I'm a werry wicked cove, with my one, two, three
Characters in the history as follars
Of a sickly gal and me, and a missionaryee,
In a choker white and nobby pair o' collars.
The Proserpine an' guns
Weighed such a lot of tuns,
And I was the mate and the butler,
And as I wanted funs
You gave two thousand puns
To me to go below, and so to scuttle her.
Both. {He's/I'm} a werry wicked cove, with {his/my} one, two, three
Characters in the history as follars;
Of the sickly girl and {he/me} and the missionaryee,
In a choker white and nobby pair of collars.
There was copper there and gold, both o' yours not mine,
'Twas a werry awful risk, but I ran 'un;
And the Copper, labelled Gold, went aboard the Proserpine
And the Gold, labelled Copper, on the Shannon.
Oh, it went down like a line,
On board the Proserpine,
And it was not my little game to stop'er,
And the gold comes safe in the Shannon ship,
While you gets the walue for the copper.
The Proserpine went down in a one, two, three,
Which she did to the werry bottom;
They called out for the boats, and the ropes, and floats,
But couldn't get 'em cos I'd got 'em.
So they got a boat and sail,
As wouldn't stand a gale,
And the lady and the gent jumps in her,
And the missionaryee
Took a pound of tea,
But they hadn't got no grub for their dinner.
Both. {I'm/You're} a very wicked cove, with my one, two, three,
Which is a quotation from Cocker;
But I mourns for that Gal and the Missionaryee
Which is both gone down to Davy Jones's Locker.
Among other recent fictions which have obtained the distinction of stage travestie may be named "Lady Audley's Secret," "Little Lord Fauntleroy," and "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde." In the first of these instances H. J. Byron was the operator—the scene, the St. James's Theatre in 1863. Mrs. Burnett's pretty conception was tortured into "The Other Little Lord Fondleboy" (1888), and Mr. Stevenson's weird invention into "The Real Case of Hide and Seekyll" (Royalty, 1888), for which the younger George Grossmith must bear the blame.
The literature of dramatic parody does not owe much to foreign fiction. Farnie gave us "Little Gil Bias" at the Princess's in 1870, and in the same year Mr. Arthur Wood produced at the Olympic a comic paraphrase of "Paul and Virginia." It was in 1870, too, that Messrs. Eldred and Paulton turned out, at Liverpool, "The Gay Musketeers," which was followed at the Strand in 1871 by "The Three Musket-Dears" of Messrs. J. and H. Paulton. Of the "Monte Cristo Junior" of Messrs. "Richard Henry" I shall have something to say anon.
Dividing Song for the moment into Poem and Ballad, we note that the poems of Lord Byron have been the inspiring cause of at least four notable burlesques. His lordship's "Don Juan" suggested the "Beautiful Haidee" of H. J. Byron (1863) and the "Don Juan Junior" of the "Brothers Prendergast" (1880); while his "Corsair" is the basis of William Brough's "Conrad and Medora" (Lyceum, 1856), and his "Bride of Abydos" prompted the piece with the same title which H. J. Byron wrote for the Strand Theatre. In "Conrad and Medora" Miss Marie Wilton was "the Little Fairy at the Bottom of the Sea," the title-parts being given to Miss Woolgar and Mrs. Charles Dillon, and that of Birbanto to Mr. Toole. The Bride of Abydos—Zuleika—had Miss Oliver for her representative.
With Byron it seems natural to associate his friend Tom Moore, whose "Lalla Rookh" has had exceptional favour with the parodists. Four of these have been fascinated by her charms—Mr. J. T. Denny in 1885, Mr. Horace Lennard in the previous year, Vincent Amcotts in 1866, and last, but not least, William Brough (at the Lyceum) in 1857. It was to be expected that, when travestying Moore, Brough should parody "The Minstrel Boy," and so we have from him the following lines, sung by Miss Woolgar as Feramorz:—
The minstrel boy through the town is known,
In each quiet street you'll find him,
With his master's organ—it is ne'er his own,
And his monkey led behind him.
"Straw laid down!" cries the minstrel boy,
"Some sick man here needs quiet;
'Bobbin' around' will this house annoy,
At any rate, I'll try it!"