harlequinades

It thus directly or in - directly inspired both English and German popular stage spectacles (harlequinades, operettas, ballets) until well into the later eighteenth century.

Dictionary of the History of Ideas STUART ATKINS 1968

Fielding's antagonism to the harlequinades and variety shows, then threatening the popularity of legitimate drama:

Henry Fielding: a Memoir G. M. Godden

"In my youth I had learnt, by sedulously imitating the pantaloons in the harlequinades, to drop flat on my face instinctively, and to produce the illusion of being picked up neatly by the slack of my trousers and set on my feet again."

Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 152, March 14, 1917 Various

What this may be is best exampled by our harlequinades, in which very much of

Little Novels of Italy Madonna Of The Peach-Tree, Ippolita In The Hills, The Duchess Of Nona, Messer Cino And The Live Coal, The Judgment Of Borso Maurice Henry Hewlett

Some of the streets, in fact most of them in which business is transacted, resemble strongly the shop scenes in harlequinades, for the Americans have carried advertising so far that their streets of shops, and especially those in New York, are simply museums of grotesque advertisement.

The Confessions of a Caricaturist, Vol 2 (of 2) Harry Furniss

Ralph's opening lines are of interest as bearing on Fielding's antagonism to the harlequinades and variety shows, then threatening the popularity of legitimate drama:

Henry Fielding A Memoir Godden, G M 1909

In 1768, Leopold Mozart, the father of the composer, declared that the Viennese public had no love of anything serious or sensible; "they cannot even understand it, and their theatres furnish abundant proof that nothing but utter trash, such as dances, burlesques, harlequinades, ghost tricks, and devils 'antics will go down with them."

Joseph Haydn Hadden, J Cuthbert 1902

This great comic artist devised the eccentric costume still worn by clowns -- the original whiteness of the Pierrot's dress being used as a groundwork upon which to paint variegated spots, stars, and patches; and nearly all the "comic business" of modern harlequinades is of his invention.

A Book of the Play Studies and Illustrations of Histrionic Story, Life, and Character Dutton Cook 1856

And he, "No indeed; I would not have killed them, for they are but buffoon-folk, and we should have enjoyed their harlequinades and would have made them dance to us a wee and all and some tell us tales to gladden our minds; after which we would have suffered them depart and go about their own business."

Arabian nights. English Anonymous 1855

I think him very likely to produce a good tragedy, if he keep to a natural style, and not play tricks to form harlequinades for an audience.

Life of Lord Byron With His Letters And Journals Byron, George G 1854