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diff --git a/13469-0.txt b/13469-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a11b837 --- /dev/null +++ b/13469-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5531 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13469 *** + +A HISTORY OF PANTOMIME + +by + +R. J. BROADBENT + +Author of "STAGE WHISPERS," etc. + +LONDON: + + + + + + + +TO + +WILLIAM WADE, ESQUIRE. + +This book is dedicated as a small token of the +Author's esteem and regard. + +R.J.B. + + + + +PREFACE. + + +One of the most important factors in the making of Theatrical History +has been that of Pantomime, yet in many of the published works dealing +with the History of the Stage it has, with the exception of a passing +reference here and there, been much neglected. + +It is with a view of conveying to the reading public some little, and, +perhaps, new information about this ancient form of entertainment that I +am tempted to issue this History of Pantomime in the hope and belief +that it may not only prove interesting, but also instructive, to all +lovers of the Stage. + +R.J.B. + +Liverpool, December, 1901. + + + + +CONTENTS. + + +CHAPTER I. + +Origin of Pantomime + + +CHAPTER II. + +Origin of Tragedy and Comedy--Mythology--The meaning of +the word Pantomime--The origin of Harlequin, Columbine, +Clown, and Pantaloon--Grecian Mythology--Transformation +Scenes--The rise of Grecian Tragedy and Comedy--The +Satirical Drama + + +CHAPTER III. + +The origin of the Indian Drama--Aryan Mythology--Clown +and Columbine--Origin of the Chinese Drama--Inception +of the Japanese Drama--The Siamese Drama--Dramatic +performances of the South Sea Islanders, Peruvians, +Aztecs, Zulus, and Fijis--The Egyptian Drama + + +CHAPTER IV. + +"Dancing," _i.e._ Pantomime--Grecian Dancing and Pantomimic +Scenes--Aristotle--Homer--Dances common to +both Greeks and Romans + + +CHAPTER V. + +Thespis--The Progress of Tragedy and Comedy--Aeschylus--The +Epopée--Homer--Sophocles--Euripides--Grecian +Mimes--The First Athenian Theatre--Scenery +and Effects + + +CHAPTER VI. + +Roman Theatres--Description--"Deadheads"--Pantomime +in Italy--Livius Andronicus--_Fabulae Atellanae_--Extemporal +Comedy--Origin of the Masque, Opera, and +Vaudeville--Origin of the term Histrionic--Etruscans--Popularity +of Pantomime in Italy--Pantomimists banished +by Trajan--Nero as a Mime--Pylades and Bathyllus--Subjects +chosen for the Roman Pantomimes--The Ballet--The +_Mimi_ and _Pantomimi_--_Archimimus_--Vespasian--Harlequin--"Mr. +Punch"--Zany, how the word originated--Ancient +Masks--Lucian, Cassiodorus, and Demetrius +in praise of Pantomime--A celebrated _Mima_--Pantomimes +denounced by early writers--The purity of the +English stage contrasted with that of the Grecian and +Roman--Female parts on the Grecian and Roman stages--The +principal Roman _Mimas_--The origin of the Clown +of the early English Drama + + +CHAPTER VII. + +Introduction of the Roman Pantomimic Art into Britain--First +English reference to the word Pantomime--The +fall of the Roman Empire--The sacred play--Cornish +Amphitheatres--Pantomimical and Lyrical elements in +the sacrifice of the Mass--Christian banishment of the +_Mimis_--Penalties imposed by the Church--St. Anthony +on Harlequin and Punch--Vandenhoff--what we owe to +the _Mimis_ + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +Pantomime in the English Mystery or Miracle Plays and +Pageants--A retrospect of the Early Drama--Mysteries +on Biblical events--Chester, Coventry, York, and Towneley +Mystery Plays--Plays in Churches--Traces of the +Mystery Play in England in the Nineteenth Century--Mystery +Plays on the Continent--The Chester series of +Plays--The Devil or Clown and the _Exodiarii_ and +_Emboliariae_ of the Ancient Mimes + + +CHAPTER IX. + +The Clown or Fool of the early English Drama--Moralities--The +Interlude--The rise of English Tragedy and +Comedy--"Dumb Shews" in the Old Plays--Plays +suppressed by Elizabeth--A retrospect + + +CHAPTER X. + +The Italian Masque--The Masque in England--First +appearance in this country of Harlequin--Joe Haines as +Harlequin--Marlowe's "Faustus"--A Curious Play--The +Italian Harlequin--Colley Cibber, Penkethman--Shakespeare's +Burlesques of the Masque--Decline of the Masque + + +CHAPTER XI. + +Italian Pantomime--Riccoboni--Broom's "Antipodes"--Gherardi--Extemporal +Comedies--Salvator Rosa--Impromptu Acting + + +CHAPTER XII. + +Pantomimical Characters--Neapolitan Pantomime--The +Harlequin Family--The Original Characters in the +Italian Pantomimes--Celebrated Harlequins--Italian +and French Harlequins--A French view of the English +Clown--Pierrots' origin--Pantaloon, how the name has +been derived--Columbine--Marionette and Puppet Shows + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +Italian Scenarios and English "Platts"--Pantaloon--Tarleton, +the Clown--Extemporal Comedy--The Poet +Milton--Ben Jonson--The Commonwealth--"A Reign +of Dramatic Terror"--Robert Cox and his "Humours" +and "Drolleries"--The Restoration + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +Introduction of Pantomimes to the English Stage--Weaver's +"History of the Mimes and Pantomimes"--Weaver's +Pantomimes--The prejudice against Pantomimes--Booth's +counsel + + +CHAPTER XV. + +John Rich and his Pantomimes--Rich's Miming--Garrick, +Walpole, Foote--Anecdotes of Rich--Pope--The dance +of internals in "Harlequin Sorcerer"--Drury Lane--Colley +Cibber--Henry Fielding, the Novelist--Contemporary +Writers' opinion of Pantomime--Woodward, the +Harlequin--The meaning of the word Actor--Harlequins--"Dr. +Faustus," a description--William +Rufus Chetwood--Accidents--Vandermere, the Harlequin--"Orpheus +and Eurydice" at Covent Garden--A +description--Sam. Hoole, the machinist--Prejudice +against Pantomime--Mrs. Oldfield--Robert Wilks--Macklin--Riot +at Lincoln's Inn Fields Theatre--Death of Rich + + +CHAPTER XVI. + +Joseph Grimaldi + + +CHAPTER XVII. + +Plots of the old form of Pantomimes--A description of +"Harlequin and the Ogress; or the Sleeping +Beauty of the Wood," produced at Covent Garden--Grimaldi, +_Père et Fils_--Tom Ellar, the Harlequin, and +Barnes, the Pantaloon--An account of the first production +of the "House that Jack built," at Covent Garden--Spectacular +display--Antiquity and Origin of some +Pantomimic devices--Devoto, Angelo, and French, the +Scenic Artists--Transparencies--Beverley--Transformation +Scenes + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + +Pantomimic Families--Giuseppe Grimaldi--James Byrne, +the Harlequin and Inventor of the modern Harlequin's +dress--Joseph Grimaldi, Junior--The Bologna Family--Tom +Ellar--The Ridgways--The Bradburys--The +Montgomerys--The Paynes--The Marshalls--Charles +and Richard Stilt--Richard Flexmore--Tom Gray--The +Paulos--Dubois--Arthur and Charles Leclerq--"Jimmy" +Barnes--Famous Pantaloons--Miss Farren--Mrs. +Siddons--Columbines--Notable Actors in Pantomime + + +CHAPTER XIX. + +Popular Pantomime subjects--Poor Pantomime Librettos--Pantomime +subjects of our progenitors--The various +versions of "Aladdin"--"The Babes in the Wood"--"Blue +Beard"--"Beauty and the Beast"--"Cinderella"--"Dick +Whittington"--"The House that Jack Built"--"Jack +the Giant Killer"--"Jack and the Beanstalk"--"Red +Riding-Hood"--"The Sleeping Beauty in the +Wood"--Unlucky subjects--"Ali Baba and the Forty +Thieves"--"The Fair One with Golden Locks"--The +source of "Sindbad the Sailor" and "Robinson Crusoe" + + +CHAPTER XX. + +Pantomime in America + + +CHAPTER XXI. + +Pantomimes made more attractive--The Restrictive Policy +of the Patent Houses--"Mother Goose" and "George +Barnwell" at Covent Garden--Lively Audiences--"Jane +Shore"--"Harlequin Pat and Harlequin Bat"--"The +first speaking opening"--Extravagence in Extravaganzas--The +doom of the old form of Pantomime--Its +revival in a new form--A piece of pure Pantomime--Present +day Mimetic Art--"_L'Enfant Prodigue_"--A +retrospect--The old with the new, and conclusion + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +Origin of Pantomime. + + +From the beginning of all time there has been implanted in the human +breast the Dramatic instinct full of life and of vigour, and finding +undoubtedly its outlet, in the early days of civilization, if not in the +Dramatic Art then in the poetry of motion with that necessary and always +essential concomitant of both--Pantomime. Indeed, of the Terpsichorean +Art, it has been truly observed "That deprived of the imitative +principle (_i.e._, Pantomime), the strength, the mute expression, it +becomes nothing but a series of cadenced steps, interesting merely as a +graceful exercise." Equally so in every way does it apply to the +Dramatic Art, which minus its acting, its gestures--in a word, its +Pantomime--we have nothing but, to quote Hamlet, "Words, words, words." + +In observing "That all the world's a stage, and the men and women merely +players," Shakespeare doubtless included in the generic term "players," +Pantomimists as well: Inasmuch as this, that when, and wherever a +character is portrayed, or represented, be it in real life or on the +stage--"Nature's looking-glass," and the world in miniature--the words +that the individual or the character speaks, are accompanied with +gesture and motion, or, in other words, Pantomime, when "The action is +suited to the word, the word to the action." + +To trace the original origin of Pantomime, or Mimicry, we must go to +Nature herself where we can find this practised by her from the +beginning of all time as freely, and as fully, as ever it was, or ever +will be, upon the stages of our theatres. What better evidence, or +instances, of this can we have than in those studies of her handiwork? +as the larger species of caterpillars, when, by stretching themselves +out in imitation of, and to make their foes think that they are snakes; +tigers and lions choosing a background in keeping with, and in imitation +of, the colours of their bodies, in order to seize their unwary prey; +and for the same purpose crocodiles imitating a rotting log; the green +tint of the lizard's skin for the sake of concealment; the playful +imitativeness of the mocking bird; the hysterical laugh of the hyaena; +the gaudy colours of tropical snakes imitated by others, besides many +other examples of Mimicry, in such as butterflies of the species +_Danaidae_ and _Acraediae_, the _Heliconidiae_ of tropical America; and +hornets, wasps, ants, and bees. All this, it may be urged, is only +instinct. True; but is it not also Mimicry--the Pantomime of Nature, +and, though, of course, of a different kind, and for very different +objects, is, nevertheless, of a kind of instinctive Pantomime or Mimicry +which each and every one of us possesses in greater or lesser degrees, +and as much as we do the Dramatic instinct. + +The very name Pantomime itself signifies Nature as Pan was amongst the +Ancients, the allegorical god of Nature, the shepherd of Arcadia, and +with _Mimos_, meaning an imitator, we have, in the combination of these +two words, "an imitator of Nature," and from whence we derive the origin +of our word Pantomime. + +Dryden says:-- + + "Pan taught to join with wax unequal reeds; + Pan loves the shepherds and the flocks he feeds." + +"Pan," says Servius, "is a rustic god, formed in similitude of Nature, +whence he is called Pan, _i.e._, All: for he has horns in similitude of +the rays of the sun and the horns of the moon; his face is as ruddy as +the imitation of the aether; he has a spotted fawn skin on his breast in +likeness of the stars; his lower parts are shaggy on account of the +trees, shrubs, and wild beasts; he has goat's feet to denote the +stability of the earth; he has a pipe of seven reeds on account of the +harmony of the heavens, in which there are seven sounds; he has a crook, +that is a curved staff, on account of the year, which runs back on +itself _because he is the god of all Nature_." + +Bernardin de St. Pierre observes of Pantomime, "That it was the first +language of man; it is known to all nations; and is so natural and so +expressive that the children of white parents learn it rapidly when they +see it used by the negroes." + +Of the Pantomimic language--a universal language and common to the whole +world from time immemorial--Charles Darwin says in his "Descent of Man," +that "The intellectual and social faculties of man could hardly have +been inferior in any extreme degree to those now possessed by the +lowest savage; otherwise primeval man could not have been so eminently +successful in the struggle for life as proved by his early and wide +diffusion. From the fundamental differences between certain languages +some philologists have inferred that, when man first became widely +diffused, he was not a speaking animal; but it may be suspected that +languages, far less perfect than any now spoken, _aided by gestures_, +might have been used, and yet have left no traces on subsequent and more +highly-developed tongues." + +With the progress of, and also as an aid to, civilization how could the +traveller or the trader, not only in the beginning of time, but also +now, when occasion demands, in their intercourse with foreign nations +(unless, of course, they know the language) make themselves understood, +or be able to trade, unless they were or are able to use that "dumb +silent language"--Pantomime? Civilization undoubtedly owes much of its +progress to it, and, also the world at large, to this only and always +universal language. To both the deaf, as well as the dumb, its +advantages have ever been apparent. + +Therefore, from prehistoric times, and from the beginning of the world, +we may presume to have had in some form or another, the Pantomimic Art. +In the lower stages of humanity, even in our own times, there is, in all +probability, a close similarity to the savagedom of mankind in the early +Antediluvian period as "This is shown (says Darwin) by the pleasure +which they all take in dancing, rude music, painting, tattooing, and +otherwise decorating themselves--in their mutual comprehension of +_gesture language_, and by the same inarticulate cries, when they are +excited by various emotions." It naturally follows that even if there +was only dancing, there must necessarily, as a form of entertainment, +have also been Pantomime. Again, all savage tribes have a war-dance of +some description, in which in fighting costume they invariably go +through, in Pantomimic form, the respective movements of the Challenge, +the Conflict, the Pursuit, and the Defeat, whilst other members of the +tribe, both men and women, give additional stimulus to these +representations by a rude form of music. + +The Ostyak tribe of Northern Asia give us a specimen of the rude +imitative dances of early civilization in a Pantomimic exhibition of the +Chase; the gambols and habits of the wolf and other wild beasts. The +Pantomimic dances of the Kamchadales are in imitation of birds, dogs, +and bears; and the Damaras represent, by four of the tribe stooping down +with their heads together, and uttering harsh cries, the movements of +oxen, and of sheep. The Australian Bushmen Mimic the leaping of calves, +the antics of the baboon, and the buzzing of swarms of bees. Primitive +Pantomimic dancing is practised amongst the South Sea Islanders, and +other races, and just as it was, presumably, at the beginning of the +world. + +Having briefly traced the origin of Pantomime, and the source of +dancing, let us, in order to further amplify my subject, look at also +for a moment the origin of music, in the time of prehistoric man. + +From Nature also do we derive this art, as "The sighing of the wind +passing over a bed of reeds is Nature's first suggestion of breath," and +of music. The clapping of hands and the stamping of feet is man's first +element in the making of music, which developed itself into the +formation of drums, bells, and cymbals, and the evolution of the same +primary principle. + +It has been argued, and also ridiculously pretended, that in the +Antediluvian period mankind only lived in caves with the hairy mammoth, +the cave bear, the rhinoceros, and the hyaena, in a state of barbarous +savagery; and that only since the Deluge have the Arts been known and +cities built on this terrestrial sphere of ours. Could anything be more +fallacious? + +We know, from the Bible, that the first man was created about six +thousand years ago, and some sixteen hundred and fifty-six years +afterwards the inhabitants of the world, with the exception of Noah and +his family, consisting of eight souls all told, were destroyed by the +flood. Noah and his family, we can take it, were of the same race of +mankind then on the earth, of the same descent and of the same flesh and +blood (as we all are) of our common father and mother, Adam and Eve; yet +we are not told that Noah (he was six hundred years old when he went +into the Ark) and his family were savages. In the 4th chapter, 21st +verse of Genesis, of Jubal-Cain, we learn that "He was the father of all +such as handle the harp and organ"; and in the following verse, +Tubal-Cain is described as "An instructor of every artificer in brass +and iron." + +We learn, also, that magnificent statues were made in Egypt some six +thousand years ago; and that mention is made of a statue of King +Cephren, said to have been chiselled about this period, and many learned +men also affirm that letters were known to the inhabitants of the +Antediluvian world. All this, however, hardly looks like the work of a +barbarous race, and points to an acquaintance with the Arts, at any rate +of Music and Sculpture, and that of the artificers and workers in brass +and iron. + +To follow, for my subject, this reasoning a little further, if there was +music (which, doubtless, there was) there must also have been dancing, +and, if dancing, there must, in the Antediluvian age, as a form of +entertainment, have also been Pantomime. On the other hand, even +supposing that man, at this period, was nothing else but a complete +savage, the words of Darwin, that I have quoted on a previous page, +conclusively proves, I think (on a common-sense like basis), of the +existence of dancing, a rude form of music, and, of course, Pantomime at +this epoch. + +Ingersoll's doctrine was that "The distance from savagery to Shakespeare +must be measured not by hundreds, but by millions, of years." + +Finally, why, and for what reason, should the Lord God, in His +all-seeing goodness and mercy, punish the inhabitants of the +Antediluvian world if they were only poor unenlightened savages? Was it +not because they were idolaters and worshippers of idols, "And that +every imagination of the thoughts of his (man's) heart was only evil +continually," as the sixth chapter and fifth verse of Genesis tells us? +This then being so, we know also that in every ancient form of religion +dancing was one of the acts of worship, and if dancing, there must as +previously stated, have also been Pantomime. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +Origin of Tragedy and Comedy--Mythology--The meaning of the word +Pantomime--The origin of Harlequin, Columbine, Clown, and +Pantaloon--Grecian Mythology--Transformation Scenes--The rise of Grecian +Tragedy and Comedy--The Satirical Drama. + + +In the year 2347 B.C., in Chapter 9, verse 20, in Genesis, there occurs: +"And Noah began to be a husbandman, and he planted a vineyard." This is +one of the first acts that Noah did after the Deluge, and it is, as +history tells us, from the rites and ceremonies in celebration of the +cultivation of the vine, that we owe the origin of Tragedy and Comedy. + +After the Deluge God placed His bow in the heavens as His covenant with +man that the world should no more be accursed; and in the first ages of +this world's history, Noah and his descendants celebrated their +deliverance from the Ark, the return of the seasons, and the promise of +plenty in their several religious rites and ceremonies. The children of +Shem had in general Asia as their portion; Japhet had Europe; and Ham, +Africa. + +Soon, however, religion began to lose its purity, and it then began to +degenerate very fast. Men began to repair to the tops of mountains, +lonely caves and grottoes, where they thought resided their gods. To +honour them they erected altars and performed their vows. Amongst the +Ancients their Mythology went no further than the epoch of the Deluge, +and in honour of which, and also of the Ark, they erected many temples +called Aren, Theba, Argus (from whence was probably derived the Argo of +the Argonauts, and the sacred ship of Osiris), Cibotus, Toleus, and +Baris. + +The symbol by which the Mythologists represented the Ark was an immense +egg. This was supposed to have been produced by Ether and Chaos, at the +bidding of Time, the one ethereal being who created the universe. By Nox +(Night) the egg was hatched, which, being opened into two parts, from +the upper part was formed heaven, and the lower earth. + +In the sacred rites of Osiris, Isis, and the Dionysia of Bacchus, the +Ark or Ship was introduced. The Dove, by many nations, in their +celebrations, was looked upon as a special emblem of peace and +good-will. Theba, in Egypt, was originally one of the temples dedicated +to the Ark. Both priests and sooth-sayers were styled Ionah or Doves. To +Dodona, in Epirus, was brought this and the first Grecian oracle all the +rites and history of the Thebans. The priestesses of this temple were +known in the Latin as _Columbae_. It is from this word that we derive +the name Columbine, which means, in the Italian, "little dove." Homer +alludes to the priestesses as doves, and that they administered to Zeuth +(Noah). Nonnus speaks of Cadmus, and others of Orpheus, as introducing +into Greece the rites of Dionysus or Bacchus. + +The Ancients, mentions Kennedy in his work on "Mythology," have highly +reverenced Noah, and designated him as Noa, Noos, Nous, Nus, Nusas, +Nusus (in India), Thoth, Hermes, Mercury, Osiris, Prometheus, +Deucalion, Atlas, Deus, Zeus, and Dios. Dios was one of the most ancient +terms for Noah, and whence was derived Deus--Nusus compounded of Dios +and Nusos, which gives us Dionysus, the Bacchus of the Greeks, and the +chief god of the heathen world. Bacchus was, properly speaking, Cush +(the son of Ham, and grandson of Noah), though both Dionysus and Bacchus +are, by ancient writers, frequently confounded with one another. + +The resting of the Ark upon Mount Baris, Minyas, the Ararat of Moses in +Armenia, the dispersal of the flood, the multiplication of the families +of the earth, and the migration from the plains of Shinar of the +descendants of the sons of Chus or Cush (as it is sometimes written), +and called Chushites or Cushites, to different parts of the world, being +joined by other nations, particularly those of the descendants of Ham, +one of the sons of Noah. They were the first apostates from the truth, +but being great in worldly wisdom and knowledge they were thought to be, +and looked upon as a superior class of beings. Ham they looked upon as a +divinity, and under the name of Ammon they worshipped him as the Sun, +and Chus likewise as Apollo, a name which was also bestowed by the +Ancients upon Noah. The worship of the sun in all probability originated +the eastern position in our churches. + +Another of the ancient deities worshipped by the Ammonians was Meed, or +Meet, the Cybele of the Phrygians, the nurse of Dionysus, and the Soul +of the World. + +Nimrod, the "mighty hunter" (who possessed the regions of Babylonia and +Chaldee), and one of the sons of Cush, was the builder of that seminary +of idolatory the City and Tower of Bel, and erected in honour of the god +Bel, and another name for the sun. Upon the confusion of tongues when +hitherto "The whole earth was of one language, and of one speech," it +came to be known as Babylon, "The City of Confusion." Homer introduces +Orion (Nimrod) as a giant and a hunter in the shades below, and the +author of the "Pascal Chronicles" mentions that Nimrod taught the +Assyrians or Babylonians to worship fire. The priests of Ammon, named +Petor or Pator, used to dance round a large fire, which they affected in +their dancing to describe. Probably from this the Dervish dances all +over the East may be traced to this source. + +Kennedy observes, of the confusion of tongues at Babel, that it was only +a labial failure, so that the people could not articulate. It was not an +aberration in words or language, but a failure and incapacity in labial +utterance. Epiphanius says that Babel, or Babylon, was the first city +built after the flood. + +The Cushites were a large and numerous body, and after their dispersion +from Babylon they were scattered "Abroad upon the face of the earth." +They were the same people who imparted their rites and religious +services into Egypt, as far as the Indus and the Ganges, and still +further into Japan and China. From this event is to be discovered the +fable of the flight of the Grecian god Bacchus, the fabulous wanderings +of Osiris, and the same god under another name, of the Egyptians. +Wherever Dionysus, Osiris, or Bacchus went, the Ancients say that he +taught the cultivation of the soil, and the planting of the vine. +Dionysus, Bacchus, or Osiris, as I have shown in a preceding page, were +only other designations for Noah. + +Of the Hindu heathen deity, Vishnu, Father Boushet mentions an Indian +tradition, concerning a flood which covered the whole earth, when Vishnu +made a raft, and, being turned into a fish, steered it with his tail. +Vishnu, like Dagon, was represented under the figure of a man and fish. + +Strangely enough, the regions said to have been traversed by Dionysus, +Osiris, or Bacchus were, at different times, passed through by the +posterity of Ham, and in many of them they took up their residence. In +his journeyings the chief attendants of Osiris, or Bacchus, were Pan, +Anabis, Macedo, the Muses, the Satyrs, and Bacchic women were all in his +retinue. The people of India claim him as their own, and maintain that +he was born at Nusa in their country. Arrian speaks of the Nuseans as +being the attendants of Dionysus. In all traditions Dionysus appears as +the representative of some power of Nature. + +The first who reduced Mythology to a kind of system were, in all +probability, the Egyptians. Egypt was ever the land of graven images, +and under the veil of Allegory and Mythology the priests concealed +religion from the eyes of the vulgar. In the beginning, brute animals +and certain vegetables were represented as the visible symbols of the +deities to which they were consecrated. Hence Jupiter Ammon was +represented under the figure of a Ram; Apis under a Cow; Osiris of a +Bull; Mercury or Thol of an Ibis; Diana or Babastis of a Cat; and Pan of +a Goat. From these sources are derived the fabulous transformation of +the gods celebrated in Egyptian Mythology, and afterwards imported into +Greece and Italy to serve as the subjects of the Grecian and Roman +Pantomimes. + +Pantomime as we now know the term, means, not only the Art of acting in +dumb show, but also that of a spectacle or Christmas entertainment. (I +may add in parenthesis, that in the early part of the last century--the +nineteenth--the dictionaries only refer to Pantomime as meaning the +former of the above two definitions, and not the latter.) + +Pan, regarded as the symbol of the universe, was also the god of flocks, +pastures, and shepherds in classic Mythology, and the guardian of bees, +hunting and fishing in his Kingdom of Arcadia. His form, like the +Satyrs, both supposed to have been the offsprings of Mercury, was that +of a man combined with a goat, having horns and feet like the latter +animal. + +_Mimos_ (Gr.), as I have stated in the beginning, means an "imitator," +or a "mimic," and from which word we have the derivation of the words +"mimicry," "mimetic," and the like. + +Pan was the traditional inventor of the Pandean pipes, and also from +his name we derive many words that are in our language, such as "panic" +(Pan used to delight in suddenly surprising the shepherds whilst tending +their flocks), and the other attributes of this noun, including that +recently coined term of the Americans, "panicy." + +Pan is said to have been the son of Mercury, or even Mercury himself, +and others say that he was the son of Zeus. Mercury and Zeus, it will be +remembered in Mythology, were only names for Noah. Pan is unnoticed by +Homer. + +A heathen deity of Italy, Lupercus, the guardian of their flocks and +pastures, has also been identified with Pan, and in whose honour annual +rural festivals, known as Lupercalia, were observed. + +The Lupercalian festivals were held on the 15th of the Kalends of March. +The priests, Luperci, used to dance naked through the streets as part of +the ceremonies attached to the festival. + +Mention has been made by Dr. Clarke, in his "Travels," Vol. IV., that +Harlequin is the god Mercury, with his short sword _herpe_, or his rod, +the _caduceus_ (which has been likened to the sceptre of Judah), to +render himself invisible, and to transport himself from one end of the +earth to the other, and that the covering on his head, the winged cap, +was the _petasus_. Apropos of this, the following lines in the tenth +Ode, of the first book of Horace, will probably occur to the reader: + + "Mercury! Atlas' smooth-tongued boy, whose will + First trained to speed our wildest earliest race, + And gave their rough hewn forms with supple skill + The gymnast's grace. + + "'Tis thine the unbodied spirits of the blessed, + To guide to bliss, and with thy _golden rod_ + To rule the shades; above, below, caressed + By every god." + +Mercury, as we have seen, was among the Ancients, only another name for +Noah. "Indeed," says Dr. Clarke, "some of the representations of Mercury +upon ancient vases are actually taken from the scenic exhibitions of the +Grecian theatre; and that these exhibitions were also the prototypes +whereon D'Hancarville shows Mercury, Momus, and Psyche delineated as we +see Harlequin, Columbine, and Clown on our stages. The old man +(Pantaloon), is Charon (the ferryman of hell). The Clown is Momus, the +buffoon of heaven, the god of raillery and wit, and whose large gaping +mouth is in imitation of the ancient masks." + +Amongst the Aryans, Medians, Egyptians, Chaldeans, Babylonians, and +other nations (including our own, as did not Lilly predict the execution +of Charles I., the plague, the great fire of London, and other events) +was astrology practised. The Egyptians peopled the constellation of the +Zodiac (the first open book for mankind to read), with Genii, and one of +the twelve Zodiacal signs was Aries (the Ram). The ram is of the same +species as the goat, and the god Pan was the Goat god, as we know. The +astrologers, in their divinations and rulings of the planets placed the +various parts of the body under a planetary influence. The head and face +were assigned to the house of Aries, and therefore the face notably for +the Pantomimic Art was placed by the ancient astrologers under the +influence of this particular planet. + +The heathen worship of Pan was not only known in Arcadia, but also +throughout Greece, although it did not reach Athens until after +Marathon. + +Of Pan's death Plutarch tells the story that in the reign of Tiberius, +one Thamus, a pilot, visiting the islands of Paxae, was told of this +god's death. When he reached Palodes he told the news, whereupon loud +and great lamentations were heard, as of Nature herself expressing her +grief. The epoch of the story coincides with the enactment of that grim, +and the world's greatest tragedy on the hill of Golgotha, and the end, +and the beginning of a new world. Rabelais, Milton, Schiller, and also +Mrs. Browning, have allusions to this story of Plutarch's. + +The ambitious family of the Titans (the bones of the "giants on the +earth" before the Deluge, gave rise to the stories of the Titans found +in caves), and their scions and coadjutors Jupiter, Juno, Mars, Mercury, +Apollo, Diana, Bacchus, Minerva, or Pallas, Ceres, Proserpine, Pluto, +and Neptune furnish by far the greatest part of the Mythology of Greece. +Tradition says that they left Phoenicia about the time of Moses to +settle in Crete, and from thence they made their way into Greece, which +was supposed at that time to be inhabited by a race of savages. The arts +and inventions were communicated to the natives, and the blessings of +civilization in process of time inspired the inhabitants with +admiration. They, therefore, relinquished worshipping the luminary and +heavenly bodies, and transferred their devotion to their benefactors. +Then into existence sprang the most inconsistent and irreconcilable +fictions. The deified mortals, with their foibles and frailities, were +transmitted to posterity in the most glorious manner possible, and hence +accordingly, in both the Odyssey and the Iliad of Homer, we have a +strange and heterogeneous mixture of what is not only mighty in heroes, +but also that which is equally mean. + +In the Grecian Mythology the labours of Hercules, the expedition of +Osiris, the wanderings and transformation of Io, the fable of the +conflagration of Phaeton, the rage of Proserpine, the wanderings of +Ceres, the Eleusinian Mysteries, the Orgia, or sacred rites of Bacchus, +in fine, the ground work of Grecian Mythology is to be traced to the +East, from where also all our nursery tales, and also our popular +Pantomime subjects; (which is the subject of another chapter) perhaps, +with the exception of our own "Robinson Crusoe," originated. + +The nine Muses called Pierides in Grecian Mythology were the daughters +of Jupiter and Mnemosyne (Memory), supposed to preside over the liberal +Arts and the sciences. They were Calliope (Heroic Poetry), Clio Euterpe +(Music), Erato (Love Poetry), Melpomene (Tragedy), Polyhymnia (Muse of +Singing and Rhetoric), Terpsichore (Dancing), Thalia (Comedy), and +Urania (Astronomy). Mount Parnassus, Mount Helicon, and the fountains of +Castalia and Aganippe were the sacred places of the Muses. + +The Eleusinian Mysteries are of a period that may be likened to the 7th +century B.C., and at these Mysteries as many as 30,000 persons, in the +time of Herodotus, assembled to witness them. The attributes of these +Grecian Mysteries, like those of the Egyptians, consisted of +processions, sacrificial offerings, purifications, dances, and all that +the Mimetic and the other Arts could convey; add to this the various +coloured lights, and the fairy-like grandeur of the whole, we have +something that may be likened to the Transformation, and other +fairy-like scenes of English Pantomimes and Extravaganzas. + +At the Orgia, or sacred rites of Bacchus, the customary sacrifice to be +offered, because it fed on vines, was the goat. The vine, ivy, laurel, +asphodel, the dolphin, lynx, tiger, and ass were all sacred to Bacchus. +The acceptable sacrifice to Venus was a dove; Jupiter, a bull; an ox of +five years old, ram or boar pig to Neptune; and Diana, a stag. At the +inception of the Bacchanalian festivals in Greece, the tragic song of +the Goat, a sacred hymn was sung, and from which rude beginning sprang +the Tragedy and Comedy of Greece. The Greeks place every event as +happening in their country, and it is not surprising that they claim for +themselves the inception of Tragedy and Comedy, which they undoubtedly +were the originators of in Greece, but the religious festivals of +Dionysus, Osiris, and Bacchus, to which we are supposed to owe the +inception of Tragedy and Comedy, were known long before the Greeks knew +them. (Dionysus was the patron and protector of theatres.) "The purport +of the song was that Bacchus imparted his secret of the cultivation of +vines to a petty prince in Attica, named Icarius, who happened one day +to espy a goat brouzing upon his plantations, immediately seized, and +offered it up as a sacrifice to his divine benefactor; the peasants +assembled round their master, assisted in the ceremony, and expressed +their joy and gratitude in music, songs, dances, and Pantomime on the +occasion; the sacrifice grew into a festival, and the festival into an +annual solemnity, attended most probably every year with additional +circumstances, when the countrymen flocked together in crowds, and sang +in rustic strains the praises of their favourite deity." + +Amongst the reported followers of these Bacchanalian festivals were +those fabulous race of grotesque sylvan beings, previously referred to, +known as the Satyrs. They were of a sturdy frame, in features they had +broad snub noses, and appeared in rough skins of animals with large +pointed ears, heavy knots on their foreheads, and a small tail. The +elder Satyrs were known as Sileni. The younger were more pleasing and +not so grotesque or repulsive in appearance as the elder Satyrs. To the +Satyrs can be traced the variegated dress of the modern Harlequin, as in +ancient Greek history mention is made of the performers enacting Satyrs +being sometimes habited in a tiger's skin of various colours, which +encircled the performer's body tightly, and who carried a wooden sword, +wore a white hat, and a brown mask. According to Servius (as we have +seen) Pan had also a bright spotted dress "in likeness of the stars." + +From these rustic festivals originated the Satyr, or Satirical Drama, as +did its Italian prototype, the _Fabulae Atellanae_ or, _Laudi Osci_. +These rural sacrifices became, in process of time, a solemn fast, and +assumed all the pomp and splendour of a religious ceremony; poets were +employed by the magistrate to compose hymns, or songs, for the occasion; +such was the rudeness and simplicity of the age that their bards +contended for a prize, which, as Horace intimates, was scarce worth +contending for, being no more than a goat or skin of wine, which was +given to the happy poet who acquitted himself best in the task assigned +him. + +From such small beginnings Tragedy and Comedy took their rise; and like +(as the best writers on these subjects tell us) every other production +of human art, extremely contemptible; that wide and deep stream, which +flows with such strength and rapidity through cultivated Greece, took +its rise from a small and inconsiderable fountain, which hides itself in +the recesses of antiquity, and is almost buried in oblivion; the name +alone remains to give us some light into its original nature, and to +inform us, that Tragedy and Comedy, like every other species of poetry, +owe their birth to Religion. + +Appropriately does Horace observe:-- + + "Nor was the flute at first with silver bound, + Nor rivalled emulous the trumpet's sound; + Few were its notes, its forms were simply plain, + Yet not