Burnand
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
SIR FRANCIS COWLEY, an English author and dramatist, born Nov. 29, 1836; was educated at Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge. He produced a large number of pieces, chiefly extravaganzas and burlesques; several dramas; and some very successful comedies. He joined Henry J. Byron in starting "Fun," but left that paper for "Punch," the then edited by Mark Lemon, in 1863. His contributions to "Punch" included "How, When, and Where" and "Happy Thoughts," which in book form had an extended sale. He was editor of "Punch" from 1880 to 1906. He wrote the libretto for Sullivan's "Chieftain" (1894). SIR EDWARD BURNE-JONES, COLEY, an English painter, born in Birmingham, Aug. 28, 1833; was educated at Exeter College, Oxford, where he formed a lifelong friendship with William Morris. In 1857 he studied in London under Rossetti, who exerted a powerful influence over his early work. From the first Burne-Jones' subjects were poetical and romantic, and his idealistic, while his coloring was singularly pure and beautiful. Most of his earlier works were done in water-color, among them "Merlin and Vivien," "The Wine of Circe," and "Love Among the Ruins." Not until 1870 did he become known as a painter in oils, in which field his style and subjects were ins inspired chiefly by the early Italian Renaissance. Among his later pictures are "The Days of Creation," "Venus' Mirror," "Chant d'Amour," "The Golden Stairs," "The Tree of Forgiveness," "King Cophetua," "The Legend of the Briar Rose," "The Brazen Tower," "The Bottom of the Sea," etc. His skill in stained glass is shown by the windows of Christ Church, Oxford. He was one of the founders of the New Gallery, and was made a baronet in 1894. He died in London, July 17, 1898. for
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Collier's still wrote of Burnand in 1921 as though he were living, though he had died at Ramsgate on 21 April 1917, four years before that volume appeared. The judgment that his burlesques and extravaganzas were his main achievement has not survived: almost none is staged now, and the one piece of his that is still regularly performed is the libretto he wrote for Sullivan's one-act comic opera "Cox and Box" (1866), which Collier's does not mention at all, preferring the later and far less durable "Chieftain". "Punch", which he edited from 1880 to 1906, ceased weekly publication in 1992 after 150 years, was revived in 1996 and closed again in 2002. His serial "Happy Thoughts", a best-seller in book form, is now read chiefly by students of Victorian comic writing.
Written for this edition, 2026.