The Atticism of French taste had never been favourable to versification of this kind; and if Victor Hugo had been nothing but an eccentric innovator he would have failed completely. But Victor Hugo wrote great things, and the vagaries of his style were the natural expressions of an original mind; they were not the result of studied affectation. His works in prose, in poetry, and the drama suffered from enthusiastic imitators and professional perverters. His plays have been persistently burlesqued, his tragedy Marie Tudor was parodied under various titles, as “Marie, tu ronfles!” “Marie Dort-tu?” “Marie tu dors encore,” and “Marionette.” His Angelo was burlesqued, as “Cornaro, Tyran pas doux,” his Ruy Blas as “Ruy Blag,” and as “Ruy Black” by Charles Gabet, played at the Folies Bergères April 13, 1872, and as “Ruy Blas d’en Face,” also played in Paris in 1872.
Ruy Brac, Tourte en cinq Boulettes, avec assaisonnement de gros sel, de vers et de couplets, par Maxime de Redon. Paris, November, 1838.
His Ernani was burlesqued as “Harnali, ou la Contrainte par Cor,” and as “Ni, Ni, ou le Danger des Castilles,” both produced in Paris as far back as 1830.
The elder Dumas’ play “Quin, ou désordre et génie” was travestied as “Kinne; ou, que de génie en désordre.”
Numerous other burlesques of the French dramatists exist, most of which are published by Messrs. Tresse and Stock, Galérie du Théâtre-Français, Paris, from whom lists of their theatrical publications (with prices) can be obtained.
When Herr Wagner’s Rienzi was produced at the Théâtre Lyrique some Parisian punster brought out a parody called “Rien! scie en trois actes.” Scie means literally a “saw,” but in French argot it is equivalent to our slang word “sell.”
Travestirte Fabeln des Phadrus, mit einem Anhang Mysterioser Gesange. Karl Dieffenbach. Frankfurt, 1794.
Virgils Æneis travestirt, Von V. Blumauer. Leipzig, 1841.
This was a German travesty of Virgil, with numerous very curious and comical illustrations.