Victorian Theatrical Burlesques

by Richard W. Schoch (Editor), Mary W. Maguire

Burlesque was one of the most reviled-and most appealing-types of theatrical performance in the Victorian age. Wildly popular in their own day, burlesque plays are now little read, scarcely studied, and never performed. Yet, as Richard Schoch here shows, burlesques are a distinctive form of metatheatrical criticism-plays about plays-and thus offer us a unique opportunity to understand how drama changes over time. This critical edition is the first to focus exclusively on Victorian burlesques of Victorian plays. Victorian Theatrical Burlesques provides a general overview of theatrical burlesques in the period, emphasizing performance history. Sustained reference is made to burlesques other than those presented in the anthology. The volume also includes prefaces to each of the plays, fully annotated scripts, illustrations of burlesque performances, a checklist of burlesque plays, and a bibliography.

The plays presented include H.J. Byron's 'Miss Eily O'Connor' (1861), a burlesque of Dion Boucicault's sensation melodrama 'The Colleen Bawn'; Byron's '1863; or, The Sensations of the Past Season' (1863), a burlesque of a stage version of Mary Elizabeth Braddon's novel 'Lady Audley's Secret'; F.C. Burnand's 'The Very Latest Edition of Black-Eyed Susan' (1866), a burlesque of Douglas Jerrold's nautical melodrama 'Black Eyed-Susan'; Byron's The 'Corsican 'Bothers'; or, The Troublesome Twins' (1869), a burlesque of Dion Boucicault's melodrama 'The Corsican Brothers'; and Charles Brookfield's and J.M. Glover's 'The Poet and the Puppets' (1892), a burlesque of Oscar Wilde's 'Lady Windermere's Fan'.

Through its general introduction, prefaces and annotations to individual plays,checklist of plays, and bibliography, the volume allows both specialist and non-specialist readers to see Victorian burlesques as a rich historical record of shifting attitudes toward drama and the theatre. Giving long overdue emphasis to a unjustly neglected theatrical tradition, this volume represents a unique scholarly tool for students and scholars of modern drama, theatre history, and nineteenth-century popular culture.

Introduction Miss Eily O'Connor (1861), by H.J. Byron 1863 or, the Sensations of the Past Season (1863), by H.J. Byron The Very Latest Edition of Black-Eyed Susan (1866), by F.C. Burnand The Corsican 'Bothers' (1869), by H.J. Byron The Poet and the Puppets (1892), by Charles H.E. Brookfield and James Glover List of Representative Victorian Burlesques Bibliography Index.

Author About the Richard W. Schoch, Lecturer, School of English and Drama, Queen Mary College, University of London, UK

255 pages, Hardcover

First published February 1, 2003