BURLESQUE, a form of the comic in art, consisting broadly in an imitation of a work of art with the object of exciting laughter, by distortion or exaggeration, by turning, for example, the highly rhetorical into bombast, the pathetic into the mock sentimental, and especially by a ludicrous contrast between the subject and the style, making gods speak like common men and common men like gods. While parody (q.v.), also based on imitation, relies for its effect more on the close following of the style of its counterpart, burlesque depends on broader and coarser effects. Its particular sphere is in literature, and especially in drama. The Batrachorcyomachia, or Battle of the Frogs and Mice, is the earliest example in classical literature, being a trav esty of the Homeric epic. The Italian word first appears in the Opere Burlesche of Francesco Berni (1497-1535). In France, during part of the reign of Louis NIV., the burlesque attained great popularity; burlesque Aeneids, Iliads and Odysseys were composed, and even the most sacred subjects were not left un travestied. Of the numerous writers of these, P. Scarron is most prominent, and his Virgile Travesti (1648—J3) was followed by numerous imitators. In English literature Chaucer's Rime of Sir Thopas is a burlesque of the long-winded mediaeval romances. Among the best-known true burlesques in English dramatic litera ture may be mentioned the 2nd duke of Buckingham's The Re hearsal, a burlesque of the heroic drama, and Sheridan's The Critic. In the later 19th century the name "burlesque" was given to a form of musical dramatic composition with which the Gaiety theatre, London, and the names of Edward Terry, Fred Leslie, and Nellie Farren are particularly connected. The Gaiety type of burlesque gave place to the "musical comedy," and in more recent years to the "revue." The name burlesque (burlesca or burla), is also given some times to instrumental compositions of an appropriately light hearted character.