The Second Mrs Tanqueray - References in Popular Culture

References in Popular Culture

The play is referred to in Hilaire Belloc's cautionary verse (1907) Matilda:

It happened that a few weeks later

Her aunt went off to the theatre

To see that interesting play

The Second Mrs. Tanqueray.

She had refused to take her niece

To hear this entertaining piece:

A deprivation just and wise

To punish her for telling lies ...

The humour of this reference lies in the fact that the play is of a serious nature, ending in suicide - and therefore entirely unsuitable for Matilda in any case: the aunt was herself lying to Matilda about why she was not permitted to accompany her. It is understood that adults know the difference between a good lie and a bad one. The joke is therefore at the expense of the depressingly grim subject of the play, and is for the benefit of the adult reader of Belloc's poem. The aunt is therefore revealed as a person of social conscience, both because she attends the theatre to see a serious play on a contemporary (feminist) theme, and because she protects her niece from any suspicion of the nastiness which attaches to its subject. So Belloc shows that Matilda's attention-seeking behaviour is a form of spoilt, wilful mischief rather than the result of an improperly nurtured upbringing.

There is also a reference in Harry Graham's 1909 poem, Poetical Economy, where abbreviation of words is used for comic effect, without, it is assumed, loss of meaning. This includes the verse

If playwrights would but thus dimin.

The length of time each drama takes,

(The Second Mrs. Tanq. by Pin.

or even Ham., by Shakes.)

We could maintain a watchful att.

When at a Mat. on Wed. or Sat.

This reference may not be a critique of the play's verbosity, but it is certainly evidence for the work's continuing fame.

The play is also briefly mentioned in the 1967 adaptation of H.G. Wells 'Kipps: The Story of a Simple Soul,' Half a Sixpence. While Kipps is closing the boutique in which he works, he is accosted by unsuccessful actor and playwright, Harry Chitterlow. Kipps explains that he has not ever seen a play after expressing his excitement at meeting an actor and Chitterlow, surprised, asks if he had ever seen The Second Mrs Tanqueray. Kipps humorously responds that he has not "even seen the first."