The corsair; or, the little fairy at the bottom of the sea A new Christmas burlesque and pantomime, founded upon the ballet of "Le corsair"

About the book

The guardians of the sea are tired of Conrad the Corsair's crimes and debate whether to destroy his ship or try a gentler remedy. Serena proposes the reforming power of love, setting the machinery of fairy intervention alongside pirates, a slave merchant, a pasha, and the threatened Medora. Brough turns the material of romantic adventure and ballet into theatrical jokes, topical allusions, rhyming dialogue, songs, and elaborate stage action. Heroic attitudes repeatedly collapse into verbal tricks or practical inconvenience, while the audience is openly included in the fun. The piece belongs to a pantomime tradition whose stock settings and characters include period stereotypes. Read as an acting text, it offers a lively record of how spectacle, parody, and familiar tunes could transform a serious romantic plot into holiday entertainment.

• Parody and performance
• Love and reform
• Fairy spectacle

Why read it

The stage directions and rapid puns show the practical theatrical machinery beneath the comic fantasy.

English Samuel French acting edition, The Minor Drama No. 131, with cast and stage directions