10 Facts About Harlequinade

Harlequinade is a British comic theatrical genre, defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as "that part of a pantomime in which the harlequin and clown play the principal parts".

The story of the Harlequinade revolves around a comic incident in the lives of its five main characters: Harlequin, who loves Columbine; Columbine's greedy and foolish father Pantaloon, who tries to separate the lovers in league with the mischievous Clown; and the servant, Pierrot, usually involving chaotic chase scenes with a bumbling policeman.

Harlequinade lost popularity by the 1880s, when music hall, Victorian burlesque, comic opera and other comic entertainments dominated the British comedy stage.

Harlequinade characters consisted of the following five kinds of clowns, in addition to more minor characters like a policeman:.

Harlequinade is a servant and the love interest of Columbine.

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Harlequinade developed the character of Harlequin into a mischievous magician who was easily able to evade Pantaloon and his servants to woo Columbine.

Harlequinade was a lower class character, the servant of Pantaloon, dressed in tattered servants' garb.

Harlequinade developed jokes, catch-phrases and songs that were used by subsequent Clowns for decades after his retirement in 1828, and Clowns were generically called "Joey" for four generations after him.

Harlequinade then became the villain of the piece, playing elaborate, cartoonish practical jokes on policemen, soldiers, tradesmen and passers-by, tripping people with butter slides and crushing babies, with the assistance of his elderly accomplice, Pantaloon.

Harlequinade is taken in readily by the various tricks and schemes of Harlequin.