[9] "Orpheus in the Haymarket." An opera buffo, founded on the French of Hector Cremieux. Performed, with music by Offenbach, by David Fisher, W. Farren, Louise Keeley, Nelly Moore, and Miss H. Lindley.
Planché's third classical burlesque was "The Paphian Bower, or Venus and Adonis," in which Benjamin Webster was seen for the first time in this class of histrionic work. Mme. Vestris, of course, was Venus, and in the course of the piece had to sing this eminently clever parody of "Sally in our Alley":--
Of all the swains that are so smart, I dearly love Adonis; And pit-a-pat will go my heart, Till he bone of my bone is. No buckskin'd beau of Melton Mow- bray rides so capitàlly. Oh, he's the darling of my heart, And he hunts in our valley!
Jupiter and the neighbours all Make game of me and Doney; But, notwithstanding, I with him Contemplate matrimony. For he can play on the _cornet_, And sing most musically; And not a Duke in all the land Can beat him at "Aunt Sally."
Venus and Adonis have always been great favourites with the producers of travestie. Among those who have made them the central figures of burlesque are Mr. Burnand, whose work was brought out in 1864, and Mr. Edward Rose, whose "Venus," written in collaboration with the Mr. Augustus Harris, and first performed at the Royalty in 1879 (with Miss Nelly Bromley as the heroine), was re-written for revival, and finally taken as the foundation of a third production in 1880.
In "The Deep, Deep Sea," brought out in 1833, Planché selected as the basis of his work the story of Perseus and Andromeda. He treated it with his usual reverence for the original legend. He represented Juno and the Nereids as being angry with King Cepheus, and sending the sea-serpent to devastate his shores. James Vining played the Serpent, and his approach was announced to the monarch in the following strain:--
Mighty monarch, stir your stumps as if Old Nick were following: A serpent with an awful twist has landed on your shore; Our gallant soldiers, guns and all, by regiments he's swallowing; And munching up musicians and composers by the _score_!
Of counsel learned in the law but _brief_ work he is making-- Apothecaries just as they were pills, sir, he is taking; He snaps the parson right in two, as well as his oration; And ere the beadle bolts the door, he bolts the congregation!