For two I must confess are gods to me, Which is my Abradatus first, and thee.
And, in a like spirit, Huncamunca, after wedding Tom Thumb, is quite willing to wed Grizzle:--
My ample heart for more than one has room: A maid like me Heaven form'd at least for two. I married him, and now I'll marry you,--
thereby reminding us of the obliging defendant in Mr. Gilbert's "Trial by Jury," who is ready to "marry this lady to-day, and marry the other to-morrow." In the third act of "Cato" is a simile which Fielding parodies thus--putting it into the mouth of Grizzle:--
So have I seen, in some dark winter's day, A sudden storm rush down the sky's highway, Sweep through the streets with terrible ding-dong, Gush thro' the spouts, and wash whole crowds along, The crowded shops the thronging vermin screen, Together cram the dirty and the clean, And not one shoe-boy in the street is seen.
Finally, we have this equally well-known passage, suggested by the remark of Lee's Mithridates that he "would be drunk with death":--
_Doodle._ My liege, I a petition have here got.
_King._ Petition me no petitions, sir, to-day; Let other hours be set apart for business. To-day it is our pleasure to be drunk, And this our queen shall be as drunk as we.
It was the fate of "Tom Thumb" to be transformed--so far as it was possible to transform it--into a burlesque of Italian opera as well as of conventional drama. "Set to music after the Italian manner," it was brought out in 1733 as "The Opera of Operas," and had considerable vogue in the new guise thus given to it. It had been preceded in 1727 by Gay's "Beggar's Opera"; but that famous work was a social and political satire rather than a travestie of the exotic lyrical drama. It may be regarded as a species of prototype of the burletta or ballad opera of later days. Not even the transformed "Tom Thumb"[1] could be called an effective _reductio ad absurdum_ of the Italian opera of those days. For that the public had to wait a short time longer.
[1] "Tom Thumb" was performed in 1740, with Yates as the ghost and Woodward as Noodle, Glumdalca (the giantess) being represented by a man. In 1745 Yates played Grizzle, Tom being enacted by a lady. The burlesque was seen at Covent Garden in 1828.