unuseful was its feeble strain, + To aid the chorus, and their songs to raise, + Filling the little theatre with ease, + To which a thin and pious audience came + Of frugal manners, and unsullied fame." + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +The origin of the Indian Drama--Aryan Mythology--Clown and +Columbine--Origin of the Chinese Drama--Inception of the Japanese +Drama--The Siamese Drama--Dramatic performances of the South Sea +Islanders, Peruvians, Aztecs, Zulus, and Fijis--The Egyptian Drama. + + +Of the Indian Drama we learn that the union of music, song, dance, and +Pantomime took place centuries ago B.C., at the festivals of the native +gods, to which was afterwards added dialogue, and long before the +advent, out of which it grew, of the native drama itself. + +The progenitors of the Indo-European race, the Aryans--in Sanscrit +meaning Agriculturists--who crossed the Indus from Amoo, where they +dwelt near the Oxus, some two thousand years before Christ, were the +original ancestors and people of India. + +The Aryan race (Hindus and Persians only speak of themselves as Aryans) +laid the foundation of the Grecian and Roman Mythology, the dark and +more sombre legends of the Scandinavian and the Teuton; and all derived +from the various names grouped round the Sun god, which in the lighter +themes the Aryans associated with the rising and the setting of the sun, +in all its heavenly glory, and with the sombre legends the coming of the +winter, and marking the difference between lightness and darkness. + +In India the origin of dramatic entertainments has been attributed to +the sage Bharata (meaning an actor), who received, it is said, a +communication from the god Brahma to introduce them, as the latter had +received his knowledge of them from the Vedas. Bharata was also said to +be the "Father of dramatic criticism." Pantomimic scenes derived from +the heathen Mythology of Vishnu--a collection of poems and hymns on the +Aryan religion--are even now in India occasionally enacted by the Jatras +of the Bengalis and the Rasas of the provinces in the west, and, just as +their forefathers did ages and ages ago. An episode from the history of +the god Vishnu, in relation to his marriage with Laxmi, was a favourite +subject for the early Indian Drama. Of Vedic Mythology Professor Max +Müller observes that in it "There are no genealogies, no settled +marriages between gods and goddesses. The father is sometimes the son, +the brother, the husband, and she who in one hymn is the mother, is in +another the wife. As the conceptions of the poet vary so varies the +nature of these gods." + +The Hindoo dramatic writer, Babhavñti--the Indian +Shakespeare--introduced with success in one of his dramas, like in our +"Hamlet," "a play within a play," and much in a similar way as our early +dramatists used in their plays, the "dumb shows." + +Between the native Tragedy and Comedy, as in China, there was no +definite distinction, and, although both contained some of the best and +noblest sentiments, yet the racial philosophy of caste enters greatly +into the construction of each. + +In the Hindoo Mythology we have prototypes of the gods of the Egyptian, +Grecian, and Roman Mythologies. The god Vishnu, who, in Aryan Mythology, +is the wind and "Traverses the heavens in three strides," is the +greatest of all heathen deities. His dwelling-place was "The aerial +mountains, where the many horned and swiftly moving cattle abide." In +Grecian Mythology Hermes or Mercury took on some of the characteristics +of Vishnu. + +In the Eleusinian Mysteries of the Greeks, the signs and symbols that +marked the worship of Vishnu by the Aryans, are apparent; and in the +British Museum the scenes of the vases of the Hamilton collection agree +closely with the Sacti rites of Hindustan. + +After having briefly noticed and introduced Vishnu or Hermes to the +notice of the reader, we will now take another of the Aryan +deities--See-Va, the Wine god. This myth was the Dionysus, or Bacchus, +of the Greeks, and the expedition of this "immortal" through the world +to instruct mankind in agriculture, is likened as well as the god +himself by the Egyptians to their deity Osiris--the god of the Nile. The +worship of See-Va, Bacchus, or Osiris extended over Asia Minor, Greece, +and Italy. + +The visit and advent of the Wine or Pleasure god Bacchus to India, with +his accompanying train of sylvan and rural deities, and nymphs, is +supposed to have conquered the Hindoos, and taught them civilization, +besides the cultivation of the vine. Strange to relate that when +Alexander and his army reached the present Cabul they found ivy and +wild vines (both sacred to Bacchus) growing in abundance, and they were +met by processions dressed in parti-coloured dresses, playing on drums +like the Bacchic festivals of Greece and Lower Asia of that time. + +Female parts were acted by women, but it was not a general custom; and +the Clown of the piece was always a Brahma, or if not, at any rate a +pupil of Brahma. + +Also among the minor characters was the _Vita_, "the accomplished +companion," a part sometimes played by men and sometimes by women. +Probably in this in the latter instance we have the origin of the +Columbine and Soubrette part in after years of the European stage as the +term "accomplished companion," would equally apply to both. It is only a +surmise, yet history as we know is continually repeating itself--even in +Soubrette parts, and in more senses than one. + +Of scenic displays that it possessed there was little or none, though +the exits and entrances to the stage had probably some device to denote +them. What they possessed in the way of properties it is more than +useless to speculate, as, whatever could be said, could only be +conjectural. In dressing their parts propriety in costume, and in +adhering to the habits of the Indian Drama, seems to have been observed +with some show of consistency. + +The Chinese Drama also arose from the Hindoo developing itself as time +rolled on from Pantomimes and ballets. A very ancient Pantomime is said +to have been symbolical of the conquest of China by Wou Wang. Others +were on subjects of the Harvest, War, and Peace; whilst many were only +of an obscure nature. With the rise and progress of the native drama +about five hundred years before Christ Pantomimes fell into disrepute. + +It is interesting to note that one of the penal codes of the Celestial +Empire was, that those who wrote plays with vicious, or immoral +tendencies, should stay in "purgatory" as long as their plays were +performed. This precept was all right in theory, but in practice it was +more honoured in the breach than in the observance, as amongst the whole +of the Celestial dramatic writers only one in about ten thousand seems +to have conformed to this rule. + +The dramatic writers of China duly observed the question of rank and +priority, and just as much as the native Hindoo writers observed that of +the various phases of caste. + +Plays were divided into acts and scenes, and occasionally were prefixed +by a prologue. Performances took sometimes a single day, and favourite +plays oftentimes longer. + +The Japanese type of drama seems to have originally evolved itself from +that of the Chinese, though its singing, dancing, historical, and +Pantomimical displays are, of course, purely native. + +A native of Japan, though of Chinese descent, Hadu Kawatsa, at the +close of the 6th century (A.D.) gave dramatic entertainments in Japan. +The Japanese claim for the Pantomimical dance Sambâso as a preventative +of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions; and this dance, it is said, that +within recent years, is used as a prelude to dramatic entertainments. + +Isono Zenji is thought to have been the originator of the Japanese +Drama, but her performances were more those of the _Mima_--dancing and +posturing. + +In the seventeenth century Saruwaka Kanzaburô introduced the drama +proper into Japan by the erection, in 1624, of a theatre, and nearly +fifty years later than the first permanent theatre that was erected +(1576) in England. + +Popular historical subjects were chosen for the plays, though the names +of the characters were transformed. Fancy plays, operas, ballets, which +in the latter women appeared, became also very popular. + +Within sight of the closing years of the last century (the nineteenth), +Japanese actors were more or less under a ban when the same was happily +removed. + +Siam was content with the Indian style of dramatic and Pantomimic +entertainments. Theatrical performances were also slightly known--though +no regular type of drama is known--amongst the South Sea Islanders, the +Peruvians, the Aztecs, the Zulus, and the Fijis, the two last named +having a similar version of our popular Pantomime subject, "Jack and the +Beanstalk." + +The Egyptians possessed no regular type of drama, yet in both the Books +of Job and Ruth the dramatic element is strongly marked. At the rustic +festivals of the native gods, as in Greece and Italy, there was, +however, the dramatic elements of the union of song, dance, and +Pantomime, and we are told that the priests not only studied music, but +also taught the art to others. Again in the rites of the dead the +Mysteries of the sepulture over the transmigration of souls, the +dramatic element entered largely into these mystic rites and +celebrations. Amongst the Pagan Greeks, as I have previously stated, and +the Romans, we learn of similar celebrations, carried out with great +pomp and ceremony, such as the apotheosis of the soul departing from its +earthly to its heavenly abode. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +"Dancing," _i.e._ Pantomime--Grecian Dancing and Pantomimic +Scenes--Aristotle--Homer--Dances common to both Greeks and Romans. + + +In tracing the History of Pantomime it becomes a matter of considerable +difficulty, and, as Baron, in his _Lettres sur la Danse_, observes that +when the word Dancing occurs in an old author, that it should always be +translated by "gesticulation," "declamation," or "Pantomime." When we +read that an actress "danced" her part well in the tragedy of Medea, +that a carver cut up food dancing, that Heligobalus and Caligula +"danced" a discourse for an audience of state, we are to understand that +they--actress, carver, and emperor--declaimed, gesticulated, made +themselves understood in a language without words. Acting is also +oftentimes confounded with dancing, and it is, therefore, manifestly +impossible to distinguish now one from the other. + +"The Greeks," mentions Butteux, applied the term "Dancing" to all +measured movements, even to military marching. They danced anywhere and +everywhere; and we are told that both their limbs and bodies spoke. + +Cybele was supposed by the Greeks to have taught dancing on Mount Ida to +the Corybantes, and they also say that it was in their country that +Apollo revealed the Terpsichorean Art, and that of Music and Poetry. + +After all this, it is not very surprising that they make claim for the +innovation of Pantomime. This, of course, we know is different, as we +have seen that, from time immemorial Pantomimic scenes and dances have +been represented. Cassiodorus attributes its institution to Philistion; +Athenaens assigns it to Rhodamanthus, or to Palamedes. + +With the Greeks, Pantomimes became very popular, and they were +distinguished by various names. Before they began their Tragedies the +Greeks used to give a Pantomimic display. The principal Pantomimists +were known as _Ethologues_, meaning painters of manners. One of the most +celebrated of these Mimes was Sophron of Syracuse. In depicting the +conduct of man so faithfully, the Pantomimes of the Greek Mimes served +to teach and inculcate useful moral lessons. The moral philosophy of the +Mime, Sophron, was so pure that Plato kept a book of his poems under his +pillow when on his death-bed. Besides these Moralities, as they were +termed, there were, in addition, light pieces of a farcical kind, in the +portrayal of which the Mimes were equally as successful as in the other +species. + +The dancing of the Greeks was an actual language, in which all +sentiments and passages were interpreted. By the aid of the +Terpsichorean Art, Professor Desrat says, "That the Greeks, a nation of +heroes, trained themselves in the art of hand-to-hand combat." + +"Dancing," says another writer, "and imitative acting in the lower +stages of civilization are identical, and in the sacred dances of +ancient Greece we may trace the whole Dramatic Art of the modern world. +The Spartans practised dancing as a gymnastic exercise, and made it +compulsory upon all children from the age of five." + +And we are also told that religious processions went with song and dance +(and, of course, Pantomime), to the Egyptian temples; the Cretan chorus +sang hymns to the Greek gods; David danced in procession before the Ark +of the Covenant; and that we are to "Praise the Lord with the sound of +the trumpet, praise Him with the psaltery and the harp; praise Him with +the timbrel and the _dance_." + +Aristotle speaks of Mimetic dances three hundred years before the +Augustan era. He also says that dancers want neither poetry or music, as +by the assistance of measure and cadence only they can imitate human +manners, actions, and passions. + +Again, "Homer, describing the employment of the Delian priestesses, or +Nuns, of the order of St. Apollo of Delos, that they were great adepts +in the Art of Mimicry, and that part of the entertainment which they +afforded to the numerous people of different nations; who formed their +congregations was, as the poet expresses it, from their _being skilled +to imitate the voices and the pulsation or measure of all nations, and +so exactly was their song adapted that every man would think he himself +was singing_." + +Homer also mentions a dance invented for Ariadne. In the midst of the +dancers, there were two dancers who sang the adventures of Daedalus, +supplementing their singing by gestures, and explaining in Pantomime the +subject of the whole performance. + +The Pyrrhic dance of the Greeks was a sort of military Pantomime. The +Greeks had several kinds of Pyrrhic dances, the names of which varied +with the character of the performance. + + The Hyplomachia imitated a fight with shields. + The Skiamachia was a battle with shadows, + The Monomachia was an imitation of single combat. + +Some of the Mimetic dances common to both Greeks and Romans were The +Loves of Adonis and Venus, the Exploits of Ajax, the Adventures of +Apollo, the Rape of Ganymede, the Loves of Jupiter and Danae, the Birth +of Jupiter, Hector, the Rape of Europa, the Labours of Hercules, +Hercules Mad, the Graces, Saturn devouring his Children, the Cybele in +honour of Cybele, the Cyclops, the Sorrows of Niobe, the Tragic End of +Semele, the Wars of the Titans, the Judgment of Paris, Daphne pursued by +Apollo, the Bucolic Dance, and the Dance of Flowers. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +Thespis--The Progress of Tragedy and Comedy--Aeschylus--The +Epopée--Homer--Sophocles--Euripides--Grecian Mimes--The First Athenian +Theatre--Scenery and Effects. + + +When Thespis first pointed out the tragic path, and when (as Horace +tells us in his Odes) that "The inventor of the Art carried his vagrant +players on a cart," by his introduction of a new personage, who relieved +the chorus, or troop of singers, by reciting some part of a well-known +history, or fable, which gave time for the chorus to rest. All that the +actors repeated between the songs of the chorus was called an episode, +or additional part, consisting often of different adventures, which had +no connexion with each other. Thus Pantomime, the song, and the dance, +which were at first the only performances, became gradually and +insensibly a necessary and ornamental part of the drama. + +From this time, the actor, or reciter, was more attended to than the +chorus; however, his part was executed, and it had the powerful charms +of novelty to recommend it, and quickly obscured the lustre of the +chorus, whose songs were now of a different nature, insomuch that the +original subject of them, the praise of Bacchus, was by degrees either +slightly mentioned, or totally passed over and forgotten; the priests, +who we may suppose for a long time presided over the whole, were alarmed +at so open a contempt of the deity, and unanimously exclaimed, that this +was nothing to Bacchus; the contempt grew into a kind of proverbial +saying, and as such is handed down to us. + +From the origin of Tragedy and Comedy, and to the days of Thespis, and +from this time to that of Aeschylus, all is doubt, conjecture, and +obscurity; neither Aristotle, nor any other ancient writer, gives us the +least insight into the state and progress of the Greek Drama; the names +of a few, and but a few, tragedians, during this dark period, are handed +down to us; such were Epigenes, the Sicyonion, and Pratinas, who wrote +fifty-two plays, thirty-two of which are said to be satirical. After +Thespis, came his scholar Phrynicus, who wrote nine tragedies; for one +of which, we are told, he was fined fifty drachmas, because he had made +it (an odd reason) too deep, and too affecting; there was another, also +named Phrynicus, author of two tragedies: to these must be added +Alcaeus, Phormus, and Choeritas, together with Cephisodorus, an +Athenian, who wrote the "Amazon," and Apollophanes, supposed to have +been the author of a tragedy named "Daulis," though Suidas is of another +opinion. Tragedy had, during the lives of these writers, probably made +but a slow progress, and received but very little culture and +improvement; when at length the great Aeschylus arose, who, from this +rude and undigested chaos, created as it were a new world in the system +of letters. + +Poets, and perhaps epic poets, there might have been before Homer (the +latter, who, in all probability, lived within fifty years of the Fall of +Troy--1250 B.C.). Dramatic writers there certainly were before Aeschylus +the former notwithstanding, we may, with the utmost propriety, style the +inventor and father of heroic poetry, and the latter of the ancient +drama, which, before his time, does not appear to have had any +particular form but that of Pantomime, song, and the union of song and +dance. _Aeschylus first introduced dialogue_, that most essential part +of tragedy, and by the addition of the second personage, threw the whole +fable into action, and restored the chorus to its ancient dignity. + +Aeschylus having, like a tender parent, endowed his darling child with +every mental accomplishment, seemed resolved that no external ornaments +should be wanting to render her universally amiable; he clothed her, +therefore, in the most splendid habit, and bestowed upon her everything +that Art could produce, to heighten and improve her charms. Aeschylus, +who being himself author, actor, and manager, took upon him the whole +conduct of the drama, and did not neglect any part of it; he improved +the scenery and decorations, brought his actors into a well constructed +theatre, raised his heroes on the _cothurnus_, or buskin, invented the +masks, and introduced splendid habits with long trains, that gave an air +of majesty and dignity to the performers. + +From the time when Tragedy began to assume a regular form, we find her +closely following the steps of epic poetry; all the parts of _epopée_, +or heroic poem, may be traced in tragedy, though, as Aristotle observes, +all the parts of tragedy are not to be found in the _epopée_; whence the +partisans of the stage with some reason conclude, that perfection in the +former is more difficult to be attained than in the latter. Without +entering into a dispute, we may venture, however, to say that from Homer +the tragedians drew the plan, construction, and conduct of their fables, +and not unfrequently, the fable itself; to him they applied for +propriety of manners, character, sentiment, and diction. + +From this era then, we are to consider Tragedy as an elegant and noble +structure, built according to the rules of art, symmetry, and +proportion; whose every part was in itself fair, firm, and compact--and +at the same time contributed to the beauty, utility, and duration of the +whole edifice. + +Sophocles and Euripides carefully studied the plan laid down by +Aeschylus, and by their superior genius and judgment, improved it in a +short time to its highest state of perfection, from which it gradually +declined to the rise of the Roman Drama. + +Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides were the three great tragic poets; +and from the works of these three illustrious writers, and from them +alone, we must draw all our knowledge of the ancient Greek Tragedy. + +Comedy, like Tragedy, owes its origin to the union of music, song, +dance, and Pantomime; Tragedy to the dithyrambick, and Comedy to the +phallica; and each of them (emulating Pantomime), began to form +themselves into dramatic imitations; each studied to adopt a measure +suited to their purpose:--Tragedy, the more lofty, chose the tetrameter; +and comedy, which aimed at familiarity, the iambic. But, as the style of +tragedy improved, Nature herself, says Aristotle, directed the writers +to abandon the capering tetrameter, and to embrace that measure which +was most accommodated to the purposes of dialogue; whence the iambic +became the common measure of both Tragedy and Comedy. + +Sophocles brought on a third actor, which number was not exceeded in the +Greek tragedies during the same scene. Horace alludes to this, "_nec +quarta loqui persona laboret_," (Let not a fourth person strive to +speak): but it was not observed in comedy. Players of second parts were +obliged to speak so low as not to drown the voice of the chief actor. +Tyrants were always played by subalterns. The women were only dancers +(and Pantomimists). Female parts were performed by eunuchs. + +On the Grecian stage, those performers who devoted themselves entirely +to the Art of Miming originally came from Sicily and southern Italy, +though the exact period is difficult to determine with any degree of +certainty. + +The figures of tragic or comic actors were known by the long and strait +sleeves which they wore. The servants in comedy, below the dress with +strait sleeves, had a short cassock with half-sleeves. That the +characters might be distinguished (a difficulty in this respect arising +from the size of the theatres) parasites carried a short truncheon; the +rural deities, shepherds, and peasants, the crook; heralds and +ambassadors, the _caduceus_; kings, a long, straight sceptre; heroes, a +club, etc. The tunic of tragic actors descended to the heels, and was +called _palla_. They generally carried a long staff or an erect sceptre. +They who represented old men, leaned upon a long and crooked staff. + +The first Greek theatre at Athens (says Fosbroke, in his "Antiquities,") +was a temporary structure of boards, removed after the performances were +closed. This fashion continued till the erection of the theatre of +Bacchus, at Athens, which served as a model for the others. The Greek +theatre was no more than a concave sweep, scooped out of the hollow side +of a hill, generally facing the sea. The sweep was filled with seats, +rising above each other, and ascended by staircases, placed like the +_radii_ of a circle. This semi-circular form was adopted not merely for +convenience of vision, but for an aid to the sound. This range for +spectators was called the _coilon_ or hollow. The area below was the +_conistra_, or pit. There was no superstructure for a gallery, but +around the rim of the building were porticos, by which the spectators +entered, and whither they could retire, if it rained. The portico just +about the highest corridor, or lobby, was denominated the _cercys_, and +used by the women. Where is now the orchestra, was a platform, called +by that name; and here, among the Greeks, were stationed the musicians; +chorus and Mimes; among the Romans, the Emperor, Senate, and other +persons of quality. Seven feet above the orchestra, and eleven above the +_conistra_, or pit, was the front stage, or proscenium, upon which stood +an altar to Apollo. Here the principal actors performed, and the site of +the altar was devoted to the dances (of the Mimes) and songs of the +chorus. The part called the _scena_ was in line with the ornamental +columns, upon the sides of the stage. + +The ancient scenery at first consisted of mere boughs, but afterwards of +tapestry, not painted canvas. The Greek stage consisted of three parts, +the _scena_, across the theatre, upon the line of the curtain in our +theatres; the proscenium, where the actors performed; and the +post-scenium, the part behind the house, before-mentioned. To form parts +of the scenes there were prisms of framework, turning upon pivots, upon +each face of which was strained a distinct picture, one for tragedy, +consisting of large buildings, with columns, statues, and other +corresponding ornaments; a second face, with houses, windows, and +balconies, for comedy; a third applied to farce, with cottages, +grottoes, and rural scenes. There were the _scenae versatiles_ of +Servius. Besides these, there were _scenae ductiles_, which drew +backwards and forwards, and opened a view of the house, which was built +upon the stage, and contained apartments for machinery, or retirement +for the actors. As to the patterns of the scenes, in comedy, the most +considerable building was in the centre; that on the right side was a +little less elevated, and that on the left generally represented an inn. +In the satirical pieces they had always a cave in the middle, a wretched +cabin on the right, and on the left an old ruined temple, or some +landscape. In these representations perspective was observed for +Vitruvius remarks (C. 8) that the rules of it were invented and +practised from the time of Aeschylus, by a painter named Agararchus, who +has even left a treatise upon it. After the downfall of the Roman +Empire, these decorations of the stage were neglected, till Peruzzi, a +Siennese, who died in 1536, revived them. + +There were three entries in front, and two on the sides; the middle +entry (termed the Royal door) was always that of the principal actor; +thus, in tragedy, it was commonly the gate of a palace. Those on the +right and left were destined to the second-part players, and the two +others, on the sides, one to people from the country, the other to those +from the harbour, or any public place. + +Pollux informs us, that there were trap-doors for ghosts, furies, and +the infernal deities. Some under the doors, on one side, introduced the +rural deities, and on the other the marine. The ascents or descents were +managed by cords, wheels, and counter-weights. Of these machines none +were more common than those which descended from heaven in the end of +the play, in which the gods came to extricate the poet in the +_denouement_. The kinds were chiefly three; some conveyed the performer +across the theatre in the air; by others, the gods descended on the +stage; and a third contrivance, elevated, or supported in the air, +persons who seemed to fly, from which accidents often happened. (It is +from this that the well-known phrase "_Deus ex machina_" has its +origin.) As the ancient theatres were larger than ours, and unroofed, +there was no wheel-work aloft, but the performer was elevated by a sort +of crane, of which the beam was above the stage; and turning upon +itself, whilst the counter-weight made the actor descend or ascend, +caused him to describe curves, jointly composed of the circular motion +of the crane, and the vertical ascent. The _anapesmata_ were cords for +the sudden appearance of furies, when fastened to the lowest steps; and +to the ascension of rivers, when attached to the stage. The +_ceraunoscopium_ was a kind of moveable tower, whence Jupiter darted +lightning, supposed to be the Greek fire, as in Ajax Oielus. The machine +for thunder (_bronton_) was a brazen vase, concealed under the stage, in +which they rolled stones. Festus calls it the Claudian thunder, from +Claudius Pulcher, the inventor. The most dreadful machines were, +however, the _pegmata_ (a general term also for all the machines), which +first consisted of scaffolds in stories, &c. These first exhibited +criminals fighting at the top, and then, dropping to pieces, +precipitated them to the lower story, to be torn to pieces by wild +beasts. Sometimes they were for vomiting flames, &c. The _theologium_ +was a place more elevated than the stage, where the gods stood and +spoke, and the machines which held them rested. + +The seats of the spectators were divided into stories, each containing +seven rows of seats, with two passages (_praecinctiones_) around them +above and below. Small staircases divided the seats into sections, +called _cunei_, and ended in a gate at the top, which communicated with +passages (the _vomitoriae_) for admission. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +Roman Theatres--Description--"Deadheads"--Pantomime in Italy--Livius +Andronicus--_Fabulae Atellanae_--Extemporal Comedy--Origin of the +Masque, Opera, and Vaudeville--Origin of the term +Histrionic--Etruscans--Popularity of Pantomime in Italy--Pantomimists +banished by Trajan--Nero as a Mime--Pylades and Bathyllus--Subjects +chosen for the Roman Pantomimes--The Ballet--The _Mimi_ and +_Pantomimi_--_Archimimus_--Vespasian--Harlequin--"Mr. Punch"--Zany, how +the word originated--Ancient Masks--Lucian, Cassiodorus, and Demetrius +in praise of Pantomime--A celebrated _Mima_--Pantomimes denounced by +early writers--The purity of the English stage contrasted with that of +the Grecian and Roman--Female parts on the Grecian and Roman stages--The +principal Roman _Mimas_--The origin of the Clown of the early English +Drama. + + +The Roman theatres (continues Fosbroke) were of a similar D form. Two +lofty arched doorways entered into the pit. In front of the stage, which +was very shallow, was a pew-like orchestra. The proscenium was very +narrow, and instead of a drop scene was the _elisium_, a house, narrow, +with a kind of bow window front in the centre, and a door on each side: +for Pollux says that a house with two stories formed part of the stage, +whence old women and panders used to look down and peep about them. +Within the house were apartments. Around the back of the stage was a +_porticus_. At Herculaneum, on a balustrade which divided the orchestra +from the stage, was found a row of statues, and on each side of the +_pulpitum_, an equestrian figure. Below the theatre (great and small) +was a large square constructed, says Vitruvius, for the reception of the +audience in bad weather. It consisted of Doric columns, around an open +area, forming an ample portico for this purpose, whilst under it were +arranged _cellae_, or apartments, amongst which were a soap manufactory, +oil mill, corn mill, and prison. An inner _logia_ was connected with a +suite of apartments. There was also an _exedra_, or recess. + +Among the Romans, theatrical approbation was signified by an artificial +musical kind of noise, made by the audience to express satisfaction. +There were three species of applause denominated from the different +noises made in them, viz.: _Bombus_, _Imbrius_, and _Testae_. + +First, a confused din, made either by the hands or mouth. The second and +third, by beating on a sort of sounding vessel placed in the theatres +for that purpose. Persons were instructed to give applause with +skill--and there were even masters who professed to teach the art. The +proficients in this way let themselves out for hire to the poets, +actors, &c., and were so disposed as to support a loud applause. These +they called _Laudicena_. At the end of the play, a loud peal of applause +was expected, and even asked of the audience either by the chorus or by +the person who spoke last. The formula was "_Spectatore Claudite_," or +"_Valete et Plaudite_." The applauders were divided into _Chori_, and +disposed in theatres opposite to each other, like the choristers in +cathedrals, so that there was a kind of concert of applause. The free +admission tickets were small ivory death's heads, and specimens of these +are to be seen in the Museum of Naples. From this custom, it is stated, +that we derive our word "Deadhead," as denoting one who has a free +entrance to places of amusement. + +With the dawn of the Roman Empire, Pantomime, in Italy, is first +authentically mentioned. The Emperor Augustus always displayed great +favour to the Art, and even by some writers he has been credited with +being the originator of Pantomime. This, of course, as we have seen, is +impossible, and to use a familiar and trite saying, the Pantomimic Art +is "as old as the hills" themselves. Again, Bathyllus and Pylades (both +freed slaves, the former born in Cilicia, and the latter came from +Alexandria), and Hylas, the principal exponents of Pantomime during the +reign of Augustus, have also been credited with the honour of +originating Pantomime. + +The early Roman entertainments only consisted of the military and sacred +dances, and the scenes in the circus. With the advent of the arts of +Greece the austerity hitherto practised by the Romans, which had arisen, +says Duray, "Much more from poverty than conviction," for "Two or three +generations had sufficed to change a city which had only known meagre +festivities and rustic delights into the home of revelry and pleasure." + +With the Romans, in their Pantomimic entertainments, the whole gamut of +the emotions were gone through. + +When the Greek drama was brought into Rome by Livius Andronicus, the +_Fabulae Atellanae_, or _Laudi Osci_--derived from the town of Atella, +in Campania, between Capua and Naples--was still employed to furnish the +Interludes, and just in a similar way as the _Satyra_ Extemporal +Interludes supplied the Grecian stage. None of these Atellan Farces +have been committed to us, but Cicero, in a letter to his friend +Papyrius Paetus, speaks of them as the "More delicate burlesque of the +old Atellan Farces." From them also, we derive the Extemporal Comedy, or +_Comedia del' Arte_ of Italy (afterwards to be noted), with its +characters, Harlequin, Clown, Pierrot, and the like, associated with +English and Italian Pantomime, and the progenitor also of all those +light forms of entertainment known as the Masque, the Opera, and the +Vaudeville. On English dramatic literature the Italian Extemporal +Comedies and their Pantomimical characters have also had a considerable +amount of influence. + +Livy mentions that actors were sent for (_circa_ 364 B.C.) from Etruria, +who, without verses or any action expressive of verses, danced not +ungracefully, after the Tuscan manner to the flute. In process of time +the Roman youth began to imitate these dancers intermixing raillery with +unpolished verses, their gestures corresponding with the sense of the +words. Thus were these plays received at Rome, and being improved and +refined by frequent performance the Roman actors acquired the name of +_Histriones_, from the Etruscan _Hister_, meaning a dancer or a stage +player. (From this we obtain our words histrion and histrionic). But +their dialogue did not consist of unpremeditated and coarse jests in +such rude verses as were used by the _Fescennini_, but of satires, +accompanied with music set to the flute, recited with suitable gestures. +After satires, which had afforded the people subject of coarse mirth +and laughter, were, by this regulation, reduced to form and acting, by +degrees became an art, the Roman youth left it to players by profession, +and began, as formerly, to act farces at the end of their regular +pieces. These dramas were called _Exodia_, and were generally woven with +the _Atellanae_ Comedies. These were borrowed from the Osci, and were +always acted by the Roman youth. Tacitus speaks of _Atellanae_ Comedies +written in the spirit and language of the Osci having been acted in his +time. + +It is thought that the Etruscans possessed histories, poems, and dramas, +and, if these, then certainly they knew the Pantomimic Art, out of +which, in all probability, their dramatic entertainments grew. To the +Etruscans the Romans owe their early civilization. + +The Etruscan era is supposed to have commenced about 1044 B.C., and we +are told that the Etruscans shared with the Greeks, and the Phoenicians, +the maritime supremacy of the Mediterranean. In the sepulchral chambers +of the Necropolis of Tarquinii, which extends for many miles, there are +several scenes painted in the archaic style by the Etruscans, +representing the Chase, the Circus, and Dancing Girls. + +Soon after its innovation among the Romans, Pantomime spread all over +Italy and the provinces. So attractive did it become in Rome, and so +popular, that Tiberius issued a decree forbidding the knights and nobles +to frequent their houses of entertainment, or to be seen walking in the +streets with them. Trajan also oppressed and banished the Pantomimists. +Under Caligula, however, they were received with great favour, and +Aurelius made them priests of Apollo. Nero, who carried everything to +the extremity of foolishness, was not content in patronising the +Pantomimes, but must needs assist, and appear himself, as a _Mimi_. Here +again, in Nero, another claimant as the author of Pantomime has been put +forward. + +"So great (observes Gaston Vuillier, in his 'History of Dancing,') was +the admiration for Pylades and Bathyllus that the theatrical supporters +clothed themselves in different liveries, and broils in the public +streets were of frequent occurrence." "The rivalries of Pylades and +Bathyllus," says De Laulnaye, "occupied the Romans as much as the +gravest affairs of state. Every citizen was a Bathyllian or a Pyladian." +Augustus reproved Pylades on one occasion for his quarrels with +Bathyllus. The Mime retorted, "It is well for you that the people are +engrossed by our disputes; their attention is thus diverted from your +actions." A bold retort, but it shows how important these Mimes were. +The banishment of Pylades brought about an insurrection, and the Emperor +had to recall him. + +Cassius attributes the disgrace of Pylades to the intrigues of +Bathyllus, Suetonius to his effrontery; for on one occasion, when acting +Hercules, annoyed by the criticism of the spectators, he tore off his +mask, and shouted to them: "Fools, I am acting a madman." They thought +his gestures too extravagant. Another time he shot off arrows amongst +the spectators. Amongst other privileges extended by the Emperor +Augustus to the _Mimis_ was being exempt from magisterial control and +immunity from military serving. + +The subjects chosen for the Roman Pantomimes, like those of the Grecian +mysteries, from which they doubtless were borrowed, were of a +Mythological description, and they were of such a nature that the +audience could follow them easily, even if they were not already +previously acquainted with them. Between the Roman Pantomime, and the +Western _ballet d'action_, there is hardly any difference. The Romans +always liked to see their stages well peopled; and to help in the action +of their Pantomimes, a chorus accompanied with music, formed part of the +entertainment. The _Mimis and Mimas_, like the ballet of the present +day, provided the dances in addition to their Pantomimic Art of posing +and posturing. + +Mr. Isaac Disraeli, in his work, "Curiosities of Literature," edited by +the late Earl of Beaconsfield, thus distinguishes between the _Mimi_ and +the _Pantomimi_ of the Ancients. The _Mimi_ were an impudent race of +buffoons who excelled in mimicry, and like our domestic fools, were +admitted into convivial parties to entertain the guests. Their powers +enabled them to perform a more extraordinary office; for they appear to +have been introduced into funerals to mimic the person, and even the +language of the deceased. Suetonius describes an _archimimus_ +accompanying the funeral of Vespasian. This _archimimus_ performed his +part admirably, not only representing the person, but imitating, +according to custom, _ut est mos_, the manners and language of the +living Emperor. He contrived a happy stroke at the prevailing foible of +Vespasian, when he enquired the cost of all this funeral pomp--"Ten +million of sesterces!" On this he observed that if they would give him +but a hundred thousand they might throw his body into the Tiber. + +The _Pantomimi_ were quite of a different class. They were tragic +actors, and usually mute; they combined the arts of gesture, music, and +dances of the most impressive character. Their silent language has often +drawn tears by the pathetic emotions they excited; "Their very nod +speaks, their hands talk, and their fingers have a voice," says one of +their admirers. + +These Pantomimists seem to have been held in great honour. The tragic +and the comic masks were among the ornaments of the sepulchral monuments +of an _Archmime_ and a _Pantomimi_. Montfaucon conjectures that they +formed a select fraternity. + +The parti-coloured hero (Harlequin), with every part of his dress, has +been drawn out of the greatest wardrobe of antiquity; he was a Roman +Mime. Harlequin is described with his shaven head (_rasis capitibus_); +his sooty face (_fuligine faciem abducti_); his flat unshod feet, +(_planipedes_), and his patched coat of many colours, (_Mimi +centunculo_). Even _Pulcinello_, whom we familiarly call "Punch," may +receive, like other personages of no great importance, all his dignity +from antiquity; one of his Roman ancestors having appeared to an +antiquary's visionary eye in a bronze statue; more than one erudite +dissertation authenticates the family likeness; the nose long, prominent +and hooked; the staring goggle eyes; the hump at his back, and at his +breast; in a word, all the character which so strongly marks the Punch +race, as distinctly as whole dynasties have been featured by the +Austrian lip and the Bourbon nose. + +The genealogy of the whole family is confirmed by the general term which +includes them all: in English, Zany; in Italian, _Zanni_; in the Latin, +_Sannio_; and a passage in "Cicero _De Oratore_," paints Harlequin and +his brother gesticulators after the life; the perpetual trembling motion +of their limbs, their ludicrous and flexible gestures, and all the +mimicry of their faces: "_Quid enim potest tam ridiculum quam Sannio +esse? Qui ore vultu, imitandis motibus, voce, denique corpore ridetur +ipso._" Lib II., Sect. 51. ("For what has more of the ludicrous than +Sannio? Who, with his mouth, his face, imitating every motion with his +voice, and, indeed, with all his body, provokes laughter.") + +The Latin Sannio was changed by the Italians into (as Ainsworth +explains) Zanni, as, in words like Smyrna and Sambuco, they change the +s into z, which gives Zmyrna and Zambuco, and hence we derive our word +Zany. The word is, however, originally obtained from the Greek _Sannos_ +(observes Quadrio), from whence the Latins derived their _Sannio_. + +From the size of the ancient theatres it was not possible to notice the +visage of the actors, and this was one, but not the only reason, why +masks were adopted. The Ancients did not like a character to be +attempted, to which a proper appropriation was not annexed, and these +masks were so contrived, that the profile on one side exhibited chagrin, +and on the other serenity, or whatever other passion was most required. +The actor thus, according to the part he was playing, presented the side +of the mask best suited to the passage which he was reciting. The large +mouths of these masks were presumed to have contained some bronze +instrument suited to assist the voice, upon the principle of the +speaking trumpet; for the mask was wider, and the recitation in tragedy +much louder than in comedy, so that the voice might be heard all over +the theatre. The masks of the dancers were of regular features. + +By some it has been contended that these masks covered both the head and +the shoulders under the supposed idea that when the head was thus +enlarged it would throw the whole body into symmetry when raised upon +stilts. It has, also, been argued that the masks for some of the +characters were made of gold-beaters skin, or some transparent substance +just covering the face so that the facial muscles could be seen through +it, and the eyes, mouth, and ears being left uncovered. These masks, +however, delineated very carefully the features of the character that +were to be represented. Something not unlike the huge Pantomime masks of +a hideous and frightful shape that we sometimes see in our present day +Pantomimes must have appeared, especially those that covered the head +and shoulders of the _Mimis_ in the days of the Romans. Those that were +just of the size of the face in all probability were fantastic and +picturesque; and the third and remaining species of mask made of a +transparent substance could hardly have been very effective. + +Mr. Wright tells us, in his book on the Chester Mystery plays (which +work I shall again refer to later on), that masks were used in the +Mystery series of plays acted in England during the thirteenth and +fourteenth centuries. + +Julius Pollux is still more ample in his account of theatrical masks +used in Tragedy, Satyr, and Comedy. Niobe weeping, Medea furious, Ajax +astonished, and Hercules enraged. In Comedy, the slave, the parasite, +the clown, the captain, the old woman, the harlot, the austere old man, +the debauched young man, the prodigal, the prudent young woman, the +matron, and the father of a family, were all constantly characterised by +particular masks. + +Lucian and the other writers of the Augustan era, have handed down to us +sufficient information to show how Pantomime in Rome was so highly +thought of. Cassiodorous, speaking of them, says:--"Men whose eloquent +hands had a tongue, as it were, on the tip of each finger--men who spoke +while they were silent, and knew how to make a recital without opening +their mouths--men, in short, whom Polyhymnia had formed in order to show +that there was no necessity for articulation in order to convey our +thoughts." Demetrius, a cynic philosopher, laughed at the Romans for +permitting so strange an entertainment; but having been, with much +difficulty, prevailed upon to be present at the representation of one of +them, he was confounded with wonder. The story represented was that of +Mars and Venus, the whole performed by a single actor, who described the +fable in _dumb show_. At length the philosopher, wrought up to the +highest pitch of admiration, exclaimed, "That the actor _had no occasion +for a tongue, he spoke so well with his hands_." + +Of one Pontus, who had come on a visit to Nero, we are told that he was +present at a performance, in the course of which a favourite Mime gave a +representation of the Labours of Hercules. The Mime's gestures were so +precise that he could follow the action without the slightest +hesitation. Being struck by the performance, on taking leave he begged +Nero to give him the actor, explaining that there was a barbarous tribe +adjoining his dominions, whose language no one could learn, and that +Pantomime could express his intentions to them so faithfully by gestures +that they would at once understand. + +The dress of the performers of Pantomime was made to reveal, and not to +conceal, their figures. After the second century women began to act in +their representations, and even down to the sixth century we find them +associating themselves with Pantomime, and mention is made of a +celebrated _Mima_, who was ultimately raised to the imperial throne. +Through the lewdness of the _Mimis_ and _mimas_ in Pantomime, their +dress, or rather lack of dress, Pantomimes were denounced, not only by +the early Christian writers, but also by some of the Pagan writers, like +Juvenal, as being very prejudicial to morality. + +It has, however, always been a favourite topic of the Prynne's, the +Jeremy Collier's and the Dr. Style's, and such like opponents of the +theatre, to contrast the English stage with the purity of the Grecian +and Roman Theatres. Now, without stopping to enquire whether this has +any particular connection with the subject of their dissertations, or +whether it is not in fact quite irrelevant to the question, it is +impossible not to remark the crass ignorance which these assertions +display of the manners and customs of the theatres of either the Greeks +or the Romans. Without wearying the reader by entering into a long +discussion upon the subject, it will be sufficient to recall certain +passages in Aristophanes, Xenophon, Plautus, and Terence to induce them +to hesitate in assenting to such vague assertions of the purity of +either the Grecian or Roman dramatic writers. William Prynne, the +English Puritan writer, in his violent attack on the stage in the +"_Histrio-Mastix_" or "Players Scourge"--which book, by the way, for +some unfavourable comments therein on the Queen of Charles I., and the +ladies of her Court, for attending theatrical representations, was +debarred his rooms (he was a barrister), by the Court of Star Chamber, +sentenced to be imprisoned for life, fined £5,000, committed to the +Tower, placed in the pillory, both ears cut off, and his book burnt by +the common hangman; yet after undergoing all these pains and penalties, +he published a _recantation of all that he had previously written in his +"Histrio-Mastix_"--says "It seems that the Grecian actors did now and +then to refresh the spectators, bring a kind of cisterne on the stage, +wherein naked women did swim and bathe themselves between the acts and +scenes; which wicked, impudent, and execrable practice the holy father +Chrysostom doth sharpely and excellently declaime against." + +Xenophon mentions the tale of "Bacchus and Ariadne," Pantomimically +played, and Martial tells us he saw the whole story of "Pasiphae," +minutely represented on the stage of the _Mimis_, and Plautus, in his +epilogue to "Casina," has-- + + "Nunc vos aequim est, manibus meritis, + Meritam mercedem dare. + Qui faxit, clam uxorem, ducat scortum + Semper quod volet. + Verum qui non manibus clare, quantum + Potent, plauserit, + Ei, pro scorto, supponetur hircus unctus nantea." + +On the Roman stage female parts were represented in tragedy by men, is +ascertained (says Malone) by one of Cicero's letters to Atticus, and by +a passage in Horace. Horace mentions, however, a female performer called +Arbuscula, but as we find from his own authority men personated women on +the Roman stage, she was probably an _Emboliariae_. Servius calls her a +_Mima_, or one who danced in the Pantomimic dances, and which seems more +probable, as she is mentioned by Cicero, who says the part of Andromache +was played by a male performer on the very day Arbuscula also performed. + +The principal Roman _Mimas_ were:--Arbuscula, Thymele, Licilia, +Dionysia, Cytheris, Valeria, and Cloppia. + +In the satirical interludes of the Grecian stage, and the _Fabulae +Atellanae_ of the Roman theatres, the _Exodiarii_ and _Emboliariae_ of +the Mimes, were the remote progenitors (says Malone) of the Vice or +Devil, and the Clown of our English Mystery plays, the latter series of +plays being the origin of the drama of this country. The exact +conformity between our Clown and the _Exodiarii_ and _Emboliariae_ of +the Roman stage is ascertained by that passage in Pliny--"_Lucceia Mima +centum annis in scena pronuntiavit. Galeria, Copiola, Emboliariae, +reducta est in scenam: annum certissimum quartum agens_," is thus +translated by an English author, Philemon Holland, "Lucceia, a common +Vice in a play, followed the stage, and acted thereupon 100 yeeres. Such +another Vice that _plaied the foole, and made sporte between whiles in +interludes_, named Galeria Copiola, was brought to act upon the stage +when she was in the 104th yeere of her age." We shall, in another +chapter, return to the Vice, or Clown. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +Introduction of the Roman Pantomimic Art into Britain--First English +reference to the word Pantomime--The fall of the Roman Empire--The +sacred play--Cornish Amphitheatres--Pantomimical and Lyrical elements in +the sacrifice of the Mass--Christian banishment of the +_Mimis_--Penalties imposed by the Church--St. Anthony on Harlequin and +Punch--Vandenhoff--what we owe to the _Mimis_. + + +With the advent of Julius Caesar and the conquest of Britain by the +Romans, about the year 52 B.C., we have, in all probability, the first +introduction of the Roman Pantomimic Art into this country. Inasmuch as +we have it upon the authority of history that Caesar travelled with his +Mimes, and it is, therefore, not improbable that they came into Britain +with him. England, then, during the occupancy of the Romans, must have +known the Dramatic Art, or else (as Dibdin observes) Pacuvius, Accius, +and Livius Andronicus were ignorant of it. Martial tells us that it did, +and so does Boadicea, so that we have not only Roman authorities for it, +but also British. + +The word "Pantomime" could not, I may say here, have been Anglicised +earlier than sometime during the seventeenth century. Dr. Johnson's +earliest example is from "Hudibras"-- + + "Not that I think those _Pantomimes_, + Who vary action with the times, + Are less ingenious in their art + Than those who duly act one part." + +Bacon and Ben Jonson use the Latin _Pantomimi_--"Here be certain +_Pantomimi_ that will represent the voices of players." Again in the +"Masque of Love's Triumph," etc., 1630, "After the manner of the old +_Pantomimi_ they dance over a distracted Comedy of Love." + +The fall of the Roman Empire and the progress of Christianity in Europe +sounded the death knell of Paganism and its attributes, of which +Pantomime was deemed to be one, owing to the bad odour in which this +form of entertainment had got to during the last days of the Empire. +Notwithstanding this the church was only too glad to avail itself of +Pantomime as a vehicle to portray before the world at large, and in +order to turn attention to the great moral truths to be deduced from the +death of Him on Calvary Hill. These exhibitions of religious subjects, +in the form of _tableaux vivants_, took place in the churches, and, +having regard to the sacred edifices in which they were given, they +were, especially in the beginning, I conjecture, performed in dumb show, +without any dialogue. Afterwards dialogue was introduced, and they began +to be, not only held in the churches, but also in the church-yards, the +streets, and in booths. + +It is true the sacred play was not a new institution, as one is said to +be mentioned about the time of the Fall of Jerusalem. In Cornwall, plays +were given in the ancient times in the open air, after the fashion of +the Roman Amphitheatre, with the dialogue in the Cymric tongue. +Pantomimical performances might also have been given in those open-air +theatres by the Romans. + +Perhaps no better example of the early Sacred Drama I can give, and +which is still with us, and performed daily, is the sacrifice of the +Mass in all Roman Catholic Churches throughout the length and breadth of +the world. In the Mass we have a dramatic action _pantomimically_ +presented, in part aided by lyrical and epical elements. I will not, +however, pursue this portion of my subject further, save than to add +that at the Catholic Churches' festivals, especially during Holy Week or +Passion Week, what I have mentioned of the Mass becomes at these times +marked in even a greater degree. + +With the decline and fall of the Roman Empire, the _Mimis_ became +wanderers on the face of the earth, only appearing at festivals and the +like, when they were wanted, and returning to their haunts as +mysteriously as they came. + +In the fourth century A.D. they were excluded from the benefit of the +rites of the Church, and even those who visited their entertainments, +instead of churches, on the Sundays and holidays, were excommunicated. +The Theodosian creed provided that the actors were not to have the +sacraments administered to them save when death was imminent, and then +only that, in case of recovery, their calling should be renounced. + +In the second century one of the Fathers of the Church wrote a special +treatise against plays (_Tertulian De Spectaculis_), in which he asks +those who will not renounce them "Whether the God of truth, who hates +all falsehood, can be willing to receive into His kingdom those whose +features and hair, whose age and sex, whose sighs and laughter, love and +anger, are all feigned. He promises them a tragedy of their own when, in +the day of Judgment, they shall be consigned to everlasting suffering." + +However, the church was not always against the stage, even in those +early times, as St. Thomas Aquinas says that "The office of the player +as being serviceable for the enlivenment of men, and as not being +blameworthy if the player leads an upright life." Both Saints Thomas +Aquinas and Anthony supported the stage, the latter only stipulating +that the character of Harlequin should not be represented by a +clergyman, nor that Punch should be exhibited in church. + +It is one of the most remarkable things that, despite the bitterness, +hostility, and deadly enmity that has been levelled at the stage, and +its players termed "Rogues and Vagabonds" from time immemorial, how it +has lived through it all. In connection with this how the lines of that +great actor, Vandenhoff, occurs to me, a few of which, with the reader's +permission, I subjoin. + + "The drama's now a great established fact, + That can't be blink'd, ignored how'er attack'd + By vain abuse or angry prejudice; + The time's gone by when _playing was a vice_; + When bigots mark'd the actor with a ban, + (Tho' saintly crowds to hear his accents ran), + Denied him sacred rite and hallowed grave-- + Filching from God the soul he made to save-- + And, for the pleasure which his life had giv'n + On earth, refused him dead, a place in heav'n. + No! wiser days bring gentler feelings in, + And 'Nature's touches makes the whole world kin'." + +By degrees the _Mimis_, or mummers, with their fellows, spread +themselves all over Europe. The humbler of the craft, in fact it might +be said of them all, as Othello's occupation had (for them) long since +been gone, strolled from castle to castle, from village to town, and +earning their livelihood as best they could. To these wandering +Bohemians we owe such traditions of the drama that survived with them +into succeeding ages; and to them also we are indebted for keeping alive +by inculcating unto others the Art of _Pantomimus_, when in the heyday +of its popularity in the Roman Empire. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +Pantomime in the English Mystery or Miracle Plays and Pageants--A +retrospect of the Early Drama--Mysteries on Biblical events--Chester, +Coventry, York, and Towneley Mystery Plays--Plays in Churches--Traces of +the Mystery Play in England in the Nineteenth Century--Mystery Plays on +the Continent--The Chester series of Plays--The Devil or Clown and the +_Exodiarii_ and _Emboliariae_ of the Ancient Mimes. + + +It is presumed that, not only were the early sacred plays acted in +dumb-show, but that the Miracle or Mysteries of Religion series of +plays--which grew out of the sacred play--also the Pageants in the +beginning, and for long afterwards were acted in this wise. Percy, in +his "Reliques of Ancient English Poetry," also takes this view. He +says:--"They were (the Mysteries) probably a kind of _dumb show_, +intermingled, it may be, with a few short speeches, at length they grew +into regular scenes of connected dialogues, formally divided into acts +and scenes." Colley Cibber has: "It has been conjectured that the actors +of the Mysteries of Religion were _mummers_, a word signifying one who +makes and disguises himself to play the fool _without speaking_. They +were dressed in an antic manner, _dancing, mimicking_, and _showing +postures_." Mr. Wright also observes (in his work on the Mystery Plays +of Chester, published by the Shakespearean Society) that the "_chief +effect seems to have been caused by the dumb show_." + +Before dealing with the Mysteries, and as perhaps a kind of retrospect, +let us have a look what Wharton has to say of the early drama. "Trade," +he says (in the early centuries) "was carried on by means of fairs, which +lasted several days. Charlemagne established many great marts of this +sort in France, as did William the Conqueror and his Norman successors +in England. The merchants, who frequented these fairs in numerous +caravans and companies, employed every art to draw the people together. +They were, therefore, accompanied by jugglers, minstrels, and buffoons +(_i.e._, Pantomimists), who were no less interested in giving their +attendance and exercising their skill on these occasions. Few large +towns existed, no public spectacles or popular amusements were +established; and as the sedentary pleasures of domestic life and private +society were yet unknown, the fair time was the season for diversion. In +proportion as the shows were attended and encouraged, they began to be +set off with new decorations and improvements; and the arts of +buffoonery being rendered still more attractive by extending their +circle of exhibition, acquired an importance in the eyes of the people. +By degrees the Clergy, observing that the entertainments of dancing, +music, and mimicry exhibited at these annual celebrations made the +people less religious by promoting idleness and a love of festivity, +proscribed these sports and excommunicated the performers." + +Mystery plays were afterwards divided into three classes, though the +generic term Mysteries, meaning all three, is generally used. In the +Mysteries, Biblical events were principally used; Miracle plays were +obtained from the legends of the saints; and the last, Moralities, +allegorical stories of a moral character not essentially taken from the +Bible, or from the legends of the saints, comprised the third heading. +The Mysteries were for several centuries known on the Continent before +they were performed in England. The earliest Mystery play known to have +been acted in England was at Dunstable about the year 1110. It was +probably in Latin, and composed by a Norman monk. + +It is a peculiarity of the English Mystery plays that they were combined +into a series of plays on the Old and New Testament; and in which the +whole course of Divine Providence, from the Creation to the Day of +Judgment, is set before the spectator. Four noted groups of plays were +the Chester, the Towneley, Coventry, and York Mystery plays. The Chester +plays began on Whit Monday, and, continued till the following Wednesday. +Permission to perform them, in the beginning of their institution, had +twice to be asked of the Pope. They consisted of 24 plays, and were +almost annually performed till 1577. Before the suppression of the +monasteries the Grey Friars at Coventry were celebrated for their +exhibitions of the Mystery plays usually on _Corpus Christi_. The +Towneley, or Woodkirk group of plays were acted at Woodkirk, about four +miles from Wakefield, and they are of a style that may be likened to the +times of Henry VI., or Edward IV. Until the Mystery play fell into +disuse, the trading companies and guilds seem principally to have +maintained them. The mixture of secular with ecclesiastical players +helped to change the characters of the English plays and to provoke +censure, which began to be levelled at them from the beginning of the +thirteenth century. + +The practise of performing plays in sacred edifices in England, had not +ceased in 1542, when Bishop Bonner prohibited them in his diocese. +However, so late as 1572, it appears that Interludes were occasionally +performed in Churches. + +Collier speaks of a kind of Mystery, or Miracle play, exhibited in the +last century, with the characters of Herod, Beelzebub, and others. In +1838 Sandy mentions of having seen the play of "St. George and the +Dragon," presented in the Northern and Western parts of the Kingdom, or +rather Queendom, as Victoria had just ascended the throne. I myself +remember quite well, within a couple of decades ago, what was probably +at the time a remnant of the old Mystery play presented in a rural part +of Lancashire by men in a fantastic garb, and termed by the country +folk, "Paste-eggers." They generally appeared about Good Friday and on +to Easter; and their performance consisted of a mixture of music (?), +songs, and sometimes not over choice language. This custom does not now +exist where I write of, but it may do--though I very much doubt--in some +rural parts. On the Continent, as at Oberammergau, Mystery plays are +still enacted. + +The following account of the Chester Mysteries may be of interest, and +appears (says Warton) in the Harleian Catalogue. M.S. Harl. 2013, etc. +Exhibited at Chester in the year 1327 at the expense of the different +trading companies of that city. "The Fall of Lucifer," by the tanners; +"The Creation," by the drapers; "The Deluge," by the dyers; "Abraham, +Melchizedeck and Lot," by the barbers; "Moses, Balak and Balaam," by the +cappers; "The Salutation and the Nativity," by the wrights (carpenters); +"The Shepherds feeding the Flocks by Night," by the painters and +glaziers; "The Three Kings," by the vintners; "The oblation of the Three +Kings," by the mercers; "The Killing of the Holy Innocents," by the +goldsmiths; "The Purification," by the blacksmiths; "The Temptations," +by the butchers; "The Blindmen and Lazarus," by the glovers; "Jesus and +the Lepers," by the cowesarys; "Christ's Passion," by the bowyers, +fletchers and ironmongers; "Descent into Hell," by the cooks and +inn-keepers; "Resurrection," by the skinners; "Ascension," by the +taylors; "The Election of St. Matthias," "Sending of the Holy Ghost," +etc., by the fishmongers; "Anti-christ," by the clothiers; and "The Day +of Judgment," by the websters (weavers). The reader will perhaps smile +at some of these combinations. This is the substance and order of the +former part of the play. God enters, creating the world, he breathes +life into Adam, leads him into Paradise, and opens his side while +sleeping. Adam and Eve appear _naked_, and _not ashamed_; and the old +Serpent enters, lamenting his fall. He converses with Eve. She eats part +of the forbidden fruit, and gives part to Adam. They propose, according +to the stage directions, to make themselves, _subligacula a folis +quibus tegamus pudenda_, cover their nakedness with leaves and converse +with God. God's curse. The Serpent exits, hissing. They are driven from +Paradise by four angels, and the Cherubim with a flaming sword. Adam +appears digging the ground, and Eve spinning. Their children, Cain and +Abel, enter, the former kills his brother. Adam's lamentation. Cain is +banished, etc., etc. + +Adam and Eve, in the "altogether," so to speak, were acted like this as +late as the sixteenth century. In a play called "The Travails of the +Three English Brothers," acted in 1607, there occurs this:-- + +"Many idle toyes, but the old play _that Adam and Eve acted in bare +action under the figge tree draws most of the gentlemen_." + +An Account of the Proclamation of the Mystery plays, acted in "Ye Citye +on ye Dee," may prove of interest, and the copy of which I subjoin is +taken from the Harleian M.S. No. 2013. + +"The proclamation for Whitsone playes made by Wm. Newell, Clarke of the +Pendice, 24 Hen. 8. Wm. Snead 2nd yere Maior." + +"For as much as auld tyme, not only for the augmentation and increese of +the holy and catholick faith of our Saviour Jesu Christ, and to exort +the mindes of comon people to good devotion and holsome doctrine +thereof, but also for the comonwelth and prosperity of this citty, a +play and declaration of divers storyes of Bible beginning with the +Creation and fall of Lucifer, and ending with the generall Judgment of +the world, to be declared and played in Whitsonne weeke, was devised and +made by one Sir Henry Frances, sometyme moonck of this monastrey +disolved, who obtayning and gat of Clemant, then Bushop of Rome, a 1000 +dayes of pardon, and of the Bushop of Chester at that tyme 40 dayes of +pardon, graunted from thensforth to every person resorting, in peaceable +manner with good devotion, to heare and see the sayd playes, from time +to time as oft as they shall be played within the said citty (and that +every person or persons disturbing the sayd playes in the maner wise to +be acused by the authority of the sayd pope Clemant's bulls, untill such +tyme as he or they be absolved thereof) which playes were devised to the +honor of God by John Arnway, then maior of this citty of Chester, his +brethren and whole cominalty thereof, to be brought forth, declared, and +played, at the cost and charges of the craftesman and occupations of the +sayd citty, which hitherto have from tyme to tyme used and performed the +same accordingly. + +"Wherefore Mr. maior, in the King's name, stratly chargeth and +commandeth that every person and persons of what estate, degree, or +condition so ever he or they be resorting to the sayd playes, do use +themselves peaciblie, without making any assault, affray, or other +disturbance, whereby the same playes shall be disturbed, and that no +manner of person or persons, whiche so ever he or they be, do use or +wear any unlawfull weapons within the precinct of the sayd citty during +the tyme of the sayd playes (not only upon payn of cursing by authority +of the sayd Pope Clemant's bulls but also) upon payn of imprisonment of +their bodyes, and making fine to the King at Mr. maior's pleasure." + +Archdeacon Rogers, who died in 1595, and saw the Whitsuntide plays +performed at Chester in the preceding year, gives the following account +of the mode of exhibition:-- + +"The time of the yeare they were played was on Monday, Tuesday, and +Wenseday in Whitson weake. The maner of these playes weare every company +had his pagiant, or parte, which pagiants weare a high scafolde with 2 +rowmes, a higher and a lower, upon 4 wheeles. In the lower they +apparelled themselves, and in the higher rowme they played, being all +open on the tope, that all behoulders might heare and see them. The +places where they played them was in every streete. They begane first at +the abay gates, and when the first pagiante was played, it was wheeled +to the high crosse before the mayor, and soe to every streete; and soe +every streete had a pagiant playinge before them at one time, till all +the pagiantes for the daye appoynted weare played, and when one pagiant +was neere ended, word was broughte from streete to streete that soe they +mighte come in place thereof exceedinge orderlye, and all the streetes +have their pagiantes afore them all at one time playeinge togeather; to +se which playes was greate resorte, and also scafoldes and stages made +in the streetes in those places where they determined to playe their +pagiantes." + +Strutt has the following description of the Mystery plays:--"In the +early dawn of literature, and when the sacred Mysteries were the only +theatrical performances, what is now called the stage did then consist +of three several platforms or stages, raised one above another; on the +uppermost sat the _Pater Caelestis_, surrounded with his angels; on the +second appeared the holy saints and glorified men; and the last and +lowest were occupied by mere men who had not passed through this life to +the regions of eternity. On one side of this lowest platform was the +resemblance of a dark pitchy cavern, from whence issued appearance of +fire and flames; and when it was necessary the audience were treated +with hideous yellings and noises, as imitations of the howlings and +cries of the wretched souls tormented by the relentless demons. From +this yawning cave the devils themselves constantly ascended, to delight +and instruct the spectators; to delight because they were usually the +greatest jesters and buffoons that then appeared; and to instruct for +that they treated the wretched mortals who were delivered to them with +the utmost cruelty, warning thereby all men carefully to avoid the +falling into the clutches of such hardened and relentless spirits." + +It is interesting to note that Hell was imitated by a whale's open jaws, +behind which a fire was lighted, in such a way, however, so as not to +injure the "damned," who had to pass into its gaping mouth. The +performer who impersonated God had not only his face but also the hair +of his wig gilded. Christ was dressed in a long sheep's skin. The Devil, +or Vice (the _Exodiarii_ and _Emboliariae_ of the ancient _Mimis_), was +easily recognisable by his horns and his tail, whilst his beard was of a +bright red colour, to indicate the flames of the region in which he +dwelt. Judas also wore a wig of a fiery hue, and, after being hung, had +sometimes to do the "cock crowing," as some old accounts of the York +Mysteries show. + +It appears to have been customary for the Devil to appear before the +audience with a cry of "Ho! ho! ho!" somewhat similar to the +ejaculations of the Pantomime Clown in after years. (See _Gammer +Gurton's Needle_, Act II., Sc. 3, and "The Devil is an Ass," by Ben +Jonson, Act I., Sc. 1.) The following passage occurs in "Wily Beguiled," +1606. "Tush! feare not the dodge; I'll rather put on my flashing red +nose, and my flaming face, and come wrapped in a calfe's skin, and cry +'Ho! ho! ho!'" Again, "I'll put me on my great carnation nose, and wrap +me in a rousing calf's-skin suit, and come like some hob-goblin, or some +Devil ascended from the grisly pit of hell, and like a scarebabe make +him take to his legs; I'll play the Devil, I warrant ye." + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +The Clown or Fool of the early English Drama--Moralities--The +Interlude--The rise of English Tragedy and Comedy--"Dumb Shews" in the +Old Plays--Plays suppressed by Elizabeth--A retrospect. + + +In the sixth chapter of this work, in quoting Malone, I have mentioned +that the _Exodiarii_ and _Emboliariae_ of the _Mimis_ were the remote +progenitors of the Clown of the Mystery Plays of this country. Now let +us see what were the duties the Clown fulfilled in the old plays of this +country, and also briefly of the others who were known under the generic +name of Clown or fool. + +In the early drama the Clown was a personage of no mean importance and +whose duty was to preserve the stage from vacancy by amusing the +audience with extemporary buffoonery, and also at the end of the +performance. And, as Heywood, in his "History of Women" (1624), says "By +his mimic gestures to breed in the less capable mirth and laughter." On +these occasions, it was usual to descant, in a humourous style, on +various subjects proposed to him by the spectators; but they were more +commonly entertained with what was termed a jig: this was a ludicrous +composition in rhyme, sung by the Clown, accompanied by his pipe and +tabor. In these jigs there were sometimes more actors than one, and the +most unbounded license of tongue was allowed; the pith of the matter +being usually some scurrilous exposure of persons among, or well known +to the audience. Here again history repeats itself in this once more, +and in imitation of the satirical interludes of the Grecian stage and +the _Atellans_ and _Mimis_ of the Roman theatres. + +The practice of putting the fools and Clowns in requisition between the +acts and scenes (observes Francis Douce), and after the play was +finished, to amuse the spectators with their tricks, may be traced to +the Greek and Roman theatres; and their usages being preserved in the +middle ages, wherever the Roman influence had spread, it would not, of +course, be peculiar to England. The records of the French theatre +demonstrate this fact; in the "Mystery of Saint Barbara," we find this +stage direction:--_Pausa. Vadunt, et stultus loquitur._ (A pause. They +quit the stage, and the fool speaks). And in this way he is frequently +brought on between the scenes. + +It is quite obvious that the terms Clown and fool were used, though +improperly, perhaps, as synonymous by our old dramatists. Their confused +introduction might render this doubtful to one who had not well +considered the matter. The fool of our early plays denoted a mere idiot +or natural, or else a witty hireling retained to make sport for his +masters. The Clown was a character of more variety; sometimes he was a +mere rustic; and, often, no more than a shrewd domestic. There are +instances in which any low character in a play served to amuse with his +coarse sallies, and thus became the Clown of the piece. In fact, the +fool of the drama was a kind of heterogeneous being, copied in part from +real life, but highly coloured in order to produce effect. This opinion +derives force from what is put into the mouth of Hamlet, when he +admonishes those who perform the Clowns, to speak no more than is set +down for them. Indeed, Shakespeare himself cannot be absolved from the +imputation of making mere caricatures of his merry Andrews, unless we +suppose, what is very probable, that his compositions have been much +interpolated with the extemporaneous jokes of the players. To this +folly, allusions are made in a clever satire, entitled, "Pasquils +Mad-cappe, throwne at the Corruptions of these Times," 1626, quarto. + + "Tell country players, that old paltry jests + Pronounced in a painted motley coate, + Filles all the world so full of cuckoo nests, + That nightingales can scarcely sing a note. + Oh! bid them turn their minds to better meanings; + Fields are ill sowne that give no better gleanings." + +Sir Philip Sidney reprobates the custom of introducing fools on the +stage; and declares that the plays of his time were neither right +tragedies nor right comedies, for the authors mingled kings and Clowns, +"not," says he, "because the matter so carrieth it, but thrust in the +Clowne by head and shoulders to play a part in majestical matters, with +neither decencie nor discretion; so as neither the admiration and +commisseration, nor the right sportfulnesse, is by their mongrell +tragie-comedie obtained." Rankin, a puritan, contemporary with +Shakespeare, wrote a most bitter attack on plays and players, whom he +calls monsters; "And whie monsters?" says he, "because under colour of +humanitie they present nothing but prodigious vanitie; these are wels +without water, dead branches fit for fuell, cockle amongst corne, +unwholesome weedes amongst sweete hearbes; and, finallie, feends that +are crept into the worlde by stealth, and hold possession by subtill +invasion." In another place, he says, "some transformed themselves to +rogues, others to ruffians, some others to Clownes, a fourth to fools; +the rogues were ready, the ruffians were rude, theyr Clownes cladde as +well with country condition, as in ruffe russet; theyr fooles as fond as +might be." + +To give a clear view of our subject, something of the different sorts of +fools may be thus classed: + +1.