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- Title
Classical mythology in the Victorian Popular Theatre.
- Authors
Hall
- Abstract
This article argues that our picture of the uses of Greek and Roman authors in nineteenth-century Britain will remain incomplete unless the popular and culturally subversive genre of classical burlesque, a staple of the mid-Victorian popular theatre, is taken seriously by scholars. Dozens of burlesques of ancient epic and tragedy were performed between James Robinson Planche's Olympic Revels of 1831 and Gilbert and Sullivan's Thespis of 1871, offering the cross-class audiences access to a wide range of classical material. By examining a selection of important classical burlesques, some of which were never published, describing their authors and audiences, and situating them within their theatrical, historical, and ideological contexts, the article concludes that working-class and lower middle-class theatregoers of both sexes must have been much more familiar with classical mythology than they have been given credit for hitherto.
- Subjects
BURLESQUE (Theater); CLASSICAL mythology; 19TH century English drama; OLYMPIC Revels (Play); THESPIS (Play); DRAMA criticism
- Publication
International Journal of the Classical Tradition, 1999, Vol 5, Issue 3, p336
- ISSN
1073-0508
- Publication type
Literary Criticism
- DOI
10.1007/BF02687692