figure
Burl
also: Бурль
A soldier-character in the fictitious melodrama who complains directly to the audience about the indignities the script forces on him, blaming a shadowy 'Octopus' figure -- a stock role invented for the parody, not a real actor or attested character.
Reading notes
- Unclean Tragedians and Leprous Playwrights §12 Burl
A conscripted-soldier stock role who spends his scenes blaming his misfortunes on a shadowy "Octopus" -- the running joke that becomes explicit at §37.