A History of Pantomime | Page 2

Barnes, the Pantaloon--An account of the first production of the "House
that Jack built," at Covent Garden--Spectacular display--Antiquity and
Origin of some Pantomimic devices--Devoto, Angelo, and French, the
Scenic Artists--Transparencies--Beverley--Transformation Scenes

CHAPTER XVIII.
Pantomimic Families--Giuseppe Grimaldi--James Byrne, the Harlequin
and Inventor of the modern Harlequin's dress--Joseph Grimaldi,

Junior--The Bologna Family--Tom Ellar--The Ridgways--The
Bradburys--The Montgomerys--The Paynes--The Marshalls--Charles
and Richard Stilt--Richard Flexmore--Tom Gray--The
Paulos--Dubois--Arthur and Charles Leclerq--"Jimmy"
Barnes--Famous Pantaloons--Miss Farren--Mrs.
Siddons--Columbines--Notable Actors in Pantomime

CHAPTER XIX.
Popular Pantomime subjects--Poor Pantomime Librettos--Pantomime
subjects of our progenitors--The various versions of "Aladdin"--"The
Babes in the Wood"--"Blue Beard"--"Beauty and the
Beast"--"Cinderella"--"Dick Whittington"--"The House that Jack
Built"--"Jack the Giant Killer"--"Jack and the Beanstalk"--"Red
Riding-Hood"--"The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood"--Unlucky
subjects--"Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves"--"The Fair One with
Golden Locks"--The source of "Sindbad the Sailor" and "Robinson
Crusoe"

CHAPTER XX.
Pantomime in America

CHAPTER XXI.
Pantomimes made more attractive--The Restrictive Policy of the Patent
Houses--"Mother Goose" and "George Barnwell" at Covent
Garden--Lively Audiences--"Jane Shore"--"Harlequin Pat and
Harlequin Bat"--"The first speaking opening"--Extravagence in
Extravaganzas--The doom of the old form of Pantomime--Its revival in
a new form--A piece of pure Pantomime--Present day Mimetic

Art--"_L'Enfant Prodigue_"--A retrospect--The old with the new, and
conclusion

CHAPTER I.
Origin of Pantomime.
From the beginning of all time there has been implanted in the human
breast the Dramatic instinct full of life and of vigour, and finding
undoubtedly its outlet, in the early days of civilization, if not in the
Dramatic Art then in the poetry of motion with that necessary and
always essential concomitant of both--Pantomime. Indeed, of the
Terpsichorean Art, it has been truly observed "That deprived of the
imitative principle (_i.e._, Pantomime), the strength, the mute
expression, it becomes nothing but a series of cadenced steps,
interesting merely as a graceful exercise." Equally so in every way does
it apply to the Dramatic Art, which minus its acting, its gestures--in a
word, its Pantomime--we have nothing but, to quote Hamlet, "Words,
words, words."
In observing "That all the world's a stage, and the men and women
merely players," Shakespeare doubtless included in the generic term
"players," Pantomimists as well: Inasmuch as this, that when, and
wherever a character is portrayed, or represented, be it in real life or on
the stage--"Nature's looking-glass," and the world in miniature--the
words that the individual or the character speaks, are accompanied with
gesture and motion, or, in other words, Pantomime, when "The action
is suited to the word, the word to the action."
To trace the original origin of Pantomime, or Mimicry, we must go to
Nature herself where we can find this practised by her from the
beginning of all time as freely, and as fully, as ever it was, or ever will
be, upon the stages of our theatres. What better evidence, or instances,
of this can we have than in those studies of her handiwork? as the
larger species of caterpillars, when, by stretching themselves out in
imitation of, and to make their foes think that they are snakes; tigers

and lions choosing a background in keeping with, and in imitation of,
the colours of their bodies, in order to seize their unwary prey; and for
the same purpose crocodiles imitating a rotting log; the green tint of the
lizard's skin for the sake of concealment; the playful imitativeness of
the mocking bird; the hysterical laugh of the hyaena; the gaudy colours
of tropical snakes imitated by others, besides many other examples of
Mimicry, in such as butterflies of the species Danaidae and Acraediae,
the Heliconidiae of tropical America; and hornets, wasps, ants, and
bees. All this, it may be urged, is only instinct. True; but is it not also
Mimicry--the Pantomime of Nature, and, though, of course, of a
different kind, and for very different objects, is, nevertheless, of a kind
of instinctive Pantomime or Mimicry which each and every one of us
possesses in greater or lesser degrees, and as much as we do the
Dramatic instinct.
The very name Pantomime itself signifies Nature as Pan was amongst
the Ancients, the allegorical god of Nature, the shepherd of Arcadia,
and with Mimos, meaning an imitator, we have, in the combination of
these two words, "an imitator of Nature," and from whence we derive
the origin of our word Pantomime.
Dryden says:--
"Pan taught to join with wax unequal reeds; Pan loves the shepherds
and the flocks he feeds."
"Pan," says Servius, "is a rustic god, formed in similitude of Nature,
whence he is called Pan, _i.e._, All: for he has horns in similitude of
the rays of the sun and the horns of the moon; his face is as ruddy as
the imitation of the aether; he has a spotted fawn skin on his breast in
likeness of the stars; his lower parts are shaggy on account of