Burlesque upon the American stage, although not yet American burlesque, dates back to the very beginning of the history of the theatre in this country, when _The Beggar's Opera_, by John Gay, "written in ridicule of the musical Italian drama," was presented at the theatre in Nassau Street, New York, on the 3d of December, 1750, with Thomas Kean as Captain Macheath. _The Beggar's Opera_ was first acted at Lincoln's Inn Fields in 1727, and took the town by storm. The Archbishop of Canterbury preached a sermon against it; Sir John Fielding, the police-justice, officially begged the manager not to present it on _Saturday evenings_, as it inspired the idle apprentices of London, who saw it on their night off, to imitate its hero's thieving deeds; and a certain critic condemned it as "the parent of that most monstrous of all absurdities, the comic opera." Nevertheless it was immensely popular, and enjoyed an unusually long run. As a literary production it is distinguished for its combination of nature, pathos, satire, and burlesque. It brought fame to its author, and, indirectly, something like wealth; and it made a duchess of Lavinia Fenton, who was the original Polly. As that monstrous absurdity the comic opera is without question the parent of that still more monstrous absurdity the burlesque proper, Polly Peachum and Captain Macheath may be considered the very Pilgrim Parents of burlesque in the New World. They were followed almost immediately (February 25, 1751) by _Damon and Phillada, a Ballad Farce_, by Colley Cibber. Their Plymouth Rock very soon became too small to hold them; their descendants have taken possession of the whole land, and every _Mayflower_ that crosses the Atlantic to-day brings consignments of British blondes to swell their number. Before the Revolution Fielding's _Tom Thumb; or, The Tragedy of Tragedies_, a clever travesty, with Mrs. Hallam (Mrs. Douglas) as Queen Dollalolla, and Kane O'Hara's _Midas_, "a burlesque turning upon heathen deities, ridiculous enough in themselves, and too absurd for burlesque," had taken out their naturalization papers. _The Critic_, as has been shown, declared his intentions very shortly after the establishment of peace; and _Bombastes Furioso_ became a citizen of New York as early as 1816. [Illustration: MRS. HALLAM (MRS. DOUGLAS).]