Satire
Prejudices
Mencken is famous for his sometimes-savage attacks on almost everything humans can in their stupidity and priggishness and prejudice conjure…
A Traveller from Altruria
Set in the early 1890s, at a fashionable summer resort somewhere on the East Coast of the United States, this book tells the story of Mr. T…
The Follies of a Day
This is Thomas Holcroft's English translation, obtained by attending Pierre Beaumarchais' French play nine times in Paris during its origina…
Gulliver’s Reizen
Gulliver's reizen is een satirisch boek uit 1726 van de Ierse schrijver Jonathan Swift. Het oorspronkelijke boek bevatte vier reisbeschrijvi…
The Knight of the Burning Pestle
The Knight of the Burning Pestle is a play in five acts, first performed in 1607. It is the first whole parody (or pastiche) play in English…
The History of Pompey the Little
"Pompey, the son of Julio and Phyllis, was born A.D. 1735, at Bologna in Italy, a place famous for lap-dogs and sausages." At an e…
The Conscious Lovers
As early as 1720 Steele spoke in the Theatre of "a friend of mine" who was lately preparing a comedy according to the just laws of…
The World of Fashion
This Victorian-era dramedy was adapted by playwright/critic John Oxenford from Eugene Scribe and Ernst Legouvé’s “Les doigts de f&eac…
The Admirable Crichton
From the author of Peter Pan:Lord Loam, a British peer, considers class divisions to be artificial. He promotes his views during tea-parties…
Mr. Punch's Pocket Ibsen
These short comic parodies of five well-known tragedies by Henrik Ibsen originally appeared in Punch, the British humor magazine. From the p…
The Magnificent Lovers
"The King [Louis XIV], who will have nothing but what is magnificent in all he undertakes, wished to give his court an entertainment wh…
Gargantua and Pantagruel
The five-volume work chronicling the adventures of father Gargantua and son Pantagruel is a vehicle for Rabelais' satire of sixteenth-centur…
The Satyrs of Decimus Junius Juvenalis
16 satires in verse of the celebrated classical poet of the 1st and 2nd Century translated into verse by John Dryden an English satirist of …
Monsieur De Pourceaugnac
'Monsieur de Pourceaugnac', acted on October 6, 1669, is nothing but a farce. But Molière excels in farce as well as in higher comedy…
The Physician In Spite of Himself
The Physician In Spite of Himself … is written in a most unbounded spirit of mirth, the matrimonial breezes wafting a certain amount of refr…
Don Quixote in England
"The Audience, I believe, are all acquainted with the Character of Don Quixote and Sancho. I have brought them over into England, and i…
Dryden vs Shadwell
Throughout history there have been many creative artists whose fame depends largely on their association with a much greater artist. Such th…
H.M.S. Pinafore
In this recording, one person reads the entire play, all parts, including the stage directions. Even without the support of Arthur Sullivan…
The Big Drum
Another Pinero play. Biting satire this time, ironic comedy - not a farce. The Big Drum, a novel being written by Phil, one of the main char…
Bob and Ray
In this episode of Bob and Ray, originally aired on December 27th, 1973, the first day of filming is filled with comedic mishaps as Harry st…