--The _general domestic fool_, termed often, but _improperly_, a +_Clown_; described by Puttenham as "a buffoune, or counterfett foole." + +2.--The _Clown_, who was a mere country booby, or a witty rustic. + +3.--The _female fool_, who was generally an idiot. + +4.--The _city or corporation fool_, an assistant in public +entertainments. + +5.--The _tavern fool_, retained to amuse the customers. + +6.--The _fool of the ancient Mysteries and Moralities_, otherwise the +_Vice_. + +7.--The _fool in the old dumb shows_, often alluded to by Shakespeare. + +8.--The _fool in the Whitsun ales and morris dance_. + +9.--The _mountebank's fool, or merry Andrew_. + +There may be others in our ancient dramas, of an irregular kind, not +reducible to any of these classes; but to exemplify them is not within +the scope of this essay: what has been stated may assist the readers of +old plays to judge for themselves when they meet with such characters. + +The practice of retaining fools can be distinctly traced from the +remotest times. They were to be found alike in the palace and the +brothel; the Pope had his fool, and the bawd hers; they excited the +mirth of kings and beggars; the hovel of the villain and the castle of +the baron were alike exhilarated by their jokes. With respect to the +antiquity of this custom in England, it appears to have existed even +during the period of our Saxon history, but we are certain of the fact +in the reign of William the Conqueror. Maitre Wace, an historian of that +time, has an account of the preservation of William's life, when Duke of +Normandy, by his fool, _Goles_; and, in Domesday book, mention is made +of _Berdin joculator regis_; and though this term sometimes denoted a +minstrel, evidence might be adduced to prove, that in this instance it +signified a buffoon. + +The entertainment, fools were expected to afford, may be collected in +great variety from our old plays, especially from those of Shakespeare; +but, perhaps, a good idea may be formed of their general conduct from a +passage in a curious tract by Lodge, entitled, "Wit's Miserie," 1599, +quarto: "Immoderate and disordinate joy became incorporate in the bodie +of a jeaster; this fellow in person is comely, in apparell courtly, but +in behaviour a very ape, and no man; his studie is to coin bitter +jeasts, or to shew antique motions, or to sing baudie sonnets and +ballads; give him a little wine in his head, he is continually flearing +and making of mouthes; he laughs intemperately at every little occasion, +and dances about the house, leaps over tables, outskips men's heads, +trips up his companions' heeles, burns sack with a candle, and hath all +the feats of a lord of misrule in the countrie: feed him in his humour, +you shall have his heart; in mere kindness he will hug you in his armes, +kisse you on the cheeke, and rapping out an horrible oath, crie 'God's +soule, Tum, I love you, you knowe my poore heart, come to my chamber for +a pipe of tobacco, there lives not a man in this world that I more +honor.' In these ceremonies you shall know his courting, and it is a +speciall mark of him at table, he sits and makes faces: keep not this +fellow company, for in jingling with him, your wardropes shall be +wasted, your credits crackt, your crownes consumed, and time (the most +precious riches of the world) utterly lost." + +With regard to the fool's business on the stage, it was nearly the same +as in reality, with this difference, that the wit was more highly +seasoned. In Middleton's "Mayor of Quinborough," a company of actors, +with a Clown, make their appearance, and the following dialogue +ensues:-- + +1st Cheater. This is our Clown, sir. + +Simon. Fye, fye, your company + Must fall upon him and beat him; he's too fair i'faith, + To make the people laugh. + +1st Cheater. Not as he may be dress'd, sir. + +Simon. Faith, dress him how you will. I'll give him + That gift, he will never look half scurvily enough. + Oh! the Clowns that I have seen in my time, + The very peeping out of one of them would have + Made a young heir laugh, though his father lay a-dying; + A man undone in law the day before, + (The saddest case that can be) might for his second + Have burst himself with laughing, and ended all + His miseries. Here was a merry world, my masters! + Some talk of things of state, of puling stuff; + There's nothing in a play like to a Clown, + If he have the grace to hit on it, that's the thing indeed. + Away then, shift; Clown, to thy motley crupper. + +In the _praeludium_ to Goffe's "Careless Shepherdess," 1656, quarto, +there is a panegyric on them, and some concern is shown for the fool's +absence in the play itself, while it is stated that "The motley coat was +banished with trunk-hose." Yet in Charles II.'s reign, some efforts were +made to restore the character. In the tragedy of "Thorney Abbey, or the +London Maid," 1662, 12mo., the prologue is delivered by a fool, who uses +these words:--"The poet's a fool who made the tragedy, to tell a story +of a king and a court, and leave a fool out on't, when in Pacey's, and +Sommer's, and Patche's, and Archer's times, my venerable predecessours, +a fool was alwaies the principal verb." Shadwell's play of "The Woman +Captain," 1680, is perhaps the last in which a regular fool is +introduced; and even there, his master is made to say that the character +was exploded on the stage. In real life, as was formerly stated, the +professed fool was to be met with at a much later period, but the custom +has long been obsolete. + +What I have said of the Mysteries of Religion plays will, I hope, be +sufficient to show the reader how they were associated with Pantomime. +The Moralities, founded on the Mysteries, were the means used to +inculcate, by the aid of a slight plot, religious truths without +directly using scriptural or legendary subjects. Malone says of +them:--"I am unable to ascertain when the first Morality appeared, but +incline to think not sooner than the reign of Edward IV. (about 1460). +The public pageants of the reign of his predecessor were uncommonly +splendid, and being then _first_ enlivened by the introduction of +_speaking_ allegorical personages, properly and characteristically +habited, naturally led the way to these personifications, by which +Moralities were _distinguished from_ the simple religious dramas called +Mysteries." + +The Interlude, that was the progenitor of English Comedy, next arrived. +The origin of the Interlude is credited to John Heywood. + +It is interesting to note that a play, entitled, "Gammer Gurton's +Needle," is credited with being our first English Comedy, though its +humour and wit, it is stated, is of a low and sordid kind. Others make +claim for the comedy, "Ralph Roister Doister." + +Tragedy and Comedy now began to raise their heads, yet they could not, +for some time, do more than bluster and quibble. There is an excellent +criticism on them by that distinguished statesman, poet, scholar, and +brave soldier, Sir Philip Sydney. "Some of their pieces were only '_dumb +shews_,' some with choruses, and some they explained by an +Interlocutor," says an old writer on the subject. The mention of +Pantomime in connection with tragedy, and as an example how Pantomime +was requisitioned in Shakespeare's time, is shown in the Second Scene of +Act III. of "Hamlet," wherein the "dumb shew" is given by the players. + +The true drama, however, received birth and perfection from the creative +geniuses of Shakespeare, Beaumont and Fletcher, Jonson, and others. +Though the stage no sooner began to talk than it grew scurrilous, and +plays were thought "Dangerous to Religion, the State, Honesty, and +Manners, and also for Infection, in Time of Sickness." Wherefore they +were afterwards for some time suppressed. But upon application to the +Queen and Council they were again tolerated under the following +restrictions: "That no Plays be acted on Sundays at all, nor on any +other Holidays till after Evening Prayer. That no playing be in the +_Dark_, nor continue and such Time, but the Auditors may return to their +Dwellings in London before Sunset, or at least before it be _Dark_." The +foregoing is from Stow, and this Act was made in the reign of Elizabeth. +The Virgin Queen does not seem to have cared much about this enactment, +as we find that on Sunday, the 24th September, 1592, she and her Court +attended a play at Oxford. + +As Tragedy and Comedy progressed on the English stage, Pantomime, as far +as it was associated with the dumb shows in the early English drama, +became, little by little, a thing of the past. + +We have seen, and traced, from the Creation of this planet, and through +succeeding ages, how Pantomime has always flourished; we have seen also +how the Interlude gave way to the Comedy; we will now see how this love +of light entertainment formulated in this country by the Interlude, and, +about the same time, by the Italian Masque Comedy, the progenitor of +Pantomime (referring to the whole as a spectacle), and the forerunner in +France, also of that other form of light entertainment known as the +French Vaudeville, cultivated by Le Sage and other French writers of +note. + +To go to the bed-rock for our facts, and for the innovation of all this, +it is necessary in thought, and perhaps as well in spirit, to journey to +Italy. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +The Italian Masque--The Masque in England--First appearance in this +country of Harlequin--Joe Haines as Harlequin--Marlowe's "Faustus"--A +Curious Play--The Italian Harlequin--Colley Cibber, +Penkethman--Shakespeare's Burlesques of the Masque--Decline of the +Masque. + + +In Italy the Masque entertainment long held sway, and was a light form +of amusement, consisting of Pantomime, music, singing, and dancing, and +an adaptation of the _Fabulae Atellanae_ of ancient Italy. The +performers wore masks, also high-heeled shoes, fitted with brass or iron +heels, which jingled as they danced. This ancient custom to present-day +stage dancers will doubtless be of interest. Masks, like on the stages +of the Greeks and the Romans, were used, hence the title Mask, or +Masque, as it is sometimes written both ways. In the days of Elizabeth +the custom was also practised in the Elizabethean Masque. The Masquerade +and the Masked ball, or _Bal-Masque_, are survivals of this ancient +custom. + +Crossing the Alps, if the reader will accompany me, the Italian Masque +Comedy we find was already known in France in the fifteenth century. In +the days of Mary de Medici ballets were introduced, and by the time of +Louis XIV. "Opera" (_i.e._, the Masque) was in full swing in the early +part of this reign. On the Spanish stage ballets, with allegorical +characters, were known in the sixteenth century; and, in fact, +throughout Europe about this age, and some time previously this +improvised form of Italian Comedy, and the several characters in it, +belonging to the family of Harlequin, had long been familiar subjects. + +Returning to England after our little holiday, the Masque in the +fifteenth and sixteenth centuries had become very popular. The +architect, Inigo Jones, being frequently employed to furnish the +decorations with all the magnificence of his invention. At the Courts of +Elizabeth, James I., Charles I., and up to the time when all plays were +totally suppressed, was it the rage. At the Restoration the Masque was +revived again, and here, borrowing the name from the continent, it is +called "Opera." In proof of this, in Dryden's work, "Albion and +Albanius," 1685, "Opera" is defined as a "poetical tale or picture +represented by vocal and instrumental music, and endowed with machines +and dances." + +The dramatic poet and author, Ben Jonson, collaborated with Inigo Jones, +the architect, in devising these Masque plays, Jonson supplying the +words, and Jones the scenic effects, the latter being very gorgeous, +consisting of "landscapes, mountains, and clouds, which opened to +display heathen deities illuminated by variegated coloured lights." Over +these Masques or "Operatic" entertainments Jonson and Jones quarrelled, +as the former's grievance was that he received no more for his +librettos than Jones did for his scenic devices. Ben Jonson thereupon +wrote satires upon Inigo Jones, and in one of his squibs appears the +satirical line, "Painting and Carpentry are the Soul of Masque." Is not +this applicable to many of our present-day Pantomimes, which, as I have +just stated in the previous chapter, the Masque was one of the original +progenitors? + +Inigo Jones and Jonson first collaborated in the "Masque of Blackness," +performed at Whitehall on Twelfth Night, 1603. In our money this Masque +cost some £10,000. Jones and Jonson's quarrel originated because the +poet had, in the "Masque of Chloridia," performed in 1630, prefixed his +own name before that of Jones. In consequence of this "rare old Ben" was +deprived--through Jones' influence--of employment at Court. + +Gifford, in his "Memoirs of Ben Jonson," says that "In poetry, painting, +architecture, they (the Masques) have not since been equalled." + +"The Masque," continues Gifford, "as it attained its highest degree of +excellence, admitted of dialogue, singing and dancing; these were not +independent of one another, but combined by the introduction of some +ingenious fable into an harmonious whole. When the plan was formed, the +aid of the sister-arts was called in; for the essence of the Masque was +pomp and glory. Movable scenery of the most costly and splendid kind was +lavished on the Masque; the most celebrated masters were employed on +the songs and dances; and all that the kingdom afforded of vocal and +instrumental excellence was employed to embellish the exhibition. Thus, +magnificently constructed, was composed, as Lord Bacon says, for +princes, and by princes it was played. Of these Masques, the skill with +which their ornaments were designed, and the inexpressible grace with +which they were executed appear to have left a vivid impression on the +mind of Jonson. His genius awakens at once, and all his faculties attune +to sprightliness and pleasure. He makes his appearance like his own +Delight, accompanied with Grace, Love, Harmony, Revel, Sport, and +Laughter." + +In the Masques the Pantomimic dances of the Masquers were known as +motions:-- + + "In curious knot and mazes so + The Spring at first was taught to go; + And Zephyr, when he came to woo + His Flora had his _motions_ too; + And thus did Venus learn to lead + The Idalian brawls, and so to tread, + As if the wind, not she did walk, + Nor press'd a flower, nor bow'd a stalk." + +Before the arrival of the Italian Masque in England, the Harlequin +family were unknown, and, doubtless, Harlequin's first appearance in +this country was in consonance with the Masque itself. + +Heywood, in a tract, published in 1609, entitled, "_Troia Britannica_," +mentions "Zanyes, Pantaloons, Harlakeans, in which the French, but +especially the Italians, have been excellent as known in this country." + +The earliest record I can find of a Harlequin performing in this country +is in the Masque given before Charles I. and his Court on the Sunday +evening following Twelfth Night, 1637. An account of this Masque, as +well as other information dealing with the Masque entertainments, will +be found in my volume, "Stage Whispers," and in the article on +theatrical scenery. + +In a comedy, written by Ravenscroft, after the Italian manner, Joe +Haines, in 1667, donned the motley jacket of Harlequin, and which, in +all probability, was the first appearance of Harlequin on the English +boards, though not in England, as stated above. In a farce of the +audacious Mrs. Aphra Behn's, produced twenty years afterwards, Harlequin +and Scaramouch were two of the characters. Mrs. Behn died April 16, +1689, and was buried in the cloisters of Westminster Abbey. To Marlowe's +"Faustus," Mountfort added comic scenes to the tragedy, introducing +Harlequin and Scaramouch. A Harlequin, Pantaloon, Columbine, and Clown +appeared in a curious piece in 1697, entitled, "Novelty; or Every Act a +Play." The first act consisted of a pastoral Drama, the second of a +Comedy, the third a Masque, the fourth a Tragedy, and the fifth act a +Farce. + +In Italy the fame of Harlequin was at its zenith at the close of the +seventeenth century. In this country in 1687 a Harlequin (Penkethman) +appeared in a farce called "The Emperor of the Moon" without a mask. +Colley Cibber says of this performance "That when he (Penkethman) first +played Harlequin in 'The Emperor of the Moon' several gentlemen (who +inadvertently judged by the rules of nature) fancied that a great deal +of the drollery, and spirit of his grimace was lost by his wearing that +useless, unmeaning mask, therefore insisted that the next time of his +acting that part he should play without it. Their desire was accordingly +complied with, but alas! in vain--Penkethman was no more Harlequin. His +humour was quite disconcerted." + +In "The Tempest," Shakespeare introduces a Masque, and also in his +"Midsummer Nights' Dream," the play of "Pyramus and Thisbe," performed +by the Clowns, is in burlesque of the Masque plays. + +In both these two plays of the bard's, and in connection with the Masque +plays, we see, from the stage directions in them, how Pantomime formed +part of their effective representation. + +In out heroding-herod in the way of splendour, showy dresses and +expensive machinery, the Masque soon fell into decay; and, as Ben Jonson +states, "The glory of all these solemnities had perished like a blaze, +and gone out in the beholder's eyes; so short-lived are the bodies of +all things in comparison with their souls." + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +Italian Pantomime--Riccoboni--Broom's "Antipodes"--Gherardi--Extemporal +Comedies--Salvator Rosa--Impromptu Acting. + + +Pantomime in Italy had two distinct features, one a species of +buffoonery, termed _Lazzi_, and the other Extemporal or Improvised +Comedies. + +"_Lazzi_," mentions Riccoboni, in his "_Histoire du Theâtre Italien_," +is a term corrupted from the old Tuscan _Lacci_, which signifies a knot, +or something that connects. (Both the _Lazzi_ and the Extemporal +Comedies were all derived from the one original source, that of the +Satirical drama of the Greeks, and perpetuated in the _Fabulae +Atellanae_ or _Laudi Osci_ of Italy.) + +Riccoboni continues: "These pleasantries, called _Lazzi_, are certain +actions by which the performer breaks into the scene, to paint to the +eye his emotions of panic or jocularity; but as such gestures are +foreign to the business going on, the nicety of the art consists in not +interrupting the scene, and connecting the _Lazzi_ with it; thus to tie +the whole together." + +_Lazzi_ is what we might term "bye play," which, by gesture and action, +could not detract, but rather added to the effectiveness of the scene in +progress. + +In Broom's "Antipodes," which was performed at the Salisbury Court +Theatre, London, in 1638, a _by-play_, as he calls it, is represented in +this comedy--"A word (explains Malone) for the application of which we +are indebted to this writer, there being no other term in our language +that I know of, which so properly expresses that species of Interlude +which we find in our poet's 'Hamlet,' and other pieces." + +Riccoboni, in describing some _Lazzi_, says that Harlequin and Scapin +being in a famished condition, Scapin, in order to bring their young +mistress out, asks Harlequin to groan. Scapin explains to her the +reason, and while they are talking, Harlequin is performing his _Lazzi_. +This consists of eating an imaginary hatful of cherries, and throwing +the stones at Scapin; or catching imaginary flies, and chopping off +their wings. + +"_Lazzi_," we are told, "although they seem to interrupt the progress of +the action, yet in cutting it they slide back into it, and connect or +tie the whole." + +When Riccoboni and his company first appeared in France, though being +unable to speak nothing but Italian, their audiences, though not being +able to understand the _words_, yet the performers were such +past-masters in the Mimetic Art that their representations were just as +intelligible and as expressive as if they had been with words. + +Gherardi, in his treatise, "_Theâtre Italien_," speaks of a Scaramouch, +who, waiting for his master, Harlequin, seats and plays on the guitar. +Suddenly, by Pasquariel, he is thrown into a fright. "It was then," says +Gherardi, "that incomparable model of our most eminent actors displayed +the miracles of his art; that art which paints the passions in the face, +throws them into every gesture, and through a whole scene of frights +upon frights, conveys the most powerful expression of ludicrous terror. +This man moved all hearts by the simplicity of nature, more than skilful +orators can with all the charms of persuasive rhetoric." + +The Extemporal Comedies were all improvised, the actors underwent no +rehearsal, and, as the name denotes, everything was impromptu. The +Scenario, or plot, had just simply the scenes and the characters set +forth, and it was then hung in a conspicuous place on the stage; and +just in a similar way as the gas or lime light "plots" are affixed in +present day theatres, though the Scenarios were not as elaborate as what +some of our gas or limelight "plots" are. + +Before going on the stage, the Mimes just inspected the Scenario of the +_Comedia Del' Arte_, and for the dialogue and action everything depended +solely upon their Pantomimic genius. + +Disraeli mentions that men of great genius had a passion for performing +in these Extemporal Comedies, and, amongst others, the great painter, +Salvator Rosa. A favourite character of Rosa's was that of Formica, a +Clown of Calabria. Passeri, in his life of Rosa, tells the following +anecdote:-- + +One summer, Salvator Rosa joined a company of young persons, who were +curiously addicted to the making of _Comedie all' Improviso_. In the +midst of a vineyard they raised a rustic stage, under the direction of +one Mussi, who enjoyed some literary reputation, particularly for his +sermons preached in Lent. + +Their second Comedy was numerously attended, and I went among the rest. +I sat on the same bench by good fortune with Cavalier Bernini, +Romanelli, and Guido, all well-known persons. Salvator Rosa, who had +already made himself a favourite with the Roman people, under the +character of Formica, opened with a prologue in company with other +actors. He proposed for relieving themselves of the extreme heats and +_ennui_ that they should make a Comedy, and all agreed. Formica (Rosa) +then spoke (in the satirical Venetian dialect) these exact words, which +Mr. Disraeli translates as follows:--"I will not, however, that we +should make a Comedy like certain persons who cut clothes, and put them +on this man's back, and on that man's back; for at last the time comes +which shows how much faster went the cut of the shears than the pen of +the poet; nor will we have entering on the scene, couriers, brandy +sellers, and goatherds, and there stare shy and blockish, which I think +worthy the senseless invention of an ass." + +Passeri continues: "At this time Bernini had made a Comedy in the +Carnival very pungent and biting; and that summer he had one of +Castelli's performed in the suburbs, where, to represent the dawn of +day, appeared on the stage water-carriers, couriers, and goat-herds, +going about--all which is contrary to rule, which allows of no character +who is not concerned in the dialogue to mix with the groups. At these +words of the Formica, I, who well knew his meaning, instantly glanced my +eye at Bernini, to observe his movements; but he, with an artificial +carelessness, showed that this 'cut of the shears' did not touch him; +and he made no apparent show of being hurt. But Castelli, who was also +near, tossing his head and smiling in bitterness, showed clearly that he +was hit." + +In concluding, Mr. Disraeli observes that: "This Italian story, told +with all the poignant relish of these vivacious natives, to whom such a +stinging incident was an important event, also shows the personal +freedoms taken on these occasions by a man of genius, entirely in the +spirit of the ancient Roman _Atellanae_ or the Grecian _Satyra_." + +Of Extemporal Comedies, Riccoboni mentions that: "This kind of spectacle +is peculiar to Italy; one cannot deny that it has graces perfectly its +own, and which _written Comedy can never exhibit_. This impromptu mode +of acting furnishes opportunities for a perpetual change in the +performance, so that the same Scenario repeated still appears a new one: +thus one Comedy may become twenty Comedies. _An actor of this +description, always supposing an actor of genius, is more vividly +affected than one who has coldly got his part by rote. But figure, +memory, voice, and even sensibility, are not sufficient for the actor +all' improvista; he must be in the habit of cultivating the imagination, +pouring forth the flow of expression, and prompt in those flashes which +instantly vibrate in the plaudits of an audience._" + +Again, Gherardi: "Anyone may learn a part by rote, and do something bad, +or indifferent, on another theatre. With us the affair is quite +otherwise; and when an Italian actor dies, it is with infinite +difficulty that we can supply his place. An Italian actor learns nothing +by head; he looks on the subject for a moment before he comes forward on +the stage, and entirely depends upon his imagination for the rest. The +actor who is accustomed merely to recite what he has been taught is so +completely occupied by his memory, that he appears to stand, as it were, +unconnected either with the audience or his companions; he is so +impatient to deliver himself of the burthen he is carrying that he +trembles like a schoolboy, or is as senseless as an echo, _and could +never speak if others had not spoken before_. Such a tutored actor among +us would be like a paralytic arm to a body: an unserviceable member, +only fatiguing the healthy action of the sound parts." + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +Pantomimical Characters--Neapolitan Pantomime--The Harlequin Family--The +Original Characters in the Italian Pantomimes--Celebrated +Harlequins--Italian and French Harlequins--A French view of the English +Clown--Pierrots' origin--Pantaloon, how the name has been +derived--Columbine--Marionette and Puppet Shows. + + +After having shown what the _Lazzi_ and Extemporal Comedies were like, +let us now turn to the Pantomimical characters associated with their +representations. + +Every one, observes Mr. Isaac Disraeli, of this grotesque family were +the creatures of national genius, chosen by the people for themselves. +Italy, both ancient and modern, exhibits a gesticulating people of +comedians, and the same comic genius characterised the nation through +all its revolutions, as well as the individual through all his fortunes. +The lower classes still betray their aptitude in that vivid humour, +where the action is suited to the word--silent gestures sometimes +expressing whole sentences. They can tell a story, and even raise the +passions, without opening their lips. No nation in modern Europe +possesses so keen a relish for the burlesque, insomuch as to show a +class of unrivalled poems, which are distinguished by the very title; +and perhaps there never was an Italian in a foreign country, however +deep in trouble, but would drop all remembrance of his sorrows, should +one of his countrymen present himself with the paraphernalia of Punch at +the corner of a street. I was acquainted with an Italian, a philosopher +and a man of fortune, residing in this country, who found so lively a +pleasure in performing Punchinello's little comedy, that, for this +purpose, with considerable expense and curiosity, he had his wooden +company, in all their costume, sent over from his native place. The +shrill squeak of the tin whistle had the same comic effect on him as the +notes of the _Ranz des Vaches_ have in awakening the tenderness of +domestic emotions in the wandering Swiss--the national genius is +dramatic. Lady Wortley Montagu when she resided at a villa near Brescia, +was applied to by the villagers for leave to erect a theatre in her +saloon: they had been accustomed to turn the stables into a playhouse +every Carnival. She complied, and, as she tells us, was "Surprised at +the beauty of their scenes, though painted by a country painter. The +performance was yet more surprising, the actors being all peasants; but +the Italians have so natural a genius for comedy, they acted as well as +if they had been brought up to nothing else, particularly the Arlechino, +who far surpassed any of our English, though only the tailor of our +village, and I am assured never saw a play in any other place." Italy is +the mother, and the nurse, of the whole Harlequin race. + +Hence it is that no scholars in Europe but the most learned Italians, +smit by the national genius, could have devoted their vigils to narrate +the evolutions of Pantomime, to compile the annals of Harlequin, to +unroll the genealogy of Punch, and to discover even the most secret +anecdotes of the obscurer branches of that grotesque family, amidst +their changeful fortunes, during a period of two thousand years. Nor is +this all; princes have ranked them among the Rosciuses; and Harlequins +and Scaramouches have been ennobled. Even Harlequins themselves have +written elaborate treatises on the almost insurmountable difficulties of +their art. I despair to convey the sympathy they have inspired me with +to my reader; but every _Tramontane_ genius must be informed, that of +what he has never seen, he must rest content to be told. + +Of the ancient Italian troop we have retained three or four of the +characters, while their origin has nearly escaped our recollection; but +of the burlesque comedy, the extempore dialogue, the humorous fable, and +its peculiar species of comic acting, all has vanished. + +Many of the popular pastimes of the Romans unquestionably survived their +dominion, for the people will amuse themselves, though their masters may +be conquered; and tradition has never proved more faithful than in +preserving popular sports. Many of the games of our children were played +by Roman boys; the mountebanks, with the dancers and tumblers on their +moveable stages, still in our fairs, are Roman; the disorders of the +_Bacchanalia_, Italy appears to imitate in her Carnivals. Among these +Roman diversions certain comic characters have been transmitted to us, +along with some of their characteristics, and their dresses. The +speaking Pantomimes and Extemporal Comedies which have delighted the +Italians for many centuries, are from this ancient source. + +Rich, in his "Companion to the Latin Dictionary," has an excellent +illustration of this passage:--"This Art was of very great antiquity, +and much practiced by the Greeks and Romans, both on the stage and in +the tribune, induced by their habit of addressing large assemblies in +the open air, where it would have been impossible for the majority to +comprehend what was said without the assistance of some conventional +signs, which enabled the speaker to address himself to the eye, as well +as the ear of the audience. These were chiefly made by certain positions +of the hands and fingers, the meaning of which was universally +recognised and familiar to all classes, and the practice itself reduced +to a regular system, as it remains at the present time amongst the +populace of Naples, who will carry on a long conversation between +themselves by mere gesticulation, and without pronouncing a word." That +many of these signs are similar to those used by the Ancients, is proved +by the same author, who copies from an antique vase a scene which he +explains by the action of the hands of the figures, adding, "A common +lazzaroni, when shown one of these compositions, will at once explain +the purport of the action, which a scholar with all his learning cannot +divine." The gesture to signify love, employed by the Ancients and +modern Neapolitans, was joining the tips of the thumb and forefinger of +the left hand; an imputation or asseveration by holding forth the right +hand; a denial by raising the same hand, extending the fingers. In +mediaeval works of art, a particular attitude of the fingers is adopted +to exhibit malicious hate: it is done by crossing the forefinger of each +hand, and is generally seen in figures of Herod or Judas Iscariot. + +Down to the fifteenth century there is not much known of the family of +Harlequin, with the exception, perhaps, that the name Zany became more +widely distributed into such as Drolls, Clowns, Pantaloons, Punches, +Scaramouches, and the like. In the Italian Comedy, of purely native +growth, the original characters were Pantaloon, a Venetian Merchant; +Dottore, a Bolognese physician; Spavento, a Neapolitan braggart; +Pulcinello, a wag of Apalia; Giangurgoto and Corviello, two Clowns of +Cala-simpleton; and Arlechino, a blundering servant of Bergamo. + +The latter The Harlequin of the Italian theatre, has passed through, +mentions Mr. Disraeli, all the vicissitudes of fortune. At first (as we +have seen) he was a true representative of the ancient Mime; but, during +the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, he degenerated into a booby and +a gourmand, the perpetual butt for a sharp-witted fellow, his companion, +Brighella, the knife and the whetstone. Harlequin, however, under the +reforming hand of Goldoni, became, in after years, a child of nature, +and the delight of his country; and he has commemorated the historical +character of the great Harlequin Sacchi. It may serve the reader to +correct his notions of one, from the absurd pretender with us who has +usurped the title. "Sacchi possessed a lively and brilliant imagination. +While other Harlequins merely repeated themselves, Sacchi, who always +adhered to the essence of the play, contrived to give an air of +freshness to the piece by his new sallies and unexpected repartees. His +comic traits and his jests were neither taken from the language of the +lower orders, nor that of the comedians. He levied contributions on +comic authors, on poets, orators, and philosophers; and in his +impromptus they often discovered the thoughts of Seneca, Cicero, or +Montaigne. He possessed the art of appropriating the remains of these +great men to himself, and allying them to the simplicity of the +blockhead; so that the same proposition which was admired in a serious +author, became highly ridiculous in the mouth of this excellent actor." +In France Harlequin was improved into a wit, and even converted into a +moralist; he is the graceful hero of Florian's charming compositions, +which please even in the closet. "This imaginary being, invented by the +Italians, and adopted by the French," says the ingenious Goldoni, "has +the exclusive right of uniting _naiveté_ with _finesse_, and no one ever +surpassed Florian in the delineation of this amphibious character. He +has even contrived to impart sentiment, passion, and morality to his +pieces." Harlequin must be modelled as a national character, the +creature of manners; and thus the history of such a Harlequin might be +that of the age and of the people, whose genius he ought to represent. + +The history of a people is often detected in their popular amusements; +one of these Italian Pantomimic characters shows this. They had a +_Capitan_, who probably originated in the _Miles gloriosus_ of Plautus; +a brother, at least, of our Ancient Pistol and Bobadil. The ludicrous +names of this military poltroon were Spavento (Horrid fright), +Spezza-fer (Shiver-spear), and a tremendous recreant was Captain +Spavento de Val inferno. When Charles V. entered Italy, a Spanish +Captain was introduced; a dreadful man he was too, if we are to be +frightened by names: Sangre e Fuego! and Matamoro! His business was to +deal in Spanish rhodomontades, to kick out the native Italian Capitan, +in compliment to the Spaniards, and then to take a quiet caning from +Harlequin, in compliment to themselves. When the Spaniards lost their +influence in Italy, the Spanish Captain was turned into Scaramouch, who +still wore the Spanish dress, and was perpetually in a panic. The +Italians could only avenge themselves on the Spaniards in Pantomime! On +the same principle the gown of Pantaloon over his red waistcoat and +breeches, commemorates a circumstance in Venetian history expressive of +the popular feeling. + +The characters of the Italian Pantomime became so numerous, that every +dramatic subject was easily furnished with the necessary personages of +comedy. That loquacious pedant, the Dottore, was taken from the lawyers +and the physicians, babbling false Latin in the dialect of learned +Bologna. Scapin was a livery servant, who spoke the dialect of Bergamo, +a province proverbially abounding with rank intriguing knaves, who, +like the slaves in Plautus and Terence, were always on the watch to +further any wickedness; while Calabria furnished the booby Giangurgello +with his grotesque nose. Molière, it has been ascertained, discovered in +the Italian theatre at Paris his "_Medecin malgre Lui_," his +"_Etourdi_," his "_L'Avare_," and his "_Scapin_." Milan offered a pimp +in Brighella; Florence, an ape of fashion in Gelsomino. These and other +Pantomimic characters, and some ludicrous ones, as the Tartaglia, a +spectacled dotard, a stammerer, and usually in a passion, had been +gradually introduced by the inventive powers of an actor of genius, to +call forth his own peculiar talents. + +The Pantomimes, or, as they have been described, the continual +Masquerades, of Ruzzante, with all these diversified personages, talking +and acting, formed, in truth, a burlesque comedy. Some of the finest +geniuses of Italy became the votaries of Harlequin; and the Italian +Pantomime may be said to form a school of its own. The invention of +Ruzzante was one capable of perpetual novelty. Many of these actors have +been chronicled either for the invention of some comic character, or for +their true imitation of nature in performing some favourite one. One, +already immortalised by having lost his real name in that of Captain +Matamoros, by whose inimitable humours he became the most popular man in +Italy, invented the Neapolitan Pullicinello; while another, by deeper +study, added new graces to another burlesque rival. One Constantini +invented the character of Mezetin, as the Narcissus of Pantomime. He +acted without a mask, to charm by the beautiful play of his countenance, +and display the graces of his figure; the floating drapery of his +fanciful dress could be arranged by the changeable humour of the wearer. +Crowds followed him in the streets, and a King of Poland ennobled him. +The Wit and Harlequin Dominic sometimes dined at the table of Louis +XIV.