Q 01/05

The word 'burlesque' ultimately derives from an Italian word meaning what?

A) A stately dance

B) A joke or mockery

C) A fancy costume

D) A stage curtain

Answer · why

B) A joke or mockery

It came into English via French from the Italian burlesco, rooted in burla, a jest or ridicule.

Q 02/05

Whose early-16th-century Opere burlesche is the first title to use the word?

A) Ludovico Ariosto

B) Pietro Aretino

C) Francesco Berni

D) Dante Alighieri

Answer · why

C) Francesco Berni

Burlesque verses were known for a time as poesie bernesca in his honour.

Q 03/05

Alexander Pope's The Rape of the Lock is the classic example of which type of literary burlesque?

A) Low

B) Lampoon

C) Travesty

D) High

Answer · why

D) High

High burlesque applies an elevated literary manner to a trivial subject: in Pope's case, a snipped curl.

Q 04/05

Samuel Butler's Hudibras, which mocks a Puritan knight in satiric doggerel, is an example of what?

A) Minstrelsy

B) Low

C) Extravaganza

D) High

Answer · why

B) Low

Low burlesque takes a serious subject and treats it in an irreverent, mocking style.

Q 05/05

Which 1974 Tom Stoppard play is cited as a full-length work drawing on the burlesque tradition?

A) The Real Thing

B) Arcadia

C) Travesties

D) Jumpers

Answer · why

C) Travesties

It throws James Joyce, Lenin and Tristan Tzara together in Zurich by way of The Importance of Being Earnest.