187
less than sixteen of his farces were staged during the years 1850-1865, including of course the maligned Box and Cox which is, ironically, nearly his only piece that is still occasionally seen today. Closely following were the burlesques of Henry James Byron, written in quite a different style from Morton's farces, with many more puns in the text which makes them sometimes awkward reading, although one can feel amazement about the author's inventiveness. Yet, to see well-established works like Verdi's Il Trovatore, with its beautiful music, mangled into !!! Treated Il Trovatore, or Shakespeare's Macbeth and King John into The Babes in the Wood makes one feel a little bit queasy. Of especial interest to the Shanghai residents must have been his Aladdin or the Wonderful Scamp for he had built the entire action **around puns on China tea and he invented widow Twankay as a pun on one of the ports central to the China trade" [Shanghai presumably — JHJ]. Byron was of course not
the only one who made himself into a debaser of tragedy. What is one to think of Robert Bough's Medea or the Best of Mothers with a Brute of a Husband, the title alone of which causes one to shudder.
But then, this was obviously what an overwhelming majority of the public asked for, both in Britain and overseas. The British capital teemed with small, and not so small, theatres that catered for the wishes of the low and lower middle classes and their first demand was to be entertained after a hard day's work: who cared for a complex five-act Shakespearean tragedy people referred to laugh their heads off with Slasher and Crasher and Cool as a Cucumber.
In British outposts abroad the attitude of the public was not very different, as is shown in this article for Shanghai. A comparison with Singapore and Hong Kong shows that tastes there were also exclusively in the direction of farce and comedy and it is not to be wondered that sometimes the same pieces were chosen, like William Rhodes' Bombastes Furioso (Sh.: 28.1.1851 and 5.5.1858; Hong Kong: 1.12.1848; Singapore: May 1844 and 25.5.1846) and Tom Taylor's Still Waters Run Deep (Sh.: 23.4.1857; 15.3.1860; H.K.: 3.1.1861; Sp.: 1862).
That not all plays were to the liking of the local paper's critics has already been discussed. Apparently, no efforts were made from among the foreign community to write original comedies, a fact which was deplored by the Herald when it thought that there are certainly men capable of such mental exercise as the writing of burlesque.
187
less than sixteen of his farces were staged during the years 1850-1865, including of course the maligned Box and Cox which is, ironically, nearly his only piece that is still occasionally seen today. Closely following were the burlesques of Henry James Byron, written in quite a different style from Morton's farces, with many more puns in the text which makes them sometimes awkward reading, although one can feel amazement about the author's inventiveness. Yet, to see well established works like Verdi's Il Trovatore, with its beautiful music, mangled into !!! Treated Il Trovatore, or Shakespeare's Macbeth and King John into The Babes in the Wood makes one feel a little bit queasy. Of especial interest to the Shanghai residents must have been his Aladdin or the Wonderful Scamp for he had built the entire action **around puns on China tea and he invented widow Twankay as a pun on one of the ports central to the China trade" [Shanghai presumably — JHJ. Byron was of course not
the only one who made himself into a debaser of tragedy. What is one to think of Robert Brough's Medea or the Best of Mothers with a Brute of a Husband, the title alone of which causes one to shudder.
But then, this was obviously what an overwhelming majority of the public asked for, both in Britain and overseas. The British capital teemed with small, and not so small, theatres that catered for the wishes of the low and lower middle classes and their first demand was to be entertained after a hard day's work: who cared for a complex five act Shakespearean tragedy people referred to laugh their heads off with Slasher and Crasher and Cool as a Cucumber.
In British outposts abroad the attitude of the public was not very different, as is shown in this article for Shanghai. A comparison with Singapore and Hong Kong'
Kong shows that tastes there were also exclusively in the direction of farce and comedy and it is not to be wondered that sometimes the same pieces were chosen, like William Rhodes' Bombastes Furioso (Sh.: 28.1.1851 and 5.5. 1858; Hong Kong: 1.12.1848; Singapore: May 1844 and 25.5.1846) and Tom Taylor's Still Waters Run Deep (Sh.: 23.4.1857; 15.3.1860; H.K.: 3.1.1861; Sp.:
1862).
That not all plays were to the liking of the local paper's critics has already been discussed. Apparently no efforts were made from among the foreign community to write original comedies, a fact which was deplored by the Herald when it thought that there are certainly men capable of such mental exercise as the writing of burlesque
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