The Victorian Clown

by Jacky Bratton , Ann Featherstone

• ISBN13: 9780521816663
• ISBN10: 0521816661
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2006-08-21
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

The Victorian Clown is a micro-history of mid-Victorian comedy, spun out of the life and work of two professional clowns. Their previously unpublished manuscripts - James Frowde's account of his young life with the famous Henglers' circus in the 1850s and Thomas Lawrence's 1871 gag book - offer unique, unmediated access to the grass roots of popular entertainment. Through them this book explores the role of the circus clown at the height of equestrian entertainment in Britain, when the comic managed audience attention for the riders and acrobats, parodying their skills in his own tumbling and contortionism, and also offered a running commentary on the times through his own 'wheezes' - stand-up comedy sets. Plays in the ring connect the circus to the stage, and both these men were also comic singers, giving a sharp insight into popular music just as it was being transformed by the new institution of music hall.

Table of Contents

List of illustrations	viii
Preface	ix
Acknowledgements and note on authorship	x
Editorial practice	xii
Part I. The Victorian circus
1. The Victorian clown	3	(9)
2. Victorian travelling shows	12	(10)
3. Circus buildings	22	(8)
4. A microhistory from two manuscripts	30	(9)
Part II. The circus memoirs of James Frowde, a Victorian clown
One: Childhood and youth, 1831-1846	39	(7)
Two: Running away to join the circus, 1847-1849	46	(26)
Three: Out into the world to learn his trade, 1849	72	(10)
Four: At last a clown with Hengler's, 1849-1851	82	(23)
Five: A spell with Cooke's circus, 1851	105	(4)
Six: The end of the story, 1851-1857	109	(36)
Part III. Thomas Lawrence's repertoire: popular humour unmediated	145	(10)
Part IV. The 1871 gagbook of Thomas Lawrence	155	(101)
Bibliography	256	(4)
Index	260