English Literature / Unit 15 ENL 1448 short lesson, about 20 seconds
Victorian Drama Before Wilde
Captions available
The idea
Before Wilde and Shaw, the Victorian stage was dominated by melodrama, built on virtue, villains and family crisis, and by burlesque, broad musical parody, in which W. S. Gilbert began. Arthur Wing Pinero's The Second Mrs Tanqueray, of eighteen ninety-three, about a woman with a past, shocked audiences.
In practice
Melodrama, burlesque, the problem play.
Where people slip
Serious drama revived late in the century.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
Builds on
Unlocks
- Nothing yet depends on this.
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