The ''lion comique'' was a type of popular entertainer in the Victorian

music hall Music hall is a type of British theatrical entertainment that was popular from the early Victorian era, beginning around 1850. It faded away after 1918 as the halls rebranded their entertainment as variety. Perceptions of a distinction in Bri ...

s, a parody of upper-class toffs or "swells" made popular by

Alfred Vance Alfred Peek Stevens (1839 – 26 December 1888), best known by his stage name of Alfred Vance, was a 19th-century English music hall singer. He was also known as ''The Great Vance'', and ''Alfred Grenville''. Early life Vance was born in L ...

and

G. H. MacDermott Gilbert Hastings MacDermott (born John Farrell, 27 February 1845 – 8 May 1901) was an English lion comique, who was one of the biggest stars of the Victorian English music hall. He performed under the name of The Great MacDermott, and was wel ...

, among others. They were artistes whose stage appearance, resplendent in evening dress (generally

white tie White tie, also called full evening dress or a dress suit, is the most formal in traditional evening western dress codes. For men, it consists of a black tail coat (alternatively referred to as a dress coat, usually by tailors) worn over a whit ...

), contrasted with the cloth-cap image of most of their music-hall contemporaries. According to

Michael Kilgarriff Michael Kilgarriff (born 16 June 1937) is an English actor, author and pianist from Brighton. As an actor, he is well known for his rich voice and height. His film and television roles include ''The Dark Crystal'' (1982) as the General, and ...

, it was J. J. Poole, manager of the South London Music Hall, who first described the performer

George Leybourne George Leybourne (17 March 1842 – 15 September 1884) was a ''Lion comique'' of the British Victorian music hall who, for much of his career, was known by the title of one of his songs, " Champagne Charlie". Another of his songs, and one that ...

as "a Lion of a Comic". Victorian fashion then led to the use of the French words, ''lion comique'', which in turn became a generic term for all performers with an imposing appearance and personality.Michael Kilgarriff, ''Grace, Beauty and Banjos: Peculiar Lives and Strange Times of Music Hall and Variety Artistes'', Oberon Books, 1998, , p.158 The songs the ''lions comiques'' sang were "hymns of praise to the virtues of idleness, womanising and drinking", perhaps the most well known of which is

's " Champagne Charlie". The ''lion comique'' deliberately distorted social reality for amusement and escapism.

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* * {{refend Performing arts