OF

BLACK-EYED SUSAN;

OR,

THE LITTLE BILL THAT WAS TAKEN UP.

AN ORIGINAL BURLESQUE.

BY

F. C. BURNAND, Esq.

(MEMBER OF THE DRAMATIC AUTHORS' SOCIETY.)

AUTHOR OF

Alonzo the Brave: or, Faust and the Fair Imogene, Villikins and his Dinah, In for a Holyday, Romance under Difficulties, Lord Lovel and Lady Nancy Belle, or the Bounding Brigand, Dido, King of the Merrows, Deerfoot, Fair Rosamond, Robin Hood: or, the Forester's Fete, Acis and Galatea, The Deal Boatman, Ixion; or, the Man at the Wheel, Pirithous: or, Like Father Like Son, Snowdrop; or, the Seven Mannikins, Rumplestiltskin; or, the Woman at the Wheel, Cupid and Pysche, Venus and Adonis, Dido (2nd Edition), Faust and Marguerite, Ulysses; or, the Ironclad Warrior and the Little Tug of War, Windsor Castle (Opera Burlesque), Madame Berliot's Ball, Patient Penelope, Paris: or Vive L'Empriere, L'Africaine : or, the Queen of the Cannibal Islands, Boabdil et Chico; or, the Moor the Merrier, Sappho; or, Look before you Leap, Our Yachting Cruise, Der Freischutz; or a Good Cast for a Piece, Antony and Cleopatra; or, His-tory and Her-story, &c., &c.

AND PART AUTHOR OF

B. B., Volunteer Ball, Turkish Bath, Isle of St. Tropez, Easy Shaving.

THOMAS HAILES LACY,
89, STRAND, LONDON.

BLACK-EYED SUSAN.

First Produced at the New Royalty Theatre, (under the Management of Miss Oliver) on Nov. 29, 1866.

[This Burlesque is on the Dramatic Author's List.]

THE LATEST EDITION

OF

BLACK-EYED SUSAN;

OR

THE LITTLE BILL THAT WAS TAKEN UP.

PROLOGUE.

SCENE.-The Ocean's Bed. OCEAN NYMPHS discovered. Their dance is suddenly interrupted by the descent of an enormous grapnel-in terror they run up to where NEPTUNE is reposing.

NRPT. Sleep, gentle sleep, I cannot stand this number Of people interfering with my slumber;

Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown— (sees grapnel Good gracious me, what's this that's coming down? Where are my glasses? let me have a look—

Ah! I have got my eye upon a hook,

Catch it, it's gone; again to bed I'll go,

And try to sleep.

ATLANTIC CABLE. (above)

Hullo! look out below.

NEPT. Look out below! this is a sort of thing I do not like they can't know I'm a king. CABLE. (above) Now look out for'ard. (grapnel) NEPT. This is too absurd,

(gets R., another grapnel catches his dress behind.) 'Hem, look out for'ard wasn't quite the word—

Enter WIRENO, L. U. E., with broken piece of cable.

WIRENO. (L.) Unhook me, girls, that is if you are able. NEPT. (R.) And who are you?

WIRENO.

I'm the Atlantic Cable
Of sixty-six, just come down from above,
To find Wirena, my last year's lost love!
Say, gentle shepherd, have you seen-

NEPT.

And I don't know her if I did.

WIRENO.

Wirena!

Not seen her;

She fell, and then I thought I heard her squeals,
She's taken p'raps to her electric eels.

My hair stood up on end, sir, lock by lock,

My wig resembled an electric shock.

NEPT. Or to adapt an old Shakesperian line,

Like quills upon th' electric porcupine.

WIRENO. Don't jest, but think upon the ruinous cost,

If after all poor sixty-five is lost;

I am all right, but still the whole affair

Is not complete until we can repair

The past.

NEPT. Says Mrs, Glass "first catch your hare." WIRENO. That saying now-a-days my friend won't pass Muster with us, but àpropos of Glass

We the old saw have thus re-set entire,

As Mister Glass does say, first catch your wire.

Enter WIRENA, R. 1 E., and crosses to c. embrace.

NEPT. (here gets R.) In each other's arms thus locked By their electric sympathies, I'm shocked.

WIRENO. (L.) I am so glad to find you here alive,

So fresh

Your loss gave all our friends above much pain,
How glad they'll be to see you once again.

A failure, cried out many a reporter,

We'd more though than one iron in the water—
And here you are.

WIRENA. (C.)

Sorry to distress you,

NEPT. (x's behind WIRENO to c. and joins their hands) Well, there I join your hands my children, bless you. WIRENO. Now then for separate maintenance; so nice you

Can go about alone, but first I'll splice you.

(Fixes shore end on, then pulls a cracker in front of him) The electric spark, you see, comes from the link, What kept you?

WIRENA. (getting R.) Something wrong, dear, with my

kink.

NEPT. (down c.) But now you are all right?

WIRENO. (L.)

From coast to coast

Thousands of miles, believe me I don't boast,
In one brief minute, will our hands, your's, mine
Transmit a message, now we've dropped a line;
Old with new country thus communicates,
Making the two the True United States.

NEPT. (c.) A message in a minute by the cable,
To me it sounds like some Great Eastern fable.

WIRENA. (R.) A message (chord)
WIRENO. (second shock) Answered.
NEPT.

WIRENO.

(A shock, they jump.

Tell me.

We can't keep one