--Tiberio Florillo, who invented the character of Scaramouch, had +been the amusing companion of the boyhood of Louis XIV.; and from him +Molière learnt much, as appears by the verses under his portrait:-- + + Cet illustre comédien + De son art traça la carrière: + II fut le maître de Molière, + Et la Nature fut le sien. + +The last lines of an epitaph on one of these Pantomimic actors may be +applied to many of them during their flourishing period:-- + + Toute sa vie il a fait rire; + Il a fait pleurer a sa mort. + +Several of these admirable actors were literary men, who have written on +their art, and shown that it was one. The Harlequin Cecchini composed +the most ancient treatise on this subject, and was ennobled by the +Emperor Matthias; and Nicholas Barbieri, for his excellent acting called +the Beltrame, a Milanese simpleton, in his treatise on comedy, tells us +that he was honoured by the conversation of Louis XIII., and rewarded +with fortune. + +A sketch of Harlequin's original part is worth recording. "He is a +mixture of wit, simplicity, ignorance, and grace, he is a half made up +man, a great child with gleams of reason and intelligence, and all his +mistakes and blunders have something arch about them. The true mode of +representing him is to give him suppleness, agility, the playfulness of +a kitten with a certain coarseness of exterior, which renders his +actions more absurd. His part is that of a faithful valet; greedy; +always in love; always in trouble, either on his own or his master's +account; afflicted and consoled as easily as a child, and whose grief is +as amusing as his joy." + +His costume consisted of a jacket fastened in front with loose ribbons, +and pantaloons of wide dimensions, patched with various coloured pieces +of cloth sewn on in any fashion. His beard was worn straight, and of a +black colour; on his face he had a half black mask and in his belt of +untanned leather he carried a wooden sword. + +In Italy there were many varieties of Harlequin, the most notable being +Trivelin, and Truffaldin. The dress of the former, instead of the +patches symmetrically arranged, had triangular patches along the seams, +and suns and moons only for patches. He wore the soft hat and hare's +foot, but did not carry the wooden sword. The hare's foot denoting +speed, has in all probability its origin in the winged cap of the god +Mercury. + +Truffaldin is a species of Harlequin, who first appeared about 1530. He +represented (_truffa_, the villain) a sneaking kind of knave, and in the +middle of the seventeenth century this character was very popular. + +In France, about 1660, Cardinal Mazarin invited one Joseph Dominique +Biancolelli, to come to Paris to give entertainments. Shortly after his +arrival Biancolelli gave quite a new reading to the character of +Arlechino, as he made him not only a wit and punster, but also a bit of +a philosopher. Biancolelli's improvements did not end here, as he turned +his attention to the dress of Arlechino, which was now made of finer and +better quality, whilst the parti-coloured patches were made more +artistic and attractive. On the death of Lolatelli, who, in his +lifetime, had played a kind of Arlechino part, Biancolelli succeeded +him, and soon sprang into prominence, and acquired a great artistic +reputation. Whilst dancing before Louis XV. Biancolelli contracted a +cold, which set up inflammation of the lungs, causing his death. His +companions, at the theatre in which he performed, to mark the sense of +their great grief, closed the theatre for a month. Biancolelli died in +1688. + +As Arlechino, Biancolelli was succeeded by his son, Pierre, who played +under the name of Dominique. + +A Tuscan, named Gherardi, who had obtained celebrity as a singer, was +the next successful French Harlequin. In consequence of a fall Gherardi +met his death, in the year 1700. + +Nearly a couple of decades afterwards, in 1716, Thomassin made his +appearance as Harlequin, in pieces written for him by Marivaux, such as +"_Le Prince Travesti_," "_La Surprise de l'Amour_," and in which he +appeared with great success. So daring were Thomassin's tricks, and in +such popularity was he held, that, fearful of losing their favourite +like Gherardi, he was obliged to discontinue them. + +Another competitor now arose to take the crown from Thomassin, and in +the person of one Carlo Bertinazzi, commonly called Carlin. Our actor, +Garrick, was an admirer of this famous Mime. Of Carlin, M. Sand +speaks:--"Like most clever buffoons, he had a very melancholy +disposition, and, as with Dominique, his gaiety was what the English +term humour. It belonged to his mind, and not to his temperament." +Carlin also wrote a book entitled, "_Les Metamorphosis d'Arlequin_." In +1783 Carlin died, and his place in the favour of the public was filled +by Galinetti. + +The French view of the English Clown is interesting: "The English clown +(whose nearest representative on the French stage is Pierrot) is an odd +and fantastical being. The Florentine Stentorella alone resembles him in +his jests and tricks. His strange dress seems to have been taken from +the American Indians. It consists of a white, red, yellow, and green net +work, ornamented with diamond-shaped pieces of stuff of various colours. +His face is floured, and streaked with paint a deep carmine; the +forehead is prolonged to the top of the head, which is covered with a +red wig, from the centre of which a little stiff tail points to the sky. +His manners are no less singular than his costume. He is not dumb, like +our Pierrot, but, on the contrary, he sustains an animated and witty +conversation; he is also an acrobat, and very expert in feats of +strength." + +M. Blandelaire gives a more poetical description: "The English Pierrot +is not a person as pale as the moon, mysterious as silent, straight and +long, like the gallows to whom we have been accustomed in Deburean. The +English Pierrot enters like the tempest, and tumbles like a parcel; his +laugh resembles joyous thunder. He is short and fat; his face is floured +and streaked with paint; he has a great patch of red on each cheek; his +mouth is enlarged by prolongation of the lips by means of two red bands, +so that when he laughs his mouth appears to open from ear to ear." + +The Pierrots--not only in France, but on the Continent generally--took +all the characteristics of the Zanys, Bertoldo, Paggliaccio, Gros, +Giullaume, Pedrolino, Gilles, Corviello, and Peppe Nappa, of the Italian +Comedy, and all owing at least their original conception to the theatres +of the Greeks, and the Romans. On the Italian stage there was not a +principal Clown like in England, the foremost place being occupied by +Arlechino. The four principal masked characters of the Italian _Comedia +del' Arte_ in Venice consisted of Tartaglia (a stammerer), Truffildino, +Brighella (a representative of orators and public personages), and +Pantaloon (a native of Venice). The name of Pantaloon is derived from +_planta-leone_ (_plante-lion_--he planted the lion). The probable +meaning of it in this particular is that the Venetian merchants, it is +said, in boasting of their conquests set up their standard--the Venetian +standard being the lion of St. Mark--on various islands in the +Mediterranean, and from which they were nicknamed, it is said, "plant +lion." A more probable derivation of the word is that the ancient patron +saint of Venice is San Pantaleone. St. Pantaleone's day is July 27. He +was martyred A.D. 303. In "Childe Harold," Lord Byron, in Canto IV., +stanza 14, has that "The Venetian name of Pantaleone is her very +by-word." + +Pantaloon has been, at various times, husband, father, and widower. +Sometimes he is rich, then poor, and occasionally a spendthrift. The +dress that he wore consisted of tight red breeches, rather short, a long +black robe, red stockings and waistcoat, a little woollen skull-cap and +slippers. + +When the Venetian republic lost Negropont mourning generally was +adopted, and Pantaloon adopted it with the rest, and on the Continent +mourning has, I believe, formed a component part of Pantaloon's dress +ever since. + +In 1750 Darbes, in Italy, was one of the best Pantaloons. Darbes, on +one occasion, ventured to play this character in one of Goldoni +characters, without a mask, and which, we are told, was a failure. A +similar attempt was made on the English stage, which I have previously +referred to. + +Mention has been previously made of females appearing on the stage +during the Grecian and Roman periods. From this, however, there arose on +the Italian stage, in after years, the _Servetta_ or _Fantesca_, a kind +of waiting maid, or "accomplished companion" part, and called later, in +France, _Soubrette_, and the origin of which, in all probability, can be +traced to the _Mimas_ of _Pantomimus_. + +In the sixteenth century mention is made of a troupe of performers known +as _Amorosos_ or _Innamortos_, appearing in Italy. Those who only +appeared in the female parts were known as Colombina, Oliva, Fianetta, +Pasquella, and Nespella. Columbina's part, the "accomplished companion," +like the _Vita_ of the Indian Drama, was sometimes that of mistress, and +sometimes that of maid. Up to 1560 women were unknown on the Italian +stage. In England just one hundred years later. + +Three generations of the family of Biancolelli, the Harlequin, +grandmother, grand-daughter, and great grand-daughter appeared as +Columbines in France. The most talented was Catherine, the daughter of +Dominique, and she made her _debut_ in 1683, in "_Arlequin Protée_," +with great success. + +About 1695, Columbine appeared in a parti-coloured gown like a female +Harlequin, and in the piece "_Le Retour de la foie de Besons_," acted at +the Comedie Italiene. As the innovation was much liked, the part of +Columbine came to be dressed like the Harlequin. The Columbine dressed +in short muslin skirts is a creation of modern times. In the French +Comedies Columbine was often Harlequin's wife, but she never had the +powers of a magical wand. + +In the old form of Pantomime there were many other personages in these +dumb shows which we never had in the English Pantomimes. To note a few +of them:--The Captain, a bragging swash-buckler; the Apothecary, a +half-starved individual with a red nose; and a female _soubrette_, who +acted for her mistress, Columbine, similar duties as what Clown +performed as valet for his master. The Doctor brought at first on the +stage in 1560, was supposed to be a lawyer or a physician. From 1560 his +dress was that of a professor's, a short, black tunic, stockings, and a +black mask covering the forehead and nose. Another, Façanappa, had a +long parrot nose, surmounted by a pair of green spectacles, a flat hat, +with a broad brim, a waistcoat covered with tinsel, and a long white +coat with large pockets. Like the Clown of our early English plays, and +like his ancestors, the _Atellans_ and _Mimes_, he had the privilege of +making allusions from the stage, in what, I suppose, were something like +the Interludes. Il Barone is another variety. He was a Sicilian lord, +deceived by his daughter, and also duped by his valets. "_Il Barone_" +was a favourite subject for another form of "Miming," that of the +wooden figures called Marionettes. + +Marionette entertainments were known both to the Greeks and the Romans. +The adventures of "_Don Juan_" and "_Don Giovanni_," of the Italian +Opera, in all probability sprang originally from the adventures of Punch +in the puppet shows. + +Puppet shows introduced into France (_temp._ Charles IX.) from Italy, +where they were and are still known as _Fantoccini_, by Marion--hence +their name--and then into this country, are mentioned by Shakespeare, +Pepys, Jonson, Swift, and the Essayists. + +Puppet shows, in this country, were formerly known as "Motions." +Shakespeare's Antolycus frequented fairs and the like, and he also +composed a "Motion" of "The Prodigal Son." Mystery plays were also +represented by puppets. + +In England, especially at Bartholomew Fair, they were always very +popular, and the chief survivor of this form of "dumb show" is "Mr. +Punch" of our streets, whose ancient history I have briefly mentioned in +another chapter, but not that of "Mrs. Punch," on whose history I am +unable--however so brief--to throw any light. + +Let us now, dear reader, return to England, and trace in this country +something more of the History of Pantomime, and for which we will now +open another chapter. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +Italian Scenarios and English "Platts"--Pantaloon--Tarleton, the +Clown--Extemporal Comedy--The Poet Milton--Ben Jonson--The +Commonwealth--"A Reign of Dramatic Terror"--Robert Cox and his "Humours" +and "Drolleries"--The Restoration. + + +It has been thought that our dramatic poet, Massinger, drew upon the +Italian Comedy for the humour of some of his plays. That there was some +form of intercourse between the English and Italian stage is shown by +the discovery of one of the Italian Scenarios, or "Platts," as we know +them, at Dulwich College, which discovery Steevens describes as "a +mysterious fragment of ancient stage direction, and of a species of +dramatic entertainment which no memorial is preserved in any annals of +the English stage." The "Platt," written in a large hand, "And +containing directions, was thought to have been affixed near the +prompter's stand, and it has even an oblong hole in its centre to admit +of being suspended on a wooden peg (Disraeli). On it, and in a familiar +way, appear the names of the players, such as: Pigg, White and Black, +Dick and Sam, Little Will Barne, Jack Gregory, and the Red-faced +fellow." + +A "Platt" of the "Seven Deadly Sinnes," supposed to have been written by +Dick Tarleton, the famous Clown, is preserved, I believe, in Dulwich +College. It consists of a pasteboard fifteen inches high, and nine in +breadth, and on it is written, in two columns, the following:-- + +"A tent being placed on the stage for Henry the Sixth; he in it asleep. +To him the lieutenant, and a pursuivant (R. Cowley, Jo. Duke), and one +warder (R. Pallant). To them Pride, Gluttony, Wrath, and Covetousness at +one door; at another door Envy, Sloth, and Lechery. The three put back +the four, and so _exeunt_. + +"Henry awaking, enter a keeper (J. Sinclair), to him a servant (T. Belt), +to him Lidgate and the keeper. _Exit_, then enter again--then Envy +passeth over the stage. Lidgate speaks." + +These "Platts" were, in all probability, one of the first written forms +of Pantomimic entertainments known in England, and borrowed, as +mentioned, from the Scenarios of the Italians. That form of home +amusement well-known in family circles, "Acting Charades," may be +likened to them. + +To get all the information that we can obtain of the "Platts," I am sure +I cannot do better than quote the words of Mr. Isaac Disraeli, well +assured that they will be more acceptable than any I can make. + +Some of these "Platts" are on solemn subjects, like the tragic +Pantomimes; and in some appear "Pantaloon, and his man Peascod, with +_spectacles_." Steevens observes, that he met with no earlier example of +the appearance of Pantaloon, as a specific character on our stage; and +that this direction concerning "the spectacles" cannot fail to remind +the reader of a celebrated passage in "As you like it." (Scene 6, Act +II.). + + ... "The sixth age shifts + Into the lean and slippered pantaloon; + With spectacles on nose, and pouch on side; + His youthful hose well saved, a world too wide + For his shrunk shank; and his big manly voice, + Turning again toward childish treble, pipes + And whistles in his sound." + +Perhaps, he adds, Shakespeare alludes to this personage, as habited in +his own time. The old age of Pantaloon is marked by his leanness, and +his spectacles and his slippers. He always runs after Harlequin, but +cannot catch him; as he runs in slippers and without spectacles, is +liable to pass him by without seeing him. Can we doubt that this +Pantaloon had come from the Italian theatre, after what we have already +said? Does not this confirm the conjecture, that there existed an +intercourse between the Italian theatre and our own? Further, Tarleton, +the comedian, celebrated for his "Extemporal wit," was the writer or +inventor of one of these "Platts." Stow records of one of our actors +that "he had a quick, delicate, refined _Extemporal wit_." And Howes, +the continuator of Stow's Chronicles of another, that "he had a +wondrous, plentiful, pleasant, _Extemporal_ wit." + +Praiseworthy reference is also made of Tarleton in "Kinde-Hart's +Dream," 4to., published in 1592. In 1611 a book was published entitled +"Tarleton's Jeasts." Tarleton was so celebrated in his time that his +portrait was hung out as a sign for alehouses. "To sit with Tarleton on +an ale-post's signe," observes Bishop Hall in his satires. Oldys, in his +M.S. notes, mentions that "There is an alehouse sign of a tabor and pipe +man, with the name of Tarleton under it, in the borough of Southwark, +and it was taken from the print before the old 4to. book of 'Tarleton's +Jeasts;' and Lord Oxford had a portrait of him with his tabor and pipe, +which was probably taken from the pamphlet called 'Tarleton's Jeasts,' +on the title page of which there is a wooden plate of Tarleton, at full +length in his Clown's dress, playing on his pipe with one hand, and +beating his drum with the other." + +These actors then (continues Mr. Disraeli), who were in the habit of +exercising their impromptus, resembled those who performed in the +unwritten comedies of the Italians. Gabriel Harvey, the Aristarchus of +the day, compliments Tarleton for having brought forward a _new species +of dramatic exhibition_. If this compliment paid to Tarleton merely +alludes to his dexterity at _extemporaneous wit_ in the character of the +_Clown_, as my friend Mr. Douce thinks, this would be sufficient to show +that he was attempting to introduce on our stage the Extemporal Comedy +of the Italians, which Gabriel Harvey distinguishes as "a new species." +As for these "Platts," which I shall not venture to call "Scenarios," +they surprise by their bareness, conveying no notion of the piece +itself, though quite sufficient for the actors. They consist of mere +exits and entrances of the actors, and often the real names of the +actors are familiarly mixed with those of the _dramatis personae_. +Steevens has justly observed, however, on these skeletons, that although +"The drift of these dramatic pieces cannot be collected from the mere +outlines before us, yet we must not charge them with absurdity. Even the +scenes of Shakespeare would have worn as unpromising an aspect, had +their skeletons only been discovered." The printed _Scenarios_ of the +Italian theatre were not more intelligible; exhibiting only the _hints_ +for scenes. + +Thus, I think, we have sufficient evidence of an intercourse subsisting +between the English and Italian theatres, not hitherto suspected; and I +find an allusion to these Italian Pantomimes, by the great town-wit Tom +Nash, in his "Pierce Pennilesse," which shows that he was well +acquainted with their nature. He, indeed, exults over them, observing +that our plays are "honourable and full of gallant resolution, not +consisting, like theirs, of Pantaloon, a Zany, and a w---e (alluding to +the women actors of the Italian stage); but of emperors, kings, and +princes." My conviction is still confirmed, when I find that Stephen +Gosson wrote the comedy of "Captain Mario;" it has not been printed, but +"Captain Mario" is one of the Italian characters. + +Even at a later period, the influence of these performances reached the +greatest name in the English Parnassus. One of the great actors and +authors of these pieces, who published eighteen of these irregular +productions, was Andreini, whose name must have the honour of being +associated with Milton's, for it was his comedy or opera which threw the +first spark of the "Paradise Lost" into the soul of the epic poet--a +circumstance which will hardly be questioned by those who have examined +the different schemes and allegorical personages of the first projected +drama of "Paradise Lost": nor was Andreini, as well as many others of +this race of Italian dramatists, inferior poets. The Adamo of Andreini +was a personage sufficiently original and poetical to serve as the model +of the Adam of Milton. The youthful English poet, at its representation, +carried it away in his mind. Wit, indeed, is a great traveller; and thus +also the "Empiric" of Massinger might have reached us from the Bolognese +Dottore. + +The late Mr. Hole, the ingenious writer on the "Arabian Nights," +observed to me that Molière, it must be presumed, never read Fletcher's +plays, yet his "_Bourgeois Gentilhomme_," and the other's "Noble +Gentleman," bear in some instances a great resemblance. Both may have +been drawn from the same Italian source of comedy which I have here +indicated. + +Many years after this article was written, appeared "The History of +English Dramatic Poetry," by Mr. Collier. That very laborious +investigator has an article on "Extemporal Plays and Plots," iii., 393. +The nature of these "Platts" or "Plots," he observes, "Our theatrical +antiquaries have not explained." The truth is that they never suspected +their origin in the Italian "Scenarios." My conjectures are amply +confirmed by Mr. Collier's notices of the intercourse of our players +with the Italian actors. Whetstone's Heptameron, in 1582, mentions "The +comedians of Ravenna, who are not _tied to any written device_." In +Kyd's Spanish Tragedy the Extemporal Art is described:-- + + The Italian tragedians were so sharp of wit, + That in one hour of meditation + They would perform anything in action. + +These Extemporal plays were witnessed much nearer than in Italy--at the +_Theâtre des Italiens_ at Paris--for one of the characters replies:-- + + I have seen the like, + In Paris, among the French tragedians. + +Ben Jonson has mentioned the Italian "Extemporal Plays," in his "Case is +Altered"; and an Italian _commediante_ and his company were in London in +1578, who probably let our players into many a secret. + +Evil times, with the advent of the Commonwealth, soon fell upon our +theatres, and when they, as well as plays, were suppressed by order of +the Puritan Parliament, some of the actors followed the Royalist cause +(we do not hear of any taking the side of the Parliament), and lost +their lives fighting for the king. Others attempted to enact plays in +secret, but these performances more often than not, caused the actors +incarceration in some prison. At Holland House, in Kensington, many of +these secret performances, by the aid of bribery, took place. To give +timely warning of the performances Mr. Wright, in his "_Historia +Histronica_," mentions that "Alexander Goff, the woman-actor, was the +jackal to give notice of time and place to the lovers of the drama." + +All this however, could not, and would not, keep the spirit of the drama +alive. The theatres were, we know, totally suppressed, "so there might +be no more plaies acted." Play-goers there were, as I have shown, but +they never knew when, in witnessing a performance, they might be seized +by the military, to be fined or imprisoned, or perhaps both. A more +lengthy reign of "Dramatic Terror" than what we had at this period, +would, in all probability, have left us little or no trace of the Drama +of this country. But a saviour was at hand, and that was Pantomime. + +Pantomime, as previously stated, kept alive for ages, after the downfall +of the Roman Empire, the Dramatic Art, and during the Commonwealth of +this country, it practically did the same for us. + +Owing to the exigences of the times, one Robert Cox, an actor of +considerable genius, after the fashion of the Extemporal Comedies of +Italy, invented a series of dramatic exhibitions at the Red Bull Theatre +(where the first English actress made her appearance December 8, 1660) +and elsewhere, under the guise of rope-dancing, a number of comic scenes +from Shakespeare, Shirley, Marston, Beaumont, and Fletcher, and others. +Cox's exhibitions, known as "Humours" or "Drolleries," were collected by +Marsh, and reprinted (1672) by Francis Kirkman, the author and +book-seller. This collection is entitled "The Wits, or Sport upon Sport, +in select pieces of Drollery, digested into scenes by way of dialogue. +Together with variety of Humours of several nations fitted for the +pleasure and content of all persons, either in Court, City, Country, or +Camp." + +Of these "Humours" Kirkman observes, "As meanly as you may now think of +these Drolls, they were then acted by the best comedians; and, I may +say, by some that then exceeded all now living; the incomparable Robert +Cox, who was not only the principal actor, but also the contriver and +author of most of these farces. How I have heard him cried up for his +John Swabber, and Simpleton the Smith; in which he being to appear with +a large piece of bread and butter, I have frequently known several of +the female spectators and auditors to long for it; and once that +well-known natural, Jack Adams of Clerkenwell, seeing him with bread and +butter on the stage, and knowing him, cried out, 'Cuz! Cuz! give me +some!' to the great pleasure of the audience. And so naturally did he +act the smith's part, that being at a fair in a country town, and that +farce being presented the only master-smith of the town came to him, +saying, 'Well, although your father speaks so ill of you, yet when the +fair is done, if you will come and work with me, I will give you twelve +pence a week more than I give any other journeyman.' Thus was he taken +for a smith bred, that was, indeed, as much of any trade." + +With the death of the Lord Protector, Cromwell, "The merry rattle of +Monk's drums coming up the Gray's Inn Road, welcomed by thousands of +dusty spectators," the return of Charles II., 1660, and though Charles +was more a lover of the stage than of the drama, the theatre again +recovered its credit, and to vigorously flourish once more. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +Introduction of Pantomimes to the English Stage--Weaver's "History of +the Mimes and Pantomimes"--Weaver's Pantomimes--The prejudice against +Pantomimes--Booth's counsel. + + +The year 1702 marks the appearance of the first Pantomime introduced to +the English stage, written by John Weaver, a friend of Addison and +Steele's, and entitled "Tavern Bilkers." It was produced at Drury Lane. + +The author was by profession a dancing-master; his name is not to be +found in any biographical dictionary, yet, it is evident that the +"little dapper, cheerful man" had brains in his head as well as talent +in his heels. + +John Weaver was the son of a Mr. Weaver, whom the Duke of Ormond, the +Chancellor of Oxford, licensed in 1676 to exercise the profession of a +dancing-master within the university. The date of his birth is unknown, +but we first hear of him as stage-managing the production of his own +Pantomime at Drury Lane, 1702, an entertainment which he described as +one of "dancing, action, and motion." The latter would appear to have +been a failure, as in his "History of the Mimes and Pantomimes," +published in 1728, Weaver states that his next attempt on similar lines +did not take place until many years afterwards--not until the year 1716, +in fact. In 1716 Weaver was back in London producing two burlesque +Pantomimes, "The Loves of Mars and Venus," and "Perseus and Andromeda." +At Drury Lane, in the following year, "Orpheus and Eurydice," and +"Harlequin Turn'd Judge," was produced, and "Cupid and Bacchus" in 1719. +Weaver also wrote many treatises on dancing, some of which were highly +commended by Steele. + +Another Pantomime of Weaver's was "The Judgment of Paris"--date +uncertain--performed by the author's pupils "in the great room over the +Market-house," Shrewsbury--in which town he had taken up his +residence--in the year 1750. John Weaver died September 28th, 1760, and +was buried at St. Chads, Shrewsbury. + +The mention above of "Perseus and Andromeda" calls to mind that there +were several pieces of this name. One of them was severely commented on +in "The Grub-Street Journal" of April 8, 1731. Its title was:--"Perseus +and Andromeda; or the Flying Lovers, in five Interludes, three serious +and two comic. The serious composed by Monsieur Roger, the comic by John +Weaver, dancing-masters." + +It is only just to assign to Weaver the entire credit of being the first +to introduce Pantomimes on the English stage, though the author's +original bent was "scenical dancing," or ballet dancing, by +representations of historical incidents with graceful motion. In his +"History of Pantomimes" the author is careful to distinguish between +those entertainments where "Grin and grimace usurp the passions and +affections of the mind," and those where "A nice address and management +of the passions take up the thoughts of the performer." "Spectators," +says Weaver, in 1730, or thereabouts, "are now so pandering away their +applause on interpolations of pseudo-players, merry Andrews, tumblers, +and rope dancers; and are but rarely touched with, or encourage a +natural player or just Pantomime." + +It was, however, left to John Rich to place Pantomime on a firm footing. +Before dealing with Rich and his Pantomimes, which I shall treat of in +the next chapter, it is appropriate here to note how Pantomimes +generally came to be introduced on the English stage. + +Colley Cibber mentions:--About this time the patentee (Rich) having very +near finished his house in Lincoln's Inn Fields, began to think of +forming a new company; and, in the meantime, found it necessary to apply +for leave to employ them. By the weak defence he had always made against +the several attacks upon his interests, and former Government of the +theatre (Drury Lane), it might be a question, if his house had been +ready, in the Queen's (Anne) time, whether he would then have had the +spirit to ask, or interest enough to obtain leave to use it; but in the +following reign, as it did not appear he had done anything to forfeit +the right of his patent, he prevailed with Mr. Craggs, the younger, to +lay his case before the king, which he did in so effectual a manner that +(as Mr. Craggs himself told me) his Majesty was pleased to say upon it, +"That he remembered when he had been in England before, in King +Charles's time, there had been two theatres in London; and as the patent +seemed to be a lawful grant, he saw no reason why two play-houses might +not be continued." + +The suspension of the patent being thus taken off, the younger multitude +seemed to call aloud for two play-houses! Many desired another, from the +common notion, that two would always create emulation, in the actors. +Others too were as eager for them, from the natural ill-will that +follows the fortunate or prosperous in any undertaking. Of this low +malevolence we had, now and then, remarkable instances; we had been +forced to dismiss an audience of a hundred and fifty pounds, from a +disturbance spirited up, by obscure people, who never gave any better +reason for it than that it was their fancy to support the idle complaint +of one rival actress against another, in their several pretensions to +the chief part in a new tragedy. But as this tumult seemed only to be +the wantonness of English liberty, I shall not presume to lay any +further censure upon it. + +Now, notwithstanding this public desire of re-establishing two houses; +and though I have allowed the former actors greatly our superiors; and +the managers I am speaking of not to have been without their private +errors, yet under all these disadvantages, it is certain, the stage, for +twenty years before this time, had never been in so flourishing a +condition. + +But, in what I have said, I would not be understood to be an advocate +for two play-houses; for we shall soon find that two sets of actors, +tolerated in the same place, have constantly ended in the corruption of +the theatre; of which the auxiliary entertainments, that have so +barbarously supplied the defects of weak action, have, for some years +past, been a flagrant instance; it may not, therefore, be here improper +to shew how our childish Pantomimes first came to take so gross a +possession of the stage. + +I have upon several occasions, already observed, that when one company +is too hard for another, the lower in reputation has always been forced +to exhibit fine newfangled foppery, to draw the multitude after them; of +these expedients, singing and dancing had formerly been most effectual; +but, at the time I am speaking of, our English music had been so +discountenanced since the taste of Italian Operas prevailed, that it was +to no purpose to pretend to it. Dancing, therefore, was now the only +weight, in the opposite scale, and as the new theatre sometimes found +their account in it, it could not be safe for us wholly to neglect it. + +Cibber's antagonistical views towards Pantomime were shared, as we +shall see, by a good many others. + +Booth, however, a greater actor than Cibber, and a tragedian to boot, +took a more business-like view of the proceedings, thinking thin houses +the greatest indignity the stage could suffer. "Men of taste and +judgment (said he) must necessarily form but a small proportion of the +spectators at a theatre, and if a greater number of people were enticed +to sit out a play because a Pantomime was tacked to it, the Pantomime +did good service to all concerned. Besides, if people of position and +taste could, if so minded, leave before the nonsense commenced--an +opportunity they do not seem to have embraced since Booth reminded the +opponents of Pantomime how Italian opera had drawn the nobility and +gentry away from the play-houses, as appeared by the melancholy +testimony of their receipts, until Pantomime came to the rescue when pit +and gallery were better filled, and the boxes too put on a nobler +appearance." + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + +John Rich and his Pantomimes--Rich's Miming---Garrick, Walpole, +Foote--Anecdotes of Rich--Pope--The dance of infernals in "Harlequin +Sorcerer"--Drury Lane--Colley Cibber--Henry Fielding, the +Novelist--Contemporary Writers' opinion of Pantomime--Woodward, the +Harlequin--The meaning of the word Actor--Harlequins--"Dr. Faustus," a +description--William Rufus Chetwood--Accidents--Vandermere, the +Harlequin--"Orpheus and Eurydice" at Covent Garden--A description--Sam. +Hoole, the machinist--Prejudice against Pantomime--Mrs. Oldfield--Robert +Wilks--Macklin--Riot at Lincoln's Inn Fields Theatre--Death of Rich. + + +It was in 1717 that Rich devised this new form of entertainment, though +it was not till 1724, when "The Necromancer, or History of Dr. Faustus" +was produced by Rich, which took the town by storm, that Pantomime +became such a rage. It has been stated that what induced Rich to turn +his attention to Pantomime was the bringing over of a German, named +Swartz, who had two performing dogs that could dance. They were engaged +at £10 a night; and brought full houses. However, be this as it may, in +the "Daily Courant," of December 20, 1717, we find him, advertising for +his "Italian Mimic Scenes"--as he, for long enough, so termed his +Pantomimes--as follows:-- + + "Harlequin Executed: a new Italian Mimic Scene between a + Scaramouch, a Harlequin, a Country Farmer, his Wife, and + others." + + +Of Rich and his early Pantomimes, Davies observes:-- + +John Rich was the son of Christopher Rich, formerly patentee of Drury +Lane Theatre, and he imbibed from his father a _dislike of people with +whom he was obliged to live and converse_. His father wished to acquire +wealth by French dancers and Italian singers, than by the united skill +of the most accomplished comedians. The son inherited the same taste, +and when he came into the patent, with his brother Christopher, of Drury +Lane, and after having ineffectually tried his talent for acting in the +part of the Earl of Essex, and other important characters, he applied +himself to the study of Pantomimical representations at Lincoln's Inn +Fields Theatre. To retrieve the credit of his theatre Rich created a +species of dramatic composition unknown to this, and, I believe, to any +other country, which he called Pantomime. It consisted of two parts, one +serious, the other comic; by the help of gay scenes, fine habits, grand +dances, appropriate music, and other decorations, he exhibited a story +from "Ovid's Metamorphosis," or some other fabulous history. Between the +pauses of the acts he interwove a comic fable, consisting chiefly of the +courtship of Harlequin and Columbine, with a variety of surprising +adventures and tricks, which were produced by the magic wand of +Harlequin; such as the sudden transformation of palaces and temples to +huts and cottages; of men and women into wheelbarrows and joint stools; +of trees turned to houses; colonnades to beds of tulips; and mechanics' +hops into serpents and ostriches. + +It is a most remarkable fact that the Pantomimes that Rich brought out, +all of them could be written down as successes. In the exhibition of his +Pantomimes, Mr. Rich always displayed the greatest taste. He had also +acquired a considerable reputation as a performer of the motley hero +under the name of "Lun Junr," as he was so designated on the bills at +that time, and he was the first performer who rendered the character of +Harlequin at all intelligible in this country. To others he taught the +art of silent, but expressive, action, the interpreter of the mind. +Feeling was pre-eminent in his Miming; and he used to render the scene +of a separation with Columbine as graphic as it was affecting. Excellent +were his "statue scenes" and his "catching the butterfly;" so also were +his other dumb show performances. + +Of Rich, Garrick wrote:-- + + "When Lun appeared with matchless art and whim, + He gave the power of speech to every limb; + Though masked and mute conveyed his quick intent, + And told in frolic's gestures all he meant." + +Rich, however, erred in thinking himself a better actor than a +Pantomimist; and, in fact, he thought himself a finer actor than the +great Garrick himself. "You should see _me_ play Richard!" was a +favourite cry of his. + +In 1782, after seeing the Pantomime of "Robinson Crusoe," Walpole said, +"How unlike the Pantomimes of Rich, which were full of wit, and +coherent, and carried on by a story." + +As I have shown above, Rich had, like many other people, his own +particular little idiosyncrasies, and when in the season 1746-7 he +netted nearly £9,000 from his Pantomimes, to the chagrin of Garrick and +Quin, he was very angry and much annoyed because he, as Harlequin, had +contributed little or nothing. Another mannerism of his was to despise +the regular drama on these occasions, and he has been known to look at +the packed audience through a small hole in the curtain, and then +ejaculate, "Ah! you are there, you fools, are you? Much good may it do +you!" + +Rich used to address everyone as "Mister." On one occasion Foote, being +incensed at being so addressed, asked Rich why he did not call him by +his name. "Don't be angry," says Rich, "I sometimes forget my own name." +"I know," replied Foote, "that you can't write your own name, but I +wonder you should forget it." + +The first of Rich's successes was "Harlequin Sorcerer." On its +production Pope wrote:-- + + "Behold a sober sorcerer rise + Swift to whose wand a winged volume flies; + All sudden, gorgon's hiss and dragon's glare, + And ten horned fiends and giants rush to war. + Hell rises, heaven descends, and dance on earth, + Gods, imps and monsters, music, rage and mirth, + A fire, a jig, a battle, and a ball, + Till one wide conflagration swallows all; + Thence a new world to nature's laws unknown, + Breaks out refulgent with a heaven its own; + Another Cynthia her new journey runs, + And other planets circle after suns. + The forests dance, the rivers upwards rise, + Whales sport in woods, and dolphins in the skies; + At last, to give the whole creation grace, + Lo! one vast egg produces human race." + +Of Harlequin, in "Harlequin Sorcerer," being hatched from an egg by the +rays of the sun. This has been called a master-piece of Rich's Miming +"From the first chipping of the egg (says Jackson) his receiving of +motion, his feeling of the ground, his standing upright, to his quick +Harlequin trip round the empty shell, through the whole progression, +every limb had its tongue, and every motion a voice." + +As probably occurring in "Harlequin Sorcerer," there is an amusing +incident. The belief in the possibility of a supernatural appearance on +the stage existed (says an old writer) about the beginning of the +eighteenth century. A dance of infernals having to be exhibited, they +were represented in dresses of black and red, with fiery eyes and snaky +locks, and garnished with every pendage of horror. They were twelve in +number. In the middle of their performance, while intent upon the figure +in which they had been completely practised, an actor of some humour, +who had been accommodated with a spare dress, appeared among them. He +was, if possible, more terrific than the rest, and seemed to the +beholders as designed by the conductor for the principal fiend. His +fellow furies took the alarm; they knew he did not belong to them, and +they judged him an infernal in earnest. Their fears were excited, a +general panic ensued, and the whole group fled different ways; some to +their dressing-rooms, and others, through the streets, to their own +homes, in order to avoid the destruction which they believed to be +coming upon them, for the profane mockery they had been guilty of. The +odd devil was _non inventus_. He took himself invisibly away, through +fears of another kind. He was, however, seen by many, in imagination, to +fly through the roof of the house, and they fancied themselves almost +suffocated by the stench he had left behind. The confusion of the +audience is scarcely to be described. They retired to their families, +informing them of this supposed appearance of the devil, with many of +his additional frolics in the exploit. So thoroughly was its reality +believed that every official assurance which could be made the following +day did not entirely counteract the idea. The explanation was given by +Rich himself, in the presence of his friend Bencraft, the contriver, and +perhaps the actor of the scheme, which he designed only as an innocent +affair, to confuse the dancers, without adverting to the serious +consequences which succeeded. + +I have met with another author, who, in giving an account of this +transaction, places it as a much earlier period, and says it was during +the performance of "Dr. Faustus," and that when the devil took flight he +carried away with him the roof of the theatre. This story may be +alluded to in a very curious work, entitled, "The Blacke Booke" (a +proper depository), "London, printed in black letter, by T.C. for +Jeffery Chorlton, 1604." "The light burning serjant Lucifer" says of +one, running away through fear of fire at a brothel, "Hee had a head of +hayre like one of my divells in 'Doctor Faustus,' when the olde theatre +crakt and frighted the audience." + +Emulating Rich, Drury Lane then followed with "Mars and Venus," of which +Colley Cibber says: Was formed into something more than motion without +meaning into a connected presentation of dances in character, wherein +the passions were so happily expressed, and the whole story so +intelligibly told by a mute narration of gesture only, that even +thinking spectators allowed it to be both a pleasing and a rational +entertainment; though, at the same time, from our distrust of its +reception we durst not venture to decorate it with any extraordinary +expense of scenes or habits; but upon the success of this attempt it was +rightly concluded that if a visible expense in both were added to +something of the same nature, it could not fail of drawing the town +proportionately after it. + +From this original hint there (but every way unequal to it) sprang forth +that succession of monstrous medlies, that have so long infested the +stage, and which arose upon one another alternately, at both houses, +outvying in expense, like contending bribes on both sides at an +election, to secure a majority of the multitude. + +If I am asked (after condemning these fooleries myself) how I came to +assent or continue my share of expense to them? I have no better excuse +for my error, than confessing it. I did it against my conscience, and +had not virtue enough to starve by opposing a multitude that would have +been too hard for me. + +("The Drama's laws the Drama's patrons give," has always been an axiom +of the stage; and worthy Colley Cibber, notwithstanding his antagonism, +and the rivalry of Rich, had too good a knowledge of this truism not to +do otherwise but follow the popular voice.) + +Notwithstanding then (Cibber continues) this, our compliance with the +vulgar taste, we generally made use of these Pantomimes, but as crutches +to our weakest plays. Nor were we so lost to all sense of what was +valuable, as to dishonor our best authors in such bad company. We still +had a due respect to several select plays, that were able to be their +own support; and in which we found constant account, without painting +and patching them out.... It is a reproach to a sensible people to let +folly so quickly govern their pleasures. + +Henry Fielding, the novelist, was one of Harlequin's assailants. "The +comic part of the English Pantomimes," he says, "being duller than +anything before shown on the stage could only be set off by the +superlative dulness of the serious portion, in which the gods and +goddesses were so insufferably tedious, that Harlequin was always a +relief from still worse company." Eager for theatrical reform, the +"Weekly Miscellany" of 1732, said that plays were not intended for +tradesmen, and denounced Pantomimes as infamous. + +Another competitor, who entered the lists against Rich, was Thormond, a +dancing-master, and at Drury Lane Theatre he produced "Dr. Faustus," in +1733. Speaking of this Pantomime, Pasquin mentions that "An account is +very honestly published, to save people the trouble of going to see it." + +In a Pantomime produced at Drury Lane in the following year, there were +Macklin, Theo. Cibber (who ultimately lost his life by shipwreck in the +Irish Sea, in company with a troupe of Pantomimists), Mrs. Clive, and +Mrs. Cibber. At the performance it was announced that the money paid +would be returned to anyone who went out before the overture; but no one +availed themselves of the concession. Commenting on the occurrence, a +contemporary writer observes:--"Happy is it that we live in an age of +taste, when the dumb eloquence and natural wit and humour of Harlequin +are justly preferred to the whining of Tragedy, or the vulgarity of +Comedy." + +Garrick, at Drury Lane, finding his audience with no heart for tragedy, +and that they must have Pantomime, very wisely said, "If you won't come +to 'Lear' and 'Hamlet,' I must give you Harlequin." And Harlequin he +did give them, in the person of Woodward, one of the best of Harlequins +that ever trod the stage. A contemporary print of the time, represents +Woodward being weighed in one scale, with all the great actors of the +day in the other, and Woodward makes them all kick the beam. + +To satirise the prevailing fashion, Garrick penned the following:-- + + They in the drama find no joys, + But doat on mimicry and toys; + Thus, when a dance is on my bill, + Nobility my boxes fill; + Or send three days before the time + To crowd a new-made Pantomime. + +Garrick's success, however, was, I am of opinion, undoubtedly owing to +his being such a clever Pantomimist. "We saw him," says Grimm, "play the +dagger scene in 'Macbeth' in a room in his ordinary dress, without any +stage illusion; and, as he followed with his eyes the air-drawn dagger, +he became so grand that the assembly broke into a cry of general +admiration. Who would believe that this same man, a moment after, +counterfeited, with equal perfection, a pastry cook's boy, who, carrying +a tray of tartlets on his head, and gaping about him at the corner of +the street, lets his tray fall, and, at first stupified by the accident, +bursts at last into a fit of crying?" + +All our great actors have been good Mimics, and herein, doubtless, lies +the secret of their success. The mere intonation of words unaccompanied +by a strict knowledge of "that dumb, silent language," Pantomime, is +only _parroting_. Herein, therefore, lies the true imitativeness of the +actor, and _the natural form of acting_. The word actor "Is a name only +given to the persons in a dramatic work, _because they ought to be in +continual action during the performance of it_." It does not mean that +the actor is to stand still, and to be in action only with his tongue +when speaking his "lines." No! he bears the honoured name of actor, and +he should bring the full power of gesture language--Pantomime--that he +has at his control into play in order to be convincing in the character +that, for the time being, he is. + +Action (mentions Betterton, in his "History of the English Stage," +1741), can never be in its perfection but on the stage. Action, indeed, +has a natural excellence in it superior to all other qualities; action +is motion, and motion is the support of nature, which without it would +sink into the sluggish mass of chaos. Life is motion, and when that +ceases, the human body so beautiful, nay so divine, when enlivened by +motion, becomes a dead and putrid corpse, from which all turn their +eyes. The eye is caught by anything in motion, but passes over the +sluggish and motionless things as not the pleasing object of its view. + +The natural power of motion, or action, is the reason that the +attention of the audience is fixed by any irregular, or even fantastic +action, on the stage, of the most indifferent player; and supine and +drowsy when the best actor speaks without the addition of action. The +stage ought to be the seat of passion in its various kinds, and, +therefore, the actors ought to be thoroughly acquainted with the whole +nature of the affections, and habits of the mind, or else they will +never be able to express them justly in their looks and gestures, as +well as in the tone of their voice and manner of utterance. They must +know them in their various mixtures, as they are differently blended +together in the different characters they represent; and then that +excellent rule in the "Essay on Poetry" will be of equal use to the poet +and player:-- + + Who must look within to find + These _secret_ turns of Nature in the mind; + Without this part in vain would be the whole, + And but a _body_ all without a soul? + +A few words more just to lay further stress on the importance of +Pantomime, and then to return to our History. Take any part in any play, +strip from it in its enactment the whole of its gesture language, could +we realise that the actor appearing in it was portraying nature for us? +Replace the Pantomime so essential to the part, and the character +becomes--or rather should become if properly played--a creature of flesh +and blood the same as ourselves. Pantomime, on the other hand, does not +require words to be spoken to express its meaning, as it is quite +expressible without. + +A contemporary account of the production of the Pantomime "Harlequin Dr. +Faustus," at Drury Lane Theatre, forms interesting reading, in addition +to providing a contrast with present-day Pantomime. + +Every action is executed to different agreeable music, so adapted that +it properly expresses what is going forward; in the machinery there is +something so highly surprising that words cannot give a full idea of it. +The effects described seem to be marvellous, considering the state of +theatrical mechanism. A devil riding on a fiery dragon rides swiftly +across the stage. Two country men and women enter to be told their +fortunes, when Dr. Faustus waves his wand, and four pictures turn out of +the scenes opposite, representing a judge and a soldier, a dressed lady, +and a lady in riding habit; the scene changes to the outside of a +handsome house, when the louting men, running in, place their backs +against the door. The front of the house turns, and at the same instant +the machine turns, a supper ready dressed rises up. The countrymen's +wives remain with the Doctor, who (afterwards) goes out. He beckons the +table, and it follows him. Punch, Scaramouch, and Pierrot are next met +by the Doctor, who invites them into a banquet. The table ascends into +the air. He waves his wand, and asses' ears appear at the sides of their +heads. A usurer lending money to Dr. Faustus demands a limb as +security, and cuts off the Doctor's leg, several legs appear on the +scene, and the Doctor strikes a woman's leg with his wand, which +immediately flies from the rest, and fixes to the Doctor's stump, who +dances with it ridiculously. The next scene opens, disclosing the +Doctor's study. He enters affrighted, and the clock strikes one; the +figures of Time and Death appear. Several devils enter and tear him in +pieces, some sink, some fly out, each bearing a limb of him. The last, +which is the grand scene, is the most magnificent that ever appeared on +the English stage--all the gods and goddesses discovered with the +apotheosis of Diana, ascending into the air. + +The tricks that formed part and parcel of the Pantomimes, in causing +surprise and wonderment, placed Harlequin, for his extraordinary feats, +in the first rank of magicians. Oftentimes, however, they were the cause +of many accidents. + +Chetwood--William Rufus Chetwood--who had, in the eighteenth century, a +bookseller's shop in Covent Garden, and was, for twenty years, prompter +for Drury Lane, a writer of four plays, and a volume of sketches of the +actors whom he had met, says:--"A tumbler at the Haymarket beat the +breath out of his body by an accident, and which raised such vociferous +applause that lasted the poor man's life, for he never breathed more. +Indeed, his wife had this comfort, when the truth was known, pity +succeeded to the roar of applause. Another accident occurred in the +Pantomime of 'Dr. Faustus' (previously referred to), at Lincoln's Inn +Fields Theatre, where a machine in the working threw the mock Pierrot +down headlong with such force that the poor man broke a plank on the +stage with his fall, and expired; another was sorely maimed that he did +not survive many days; and a third, one of the softer sex, broke her +thigh." + +Vandermere, the Harlequin, one of the most agile that ever trod the +stage, on one occasion, in the pursuit by the Clown, leaped through a +window on to the stage, a full thirteen feet. Performing at the Dublin +theatre one night, having a prodigious leap to make, the persons behind +the scenes not being ready to receive him in the customary blanket, he +fell upon the stage and was badly bruised. This accident occasioned him +to take a solemn oath that he would never take another leap upon the +stage; nor did he violate his oath, for when he afterwards played +Harlequin another actor of his size, and of considerable activity was +equipped with the parti-coloured habit, and when a leap was necessary +Vandermere passed off on one side of the stage as Dawson--Vandermere's +understudy--entered at the other, and undertook it. + +How little do we know of the tragic ending of these poor unhappy +Pantomimists' lives. Their names even have not been handed down to us, +and they, like probably many more with whose quips and quiddities we +have laughed at with infinite zest, have long since gone "to that bourne +from whence no traveller returns," and perhaps, "unwept, unhonoured, and +unsung." + +On February 12, 1739, Rich produced, at Covent Garden (opened in +December 1732, with Congreve's "Way of the World"), "Orpheus and +Eurydice." On the mounting something like £2,000 were spent. + +Rich devised the scenario and comic scenes. Lewis Theobald wrote the +libretto, and George Lambert--founder of the Beefsteak Club--painted the +scenery. Hippisley played Clown, Manager Rich was the Harlequin, and +Signor Grimaldi, father of the celebrated Mime, to be noted further on, +was the Pantaloon. This is the first instance of a member of the +Grimaldi family (says Mr. W.J. Lawrence) appearing in English Pantomime. + +The following was the argument and the curious arrangement of the +scenes:--Interlude I.--Rhodope, Queen of Thrace, practising art magic, +makes love to Orpheus. He rejects her love. She is enraged. A serpent +appears who receives Rhodope's commands, and these ended, glides off the +stage. Here the comic part begins. In the Opera (as practically it was) +a scene takes place between Orpheus and Eurydice. Eurydice's heel is +pierced by the serpent, behind the scenes. She dies on the stage--after +which the comic part is continued. Interlude II. Scene: Hell. Pluto and +Orpheus enter. Orpheus prevails on Pluto to restore Eurydice to him. +Ascalox tells Orpheus that Eurydice shall follow him, but that if he +should look back at her before they shall have passed the bounds of +Hell, she will die again. Orpheus turns back to look for Eurydice, +Fiends carry her away. After this the comic part is resumed. Interlude +III.--Orpheus again rejects Rhodope's solicitations. Departs. The scene +draws, and discovers Orpheus slain. Several Baccants enter in a +triumphant manner. They bring in the lyre and chaplet of Orpheus. +Rhodope stabs herself. The piece concludes with the remainder of the +comic part. + +"'The Scots Magazine' for March, 1740, says:--'Orpheus and Eurydice' +draws the whole town to Covent Garden, whether for the Opera itself (the +words of which are miserable stuff) or for the Pantomimical Interlude, +with which it is intermixed, I cannot determine. The music is pretty +good, and the tricks are not foolisher than usual, and some have said +that they have more meaning than most that have preceded them. The +performance is grand as to the scenery. What pleases everybody is a +regular growth of trees, represented more like nature than what has yet +been seen upon the stage, and the representation of a serpent so lively +as to frighten half the ladies who see it. It is, indeed, curious in its +kind, being wholly a piece of machinery, that enters, performs its +exercise of head, body, and tail in a most surprising manner, and makes +behind the curtain with a velocity scarcely credible. It is about a foot +and a half in circumference of the thickest part, and far exceeds the +former custom of stuffing a bag into such likeness. It is believed to +have cost more than £200; and when the multitude of wings, springs, +etc., whereof it consists, are considered, the charge will not appear +extravagant. The whole Royal family have been to see this performance; +and, from what can be judged, everybody else will see it before the end +of the season, the house being every day full at 3 o'clock, though +seldom empty till after eleven." + +Sam Hoole--father of the translator of Tasso and Ariosto--was Rich's +chief machinist at this period, and the inventor of this famous serpent. +He had, according to Cumberland, a shop where he sold mechanical toys. +Having a large stock of serpent toys left on his hands he became a +ruined and bankrupt man. + +"Orpheus and Eurydice" was revived by Rich in 1747, and again in 1755; +when it ran 31 nights. In 1768 it was reproduced by his successors at +Covent Garden. In October, 1787, it was again put in the bill, and this +time by Royal Command, it was said. + +Of the number of Pantomimes brought out by Rich I shall not dilate on, +and those that I have referred to will, doubtless, show what all these +"plays without words" were like. + +During the summer season of 1761, at Drury Lane, Murphy and Foote +endeavoured + + "From Pantomime to free the stage + And combat all the ministers of the age," + +by ridiculing the popular amusement in having the character of Harlequin +hung in full view of the audience in a play entitled "The Wishes." When +the catastrophe was at hand Murphy whispered to Cumberland: "If they +don't damn this, they deserve to be damned themselves!" No sooner were +the words uttered than a turbulent mob in the pit broke out, and quickly +put an end to the dire fatality with which Pantomime and its hero, +Harlequin, were threatened. + +Christopher Rich gave the first engagement to the afterwards celebrated +actress, Mrs. Oldfield, and, previously, a similar kindness to Robert +Wilks, about the year 1690, at the salary of fifteen shillings a week, +with two shillings and sixpence deducted for teaching him to dance. +Another famous performer, Macklin, was also introduced to the stage by +this family. + +At the Lincoln's Inn Fields Theatre, in 1721, there was a memorable +riot, caused by some drunken aristocratic beaux, owing to an alleged +insult, which one of their number was supposed to have received. The +beau referred to, a noble Earl, had crossed the stage whilst Macbeth and +his lady were upon it, in order to speak to a companion who was lolling +in the wings. Rich told the noble Earl that for his indecorum he would +not be allowed behind the scenes again, which so incensed the latter +that he gave Manager Rich a smart slap on the face, which Rich returned. +Swords then were drawn, and between the actors and the beaux a free +fight ensued, which ended in the former driving the latter out of the +theatre. The rioters, however, again obtained access, and rushing into +the boxes, cut down the hangings, besides doing other damage, when, led +by Quin and a number of constables, several of the beaux were captured, +and taken before the magistrates. The end of it all was that the matter +was compromised; but, in order to prevent a recurrence of such +disorderly scenes, a guard should attend the performances. The custom of +having the military in attendance at our theatres--which the above +affray was the primary cause--was in vogue for over a hundred years +after this event. + +Rich lived to see Pantomimes firmly established at Drury Lane and Covent +Garden. Drury Lane did, for a few years, discard it in favour of +spectacle, but ultimately found it advisable to return to Pantomime. + +At the beginning of the 'sixties of the eighteenth century--1761--died +the father of Harlequins in England, and also--as he has been called--of +English Pantomimes, and there is, I believe, a costly tomb erected to +his memory in Hillingdon Church-yard, Middlesex. + +Rich left Covent Garden Theatre to his son-in-law, Beard, the vocalist, +with the not unpleasant restriction, however, that the property should +be sold when £60,000 was bid for it, and for which sum it ultimately +passed into the hands of Harris, Colman, and their partners. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + +Joseph Grimaldi. + + +The year 1778 marks an epoch in the History of Pantomime, as just over +three-quarters of a century before marked another epoch, the +introduction of Pantomimes to the English stage. On December 18th, 1778, +was born Joseph Grimaldi--afterwards the Prince of Clowns, and the son +of Giuseppe Grimaldi ("Iron Legs"). Joe's first appearance was at +Sadler's Wells on April 16, Easter Monday, 1781, he not being quite +three years old. Dickens, in the "Memoirs of Grimaldi," has given us +from the Clown's own diary, which Grimaldi kept close up to the time of +his death, on May, 31st, 1837, a full and true account of the life of +this remarkably clever Pantomimist. To add to what Dickens has written +of "Only a Clown" (which doubtless the reader is already acquainted +with) would only be like painting the lily; and, perhaps, I cannot do +better in honouring his memory than by quoting the words of Mr. Harley +at the annual dinner of the Drury Lane Fund, spoken in the June +following Grimaldi's death:--"Yet, shall delicacy suffer no violence in +adducing one example, for death has hushed his cock-crowing cachination, +and uproarious merriment. The mortal Jupiter of practical Joke, the +Michael Angelo of buffoonery, who, if he was _Grim-all-day_, was sure to +make you chuckle at night." + +A contemporary writer of Grimaldi's days thus eulogises the Prince of +Clowns:-- + +As a Clown, Mr. Grimaldi is perfectly unrivalled. Other performers of +the part may be droll in their generation; but, which of them can for a +moment compete with the Covent Garden hero in acute observation upon the +foibles and absurdities of society, and his happy talent of holding them +up to ridicule. He is the finest practical satyrist that ever existed. +He does not, like many Clowns, content himself with raising a +horse-laugh by contortions and grimaces, but tickles the fancy, and +excites the risibility of an audience by devices as varied as they are +ingenious. "He uses his folly as a stalking-horse, under cover of which +he shoots his wit;" and fully deserves the encomium bestowed upon him by +Kemble, who, it is said, pronounced him to be "the best low comedian +upon the stage." + +There are few things, we think, more delightful than a Pantomime--that +is, a _good_ Pantomime, such as is usually produced at Covent Garden. We +know there are a set of solemn pompous mortals about town, who express +much dignified horror at the absurdities of these things, and declaim +very fluently, in good set terms, upon the necessity of their abolition. +Such fellows as these are ever your dullest of blockheads. Conscious of +their lack of ideas, they think to earn the reputation of men of +sterling sense, by inveighing continually against what _they_ deem to be +frivolity; while they only expose more clearly to all observers the sad +vacuum which exists in their _pericraniums_. Far, far from us be such +dullards, and such opinions; and let us continue to laugh heartily at +our Pantomimes, undisturbed by their tedious harangues; "Do they think, +because they are _wise_, there shall be no more cakes and ale?" The man +who refuses to smile at the humours of Grimaldi is made of bad +materials--_hic niger est_--let no such man be trusted! + +Can there possibly be a more captivating sight than that which the +theatre presents nightly, of hundreds of beautiful children all happy +and laughing, "as if a master-spring constrained them all;" and filled +with delight, unalloyed and unbounded, at the performance of one man? +And shall that man go without his due meed of praise? Never be it said! +No, Joey! When we forget thee, may our right hand forget its cunning! We +owe thee much for the delight thou hast already afforded us; and rely +upon thee, with confident expectation, for many a future hour of gay +forgetfulness. Well do we remember, in our boyish dreams of bliss, how +prominent a feature thou didst stand amongst the anticipated enjoyments +of Christmas; how the thoughts of home, of kindred, and release from +school, were rendered ten-fold more delightful by the idea of thy motley +garb and mirth-inspiring voice, which ever formed the greatest enjoyment +our holidays afforded. Heaven be praised, we still are children in some +respects, for we still feel gladdened by thy gambols, as heartily as we +did years ago, when we made our periodical escape from the terrors of +our old pedagogue's frown, and went with Aunt Bridget ("Happier than +ourselves the while") to banquet upon the Pantomimic treat provided for +us. "All wisdom is folly," says the philosopher; but we often incline to +think the converse of the proposition correct, when we see thee put thy +antic disposition on, and set the audience in a roar by the magic of thy +powers. + +It is thought by many persons that Grimaldi is seen to greater advantage +on the small stage of Sadler's Wells, than on the more capacious one of +Covent Garden; but, this is an opinion with which we cannot coincide. He +always appears to us more at his ease at the latter house; to come forth +exulting in his power, and exclaiming, "Ay, marry, here my soul hath +elbow-room." His engagement there has certainly been a lucrative +speculation for the proprietors. "Mother Goose," we believe, drew more +money than any other piece which has been produced during the present +century; and no Pantomime since brought forward at Covent Garden has +been unsuccessful; which is mainly to be attributed to his inimitable +performance of Clown. It is scarcely possible for language to do justice +to his unequalled powers of gesture and expression. Do our readers +recollect a Pantomime some years ago, in which he was introduced begging +a tart from a pieman? The simple expression, "May I?" with the look and +action which accompanied it, are impressed upon our recollection, as +forming one of the finest pieces of acting we ever witnessed. Indeed, +let the subject be what it may, it never fails to become highly amusing +in the hands of Grimaldi; whether it is to rob a pieman, or open an +oyster, imitate a chimney-sweep, or a dandy, grasp a red-hot poker, or +devour a pudding, take snuff, sneeze, make love, mimic a tragedian, +cheat his master, pick a pocket, beat a watchman, or nurse a child, it +is all performed in so admirably humorous and extravagantly natural a +manner, that spectators of the most saturnine disposition are +irresistibly moved to laughter. + +Mr. Grimaldi also possesses great merit in Pantomimic performances of a +different character, which all are aware of, who have ever seen him in +the melodrama, called "Perouse," and other pieces of the same +description. + +We cannot better terminate this article, than with a poetical tribute to +his powers, addressed to him by one of the authors of "Horace in +London," who appears to have had a true relish of his subject:-- + + Facetious Mime! thou enemy of gloom, + Grandson of Momus, blithe and debonair, + Who, aping Pan, with an inverted broom, + Can'st brush the cobwebs from the brows of care. + + Our gallery gods immortalize thy song; + Thy Newgate thefts impart ecstatic pleasure; + Thou bid'st a Jew's harp charm a Christian throng, + A Gothic salt-box teem with attic treasure. + + When Harlequin, entangled in thy clue, + By magic seeks to dissipate the strife, + Thy furtive fingers snatch his faulchion too; + The luckless wizard loses wand and wife. + + The fabled egg from thee obtains its gold; + Thou sett'st the mind from critic bondage loose, + Where male and female cacklers, young and old, + Birds of a feather, hail the sacred Goose. + + Even pious souls, from Bunyan's durance free, + At Sadler's Wells applaud thy agile wit, + Forget old Care while they remember thee, + "Laugh the heart's laugh," and haunt the jovial pit. + + Long may'st thou guard the prize thy humour won, + Long hold thy court in Pantomimic state, + And, to the equipoise of English fun, + Exalt the lowly, and bring down the great. + +Again we are told "That his Pantomime was such that you could fancy he +would have been the Pulcinello of the Italians, the Harlequin of the +French, that he could have returned a smart repartee from Carlin. His +motions, eccentric as they were, were evidently not a mere lesson from +the gymnasium; there was a will and mind overflowing with, nay living +upon fun, real fun. He was so extravagantly natural, that the most +saturnine looker-on acknowledged his sway; and neither the wise, the +proud, or the fair, the young nor the old, were ashamed to laugh till +tears coursed down their cheeks at Joe and his comicalities." + +Grimaldi used sometimes to play in two different Pantomimes at two +different theatres, when he would have to go through some twenty scenes. + +Unlike the painting of the face with a few patches adopted by the +modern Clown, Grimaldi used to give one the idea of a greedy boy, who +had covered himself with jam in robbing from a cupboard. Grimaldi +dressed the part like a Clown should be dressed. His trousers were large +and baggy, and were fastened to his jacket, and round his neck he wore a +schoolboy's frill--part of the dress, in all probability, borrowed from +the Spanish Captain and the French Pierrot. + +At Drury Lane on Friday, June 27, 1828, he took his farewell benefit. +The following being the bill:-- + +Mr. Grimaldi's Farewell Benefit, +On Friday, June 27th, 1828, +will be performed +JONATHAN IN ENGLAND, +after which +A MUSICAL MELANGE, +To be succeeded by +THE ADOPTED CHILD, +and concluded by +HARLEQUIN HOAX, +In which Mr. Grimaldi will act Clown in one scene, +sing a song, and speak his +FAREWELL ADDRESS. + +With the reader's permisson, I will give, from his "Memoirs," the +address he spoke:-- + +"Ladies and Gentlemen:--In putting off the Clown's garment, allow me to +drop also the Clown's taciturnity, and address you in a few parting +sentences. I entered early on this course of life, and leave it +prematurely. Eight-and-forty years only have passed over my head--but I +am going as fast down the hill of life as that older Joe--John Anderson. +Like vaulting ambition, I have overleaped myself, and pay the penalty in +an advanced old age. If I have now any aptitude for tumbling it is +through bodily infirmity, for I am worse on my feet than I used to be on +my head. It is four years since I jumped my last jump--filched my last +oyster--boiled my last sausage--and set in for retirement. Not quite so +well provided for, I must acknowledge, as in the days of my Clownship, +for then, I dare say, some of you remember, I used to have a fowl in one +pocket and sauce for it in the other. + +"To-night has seen me assume the motley for a short time--it clung to my +skin as I took it off, and the old cap and bells rang mournfully as I +quitted them for ever. + +"With the same respectful feelings as ever do I find myself in your +presence--in the presence of my last audience--this kindly assemblage so +happily contradicting the adage that a favourite has no friends. For the +benvolence that brought you hither--accept, ladies and gentlemen, my +warmest and most grateful thanks, and believe, that of one and all, +Joseph Grimaldi takes a double leave, with a farewell on his lips, and a +tear in his eyes. + +"Farewell! That you and yours may ever enjoy that greatest earthly +good--health, is the sincere wish of your faithful and obliged servant. +God bless you all!" + +Poor Joe was buried in the burying-ground of St. James' Chapel, on +Pentonville Hill, and in a grave next to his friend, Charles Dibdin. May +the earth lie lightly over him! + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + +Plots of the old form of Pantomimes--A description of "Harlequin and the +Ogress; or the Sleeping Beauty of the Wood," produced at Covent +Garden--Grimaldi, _Père et Fils_--Tom Ellar, the Harlequin, and Barnes, +the Pantaloon--An account of the first production of the "House that +Jack built," at Covent Garden--Spectacular display--Antiquity and Origin +of some Pantomimic devices--Devoto, Angelo, and French, the Scenic +Artists--Transparencies--Beverley--Transformation Scenes. + + +Of the plots of the old form of Pantomime and what these entertainments +were generally like, graphically, does Planché describe them. + +How different (he says) were the Christmas Pantomimes of my younger +days. A pretty story--a nursery tale--dramatically told, in which "the +course of true love never did run smooth," formed the opening; the +characters being a cross-grained old father, with a pretty daughter, who +had two suitors--one a poor young fellow, whom she preferred, the other +a wealthy fop, whose