A History of Pantomime PDF
A History of Pantomime PDF
A History of Pantomime PDF
by
R. J. BROADBENT
Author of "STAGE WHISPERS," etc.
LONDON
TO
R.J.B.
PREFACE.
R.J.B.
CHAPTER I.
Origin of Pantomime
CHAPTER II.
CHAPTER III.
CHAPTER IV.
CHAPTER V.
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.
CHAPTER VIII.
CHAPTER IX.
CHAPTER XI.
CHAPTER XII.
CHAPTER XIII.
CHAPTER XIV.
CHAPTER XV.
CHAPTER XVI.
Joseph Grimaldi
CHAPTER XVII.
CHAPTER XVIII.
CHAPTER XIX.
CHAPTER XX.
Pantomime in America
CHAPTER XXI.
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."
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:--
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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, 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."
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.
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.
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.
CHAPTER III.
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 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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 _epopee_,
or heroic poem, may be traced in tragedy, though, as Aristotle observes,
all the parts of tragedy are not to be found in the _epopee_; 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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."
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
CHAPTER VII.
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"--
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 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_."
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.
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.
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."
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.
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.
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:--
The Interlude, that was the progenitor of English Comedy, next arrived.
The origin of the Interlude is credited to John Heywood.
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.
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.
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.
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?
Gifford, in his "Memoirs of Ben Jonson," says that "In poetry, painting,
architecture, they (the Masques) have not since been equalled."
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 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.
CHAPTER XI.
_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.
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.
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."
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.
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.
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 _naivete_ 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.
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.
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.
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."
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, Facanappa, 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.
CHAPTER XIII.
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 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.
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.
The late Mr. Hole, the ingenious writer on the "Arabian Nights,"
observed to me that Moliere, 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:--
These Extemporal plays were witnessed much nearer than in Italy--at the
_Theatre des Italiens_ at Paris--for one of the characters replies:--
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.
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.
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.
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.
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."
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.
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.
CHAPTER XV.
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 L10 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:--
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.
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 L9,000 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!"
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.
("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.)
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."
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
"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
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.
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 L60,000 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."
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.
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."
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:--
With the reader's permisson, I will give, from his "Memoirs," the
address he spoke:--
"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.
"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!"
CHAPTER XVII.
Of the plots of the old form of Pantomime and what these entertainments
were generally like, graphically, does Planche describe them.
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):--
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:--
Jack's Wager;
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. Planche
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."
All this love of spectacular display soon began to supersede the good
old-fashioned Christmas Pantomimes.
CHAPTER XVIII.
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.
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.
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.
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."
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.
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. Planche, 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:--
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.
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 "_Ala-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 Maruf, the last in the Bulak
and Calcutta printed Arabic texts of the "Book of Maruf" in "The
Thousand and One Nights." The story is to the effect that Maruf 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, Maruf 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, Maruf 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
Maruf 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. Maruf desires the Genii to transport all the
treasure to the earth, when mules and servants appear, and carry it to
the city which Maruf had left, much to the chagrin of the Vizier, who
did not like Maruf. Maruf, 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 Maruf hands to the Vizier to
give him, and which no sooner does he get, than he commands the Genii to
convey Maruf 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. Maruf," 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 Maruf 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.
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."
"Blue Beard" was first dramatised at Paris, in 1746, when "_Barbe Bleu_"
was thus announced:--_Pantomime_--_representee 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.
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--
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.
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 L20,000. 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.
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.
CHAPTER XXI.
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.
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.
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 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.
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."
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.
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."
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.
CURTAIN.
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