NOTE.--Those who desire to extend their acquaintance with the literature of English stage burlesque may be recommended to turn first to the travesties published by Mr. French, which include those by Planché, and many by the Broughs, H. J. Byron, Talfourd, F. C. Burnand, etc. Mr. Gilbert's "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern" is to be found in his volume entitled "Foggerty's Fairy, and Other Stories." A large proportion of the burlesques discussed, quoted, or mentioned in the following chapters are out of print, and to be seen only at the British Museum, on the second-hand bookstalls, or on the shelves of private collectors. [_We beg to acknowledge the courtesy of MM. Walèry, Limited, in permitting us to avail ourselves of their photographs of Messrs. Burnand and Gilbert; and of Mr. Bassano for the same permission in regard to that of Mr. G. R. Sims._--ED. _W. L._] CONTENTS. PAGE I. THE BEGINNINGS OF BURLESQUE 1 II. THE "PALMY" DAYS 33 III. "CLASSICAL" BURLESQUE 44 IV. BURLESQUE OF FAËRIE 72 V. BURLESQUE OF HISTORY 99 VI. BURLESQUE OF SHAKESPEARE 121 VII. BURLESQUE OF MODERN DRAMA 146 VIII. BURLESQUE OF OPERA 174 IX. BURLESQUE OF FICTION AND SONG 193 X. THE NEW BURLESQUE 207 A BOOK OF BURLESQUE. I. THE BEGINNINGS OF BURLESQUE. Who shall say when the spirit of burlesque first made its appearance on our stage? There were traces of it, we may be sure, in the Mysteries and Moralities of pre-Elizabethan days; the monkish dramatists were not devoid of humour, and the first lay playwrights had a rough sense of ridicule. The "Vice" which figured in so many of our rude old dramas had in him an element of satire, and the pictures drawn of his Satanic Majesty were conscious or unconscious caricatures of the popular conception of the Evil One. In all these cases, however, the burlesque was general. It was of the nature of travestie, and of the vaguest sort. Of particular parody one finds but few signs in the Elizabethan drama. There is a little of it in Shakespeare, where he pokes fun at the turgidity of contemporary tragedy or at the obscurity of contemporary Euphuism. The Pyramus and Thisbe episode is less burlesque than satire. It is an _exposé_ of the absurdities of the amateur performer, for whom Shakespeare, as a professional actor, could have only an amused contempt.