Burlesque, English

Burlesque, English, satirical play, usually based on some well-known contemporary drama or dramatic fashion that offered scope for parody. The prototype was the Duke of Buckingham's The Rehearsal (1671), which made fun of Dryden and his heroic drama, and the genre culminated in The Critic (1779), in which Sheridan mocked the sentimental foibles of his day. In the meantime the traditions of burlesque had been upheld by Gay with The Beggar's Opera (1728); by Henry Carey, who burlesqued both opera and drama; and by Fielding in The Tragedy of Tragedies; or, The Life and Death of Tom Thumb the Great (1739).

In the 19th century a new type of burlesque flourished. It retained enough of its origins to choose as its target a popular play, but the element of criticism was lacking. One of its best writers was H. J. Byron, with Aladdin; or, The Wonderful Scamp (1861), The Corsican ‘Bothers’; or, The Troublesome Twins (1869), and Robert MacMaire; or, The Roadside Inn Turned Inside Out (1870). Possibly Byron's execrable puns, together with the reform of the stage initiated by T. W. Robertson, finally killed the burlesque, though it survived until the early 1890s at the Gaiety, with the famous ‘quartet’ headed by Nellie Farren. Such revues as the Gate (1938), the Little (1939), and the Sweet and Low series (1943–6) contained sketches in the burlesque tradition.