Punch: Punch (82.1882)

PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVAEI.

[Ja’nuaiit 28, 1882,

38

THE NEW DEPAETUEE IN BUELESQUE.

Sir,—The new piece called Tlie Cynic—which n® donbt you have already criticised—■
seems to me to be an entirely new burlesque of G-oethe’s masterpiece. Why shonld not
the two Hekmanns—Messrs. Yezin and Mebiyaee—develope thisidea?

JEnmlet, put into sixteen-shilling tronsers, the registered paletot, and the age of stucco,
would probably be even a greater success in this new vein of adaptation. The title might
bq Poppinborough, The Wicked TJncle. The dueen-Mother would be the Duchess of Poppin-
bokough, of Poppinhorough House, Piccadilly, and Ballspond Hall, Poppinborough, Herts.
The King would be the Duke of Poppinbokough, the brother of the murdered Duke ; and,
to make the resemblance to the original play more close, he should have seized the Duke-
dom, and ousted the young Lord from his title, at the same time that he murdered his
brother (the young Lord’s father), and married the Duchess, the young Lord’s mother. _

The play-scene could be retained, and made much more effective, than it is in the original
piece by a very simple proeess. In imitation of those Palais-Royal farees, in which
the Actors come amongst the Audienee, and carry on the action simultaneously, both
before and behind the curtain, a large stage-box could be reserved every evening for

the ducal party, in whieh the Duke and>
Duchess could show the agonies of remorse,
while witnessing the Gorgonzola drama on
the stage.

The part of the Gravedigger would require-
very little alteration, except to harmonise
the dialogue with the chickaleary tone of'
the period. A Spade dance might be in-
trodueed, if necessary. The other charac-
' ters might easily be measured for modern
clothes, and the Cemetery Scene would be
a decided novelty.

In the present disgraceful state of the
Copyright Laws, this valuable idea once
printed and published is any body’s property
But those who use it will at least have the
decency to acknowledge the source, and
send a donation to some eharity— say the
Asylum for Idiots. Yours, * * *

TWO TO ONE.

(A Villanelle.)

Love, you are IJtter, I ’m Too-too,

Yet we are one in some things. >Say,
Am I not therefore dear to you ?

You love the green that shades to blue ;

I like the blue that ’s somewhat grey—
Love, you are Utter, I ’m Too-too!

You to the sunflower are true ;

I love the lily, loved of May—

Am I not therefore dear to you ?

And I can place myself askew,

And you are plastic-a//y splay—

Love, you are Utter, I ’m Too-too !

And you delight in nought that ’s new,
And I like nothing like decay—

Am.I not therefore dear to you ?

And dearer yet that I can woo
In metres of an ancient lay !

Love, you are Utter, I ’m Too-too !

Am I not therefore dear to you ?

BUMBLEDOM-ON-SEA.

Bumbledom has long governed the earth,
and the waters under the earth, and pre-
paratory to making a combined attack upon
the sky, it is now trying to govern the sea.
The Town Council of Dover, for reasons best
known to themselves, are jealous of the one
or two projected tunnels under the Channel,
and they have resolved to oppose the grant
of parliamentary power applied for by those
interested in these impious schemes. They
profit by the game of pitch and toss which
daily enlivens the Straits of Dover, and they
are going to fight for their hand. The Town
Couneil of Brighton, not to be behind their
more Eastern brethren, have also resolved
to oppose the scheme of a new and sensible-
“ Ivursaal ” onthe Brighton beach.

The Cloture.—Object to it because it ’s
French ? So is Premier. But if we want
good forcible colloquial English why not call
it “ The Shut-up”? The Speaker would
be the “ Shutter-up.” And the new
arrangement, if adopted, would be known
in future as “The Latest Early Closing
Movement.”_

Mrs. Ramsbotham who is never hehind
the time of day, and now uses the word
iEstheticism f'reely and fearlessly, says she-
is sorry to hear that Mr. Gladstone wishes-
to introduce all this twaddle about Culture-
into Parliament. That ’s her view of
Cloture.