Punch: Punch (83.1882)

PRIZE-ESSAY ON
BURLESQUE.

{By a Gaiety Habitue.)

The Burlesque Style, 'which
Scarron used with such skill,
though he can hardly claim to
have invented it, has had its
partisans and detractors. The
word Burlesque, in itself, is not
very ancient. It was not known
in France or England before 1640
or 1650. Sarrazia, according to
Menage, is the first who used it
in France, where it was known
by the term “grotesque.” The
etymology of “grotesque” is
grutta — from which we get the
term “ grotto ”—a name given to
ancient chambers discovered by
excavation, the walls of which
were covered with an odd mixture
representing animals, plants, and
architectural ornaments. “Bur-
lesque ” comes from the Italian
Bur la, which signifies a joke, or
a mockery, and from which the
Italians derive the words Bur-
lesco and Burlare, adopted and
modified in English in the term
Burletta. Burla, though used

as Italian in Italy, is really a
Castilian term. In Spain, certain
hidden jets of water, which spring
up suddenly under the feet of
unsuspicious passers-by, are called
Burladores. The Comedy of Tirso
de Molina, which served as a
model for the Don Juan of Mo-
liere, is named El Burlador de
Sevilla.

[The Gaiety Habitue has been read-
ing Theophile Gautier.—Ed.]

“Put money in thy purse,” is
the mutual advice of Turk to
Turk. The Sultan should head
his Firmans with “ In the name
of the Profit.”

PUNCH’S FANCY PORTRA!TS,-No. 96.

SIR GARNET WOLSELEY,
Short Service and Quick Returns.

COPYING A BAD MODEL.

Five-and-twenty years ago,
when the first model lodging-
houses were started, with the best
intentions, in Bethnal Green,
by Lady Burdett-Coutts, the
homes of weavers and coster-
mongers were destroyed for the
erection of a philanthropic bar-
rack in which no costermonger’s
cart or weaver’s shuttle was
allowed admission. The Peabody
Trustees in Drury Lane and
Whitecross Street have followed
this bad example. They have
run-a-muck at trucks in one
place, and shown a most unnatural
want of sympathy with donkeys
in another. Columbia Market,
Great Wild Street, and the slums
generally, are not to be improved
with capital provided by charity
for the reception of clerks and
warehousemen at sentimental
rents, but for the reception of the
working poor whose homes have
been swallowed up by the so-
called “Improvements.”

L. S. Dee.

“ The Executors of the late Lord
Wenlock have got a judgment, sub-
ject to appeal, for £173,000, against
the River Dee Company. The defence
was, that though they had had the
money, they had exceeded their bor-
rowing powers.”—Public Press.

There was a jolly debtor once
Lived on the River Dee;

He laughed and sung from morn
till night,

No lark more blithe than he :
And this the burden of his song
For ever used to be—

I pays no mortgages, no, not I,
And nobody pays for me.

French Cookery. — Lesseps’
Sauce too strong for Grevy.

SENT FOR BY GEEVY.

{Extracts from the Diary of a Possible Premier.)

Day after Resignation.—Spent a feverish night, after having
given a silent vote against the Ministry. Don’t know that I may
not be obliged to reverse it to-morrow; and it is a nuisance not to
know what opinion you may be obliged to have twenty-four hours
hence. Who will it be this time Y They can’t have Freycinet
again, even though we do vote that we have the most implicit con-
fidence in him. And then my claims are really paramount, since I
have coalesced with anybody against every Cabinet that we have
had during the last ten years. Ha ! The Garde Paris at the door !
A big.envelope: Grevy’s fist. Sent for to the Elysee to-morrow.
Merci, mon Dieu!

Monday.—Am three-quarters of an hour before the time at the
Faubourg Saint Honore, and excite suspicious animosity on part of
sentinel, by persistently perambulating in front of palace, so as to
catch the President directly the shutters are opened. Grevy hasn’t
precisely got a portfolio ready, but rather seems to say anybody can
have the Premiership who can manage to get a Cabinet together, and
not be beaten in the Chamber more than once a fortnight. This
condition rather exacting on the part of Grevy, but have resolved
to try; and eleven francs courses looking up Left Centre-ists.
Wonder if courses can be deducted from salary.

Tuesday.—The Left Centre-ists don’t seem to care about it. Think
that intervention ought to go as far as Suda Bay, and no further ;
while the Centre-ists (they might be called Centre-bits, they ’re so
small) won’t enter any Cabinet that doesn’t contain at least one
Viscount. And, it’s strange, but Viscounts in our days don’t seem
to run to Statesmen, as a rule. They run horses instead, and some-
times they run to Belgium afterwards. More courses, and finally to
Grevy’s with result of interviews. Doesn’t appear to think it par-

ticularly brilliant, but suggests a Ministere de Combat, as being
likely to rouse the Chamber into having something like a majority—
j ust as by vigorous stirring you can make oil and vinegar mix into a
definite whole. Think Clemenceatj would do for combat, but
Clemenceatj insists on Rocheeort for Education and Les Cultes.
Scarcely come to that yet.

Wednesday.—Telegram from Grevy : “ Try Ministere d’Affaires.”

| Try. Eminent Senator won’t join, because of an idea of his about
beetroot sugar, and eminent leader of the Third Section of the Fifth
j Group of the Immoderate Conservative Party insists upon immediate
j abrogation of all commercial treaties. Grevy almost rude over his
I billiards, when I bring him the news.

Thursday.—Ministere de Dissolution all day, and have ceased to
I count courses. Wish cabmen would. Nobody will join this
i Ministry, except those politicians who are so popular as to be quite
J sure of re-election—and if we ’re to have popular people in the Cabinet
, —ah, bien non, alors '

Friday.—Ministere de Conciliation formed at last—that is if we
i can get over the first Cabinet Council without throwing inkstands at
i our heads. Oddest thing about all the crisis is, that the corn has
j continued to grow, and men to buy and sell all over France, as if
I there wasn’t such a thing as a Ministry or a Crisis at all!

A Duke and a Drake.

The Duke of Bedford has given a Statute of the Bold Buccaneer
Drake to Tavistock. Let the Duke set up one of Bacon in Covent
Garden, which would be appropriate in such a pig-stye. Poor Mud
Salad Market! As bad as ever. But the “ Ducal Creature” won’t
take the very broadest hints ; in fact the Ducal Creatures seem to
go about with wool in their ears, their own specially coloured spec-
tacles before their eyes, and their fingers to their noses.

PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI.

;[Adgdst 12, ioo_