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".
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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".
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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.
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Harlequinade lost popularity by the 1880s, when music hall, Victorian burlesque, comic opera and other comic entertainments dominated the British comedy stage.
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Harlequinade characters consisted of the following five kinds of clowns, in addition to more minor characters like a policeman:.
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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.
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Harlequinade was a lower class character, the servant of Pantaloon, dressed in tattered servants' garb.
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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.
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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.
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Harlequinade is taken in readily by the various tricks and schemes of Harlequin.
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