pretensions were, of course, favoured by the +father. There was also a body servant of some sort in the old man's +establishment. At the moment when the young lady was about to be +forcibly married to the fop she despised, or, on the point of eloping +with the youth of her choice, the good fairy made her appearance, and, +changing the refractory pair into Harlequin and Columbine, the old +curmudgeon into Pantaloon, and the body servant into Clown: the two +latter in company with the rejected "lover," as he was called, commenced +the pursuit of the happy pair, and the "comic business" consisted of a +dozen or more cleverly constructed scenes, in which all the tricks and +changes had a meaning, and were introduced as contrivances to favour the +escape of Harlequin and Columbine, when too closely followed by their +enemies. There was as regular a plot as might be found in a melodrama. +An interest in the chase which increased the admiration of the ingenuity +and the enjoyment of the fun of the tricks, by which the runaways +escaped capture, till the inevitable "dark scene" came, a cavern or a +forest, in which they were overtaken, seized, and the magic wand, which +had so uniformly aided them, snatched from the grasp of the despairing +Harlequin, and flourished in triumph by the Clown. Again at the critical +moment the protecting fairy appeared, and, exacting the consent of the +father to the marriage of the devoted couple, transported the whole +party to what was really a grand last scene, which everybody did wait +for. There was some congruity, some dramatic construction, in such +Pantomimes; and then the acting. For it was acting, and first-rate +acting. + +To give the reader a further insight into the old form of Christmas +Pantomimes, I cull the following from "The Drama," a contemporary +magazine of the period (1822):-- + +In compliance with the long-established custom of gratifying the holiday +visitors of the theatres with Pantomimic representations at this season +of year, a new piece of that description was produced at this theatre +(Covent Garden) last night, December 26th, 1822, under the title of +"Harlequin and the Ogress; or the Sleeping Beauty of the Wood." The +introductory story is taken from the well-known tale of "The Sleeping +Beauty," in "Mother Bunch's Fairy Tales," which had before been +"melodramatised," but had not hitherto been taken for the groundwork of +a Harlequinade. + +The piece opens in one of the fabled grand caverns under the Pyramids of +Egypt, in which the three fatal sisters of Mother Bunch's Mythology are +seen spinning and winding a ball of golden thread, the fastening of +which to the wrist of the Sleeping Beauty is intended to add another +century to the duration of her life, and of the power which the Ogress, +or Fairy, has exercised over her, and her possessions, for the preceding +hundred years. The ball having been completed, with the due quantum of +magic incantation in such cases prescribed, is consigned to the care of +Grim Gribber, the porter of the castle, with directions to attach it to +the wrist of the lady in the chamber of sleep, whither he accordingly +proceeds for that purpose; but overcome by the soporific influences of +the atmosphere of that enchanted place, he falls into a deep sleep ere +his task is accomplished. The Prince Azoff, with his Squire Abnab, +straying from a hunting party into the enchanted cedar grove, encounters +the Fairy Blue-bell, protector of the Sleeping Beauty, who imparts to +the Prince the story of her enchantment, furnishes him with a magic +flower to protect him from the influence of the Ogress, and instructs +him in the means of releasing the Beauty at the expiration of the term +of her first enchanted sleep, which is then drawing to a close. In the +amazement which seizes the Prince on finding himself in the chamber of +sleep, at the splendour of everything around him, and the sight of the +Sleeping Beauty with her surrounding train of attendants, whose +faculties are all enchained in the same preternatural slumber, he lets +fall the magic flower, and becomes thereby subject to the power of the +Ogress, from which he is, however, rescued on the instant by the +protecting interference of the Fairy Blue-bell. But in punishment of his +neglect, he is condemned to wander for a time in search of happiness +with the now-awakened Beauty, pursued by the relentless Ogress and her +servant, Grim Gribber. The whole of the persons engaged in the scene now +undergo the prescriptive Pantomimic changes, and the ordinary succession +of Harlequinade adventures, tricks, and transformations ensue. + +Our old favourites, the Grimaldis, father and son, Mr. Ellar as +Harlequin, and Mr. Barnes as Pantaloon, were hailed, on their +appearance, with the warmth of greeting to which their excellence in +their several parts fully entitles them, and displayed their wonted +drollery, gracefulness, and agility: and Miss Brissak, who, for the +first time, appeared as Columbine, acquitted herself with tolerable +credit, and was very well received. + +The scenery in general was marked with that characteristic beauty and +highly-finished excellence, which have long distinguished the +productions of this theatre: and the panoramic series of views of the +River Thames, from Greenwich to the Nore, on the passage of the Royal +flotilla for Scotland, and its arrival in Leith Roads, probably surpass +everything of the kind before exhibited. There are several diverting +tricks and ingenious changes. Grimaldi's equipment of a patent safety +coach at Brighton, in particular was highly amusing. The machinery, +which is, in many instances, of a most complicated description, worked +remarkably well for a first night's exhibition; and the whole went off +with a degree of _eclat_, which must have been exceedingly gratifying to +the managers, as auguring the probability of such a lengthened run for +the piece as may amply recompense the pains and expense which have been +so lavishly bestowed in its preparation. The house was filled in every +part, and the announcement of the Pantomime's repetition was received +with the most clamorous approbation, undisturbed by a single dissentient +voice. + +The first production of "The House that Jack Built," at Covent Garden, +on December 26, 1824, also reads interestingly:-- + +The Pantomime is before us, and we should ill-repay the pleasure it +afforded us, if we did not acknowledge and make public its excellence. +The name implies the source from which it is taken, and we had, +therefore, the supreme pleasure of renewing our friendship with those +very old acquaintances, the "Priest all shaven and shorn, the maiden all +forlorn, the cow with the crumpled horn, the dog that worried the cat, +that killed the rat, that eat up the malt, that lay in the House that +Jack built." This, of course, gave us, as it appeared to do many others, +great pleasure, "For should auld acquaintance be forgot, and never +brought to mind." Mr. Farley, however, who supports (like an Atlas) all +the weight of bringing forward these annual pieces of fun and foolery, +and who appears to be as learned in the mystic lore of "hoary +antiquity," as he is in the mysteries of all the wonders of the tricks, +changes, and mechanism of the Pantomimic world, has let us this time +into a secret, which will doubtless cause much erudite argument, and +pros and cons from various sage antiquarians for months to come, in that +invaluable work of old Sylvanus Urban, 'yclept the "Gentlemen's +Magazine." As the play-bills on which this important piece of +information is to be found, will doubtless be bought up by all the +mystogogii of the Metropolis, and shortly become scarce, we shall take +the liberty of inserting it in our imperishable pages, for the benefit, +not only of posterity, but for those of our own day, who are infected +with the building mania, and who, we think, ought to make Mr. Farley +some very valuable present to mark their sense of the obligation they +are under to him, in consequence of the benefit which must accrue to +them from it. It appears from this fragment in what manner Jack became +possessed of his house, and which it never before occurred to us, to +enquire. Thus then the mystery is elucidated by Mr. Farley. + +Jack's Wager; + +"By virtue of one of our forest charters, if a man do build a dwelling +upon common land, from sun-set to sun-rise, and enclose a piece of +ground, wherein there shall be a tree growing, a beast feeding, a fire +kindled, and provision in the pot, such dwelling shall be freely held by +the builder, anything to the contrary, nevertheless, notwithstanding." +Forest Laws. + +Accordingly Jack, in the opening scene, is represented just before +nightfall, as completing his dwelling, by putting on the chimney pot as +the finishing stroke; he then claims his bride, Rosebud, from her +father, Gaffer Gandy, who refuses his consent, having determined on +bestowing her hand on one Squire Sap. Jack, in despair, repairs to Poor +Robin, the village astrologer, who is intently observing an eclipse of +the moon (which, by-the-bye, is most excellently managed), and relates +his griefs. The old man cheers his drooping spirits, by casting his +nativity and finding by his observations, that Jack's stars are of the +most benign influence, and that all his wishes shall be fulfilled. The +marriage of the maiden all forlorn with the Squire is on the point of +being completed, when Venus (one of whose doves had been preserved by +Jack) dispatches Cupid to the assistance of the despairing lovers, by +the magic of whose powerful wand the usual Pantomimic changes are +effected in a trice--Jack becomes Harlequin; Rosebud, Columbine; +Gaffer, Pantaloon; the Squire, the Lover; and the Priest, the Clown. +Mirth, revelry, fun, frolic, and joviality are now the order of the day, +and the scene changes to a view of Hyde Park and the Serpentine River on +a frosty morning in January: in which is represented, with admirable +effect, a display of patent skating. An oil cloth is spread upon the +stage, a group comprised of various laughable characters are assembled +on it, and skate about with as much rapidity, and precisely as though it +were a sheet of ice. The adroit skill of old stagers on the slippery +surface, with the clumsy awkwardness and terror of novices in the art, +are well represented. A prodigious fat man makes his appearance; when a +race is called for, he, of course, tries his prowess, when the ice +cracking beneath the heavy weight assembled on it gives way with a heavy +crash, and "Fatty" is consigned to a watery bed. Assistance is +immediately tendered, when, by Harlequin's power, a lean and shrivelled +spirit of the deep rises from below to the great alarm of the beholders, +and whose limbs continue to expand till his head touches the clouds. The +whole of the scene is one of the most laughable and best managed in the +Pantomime. Kew Gardens, on a May-day morning, is also a very pleasing +scene, in which some pretty Morris dancing is introduced. The Barber's +shop, in which shaving by steam is hit off, is excellent in its way, but +not so well understood in its details, as to make it equally effective +in representation. Vauxhall Bridge, and the Gardens which succeeds it, +are also charmingly painted by the Grieves, and from hence the Clown +and Pantaloon take an "Aeronautic excursion" to Paris. This is a +revolving scene--the balloon ascends--and the English landscape +gradually recedes from the view--the gradual approach of night--the +rising of the moon--the passing of the balloon through heavy clouds--and +the return of day, are beautifully represented; the sea covered with +ships, is seen in distant perspective with the French coast; a +bird's-eye view of Paris follows, and the balloon safely descends in the +gardens of the Tuileries. The adjoining palace, mansions, and gardens +being brilliantly illuminated, give the scene a most splendid and +picturesque effect. A variety of other scenes, but far too numerous to +mention individually, deserve the highest applause, particularly the +village of Bow, Leadenhall Market, with a change to an illuminated civic +feast in the Guildhall; Burlington Arcade at night, and the village of +Ganderclue by sunrise. The Temple of Iris, formed of the "radiant +panoply of the heavenly arch," by Grieve, is most brilliant. + +The advent of Pantomime, early in the eighteenth century, gave a special +fillip to spectacular display, as they were all announced to be set off +with "new scenery, decorations, and flyings." + +Some of the stage devices of Pantomime are of considerable antiquity; +as, for instance, the basket-work hobby-horses, that figured as far back +as the old English Morris dances, to be revived in the French ballet of +the seventeenth century, and, in after years, in English Pantomime. + +The Pantomime donkey is at least, we are told, 200 years old. In +"_Arlequin Mercure Galant_," produced in Paris in 1682, by the Italian +Comedians, Harlequin made his entrance on a moke's back--and the +merriment afterwards being greatly enhanced when Master "Neddy," with +Pan seated on its back, suddenly came in two, to the consternation of +the beholders. To the Italian Pantomime Comedians we owe many of our +stage devices and tricks. The statue scene in "Frivolity," played by the +Messrs. Leopolds, was introduced by the Italians in "_Arlequin Lingere +du Palais_," when this piece was performed at Paris in 1682. Again, the +device of cutting a hole in a portrait for an eaves-dropper's head to be +inserted, was used in "_Columbine Avocat_" as far back as 1685. + +In "_Arlequin Lingere du Palais_," played at the Hotel de Bourgogne in +October, 1682, there was represented two stalls--an underclothier's and +a confectioner's. Harlequin dressed half like a man and half like a +woman, with a mask on each side of his face to match presides in this +dual capacity at both stalls. Pasquariel, who comes to buy, is utterly +bewildered, and is made the target of both jests and missiles of +monsieur of the confectioners, and mademoiselle of the adjoining stall. +Possibly the shop scenes in our English Harlequinades may have +originated from this. A similar idea to the above was given in O'Keefe's +Pantomime of "Harlequin Teague; or the Giants' Causeway," performed at +the Haymarket in 1782. Charles Bannister appeared in this Pantomime and +sang a duet as a giant with two heads, one side representing a gentleman +of quality, and the other a hunting squire. Mrs. German Reed, about +1855, appeared representing two old women, between whom an imaginary +conversation was held, Mrs. Reed turning first one side of her face to +the audience, and then the other. Fred Maccabe, in his "Essence of +Faust," had also a similar allusion, and by many "transformation +dancers" was it used. The antiquity of many other devices could be +noted, but I must desist, yet I cannot help remarking that even here we +have more exemplifications of history repeating itself. + +Scenical representations and mechanical devices in Italy had long been +made a fine art, and an English traveller and critic observes that our +painting compared to theirs is only daubing. I find among their +decorations statues of marble, alabaster, palaces, colonnades, +galleries, and sketches of architecture; pieces of perspective that +deceive the judgment as well as the eye; prospects of a prodigious +extent in spaces not thirty feet deep. As for their machines I can't +think it in the power of human wit to carry their inventions further. In +1697, I saw at Venice an elephant discovered on the stage, when, in an +instant, an army was seen in its place; the soldiers, having by the +disposition of their shields, given so true a representation of it as if +it had been a real elephant. + +In Rome, at the Theatre Capranio, in 1698, there was a ghost of a woman +surrounded by guards. This phantom, extending her arms and unfolding her +clothes, was, with one motion, transformed into a perfect palace, with +its front, its wings, body, and courtyard. The guards, striking their +halberds on the stage, were immediately turned into so many waterworks, +cascades, and trees, that formed a charming garden before the palace. At +the same theatre, in the opera "_Nerone Infante_," the interior of hell +was shown. Here part of the stage opened, and discovered a scene +underneath, representing several caves, full of infernal spirits, that +flew about, discharging fire and smoke, on another side the river of +Lethe and Charon's boat. Upon this landing a prodigious monster +appeared, whose mouth opening to the great horror of the spectators, +covered the front wings of the remaining part of the stage. Within his +jaws was discovered a throne of fire, and a multitude of monstrous +snakes, on which Pluto sat. After this the great monster, expanding his +wings, began to move very slowly towards the audience. Under his body +appeared a great multitude of devils, who formed themselves into a +ballet, and plunged, one after the other, into the opening of the floor. +The great monster was in an instant transformed into an innumerable +multitude of broad white butterflies, which flew all into the pit, and +so low that some often touched the hats of several of the spectators, +and at last they disappeared. During this circumstance, which +sufficiently employed the eyes of the spectators, the stage was +refitted, and the scene changed into a beautiful garden, with which the +third act began. + +The scene painter, Devoto, painted the scenery and decorations for the +Goodman's Fields Theatre, where, it is interesting to note, David +Garrick made his first _London_ appearance in 1741. His first appearance +on any stage had been made at Ipswich on Tuesday, 21st July, in the same +year, under the name of Lyddall. Garrick, during his time, introduced +many novelties in the way of scenery and transparencies, acting on the +suggestions of Signor Seivandoni, the scenic artist at the Opera-house, +and the fencing master, Dominico Angelo. These transparencies became the +talk of London, and it has been known for several plays to have been +written so as to introduce them. The first transparent scene is said to +have been the "Enchanted Wood," introduced in "Harlequin's Invasion," at +Drury Lane, the painter being one French, the scenic artist of the +theatre. + +Beverley, the scene painter for Madame Vestris, half a century ago, +brought fairy, or Pantomime, scenes to great perfection. Leopold Wagner, +speaking of them, says:--"We have it upon the authority of Mr. Planché +that these were almost entirely due to the skilled efforts and successes +of Mr. William Beverley, who, in the nature of Extravaganza, so +impressed the public with his fine talents as an artist upon theatrical +canvas, that gorgeous scenes became quite the rage, and how, year after +year, Mr. Beverley's powers were taxed to the utmost to outdo his +former triumphs, and how the most costly materials and complicated +machinery were annually put into requisition until the managers began to +suffer." + +Speaking of the production on the 26th December, 1849, of "The Island of +Jewels," Planché says, "The novel, and yet exceedingly simple, falling +of the leaves of a palm tree, which discovered six fairies, supporting a +coronet of jewels, produced such an effect as I scarcely remember having +witnessed on any similar occasion up to that period. The last scene +became the first in the estimation of the management. The most +complicated machinery, the most costly materials were annually put into +requisition, until their bacon was so buttered that it was impossible to +save it. Nothing was considered brilliant but the _last_ scene. Dutch +metal was in the ascendant. It was no longer even painting, it was +upholstery. Mrs. Charles Mathews herself informed me that she had paid +between £60 and £70 for gold tissue for the dresses of the +Supernumeraries alone." I wonder what Mrs. Mathews would say if she +could now visit this terrestrial sphere of ours? + +All this love of spectacular display soon began to supersede the good +old-fashioned Christmas Pantomimes. + +In his work, "Behind the Scenes," Mr. Fitzgerald very graphically +describes the Transformation scene of later days, and now becoming +nearly as obsolete as the Harlequinade. All will recall in some +elaborate transformation scene how quietly and gradually it is evoked. +First the gauzes lift slowly one behind the other--perhaps the most +pleasing of all scenic effects--giving glimpses of the Realms of Bliss +seen beyond in a tantalising fashion. Then is revealed a kind of half +glorified country, clouds and banks evidently concealing much. Always a +sort of pathetic, and, at the same time, exultant strain rises, and is +repeated as the changes go on; now we hear the faint tinkle--signal to +those aloft on the "bridges" to open more glories. Now some of the banks +begin to part slowly, showing realms of light with a few divine +beings--fairies--rising slowly here and there. More breaks beyond, and +more fairies rising with a pyramid of these ladies beginning to mount +slowly in the centre. Thus it goes on, the lights streaming on full in +every colour and from every quarter in the richest effulgence. In some +of the more daring efforts the _femmes suspendues_ seem to float in the +air or rest on the frail support of sprays or branches of trees. While, +finally, at the back of all the most glorious paradise of all will open, +revealing the pure empyrean itself, and some fair spirit aloft in a +cloud among the stars; the apex of all. Then all motion ceases; the work +is complete; the fumes of crimson, red, and blue fire begin to rise at +the wings; the music bursts into a crash of exultation; and, possibly to +the general disenchantment, a burly man, in a black frock coat, steps +out from the side and bows awkwardly. Then, to a shrill whistle, the +first scene of the Harlequinade closes in, and shuts out the brilliant +vision. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + +Pantomimic Families--Giuseppe Grimaldi--James Byrne, the Harlequin and +Inventor of the modern Harlequin's dress--Joseph Grimaldi, Junior--The +Bologna Family--Tom Ellar--The Ridgways--The Bradburys--The +Montgomerys---The Paynes--The Marshalls--Charles and Richard +Stilt--Richard Flexmore--Tom Gray--The Paulos--Dubois--Arthur and +Charles Leclerq--"Jimmy" Barnes--Famous Pantaloons--Miss Farren--Mrs. +Siddons--Columbines--Notable Actors in Pantomime. + + +In the histrionic profession the genius of hereditary is shown over and +over again; and no more so than in Pantomimic families. For, if blessed +with a numerous progeny, the sons became--the eldest, of course, could +only, as the place of honour, be Clown--the others, Harlequins, +Pantaloons; the daughters, Columbines; and, perhaps, Harlequinas. + +In the last chapter but one I have referred to Grimaldi's father, +Giuseppe Grimaldi, "Iron Legs," and now let us recall something more of +the sire of so worthy a son. + +As a dancer--as his father was before him--and Pantomimist, Giuseppe +Grimaldi, before coming to England, had appeared at the fairs of France +and Italy. In 1758 Giuseppe made his first appearance on the stage of +Drury Lane, under Garrick's management, in a new Pantomime dance, +entitled, "The Millers." + +For some thirty years afterwards the Signor continued to be a member of +the Drury Lane _corps de ballet_, and appearing as Clown, Harlequin, and +Pantaloon. + +In 1764, Giuseppe played Harlequin in a Clown-less Pantomime at Sadler's +Wells, and in the Drury Lane Pantomime of the same year, though there +were Harlequin, Pantaloon, and Columbine in it, there was no Clown. +Drury Lane was then only open in the winter, and Sadler's Wells in the +summer months. + +A notable Harlequin was Mr. James Byrne, the ballet-master. "Mr. Byrne," +says Grimaldi, in his "Memoirs," "was the best Harlequin on the boards, +and never has been excelled, or even equalled, since that period." + +Mr. Byrne came of a well-known dancing family, and to him we owe the +introduction of the tight-fitting dress worn by Harlequin. Until the +production of the Pantomime of "Harlequin Amulet, or the Magic of Mona," +at Drury Lane Theatre, written by Mr. Powell, produced at Christmas, +1799, by Mr. Byrne, and which ran until Easter, 1800--it had been the +loose jacket and trousers of the ancient Mimes. It had also been +considered indispensable that Harlequin should be continually +attitudinising in the five different positions of Admiration, +Flirtation, Thought, Defiance, and Determination; and continually +passing from one to the other without pausing. Byrne, for newer +attitudes, abolished these postures, but long afterwards the old form of +posing was, and is still, retained by the exponents of Harlequin. + +In this Pantomime, Byrne, as Harlequin, appeared in a white silk +close-fitting shape, fitting without a wrinkle, and into which the +variegated colours of time-honoured memory were woven, and covered with +spangles, presenting a very bright appearance. + +Mr. Byrne, also gave the character of Harlequin an entirely new reading. +The colours of Harlequin's dress had every one a significance, as +follows:--Red, temper; blue, love; yellow, jealousy; brown or mauve, +constancy. When Harlequin wore his mask down he was supposed to be +invisible. On his mask he had two bumps, denoting knowledge on the one +hand, and thought on the other, whilst in his cap he wore a hare's foot, +and a worked device on his shoes, indicating flight and speed. Can we +not from the bumps of knowledge and the hare's foot trace the +characteristics of the god Mercury, which, as previously stated, was the +prototype of Harlequin. With the bat, or magic sword, the gift from the +fairies to him, Harlequin was supposed to be invulnerable, and if he +lost his sword he would fall into the power of the Clown. + +Byrne's innovation was not resisted, and it was well received, and ever +since this memorable occasion, the character of Harlequin has, for the +most part, been dressed as Byrne dressed it. The significance of the +present-day variegated colours of Harlequin's costume are somewhat +different to the above, and denote: red, fire; blue, water; yellow, air; +and black, earth. These--the four elements--are typical of the regions +governed by Mercury. + +Mr. Byrne was at Drury Lane in the time of Garrick. He died December +4th, 1845, in the eighty-ninth year of his age. Mrs. Byrne, who was also +a dancer, pre-deceasing her husband by a few months in her +seventy-fourth year. + +Joseph Grimaldi, son of "Old Joe," made, at twelve years of age, his +first appearance at Sadler's Wells in 1814, playing Man Friday to his +father's Robinson Crusoe. For several years both father and son played +together in various Pantomimes; and it was thought that before young Joe +there was a brilliant future. This, however, was soon dissipated, as he +embarked upon vicious courses, and through a blow on the head received +in some brawl "He became a wild and furious savage; he was frequently +attacked with dreadful fits of epilepsy, and continually committed +actions which nothing but insanity could prompt. In 1828 he had a +decided attack of insanity, and was confined in a strait waistcoat in +his father's house for some time." + +From engagements at Drury Lane, Sadler's Wells, the Pavilion and the +Surrey Theatre in turn, he was dismissed, finally "Falling into the +lowest state of wretchedness and poverty. His dress had fallen to rags, +his feet were thrust into two worn-out slippers, his face was pale with +disease, and squalid with dirt and want, and he was steeped in +degradation." This unhappy life came to a final close in a public-house +in Pitt Street, off the Tottenham Court Road. + +Signor Pietro Bologna, a country-man and friend of Giuseppe Grimaldi, +Joe Grimaldi's father, brought with him from Genoa his wife, two sons +and a daughter. They were all Mimes, and, in a Pantomime produced in +1795, entitled, "The Magic Feast," Signor Bologna was Clown, and his +son, "Jack" Bologna, was Harlequin; the latter being also Harlequin to +Grimaldi's Clown, both at Covent Garden and Sadler's Wells. "Jack" +Bologna married a sister of Mary Bristow, Joe Grimaldi's second wife, +and the mother of poor young Joe. + +Tom Ellar was another famous Harlequin, first making his appearance at +the Royalty, Goodman's Fields, in 1808. For several seasons he played +Harlequin at Covent Garden. + +Many years ago penny portraits of Mr. Ellar "In his favourite character +of Harlequin," were published by a Mr. Skelt, or a Mr. Park, of Long +Lane, Smithfield, and were the delight of those, who, if living now, are +old and gray. + +Tom Ellar died April 8, 1842, aged 62. Previous to his death he must +have fallen upon evil days, as Thackeray, in 1840, wrote: "Tom, who +comes bounding home from school, has the doctor's account in his trunk, +and his father goes to sleep at the Pantomime to which he takes him. +_Pater infelix_, you too, have laughed at Clown, and the magic wand of +spangled Harlequin: what delightful enchantment did it wave round you in +the golden days 'when George the Third was King?' But our Clown lies in +his grave; and our Harlequin Ellar, prince of many of our enchanted +islands, was he not at Bow Street the other day, in his dirty, faded, +tattered motley--seized as a law breaker for acting at a penny theatre, +after having well nigh starved in the streets, where nobody would listen +to his old guitar? No one gave a shilling to bless him: not one of us +who owe him so much!" + +Another Pantomime family were the Ridgways. Tom Ridgway was Clown under +Madame Vestris's management at Covent Garden. + +There have been several Bradburys since the time of Grimaldi's great +rival, Robert Bradbury, died July 21, 1831, who wore on his person nine +strong "pads," in order to go through some extraordinary feats. + +The Montgomerys; the Paynes, Harry and Fred; nor should the name of "Old +Billy" Payne be omitted. "Billy" Payne it was, it will be remembered, +who, in 1833, helped, from the stage of Covent Garden, the dying Edmund +Kean. + +Then there were the Marshalls, Harry and Joseph; Charles and Richard +Stilt; and a very original and amusing Clown, Richard Flexmore, died +August 20, 1860, aged 36. Tom Gray, a famous Clown of Covent Garden, +died January 28th, 1768, aged upwards of 100 years; the Paulo family of +Pantomimists; Dubois, Arthur and Charles Leclerq, Walter Hilyard, and +many, many others. + +In the 'twenties and 'thirties a popular and famous Pantaloon was +"Jimmy" Barnes, died September 28th, 1838. Barnes, in the summer of +1830, was engaged to play in an English company at Paris, but they had +hardly commenced to perform when the Revolution of July broke out. Some +years afterwards Barnes published in "Bentley's Miscellany," from his +old original M.S., an amusing and illustrated account of his wanderings. + +Amongst other Pantaloons there have been--Thomas Blanchard, died August +20, 1859, aged 72; William Lynch, died June 29, 1861, aged 78; R. +Norman, died September 16, 1858, aged 70; George Tanner, died February +8, 1870; and Paulo, a member of Mr. Charles Kean's Company at the +Princess's Theatre, had as Pantaloon appeared in many Pantomimes. It is +a notable fact that a good number of our Mimes were long-livers. + +Long before Miss Farren, afterwards Countess of Derby (died April 21, +1829), first charmed a London audience, we hear of her in 1772 at +Wakefield in one of her first parts--if not her first--that of +Columbine. She could both sing well and dance gracefully. One of the +earliest "parts" that even the great Mrs. Siddons (that afterwards was), +when a young girl, played, was in connection with Pantomime, as Combes +remembered to have seen her "Standing by the side of her father's stage, +and knocking a pair of snuffers against a candle-stick to imitate the +sound of a wind-mill, during the representation of some Harlequinade." + +In days gone by Madame Leclerq, Carlotta Leclerq, Charles Kean's +Columbine in the seasons of 1850-1-2, E. Dennett, Emma Boleno, died +October 18th, 1867, aged 35; Marie Charles, who died from an accident by +fire, Pavilion Theatre, January 21, 1864, and others have won +considerable fame in the part of Columbine. + +Amongst those who have played Harlequin in days gone by, have been the +elder Kean, and the well-known actor, Mr. Wilson Barrett, who, early in +his career, played this part for an extra two shillings and sixpence +"thrown in," to augment his then weekly salary of seventeen shillings +and sixpence; whilst Sir Henry Irving tells us that he also has appeared +in Pantomime, in the character of a wicked fairy, named Venoma, in days +since past, for a small monetary emolument. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + +Popular Pantomime subjects--Poor Pantomime Librettos--Pantomime subjects +of our progenitors--The various versions of "Aladdin"--"The Babes in the +Wood"--"Blue Beard"--"Beauty and the Beast"--"Cinderella"--"Dick +Whittington"--"The House that Jack Built"--"Jack the Giant +Killer"--"Jack and the Beanstalk"--"Red Riding Hood"--"The Sleeping +Beauty in the Wood"--Unlucky subjects--"Ali Baba and the Forty +Thieves"--"The Fair One with Golden Locks"--The source of "Sindbad the +Sailor" and "Robinson Crusoe." + + +It may be of interest in this History of Pantomime to note the origin of +some of our most popular present day Pantomime subjects, besides showing +many of our present day Pantomime libretto writers that in such +well-known themes as "Aladdin," "Cinderella," and others, there is no +need to cast their stories pretty much in the same groove, year after +year, when by drawing on the fairy-lore of the East much that is new and +original, for present-day English Pantomimes, is waiting the attention +of their skill and ingenuity. + +Though the stories of popular English Pantomimes are practically the +same each year (why I do not know), yet, not content with this, in many +of our large cities and towns we frequently see the same Pantomime title +not only "billed" at one theatre, but perhaps at several others. This +clashing and clashing year after year with one another's titles (I say +nothing about the "plots," as these, in many instances, only consist of +a half-penny worth of author to an intolerable deal of music-hall gag), +cannot but, I have long been of opinion, adversely affect the box-office +receipts, unless, of course, the Pantomime-goer makes a point of "doing +the round," so to speak, which, however, is not generally the case. + +As Pantomime writers in the early days there were Thomas Dibdin, son of +Charles Dibdin, the writer of nautical ballads, Pocock and Sheridan. +Dibdin was one of the best of Pantomime librettists, and from the years +1771 to 1841 his prolific pen, as a writer of Pantomimes, was never +idle, as from it came some thirty-three Pantomimes, and all successes. +Amongst other literary luminaries, in after years, as writers of +Pantomime Extravaganzas, there were J.R. Planché, E.L. Blanchard, W. +Brough, Mark Lemon, H.J. Byron, Wilton Jones, and John Francis McArdle. + +History always repeats itself we know, and poor Pantomime books were not +unknown as far back as half a century ago, as the subjoined parody on +the "Burial of Sir John Moore," by the late Albert Smith plainly +shows:-- + + Not a laugh was heard, not a topical joke, + As its corse to oblivion we hurried; + Not a paper a word in its favour spoke + On the Pantomime going to be buried. + + We buried it after the Boxing Night, + The folks from the galleries turning; + For 'twas plain it would scarcely pay for the light + Of the star in the last act burning. + + No useless play-bill put forth a puff, + How splendid the public had found it, + But it lay like a piece that had been called "stuff," + With a very wet blanket around it. + +After this digression for one brief moment more, let us take a passing +glance at some of the Pantomime subjects which our progenitors delighted +in. They had not the continual ringing of the changes on half-a-dozen +Pantomime subjects, as we have at present, but revelled in such +attractions as "Harlequin Don Quixote," "The Triumph of Mirth, or +Harlequin's Wedding," "The Enchanted Wood or Harlequin's Vagaries," +"Hurly Burly, or the Fairy of the Wells," "Blue Beard, Black Beard, and +Grey Beard," and many others. However, to return. + +Of the Pantomime subjects, whose origin we are going to enquire into, +let us first commence with "Aladdin." + +According to the many versions of this popular story in Europe and Asia, +it would seem that its origin originally was of Buddhist extraction. In +our common English version of "Aladdin," in "The Arabian Nights," which +was taken from Galland's French version, it is doubtless an Eastern +picture. It does not occur, however, in any known Arabian text (says +Mr. Clouston, in "Popular Tales," and to whose work I am indebted for +much of the information for this chapter) of "The Thousand and One +Nights" (_Elf Laila wa Laila_), although the chief incidents are found +in many Asiatic fictions, and it had become orally current in Greece and +Italy before it was published by Galland. A popular Italian version, +which presents a close analogy to the familiar story of "Aladdin" +(properly "_Alá-u-d-Din_," signifying "Exaltation of the Faith") is +given by Miss M.H. Busk, in her "Folklore of Rome," under the title of +"How Cajusse was married." + +A good natured looking old man one day knocks at the door of a poor +tailor out of work; his son, opening the door, is told by the old man +that he is his uncle, and he gives him half a piastre to buy a good +dinner. When the tailor comes home--he was absent at the time--he is +surprised to hear the old man claim him as a brother, but finding him so +rich he does not dispute the matter. After the old man had lived some +time with the tailor and his family, literally defraying all the +household expenses, he finds it necessary to depart, and with the +tailor's consent takes the boy Cajusse with him, in order that he may +learn some useful business. But no sooner do they get outside the town +than he tells Cajusse that it is all a dodge. "I'm not your uncle," he +says, "I want a strong, daring boy to do something I am too old to do. +I'm a wizard--don't attempt to escape for you can't." Cajusse, not a bit +frightened, asks him what it is he wants him to do; and the wizard +raises a flat stone from the ground, and orders him to go down, and +after he gets to the bottom of the cave to proceed until he comes to a +beautiful garden, where he will see a fierce dog keeping watch. "Here's +bread for him. Don't look back when you hear sounds behind you. On a +shelf you will see an old lantern; take it down, and