author
F. C. (Francis Cowley) Burnand
1836–1917
A master of Victorian wit, this English comic writer helped shape the humor of Punch for decades and wrote an enormous range of plays, burlesques, and light entertainment. He is still especially remembered for the libretto of Arthur Sullivan's comic opera Cox and Box.
1 Audiobook
Happy-Thought Hall
by F. C. (Francis Cowley) Burnand
About the author
Born in London in 1836, Francis Cowley Burnand became one of the best-known comic writers of the Victorian period. He was educated at Eton and Cambridge, and although he at first considered a religious career, he soon turned to writing for the stage and the press.
Burnand was astonishingly prolific. He wrote farces, burlesques, pantomimes, libretti, essays, and comic fiction, building a reputation for brisk, playful humor and a sharp sense of theatrical fun. Among his most lasting works is the libretto for Cox and Box, written for Arthur Sullivan.
He was also closely linked with Punch, contributing to the magazine for many years and serving as its editor from 1880 to 1906. During that long tenure he helped maintain Punch as a major voice in British comic and satirical writing. Burnand died in 1917, leaving behind a body of work that captures the lively, mischievous spirit of nineteenth-century popular entertainment.