_The Most Lamentable Comedy and Most Cruell Death of Pyramus and Thisbie_, originally published in the year 1600, if not the earliest burlesque in the English language, is certainly the model upon which are based all subsequent productions of the same class which have been written for the British or American theatre. Stevens believes the title to have been suggested to Shakspere by Dr. Thomas Preston's _Lamentable Tragedy Mixed Ful of Pleasant Mirth--Conteyning the Life of Cambises, King of Percia_. The story of Pyramus and Thisbe is to be found in the fourth book of Ovid's _Metamorphoses_; and a volume called _Perymus and Thesbye_ was entered on the Stationers' Register in 1562-63. Arthur Golding's translation of Ovid was published in 1567, and several other versions of the tale were extant before the birth of Snout or Bottom, the incidents, of course, being the same in all. Shaksperean scholars find traces of other works in the different speeches of the hard-handed men of Athens, but the general impression is that the author's purpose was to travesty the verse of Golding. Limander and Helen are intended for Leander and Hero; Shafalus and Procrus for Cephalus and Procris, and Ninny for Ninus; a form of verbal contortion displayed by the modern burlesquer in _Sam Parr_ for _Zampa_, and _The Roof Scrambler_ for _Sonnambula_; while the lines-- "Whereat, with blade, with bloody, blamefull blade, He brauely broacht his boiling bloody breast," read like the blank-verse mouthed by the deep tragedians of the negro minstrel stage of to-day. _The Midsummer-Night's Dream_, with Mr. Hilson as Snout and Mr. Placide as Bottom, was performed, "for the first time in America," at the Park Theatre, New York, on the 9th of November, 1826, when the stage in this country was upwards of three-quarters of a century old, and had a literature of its own, comparatively rich in comedy and tragedy, and when its burlesque, such as it was, undoubtedly felt the influence of _Pyramus and Thisbe_. The second great burlesque upon the British stage was _The Rehearsal_, by George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, in the reign of the Second Charles, first acted in 1672. It was original in design and brilliant in execution. It introduced a popular author, John Dryden, engaged in superintendence of a rehearsal of one of his own tragedies--the tragedy in this instance consisting of clever parodies of portions of all the dramas then in vogue. _The Rehearsal_ does not seem to have been produced in this country, although _The Critic_ of Sheridan, obviously based upon it, was performed at the John Street Theatre, New York, November 24th, 1788, when President Washington honored the entertainment with his presence. The cast has not been preserved, although William Winter believes Mr. Wignell to have played Puff, Mr. Ryan Whiskerandos, and Mrs. Morris (the second wife of Owen Morris) Tilberina. _The Critic_ still survives, as Mr. Daly's audiences well remember.