THE LIFE AND DEATH OF KING JOHN.
As long ago as November, 1883, my valued friend Mr. T. F. Dillon-Croker, hearing that I contemplated publishing a collection of “Parodies and Burlesques,” wrote a characteristic letter, generously placing his accumulated stores of materials at my disposal. How fully and frankly I have availed myself of that kind offer may be judged from the fact that scarcely a single part of “Parodies” has appeared which has not contained one, or more, contributions furnished by Mr. Dillon-Croker.
In the letter above-mentioned, he remarked:—“You may not be aware that the late Mr. Gilbert A’ Beckett wrote a burlesque on King John (with the benefit of the Act,) 1837, so that irreverence in this direction is no novelty. Hubert was acted by Edward Wright, afterwards so popular at the Adelphi, and who, though often inclined to be coarse, made me as a boy laugh more than I have ever done since, and Madame Sala (the mother of the genial and accomplished G. A. Sala,) was Lady Constance.
Faulconbridge remarks:
We are two brothers of the same Mama,
But there are reasons for suspecting rather,
By some mistake there was an extra father.
Arthur, instead of losing his eyes, is condemned to have a tooth out, and Hubert enters with a large pair of pinchers:
“And you’ll take out my tooth—If you will, come,
I’ll not resist, here is my tooth by gum!”