Tunes/lyrics for several Clifton songs have turned up in the book "Weston and Hussey Minstrels' Book of Songs, No. 1"; see this message by Jim Dixon and mine following, in the "Work, Boys, Work" thread:
http://www.mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=129400#2906879


Steve, just a guess, but by "Shakespearean burlesques" they may have meant songs like "Wait till the Turn of the Tide" which was inspired by the quote:
"There is a tide in the affairs of men, which,
Taken at the flood, leads on to fortune."