Unlike other Shakespearean tragedies, King Richard III was never turned into a comedy through the insertion of a happy ending. It did, however, undergo a transformation of dramatic genre, as the numerous Richard III burlesques and travesties produced in the nineteenth century plainly show. Eight burlesques (or nine, including a pantomime) were written for and/or performed on the London stage alone. This essay looks at three of these plays, produced at three distinct stages in the history of burlesque's rapid rise and decline: 1823, 1844, and 1868. In focusing on these productions, I demonstrate how Shakespeare burlesques, paradoxically, enhanced rather than endangered the playwright's iconic status. King Richard III is a perfect case study because of its peculiar stage history. As Richard Schoch has argued, the burlesque purported to be “an act of theatrical reform which aggressively compensated for the deficiencies of other people's productions. . . . [It] claimed to perform not Shakespeare's debasement, but the ironic restoration of his compromised authority.” But this view of the burlesques’ importance is incomplete. Building on Schoch's work, I illustrate how the King Richard III burlesques not only parodied deficient theatrical productions but also called into question dramatic adaptations of Shakespeare's plays. In so doing, these burlesques paradoxically relegitimized Shakespeare.

中文翻译：

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“理查三世国王的滑稽悲剧”：十九世纪的滑稽表演

不同于其他莎士比亚的悲剧，理查三世从来没有通过插入一个幸福的结局变成喜剧。然而，它确实经历了戏剧类型的转变，因为众多理查三世19 世纪产生的滑稽表演和滑稽表演清楚地表明了这一点。八部滑稽剧（或九部，包括哑剧）仅在伦敦舞台上就被编写和/或演出。本文着眼于其中的三部戏剧，它们是在滑稽剧迅速兴衰的三个不同阶段产生的：1823 年、1844 年和 1868 年。在关注这些作品时，我展示了莎士比亚滑稽剧是如何自相矛盾地增强而不是危及剧作家的标志性地位。理查三世由于其独特的舞台历史，是一个完美的案例研究。正如理查德·舒克所言，滑稽表演据称是“一种戏剧性的改革行为，它积极地弥补了其他人的不足之处。制作. . . . [它]声称不是在表演莎士比亚的贬低，而是对他妥协的权威的讽刺性恢复。” 但这种对滑稽戏重要性的看法是不完整的。在 Schoch 的工作基础上，我说明了理查三世滑稽戏不仅模仿了缺乏戏剧性制作但也令人质疑戏剧性改编莎士比亚的戏剧。这样一来，这些滑稽剧自相矛盾地合法化莎士比亚。