It seems to me the business of a pa
Is simply all his children's bliss to mar.
Jane Shore has been the heroine of a burlesque written by Mr. Wilton Jones, and brought out in the provinces eleven years ago. Messrs. "Richard Henry" have also composed a travestie of her story, as handed down by chroniclers. In Mr. Jones's piece reliance was placed, as of old, upon humorous situation and ear-splitting pun. I give an example of both qualities. Jane has denounced Richard, Duke of Gloucester, as the murderer of the Princes in the Tower, and he now proclaims her doom:—
Gloucester. Policemen, hear the sentence on Jane Shore—
(Reading from scroll) She's never to have dinner any more;
No breakfast, tea nor supper—that's her fate—
No matter how much she may supper-licate.
She'll starve to death for being over pert.
Jane (feebly). No dinner?
Gloucester.No, ma'am; only your desert.
High treason is her crime, and I repeat
No one shall give her anything to eat;
She'll have the fields, the roads to rest her knees on,
And if she likes can even sleep high trees on;
But take good care no pity she arouses—
And mind you keep her from the public-houses!
Jane (aghast). And is that all the sentence? I shall drop!
Gloucester. Yes—there the sentence comes to a full stop.
Jane. Then for the sentence I had best prepare.
Will some one kindly let down my back hair?
(Catesby and Hastings let her back hair down.)