The corsair; or, the little fairy at the bottom of the sea : A new Christmas…
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"The corsair; or, the little fairy at the bottom of the sea : A new Christmas…" by William Brough is a comic burlesque pantomime from the mid-19th-century Victorian era. Built on the popular ballet Le Corsaire and winking at Byron’s pirate romance, it mixes fairy spectacle, slapstick, and melodrama. Its likely topic is a swashbuckling pirate story turned into a playful Christmas entertainment in which love and magic try to reform a
notorious corsair. The plot follows Conrad, a moody pirate, whose fate becomes the business of sea-fairies led by Serena, who vows to redeem him through love. On shore he rescues the vivacious Medora from a slave market, then survives a fairy-made shipwreck, only to be betrayed by his lieutenant Birbanto, who helps the renegade Yussuf abduct Medora. Serena thwarts a mutiny, and Conrad infiltrates the Pasha’s harem in disguise, duels Birbanto, and is captured. To save him, Medora pretends to accept the Pasha’s proposal, while Gulnare cunningly marries the Pasha herself under a veil. Medora frees Conrad and they escape; the Pasha discovers he is wed to Gulnare; in the woods Birbanto’s coup collapses as guards arrive and Serena grants mercy to the reformed lovers. A general reconciliation follows: the pirate vows domestic respectability, Gulnare secures her marriage, even the villains promise reform, and the piece ends in a sparkling Peri-led transformation to harlequinade. (This is an automatically generated summary.)
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About this eBook
| Author | Brough, William, 1826-1870 |
|---|---|
| Title | The corsair; or, the little fairy at the bottom of the sea : A new Christmas burlesque and pantomime, founded upon the ballet of "Le corsair" |
| Original Publication | New York: Samuel French, 1856. |
| Series Title | The minor drama. The acting edition no. 131. |
| Note | Published also under title: Conrad and Medora. |
| Credits | Mairi and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive) |
| Language | English |
| LoC Class | PR: Language and Literatures: English literature |
| Subject | Burlesques |
| Subject | English drama -- 19th century |
| Subject | Pantomime (Christmas entertainment) |
| Category | Text |
| eBook-No. | 76960 |
| Release Date | Sep 30, 2025 |
| Copyright | Public domain in the USA. |
| Downloads | 4744 downloads in the last 30 days. |
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