Francis Burnand - Personality

Personality

Burnand had a very large circle of friends and colleagues who included William Makepeace Thackeray, Mark Lemon and most writers, dramatists and actors of the day. Comedian George Grossmith wrote: "I think Frank Burnand is the most amusing man to meet. He is brimful of good humour. He will fire off joke after joke, and chaff you out of your life if he gets a chance. His chaff is always good-tempered. No one minds being chaffed by Burnand. I will not sing a song when he is in the room if I can possibly help it. He will sit in front of me at the piano, and either stare with a pained and puzzled look during my comic song, or he will laugh in the wrong places, or, what is worse still, take out his pocket-handkerchief and weep.

Burnand was jealous of rival playwright, W. S. Gilbert, as he felt that he, rather than Gilbert, should have been Arthur Sullivan's collaborator. Burnand used his position as the editor of Punch to publish antagonistic reviews of the plays of Gilbert and refused to give the Savoy Operas reviews in the magazine.

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