[a. F. burlesque, ad. It. burlesco f. burla ridicule, mockery.]
A. adj.
† 1. Droll in look, manner or speech; jocular; odd, grotesque. Obs.
1656. Blount, Glossogr., Burlesque (Ital.) drolish, merry, pleasant.
1684. Bucaniers Amer., I. (ed. 2), 2. On his head he put a sutable cap which was made very burlesque.
1762–71. H. Walpole, Vertue’s Anecd. Paint. (1786), III. 8. Graham speaks of Fuller as extravagant and burlesque in his manners.
1848. W. K. Kelly, trans. L. Blanc’s Hist. Ten Y., II. 299. Such was the burlesque origin of the ministry of three days.
2. Of the nature of derisive imitation; ironically bombastic, mock-heroic or mock-pathetic; now chiefly said of literary or oratorical compositions and dramatic representations; formerly (quot. 1712) also of pictorial caricatures. In burlesque author, poet, actor = a writer of burlesque literature, an actor of burlesque parts, there is a mixture of the attrib. use of the sb. in B.
a. 1700. Sc. Pasquils (1868), 285. I shall not here, with burlesque penners, Carp at her beauty.
1712. Hughes, in Spect., No. 537, ¶ 2. Those burlesque Pictures, which the Italians call Caracatura’s. Ibid. (1714), No. 616, ¶ 2. Our little burlesque authors, who are the delight of ordinary readers.
1756. J. Warton, Ess. Pope (1782), I. IV. 255. Our nation can boast … poems of the burlesque kind.
1814. Scott, Wav., xxiii. Cathleen sang … a little Gaelic song, the burlesque elegy of a countryman on the loss of his cow.
1840. Macaulay, Ranke’s Hist., Ess. (1854), II. 552. Burlesque romances in the sweetest Tuscan.
b. quasi-sb.
1742. Fielding, J. Andrews, Pref. No two species of writing can differ more widely than the comic and the burlesque.
1779. Johnson, L. P., Cowley, 43. A … pleasing specimen of the familiar descending to the burlesque.
1821. Craig, Lect. Drawing, I. 52. This … borders … on the burlesque in representation.
B. sb.
1. That species of literary composition, or of dramatic representation, which aims at exciting laughter by caricature of the manner or spirit of serious works, or by ludicrous treatment of their subjects; a literary or dramatic work of this kind. Also attrib.
1667. Sir W. Temple, in Four C. Eng. Lett., 123. I hear Mr. Waller is turned to burlesque among them, while he is alive.
1709. Tatler, No. 63, ¶ 2. The Burlesque of Virgil himself has passed, among Men of little Taste, for Wit.
1768. Tucker, Lt. Nat., II. 130. Witty burlesques of the noblest performances.
1867. Miss Braddon, Rupert Godw., ii. 24/2. The … night … on which the new burlesque was to be performed.
1869. Daily News, 7 Jan., 5/1. For the last fifteen years, burlesque has been driving pantomime off the stage.
2. Grotesque imitation of what is, or is intended to be, dignified or pathetic, in action, speech or manner; concr. an action or performance that casts ridicule on that which it imitates, or is itself ridiculous as an unsuccessful attempt at serious impressiveness; a mockery.
1753. Hogarth, Anal. Beauty, vi. 31. Were it [the wig] to be worn as large again, it would become a burlesque.
1772. Wesley, Jrnl., 3 May. Why is such a burlesque upon public worship, suffered?
1846. McCulloch, Acc. Brit. Empire (1854), II. 213. The representative system … established in Scotland previously to the Reform Act, was … a burlesque of all principle.
