Life, 1922-10-19 · page 24 of 36
Life — October 19, 1922 — page 24: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page satirizes famous playwrights by reimagining the nursery rhyme "Old Mother Hubbard" in their styles. The captions identify specific dramatic traditions: **"The Sea Coast of Bohemia"** parodies Shakespeare—the "to bark or not to bark" echoes *Hamlet*'s soliloquy, with references to *Richard III* ("Off with her head"). **"A Forest"** mimics Romantic/Melodramatic theater, with stock characters (a maid, an old blind dog, Pages in a parade) and overwrought deaths where "everybody" dies. **"The Lair of a Norwegian Pastor"** references Ibsen's psychological drama—characters named Hedda and Oswald, existential despair ("There is no hope"), family secrets, and dark symbolism (the cupboard, the skeleton). The joke targets pretentious theatrical conventions: Life mocks how different playwrights would transform a simple children's story into their signature styles—from Shakespearean tragedy to Romantic melodrama to Modernist angst. Readers were invited to guess which real playwrights were being parodied.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
LIFE Bones The Classic and Romantic History of Mother Hubbard and Her Faithful Friend, “Old Dog Tray,” as It Might Have Been Rendered by Various Playwrights. (The reader guessing the identity of the several dramatists will have the privilege of buying a seat from the box-office of any theatre in town at the advertised price) Tue Sea Coast or BoHEMIA Treigh. Solus. “yo bark, or not to bark. That is the question: Whether ’tis nobler i’ the mind to suffer The slings and arrows of out- rageous hunger Or like the harmless necessary Ford to make Lament,sans bones, sans fleas, sans everything— A bone, a bone, my Kingdom for a bone! Off with her head, so much for Mother Hubbard.” x ok oF Now we'll take a little trip to Belgium. * ok ok A Forest OUND about are huge trees. Under several of them stands Melisanda Hubbard, a maid with “Out pops the Family Skeleton” Tue Lair or A Norwecian Pastor (Note: We do not see the Pastor. It is better so.) Hedda Hubbard, trying to find herself, stands before the Cup- board door. EDDA: If I find myself in the Cupboard, I cannot find myself out here. What shall I do? (Oswald Tray enters and faces her. It is horrible.) Oswatp: Bones. In the Cup- board. I know they are there. Heppa: Do not seek to open the Cupboard. It is terrible. Your father was—but that’s a secret. Your mother—oh, I dare not say it. All your people were—but I must be silent. Everybody is A WRONG. The world is a gh place. There is no hope. There is no joy. There is nothing. long hair like new-mown spaghetti, dics. A blucbird flics up and perches Oswatp: There are bones. ! will which is borne by a parade of Pages. on @ dead tree. see them. Underneath other trees lies The Dog. Tue Birp: Why. Why. Why. (He opens the Cupboard and out He is very old. He is blind. He is Why. Wh pops the Family Skeleton. Hedda also deaf and dumb. He has lost his Comey loses herself again and sinks ins front paws, also his tail. He con- i sible on a tainted escutcheon while veys his meaning to Melisanda in the x * * Oswald chokes to death on a Bar deaf and dumb alphabet. We will now go north. Sinister.) “es * 1st PaGE: Now let’s run over Ll 3 ae ae to“Deah OV Lunnon.” 2ND Pace: ay Sq Vis v ee The Bones! 3RD Pace: The Bones! Let us turn over HE action begins in a most original apartment with twelve sides. There would page , é i have been more but THE Brook: M Yp, q 5 4 there wasn’t any The Bones!! room. The view from Tue Breeze: the windows would be The Bones!! exquisite—only ther Tue TREES: { are no windows. It’s The Bones!! ; * ; y a toss-up whether Tue Doc: these were forgotten The Bones!!! by the architect or the MELISANDA: playwright. It may be The Bones!!! as well to mention The trees die. The here that there are no Pages die. Melisanda doors. An aeroplane is strangled by her brings characters to hair, She dies. The the room, making Dog dics. Everybody “A Forest” regular trips every comicbooks.com