bring it to me." So +saying the wizard gave Cajusse a ring, in case anything awkward should +happen to him after he had got the lantern, when he had only to rub the +ring, and wish for deliverance. Cajusse finds precious stones hanging +like frost from the trees in the garden underground, and he fills his +pocket with them. Returning to the entrance of the cave, he refuses to +give up the lantern till he has been drawn out; so the wizard thinking +merely to frighten him replaces the stone. Cajusse finding himself thus +entrapped rubs the ring, when instantly the Slave of the Ring appears, +and the youth at once orders the table to be laid for dinner. He then +calls for his mother and father, and they all have an unusually good +meal. Some time afterwards, Cajusse had returned home, the town was +illuminated, one day in honour of the marriage of the Sultan's daughter +to the Vizier's son. He sends his mother to the palace with a basket of +jewels, and, to demand the Sultan's daughter in marriage. The Sultan is +astounded at the purity of the gems, and says he will give his answer in +a month. At the end of the same week the Grand Vizier's son is married +to the Princess. Cajusse rubs his lantern and says "Go to-night and take +the daughter of the Sultan and lay her on a poor pallet in our +outhouse." This is done, and Cajusse begins to talk to her, but she is +far too frightened to answer. The Sultan learns of his daughter's +whereabouts, and does not know what to make of the strange business. The +son of the Vizier complains to his father that his wife disappears every +night, and comes back just before dawn. Cajusse now sends his mother to +the Sultan with three more baskets full of jewels, and the Sultan tells +her he may come and see him at the palace. Having received this message, +Cajusse rubs the lantern, gets a dress of gold and silver, a richly +caparisoned horse, four pages with rich dresses to ride behind them, and +one to go before, distributing money to the people. Cajusse is next +married to the Princess, and they live together in a most magnificent +palace with great happiness. By-and-bye the old wizard hears of this, +and resolves to obtain the lantern by hook or by crook. Disguising +himself as a pedlar he comes to the palace calling out the familiar "New +lamps for old." By this means he obtains the precious lamp, and +immediately transports the palace and the princess to an island in the +high seas. Cajusse, by the aid of the magic ring, quickly follows, to +find his princess a prisoner in the power of the wizard. He then gives +her this advice: "Make a feast to-night; say you'll marry the old wizard +if he'll tell you what thing would be fatal to him, and you will guard +him against it." The princess gets from the magician the fatal secret. +"One must go into a far distant forest," he says "Where there is a beast +called the hydra, and cut off his seven heads. If the middle head is +split open a leveret will jump out and run off. If the leveret is split +open, a bird will fly out. If the bird is caught and opened, in its body +is a precious stone, and should that be placed under my pillow I shall +die." Cajusse accomplishes all these things, and gives the life-stone to +the princess, together with a bottle of opium. The princess drugs the +wizard's wine, and when he had laid his head on his pillow (under which +was the stone) he gave three terrible yells, turned himself round three +times, and was dead. After thus ridding themselves of their enemy, +Cajusse and his bride lived happy ever afterwards. + +Aladdin's adventure with the magician in the enchanted cave has also its +counterpart in Germany (see Grimms' German Collection). + +Another "Aladdin" version is the tale of Marúf, the last in the Búlák +and Calcutta printed Arabic texts of the "Book of Marúf" in "The +Thousand and One Nights." The story is to the effect that Marúf had +given out that he was a rich man, under which false pretence he marries +the Sultan's daughter. The tale he spread about was that he was +expecting the arrival of a rich caravan, which contained all his +princely wealth. After they were married, Marúf confesses to his wife +the imposture he has practised on them. She urges him to fly, or his +head would be forfeited, and procures him a disguise to flee the +country. He does so, and, whilst journeying through a village, he sees a +man ploughing in a field, whom he asks for food. Whilst the latter is +away, Marúf continues the ploughing, where the man had left off, and +the ploughshare strikes against something hard in the ground, which +turns out to be an iron ring in a marble slab. He pulls at the ring, and +Marúf discovers a small room covered with gold, emeralds, rubies, and +other precious stones. He also discovers a coffer of crystal, having a +little box, containing a diamond in its entirety. Desirous of knowing +what the box further contains, he finds a plain gold ring, with strange +talismanic characters engraved thereon. Placing the ring on his finger, +he is suddenly confronted by the Genii of the Ring, who demands to know +what are his commands. Marúf desires the Genii to transport all the +treasure to the earth, when mules and servants appear, and carry it to +the city which Marúf had left, much to the chagrin of the Vizier, who +did not like Marúf. Marúf, during a great feast prepared for the +occasion, tells the Sultan how he became possessed of the treasure, when +the Sultan begs the loan of the ring, which Marúf hands to the Vizier to +give him, and which no sooner does he get, than he commands the Genii to +convey Marúf to some desert island, and leave him to die. The Vizier +also serves the Sultan the same way, and then he turns his attention to +"Mrs. Marúf," whom he threatens with death if she refuses to marry him. +At a banquet she makes the Vizier drunk, obtains possession of the ring, +secures the return of Marúf and the Sultan, and the decapitation of the +Vizier. + +The "Babes in the Wood" was registered on the books of Stationers' Hall +as a ballad as far back as 1595. + +To take another familiar Pantomime subject, "Blue Beard," this story is +said to have been invented as a satire on our King Henry VIII. There is +little doubt, however, of it originating from a very ancient source; and +to afford the reader all the possible information on the subject, a +writer in "The Drama," a magazine of the beginning of the last century +has the following, though he does not state his authority for the +information:-- + +As this extraordinary personage has long been the theme, not only of +children's early study and terror, it will be gratifying to peruse the +character of that being who really existed, and who was distinguished in +horror and derision by the strange appellation of "Blue Beard." + +He was the famous Gilles, Marquis de Laval, a Mareschal of France, and a +General of uncommon intrepidity, who greatly distinguished himself in +the reigns of Charles VI. and VII., by his courage, particularly against +the English, when they invaded France. He rendered such services to his +country, which were sufficient to immortalize his name, had he not for +ever tarnished his glory by the most terrible and cruel murders, +blasphemies, and licentiousness of every kind. His revenues were +princely; but his prodigality was sufficient to render even an Emperor a +bankrupt. Wherever he went he had in his suite a seraglio, a band of +players, a company of musicians, a society of sorcerers and magicians, +an almost incredible number of cooks, packs of dogs of various kinds, +and above 200 led horses. Mezerai, an author of great repute, says, +that he encouraged and maintained men who called themselves sorcerers, +to discover hidden treasures, and corrupted young persons of both sexes +to attach themselves to him, and afterwards killed them for the sake of +their blood, which was requisite to form his charms and incantations. +These horrid excesses may be believed, when we reflect on the age of +ignorance and barbarism in which they were certainly too often +practised. He was at length, for a state crime against the Duke of +Brittany, sentenced to be burnt alive in a field at Nantz in 1440, but +the Duke, who was present at his execution, so far mitigated the +sentence, that he was first strangled, then burnt, and his ashes buried. +Though he was descended from one of the most illustrious families in +France, he declared, previous to his death, that all his terrible +excesses were owing to his wretched education. + +"Blue Beard" was first dramatised at Paris, in 1746, when "_Barbe Bleu_" +was thus announced:--_Pantomime_--_representée par la troupe des +Comediens Pantomimes, Foir St. Laurent_. It was afterwards dramatised at +the Earl of Barrymore's Theatre, Wargrave, Berks., and in 1791. After +that the subject was produced at Covent Garden Theatre as a Pantomime. + +"Beauty and the Beast," the latter a white bear, is to be found in +"Popular Tales from the Norse," by Mr. Dasent, and in the collection of +"Popular Tales from the German" by the Brothers Grimm. As a ballad the +story of "Beauty and the Beast" is a very old one. + +"Cinderella" is to be found in the language of every European country. +In ancient Hindu legends it appears; in tales related by the Greek poets +it is also to be found. + +The story of "Cinderella," according to the ancient Hindu legends, is +that of the Sun and the Dawn. Cinderella has been likened to Aurora, the +Spirit of the Dawn, and the fairy Prince of the legend is the morning +Sun, ever closely pursuing her to make her his bride. The Hindu legend +of the lost slipper is that a wealthy Rajah's beautiful daughter was +born with a golden necklace, which contained her soul, and, if the +necklace was taken off and worn by someone else, the Princess would die. +The Rajah gave her on her birthday a pair of slippers with ornaments of +gold and gems upon them. The princess went out upon a mountain to gather +flowers, and whilst stooping there to pluck the flowers, one of her +slippers fell into the forest below. A Prince, who was hunting, picked +up the slipper, and was so charmed with it that he said he would make +the wearer his wife. He made his wish known, but no one came to claim +the slipper; at length word was given to the Prince where to find the +Rajah's daughter; and shortly afterwards they were married. One of the +wives of the Prince, being jealous of the Rajah's daughter, stole the +necklace, put it on her own neck, and then the Rajah's daughter died. +The Prince, afterwards, found out the secret of the necklace, and got it +back again, and put it on his dead wife's neck, and she came to life, +and they lived ever afterwards in the greatest harmony. + +The ancient Grecian version of "Cinderella" is that of the story of a +beautiful woman named Rhodope, who, whilst bathing, an eagle flew away +with one of her slippers to Egypt, and dropped it in the lap of the King +as he sat at Memphis on the judgment seat. The King was so attracted by +the smallness and beauty of the slipper that he fell in love with the +wearer, and afterwards made her his wife. + +In Tuscany, Persia, Norway, Denmark, Russia, the story of "Dick +Whittington" is well known. In all probability, like many other fairy +tales, its origin was from a Buddhist source. The English version, that +the Lord Mayor Whittington was the poor ill-used boy he is represented +to have been in the popular tale seems quite impossible, since according +to Stow (mentions Mr. Clouston) he was the son of Sir Richard +Whittington, Knight. The story was current in Europe in the thirteenth +century. In the chronicle of Albert, Abbot of the Convent of St. Mary of +Slade, written at that period, it is related that there were two +citizens of Venice, one of whom was rich, the other poor. It fortuned +that the rich man went abroad to trade, and the poor man gave him as his +venture two cats, the sale of which, as in our tale of the renowned +"Dick Whittington," procured him great wealth. + +On September 21st, 1668, Pepys makes mention in his diary of going to +Southwark Fair, and of seeing the puppet show of "Whittington," which he +says "was pretty to see." A Pantomime on the subject was also given by +Rich early in the eighteenth century. + +In Tuscany, the "Dick Whittington" story runs that in the fifteenth +century, a Genoese merchant, who presented two cats to the King, was +rewarded by him with rich presents. + +In Norway, a poor boy, having found a box full of silver money under a +stone, emptied the box and its contents into a lake--one piece, however, +floated, which he kept, believing it to be _good_. His mother, hearing +of this, thrust him out of doors; and he eventually obtained employment +in a merchant's house. The merchant, having to make a voyage to foreign +parts, he asked each of his servants what he should "venture" for him. +The poor boy offered all he had, the silver penny, of which he was still +the possessor. With this the merchant purchased a cat, and sailed away, +but the vessel in which he was in was driven out of her course on to the +shores of a strange country. The merchant going ashore went to an inn, +and, in a room, he saw the table laid for dinner, with a long rod for +each man who sat at it. When the meat was set on the table, out swarmed +thousands of mice, and each one who sat at the table beat them off with +his rod. The cat was brought into service, and sold for a hundred +dollars, and soon put an end to the career of the mice. When the +merchant had weighed anchor, much to his surprise, he saw the cat +sitting at the mast head. Again foul weather came on, and again the +vessel was driven to another strange country, where the mice were just +as numerous as before. The cat was called in, sold this time for two +hundred dollars, and away the merchant sailed. No sooner, however, was +he at sea, than the cat once more appeared before him. The vessel was +again driven out of her course to another strange country, over-run with +rats this time, when poor pussy was sold a third time, for the sum of +three hundred dollars. Again the cat made its appearance; and the +merchant thinking to do the poor boy out of his money, a dreadful storm +arose, which only subsided on the merchant making a vow that the boy +should have every penny. When he arrived home the merchant faithfully +kept his promise, gave the boy the six hundred dollars, and the hand of +his daughter besides. + +A Breton legend of the story of "Dick Whittington" runs that three sons +go to seek their fortune, the eldest of whom, Yvon, possesses a cat. The +cat again plays an important part. Yvon becomes the friend of the Lord +of the Manor, and has gold and diamonds bestowed upon him in galore. + +The Russian version is that a poor little orphan boy buys a cat, which +some mischievous boys were teasing, for three copecks (about a penny). +Taken into the service of a merchant the latter goes to a distant +country, accompanied by the cat of the orphan boy. Puss making sad work +of some rats, which threatened to make an end of the merchant in the +inn, which he occupied. He ultimately sold the cat to the landlord for a +sack full of gold. Returning home, on his way thither, he thought how +foolish it would be to give all the money to the boy. Whereupon a +dreadful storm arose, and the vessel, in which was the merchant, was in +danger of sinking. The merchant, knowing that the storm had arisen +through his change of purpose, prayed to heaven for forgiveness, when +the sea became calm, and the vessel arrived safely in port, when the +merchant paid over to the orphan boy all the wealth obtained by the sale +of the cat. + +In the Persian version, unlike the other legends, the cat is owned by a +poor widow, who had been impoverished through her sons, and was left +with only a cat. The sale of the cat produces great wealth; and the +widow, Kayser, immediately sends for her sons to share her +newly-acquired fortune. What follows is different to the other versions +of these wonderful cat stories. The sons only too eager to share the +wealth of their mother, fit out many vessels, and begin to trade largely +with India and Arabia. Thinking that to acquire wealth by commerce +alone, rather slow work, they turned pirates, and were a source of +trouble and annoyance to the neighbouring states, till about 1230 A.D., +when they were reduced to vassalage under Persian rule. + +"The House that Jack Built" has its prototype in a sacred hymn in the +Talmud of the Hebrews. + +"Jack, the Giant Killer" and "Jack and the Beanstalk" are two very +ancient themes coming from the North, of the time, it is said, of King +Arthur, and of the days when "Giants were upon the earth." The +well-known cry of the giants in these legends-- + + "Fe, Fi, Fo, Fum, + I smell the blood of an Englishman; + Be he alive or be he dead, + I'll grind his bones to make my bread," + +is also referred to by Shakespeare in "King Lear," in Act III., Scene 5, +when Edgar sings:-- + + "Child Rowland to the dark Tower came; + His word was still, fee, foh, and fum, + I smell the blood of an Englishman." + +The English version of the story of "Jack the Giant Killer," must, +therefore, be older than the time of Elizabeth. It is also a strange and +significant fact that amongst the Zulus, and the inhabitants of the Fiji +Islands, there are similar legends of the story of "Jack and the +Beanstalk." + +The story of "Jack and the Beanstalk" is also to be found in old Hindoo +tales, in which the beans denote abundance. The Russians have a story in +which a bean falls to the ground, and an old man, the Sun, climbs up by +it to heaven. "The ogre in the land above the skies," observes Mr. +Baring Gould, "who was once the all-father, possessed three treasures--a +harp, which played of itself enchanting music; bags of gold and +diamonds; and a hen which daily laid a golden egg. The harp is the +wind, the bags of gold are the clouds dropping the sparkling rain, and +the golden egg laid every day by the red hen is the producing sun." The +same idea in "Jack and the Beanstalk" occurs in the fairy legends of the +North and the East, as well as in Grecian stories. + +In "Jack the Giant Killer," the gifts given to Jack are found in Tartar, +Hindoo, Scandinavian, and German legends. + +Now let us note briefly the origin of "Red Riding Hood" and "The +Sleeping Beauty in the Wood." All the other fairy stories that we know +of are to be found in other countries, and springing originally from +Asia, where they were made ages and ages ago. + +The Wolf in the story of "Red Riding Hood" has been likened to the days +of our own "Bluff King Hal," owing to the latter's suppression of the +monasteries, and Red Riding Hood herself, whom the Wolf subsequently +eats, with her hood and habit, was supposed to be typical of the +monastic orders. + +The Hindoo's version of the "Red Riding Hood" story is a pretty and +fanciful one. Their idea was that there was always a great Dragon +endeavouring to devour Indra, the Sun god, and to prevent the Sun from +shining upon the earth, Indra ultimately overcomes the Dragon. Red +Riding Hood, with her warm habit, is supposed to be the setting sun +casting its red and glittering rays as it sinks to rest. The old +Grandmother is Mother Earth; and the Wolf, the Dragon; and when all is +dark and still, the Wolf swallows the Grandmother, namely, the Earth; +and afterwards, as Night has fallen, the Evening Sun. The Huntsman +denotes the Morning Sun, and he chases away all the dark clouds gathered +during the night, and by doing so kills the Wolf; recovers the old +Grandmother Earth, and brings to life again, Little Red Riding Hood. +Another version (observes Mr. T. Bunce) is that the Wolf is the dark, +and dreary winter, that kills the Earth with frost, but when spring +comes again it brings the Earth and the Sun back to life. + +In "The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood," the maiden has been likened to the +Morning dawn, and the young Prince, who awakens her, with a kiss, to the +Sun. + +"Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves," in concluding this chapter, I may say, +with "The Fair One with Golden Locks," forms to the superstitious the +only two unlucky Pantomime subjects. + +"Sindbad, the Sailor," taken from the "Arabian Nights," has its origin +in Persian and Arabian tales. + +Of all our Pantomime subjects, "Robinson Crusoe," seems to be the only +one we can properly lay claim to as being "of our own make," so to +speak, and written by Daniel De Foe, and, in the main, from the +imagination. De Foe, it has been stated, derived his idea for this +story from the adventures of one, Alexander Selkirk, a Scotchman, who +had been a castaway on the Island of Juan Fernandez. The first portion +of "Robinson Crusoe" appeared in "The Family Instructor," in 1719, of +which De Foe was the founder. It, at once, sprang into popularity, and +has left its author undying fame. De Foe was born about 1660 in the +parish of St. Giles, Cripplegate, died 26th April, 1731, and was buried +in Bunhill Fields. + + + + +CHAPTER XX. + +Pantomime in America. + + +Pantomime, in America, had not a very long run, it being killed by the +farcical comedy. Mr. E.L. Blanchard supposes that "Mother Goose" was the +first Pantomime played in America, but this is an error, as it was not +until 1786, when Garrick's "Harlequin's Invasion," and R. Pocock's +"Robinson Crusoe" were played at the John Street Theatre, New York, that +Pantomime made its advent in America. "Mother Goose" was afterwards +played, but it did not suit the Yankee's taste. Rich's Harlequin, Gay of +"The Beggars Opera," produced at Lincoln's Inn Fields Theatre, and which +it is said made "Rich Gay, and Gay Rich," also went to America, and +where, it is said, he became the Chief of an Indian tribe in the Far +West. In the South Sea Bubble Gay held some £20,000. His friends advised +him to sell, but he dreamed of greatness and splendour, and refused +their counsel. Ultimately, both the profit and the principal was lost, +and Gay sunk under the calamity so low that his life became in danger. + +American Pantomimes consisted of a semi-pastoral "opening," performed +almost entirely in dumb show, and a big trick Harlequinade, and down to +the time of Pantomime's decease in America was it played like this. + +George L. Fox made Pantomime highly popular in America. Born in May of +1825, he, as an actor and comedian in Yankee and Irish parts, held his +own in popularity with the great Joseph Jefferson. + +Fox might be properly termed "The Grimaldi of America," as he was the +representative Clown of the land of the stars and stripes. His Clown's +parts he dressed like Grimaldi, and with the whitened face and bald head +of Pierrot, the French type of Clown. + +The year that "Mother Goose" came to New York saw the introduction of a +French troupe of Pantomimists, known as the Ravels. In imitation of +these performers Fox introduced in the 'fifties ballet Pantomimes, and +several Ravelsque pieces like "The Red Gnome" and "The Schoolmaster" +with good results. + +In 1862 Fox was at the Bowery Theatre, and, during his occupation of the +same, he did much to popularise Pantomime. Half a dozen years afterwards +we find him at the Olympic Theatre, New York, where he produced "Humpty +Dumpty," which ran 483 nights, and for five years, till 1873, it held +its place, on and off, in the bill. Altogether it was played 943 times. +Fox, from this, was known as Humpty Dumpty, and, strangely enough, also, +the Americans for long enough afterwards called every Pantomime "Humpty +Dumpty." + +Fox was a very good mimic, imitating all the Hamlets of the day, besides +being a good melodramatic actor. He died October 24th, 1877, at +Cambridge, Mass., of softening of the brain. + +Tony Denier, a pupil of the Ravels, and a quondam friend of Fox, next +took Fox's place in the estimation of the American public. Of Denier, we +are told that he arrived in Boston in 1852, with the proverbial +half-crown in his pocket. He was of French extraction, and descended +from one of the best French families. In 1863 he was with P.T. Barnum, +and appearing as a one-legged dancer. In 1868, he went into Pantomime, +toured "Humpty Dumpty," and for some twenty years afterwards kept the +Pantomimic ball merrily rolling until his retirement at Chicago into +private life. Denier made Harlequinade tricks a speciality. + +Pantomime in America may be said to have lived about a quarter of a +century; but in the autumn of this year (1901) Pantomime, as we now know +it in this country, made its first appearance at the Broadway Theatre, +New York, when last year's Drury Lane annual, "The Sleeping Beauty and +the Beast," was successfully presented. It is very probable that this +class of entertainment will become very popular in America. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI. + +Pantomimes made more attractive--The Restrictive Policy of the Patent +Houses--"Mother Goose" and "George Barnwell" at Covent Garden--Lively +Audiences--"Jane Shore"--"Harlequin Pat and Harlequin Bat"--"The first +speaking opening"--Extravagence in Extravaganzas--The doom of the old +form of Pantomime--Its revival in a new form--A piece of pure +Pantomime--Present day Mimetic Art--"_L'Enfant Prodigue_"--A +retrospect--The old with the new, and conclusion. + + +Pantomimes, as they grew, were made more and more attractive, "new +scenery, decorations, and flyings" were introduced, and with new +"flyings," of course, more accidents. + +The restrictive policy adopted by the Patent theatres--till the repeal +of their patents (1843)--towards the minor houses, which gave to the +former the sole and only right of performing the "legitimate" was, by +the minor theatres, infringed in many ways. The means adopted was the +employment of Pantomime in the depiction of plays adapted and considered +suitable for the minor theatres. These were entirely carried on by +action, and when the actor could not express something that had to be +explained, like the names of characters, a scroll, with the necessary +details inscribed thereon, was unrolled in full view of the audience. +These entertainments were very popular at the close of the eighteenth +century, and they were also the means of providing some first-class +Pantomimists--as, for instance, Bologna and D'Egville. + +In a couple of volumes by Mr. J.C. Cross, entitled, "Circusiana," the +author of many of these old "dumb shows," the reader can see what they +were like. The scripts of these plays consisted, like our ancient +"Platts" and the Italian Scenarios, of principally stage directions. + +John Palmer, the actor who died on the stage of the Theatre Royal, +Liverpool--now used for the purpose of a cold storage--after uttering, +in the part of "The Stranger," the words "There is another and a better +world," found that, after building his theatre, the Royalty, in +Wellclose Square, that he was prohibited its use, used to give +Pantomimic representations, and just in a similar way as what the minor +theatres did, as mentioned above. + +It is amusing to note how the titles of some of Shakespeare's +works--which at one time the Patent theatres had the monopoly--were got +over; "Hamlet" has been known to have been played as "Methinks I see my +Father;" "Othello," as "Is He Jealous?;" "Romeo and Juliet," as "How to +Die for Love;" "The Merchant of Venice," under "Diamond Cut Diamond," +and so on. Music and dancing also were introduced _ad lib_ into these +performances. + +The Pantomime of "Mother Goose," produced at Covent Garden, December 29, +1806, which ran 92 nights, was preceded by "George Barnwell," and +brought some £20,000 into the theatre treasury. Strangely enough, for +about thirty years, it was the unvarying rule to play "George Barnwell" +at this theatre on a Boxing Night, which, from all accounts, owing to +the liveliness of the gods and goddesses assembled on these +occasions--the Tragedy was as much a Pantomime as the Pantomime proper +that followed. Of these "merry moments" Dibdin recalls that Tragedies, +Comedies, and Operas were doomed to suffer all the complicated +combinations of "Pray ask that gentleman to sit down," "Take off your +hat?" and the like. "But the moment," continues Dibdin, "the curtain +goes up (on the Pantomime), if any unfortunate gentleman speaks a word +they make no reply, _but throw him over directly_." + +Seemingly afterwards, at Pantomime time, "Barnwell" was discarded in +favour of "Jane Shore," as in "The Theatrical Magazine" we find a writer +penning the following:-- + +A few years since it was the established rule to play "George Barnwell," +by way, we suppose, of a "great moral lesson" to the apprentices of +London. In this age of innovation this venerable custom has been broken +down, but the principle seems not wholly to have been abandoned. "Jane +Shore" has supplanted "Barnwell," and the anxieties of the age, are, it +would appear, now directed towards the softer sex. Seriously speaking, +we consider these Christmas selections as exceedingly absurd. Visitants +at this period of the year frequent the theatre less for the purpose of +seeing the play than the Pantomime, and at both theatres it was this +evening their chief, and almost only, attraction; for the tragedy of +Rowe, which is of very little merit, derived but trifling interest or +effect from the performers who personated the prominent characters. +Moreover the lessons of the pulpit have unfortunately but too slight an +influence on those who attend them, and we are rather fearful the moral +benefits to be derived from these stage lectures, to the apprentices and +servants of the metropolis, do not countervail the loss of pleasure +sustained by those who would be so much better pleased; and, therefore, +perhaps, taught by a lively comedy, satirising some of the light vices +or laughable follies of the age. We trust this theatrical nuisance will +be for the future reformed; we can almost excuse the holiday folks for +being turbulent, when we reflect upon the insult offered to their +understandings, in the treatment they receive on these occasions. + +In 1830, at Covent Garden Theatre, Peake introduced into the Pantomime +of "Harlequin Pat, and Harlequin Bat" a "speaking opening." Pantomime, +however, pursued the even tenour of its way until the production at the +Adelphi, about 1857, of a Pantomime, with a "burlesque opening," and +"the thin end of the wedge" was provided, written by Mark Lemon. In the +Harlequinade, Madame Celeste appeared as Harlequin _à la Watteau_, and +Miss Mary Keeley was the Columbine. These Extravaganzas, from the pen of +Planché, with scenery by Beverley, and all under the management of +Vestris, afterwards became quite the rage. + +I have previously referred to the excellence of Beverley's scenes under +the _regime_ of Madame Vestris. Extravagance in Extravaganzas, like "The +Blue Bird," "Once Upon a Time," and the like, caused the managers, in +the matter of scenery, to enter into serious competition with one +another. + +Pantomime, it was thought, was doomed, as its decease at this epoch +seemed impending. It managed, however, to come again into popular +favour, but in a very different shape. Instead of the usual comic +Pantomime it was played by two different sets of performers, and having +no connection with one another. The opening scenes, like a soap bubble, +began to grow larger and larger, the double plot was abandoned, the +Transformation scene became the principal feature, and a long +Harlequinade at the _end_. + +In the Pantomime of "Red Riding Hood," written by F.W. Green, and +produced at Her Majesty's Theatre, during the 'eighties, an effort was +made to compose and invent a piece of pure Pantomime. The Vokes family, +J.T. Powers, and others, appeared in this Pantomime. + +In France and Italy particularly, the Mimetic Art still flourishes; but +in this country it is practically a lost Art. One of the best examples, +and most successful, we have had in recent years of this ancient form +of entertainment in this country was that of "_L'Enfant Prodigue_," +played by Mdlle. Jane May and a French Company of Pantomimists. There +are, however, several other very brilliant Pantomimists excellent in +their Art, like the Martinetti troupe, the two brothers Renad, and the +Leopolds. + +"It is a pity (observes Dickens, in 'The Theatre') that the knowledge of +it (Pantomime) cannot be more extended among our modern actors and +actresses, so few of whom understand anything about the effectiveness of +appropriate gesture. A few lessons in the business of Harlequin would +teach many a young man, for instance, the simple lesson that arms may be +moved with advantage from the shoulder as well as from the elbow; and so +we should get rid of one of the awkwardest, ugliest, and commonest of +modern stage tricks. And there would be nothing derogatory in the study. +Many of our most distinguished actors have graduated in Pantomime." + +Mr. Davenport Adams, writing in "The Theatre," for January, 1882, on the +decline of Pantomime, says:-- + +"We may say of present-day Pantomime that the trail of the music-hall is +over it all. I admit the extreme ability of certain music-hall +comedians. I object, however, altogether, to the intrusion of such +artists into the domain of Pantomime, and I do so because they, and +others not so able, bring with them, so to speak, an atmosphere which it +is sad to see imported into the theatre. They bring with them, not only +their songs, which, when offensive in their wording, are sometimes made +doubly dangerous by their tunefulness; not only their dances, which are +usually vulgar, when they are not inane, but their style and manner and +'gags,' which are generally the most deplorable of all. The objection to +music-hall artists on the stage is, not only that they take the bread +out of the mouths of 'the profession,' which is a minor consideration +for the public, but that they have the effect of familiarising general +audiences, and children especially, with a style and a kind of singing, +dancing, and 'business' which, however it may be relished by a certain +class of the population, ought steadily to be confined to its original +habitat. The managers are, of course, very much to blame, for it is by +their permission, if not by their desire, that youthful ears are regaled +with 'W'st, w'st, w'st,' and similar elegant compositions. Such songs as +these would not be tolerated by _paterfamilias_ in his drawing-room, +yet, when he takes his children to the Pantomime, they are the most +prominent portion of the entertainment." + +In the last century, Pantomimes, in the form so dear to our forefathers, +sometimes twice yearly--at Easter and Christmas--were given. The comic +and other scenes were in that true sense of the word humorous and funny. +The reason was not far to seek, as they were all played by _actors_. The +music-hall had not, as far as Pantomime was concerned, made such inroads +as at the present time it has done into the dramatic profession. Clown, +to _pater_ and _materfamilias_, and others, was a source of genuine +enjoyment; and though they may have passed the sere and yellow leaf of +age, the laughs and hearty merriment of their grand-children gathered +around them made them think of other days, when they were young +themselves. Picture them all, dear reader, sitting in the Family +Circle--now termed the Dress Circle--a happy party with smiling and +contented faces, laughing at some _genuine acting_--Pantomime though it +be--no _double entendre_ songs, and nothing to be ashamed of. + +To the young a visit to the Pantomime was invariably a yearly occurrence +to be joyfully remembered till the next Boxing Day came round again. Do +they, or can they, understand Pantomime in its present form? I very much +doubt it. + +When towards the close of the 'fifties, and the double plot was +abandoned, the character of Harlequin began to be played by women, the +origin of what is now known as the "principal boy," and some acrobatic +turns, or other speciality business, began to be introduced during the +course of the Pantomime, which greatly discounted the efforts of +Harlequin and Clown. + +Another competitor that took up the running to the abolition of Clown +and his companions, was the music-hall, which began introducing +Pantomimes and ballets. The first to do this, some years ago, was the +Canterbury, other halls soon following suit. + +The managers of the theatres took up arms, with the result that various +decisions, chiefly averse to the music-halls, were obtained. A decision +of the Court of Common Pleas left the music-halls in a position to give +ballets with costume and scenic effects without any such control or +precautions as was exercised in theatres under the Lord Chamberlain's +authority. The duration of the litigation was all owing to the vague +definition "Stageplays in the 6 and 7 Vict. c. 68," and of "Music, +dancing and public entertainments in the Act 25, Geo. II., c. 30." + +Of present-day Pantomime, with the immense sums spent annually on its +gorgeous spectacular display and costly dresses, there is no necessity +for me here to dilate upon, as it is a subject that is well known to us +all. All that is beautiful about it is due principally to the scenic +artists and the costumiers. The best parts are, as a general rule, +allotted to music-hall "stars," whose names will draw the most money. +And the followers of Thespis have, until the reign of King Pantomime is +over, to take oftentimes second-class places in the Pantomimic form of +entertainment of the present day. + +In the old days everyone looked forward to the performances of Clown and +his companions; but little by little their business went, until finally +this has dwindled down to about one or two scenes--which, in some few +instances is still retained. + +And now to formally "ring down," and in writing the "tag," there is, I +may say, with the sound of the prompter's bell, a melancholy ring as the +passing knell of Clown and his merry companions, and the "tag," as it +were, their epitaph. + +Pantomimes--as our forefathers knew them--have become a thing of the +past, and the survivors, Clown and his comrades, the former whose quips +and quiddities, in childhood's happy days, many of us still lovingly +remember; the wonderment with which we gazed at the magical tricks +wrought by Harlequin and his wand; the quaint conceits and ambling gait +of Pantaloon; and, last but not least, bewitching Columbine, with whom, +most likely as each year came round, in youthful ardour we fell anew in +love's toils, are all rapidly vanishing into the dim and distant past, +and to live in the future only in the memory. + + + +CURTAIN. + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13469 *** |