody appeared in the Weekly Dispatch:—

To be, or not to be: that is the question:

Whether ’tis better in this life to suffer

The petty trials of unmarried life

Or add one more unto a list of troubles,

And thus by marriage end them? To wed, to sleep

No more; or, if to sleep, to say we end

The yearnings and the sentimental fudge

Young flesh is heir to—’tis a consummation