This volume introduces the works of an important but neglected
dramatist, one of the most prolific and popular of the mid-Victorian
period. H. J. Byron wrote an enormous number of comedies, burlesques and
pantomimes. He invented the characters of Widow Twankay and Buttons,
still beloved by modern pantomime audiences. His burlesques of melodrama
helped to bring an end to the more outlandish examples of the genre;
inveterate punning became his trademark. Byron was also a competent
editor, theatre manager and actor specializing in the eccentric roles of
his own plays. As playwright he was second only to W. S. Gilbert and Tom
Robertson, whose careers he helped to further. Jim Davis has edited four
of the plays, illustrating them with contemporary drawings and providing
an extensive introduction.