Jul.Oh, do not swear, my sweet,
At all. A good rule we now commence with:
We take our seats—the oaths we do dispense with.
For the rest, the burlesque followed many lines of the original closely enough,[39] save that, at the end, Romeo, Juliet, Mercutio, Tybalt, and Paris, were all revived, much to the indignation of Shakespeare, a statue of whom appeared, with finger held up in a menacing manner.
The piece was well stocked with puns; as, for example:—
Who doubts Mercutio's courage him mistakes:
He hates a broil, but he will fight for stakes.
And again:—
By reason of this bunion on my toe,
This pilgrim's progress has been very slow.
After "Romeo and Juliet," the first of Shakespeare's plays to be burlesqued was "Richard III.," of which Charles Selby, the comedian, and Stirling Coyne, the well-known man of letters, each perpetrated a travestie in 1844. Selby's piece[40] was founded on the Colley Cibber adaptation, and introduced Henry VI., who, at the end, was represented as coming to life again and quietly assuming the crown which Richmond was about to take. Richard also is resuscitated, after a fashion very popular in burlesques of Shakespeare. Of literary merit Selby's work had little.
Take, for example, his arrangement of the scene in which Richard woos the Lady Anne:—
Lady A. Well, I never! You ugly, naughty man,
Why do you thus torment the wretched Anne?