CHAPTER XXI.

Pantomimes made more attractive--The Restrictive Policy

of the Patent Houses--"Mother Goose" and "George

Barnwell" at Covent Garden--Lively Audiences--"Jane

Shore"--"Harlequin Pat and Harlequin Bat"--"The

first speaking opening"--Extravagence in Extravaganzas--The

doom of the old form of Pantomime--Its

revival in a new form--A piece of pure Pantomime--Present

day Mimetic Art--"_L'Enfant Prodigue_"--A

retrospect--The old with the new, and conclusion

CHAPTER I.

Origin of Pantomime.

From the beginning of all time there has been implanted in the human

breast the Dramatic instinct full of life and of vigour, and finding

undoubtedly its outlet, in the early days of civilization, if not in the

Dramatic Art then in the poetry of motion with that necessary and always

essential concomitant of both--Pantomime. Indeed, of the Terpsichorean

Art, it has been truly observed "That deprived of the imitative

principle (_i.e._, Pantomime), the strength, the mute expression, it

becomes nothing but a series of cadenced steps, interesting merely as a

graceful exercise." Equally so in every way does it apply to the

Dramatic Art, which minus its acting, its gestures--in a word, its

Pantomime--we have nothing but, to quote Hamlet, "Words, words, words."

In observing "That all the world's a stage, and the men and women merely

players," Shakespeare doubtless included in the generic term "players,"

Pantomimists as well: Inasmuch as this, that when, and wherever a

character is portrayed, or represented, be it in real life or on the

stage--"Nature's looking-glass," and the world in miniature--the words

that the individual or the character speaks, are accompanied with

gesture and motion, or, in other words, Pantomime, when "The action is

suited to the word, the word to the action."

To trace the original origin of Pantomime, or Mimicry, we must go to

Nature herself where we can find this practised by her from the

beginning of all time as freely, and as fully, as ever it was, or ever

will be, upon the stages of our theatres. What better evidence, or

instances, of this can we have than in those studies of her handiwork?

as the larger species of caterpillars, when, by stretching themselves

out in imitation of, and to make their foes think that they are snakes;

tigers and lions choosing a background in keeping with, and in imitation

of, the colours of their bodies, in order to seize their unwary prey;

and for the same purpose crocodiles imitating a rotting log; the green

tint of the lizard's skin for the sake of concealment; the playful

imitativeness of the mocking bird; the hysterical laugh of the hyaena;

the gaudy colours of tropical snakes imitated by others, besides many

other examples of Mimicry, in such as butterflies of the species

_Danaidae_ and _Acraediae_, the _Heliconidiae_ of tropical America; and

hornets, wasps, ants, and bees. All this, it may be urged, is only

instinct. True; but is it not also Mimicry--the Pantomime of Nature,

and, though, of course, of a different kind, and for very different

objects, is, nevertheless, of a kind of instinctive Pantomime or Mimicry

which each and every one of us possesses in greater or lesser degrees,

and as much as we do the Dramatic instinct.

The very name Pantomime itself signifies Nature as Pan was amongst the

Ancients, the allegorical god of Nature, the shepherd of Arcadia, and

with _Mimos_, meaning an imitator, we have, in the combination of these

two words, "an imitator of Nature," and from whence we derive the origin

of our word Pantomime.

Dryden says:--

"Pan taught to join with wax unequal reeds;

Pan loves the shepherds and the flocks he feeds."

"Pan," says Servius, "is a rustic god, formed in similitude of Nature,

whence he is called Pan, _i.e._, All: for he has horns in similitude of

the rays of the sun and the horns of the moon; his face is as ruddy as

the imitation of the aether; he has a spotted fawn skin on his breast in

likeness of the stars; his lower parts are shaggy on account of the

trees, shrubs, and wild beasts; he has goat's feet to denote the

stability of the earth; he has a pipe of seven reeds on account of the

harmony of the heavens, in which there are seven sounds; he has a crook,

that is a curved staff, on account of the year, which runs back on

itself _because he is the god of all Nature_."

Bernardin de St. Pierre observes of Pantomime, "That it was the first

language of man; it is known to all nations; and is so natural and so

expressive that the children of white parents learn it rapidly when they

see it used by the negroes."

Of the Pantomimic language--a universal language and common to the whole

world from time immemorial--Charles Darwin says in his "Descent of Man,"

that "The intellectual and social faculties of man could hardly have

been inferior in any extreme degree to those now possessed by the

lowest savage; otherwise primeval man could not have been so eminently

successful in the struggle for life as proved by his early and wide

diffusion. From the fundamental differences between certain languages

some philologists have inferred that, when man first became widely

diffused, he was not a speaking animal; but it may be suspected that

languages, far less perfect than any now spoken, _aided by gestures_,

might have been used, and yet have left no traces on subsequent and more

highly-developed tongues."

With the progress of, and also as an aid to, civilization how could the

traveller or the trader, not only in the beginning of time, but also

now, when occasion demands, in their intercourse with foreign nations

(unless, of course, they know the language) make themselves understood,

or be able to trade, unless they were or are able to use that "dumb

silent language"--Pantomime? Civilization undoubtedly owes much of its

progress to it, and, also the world at large, to this only and always

universal language. To both the deaf, as well as the dumb, its

advantages have ever been apparent.

Therefore, from prehistoric times, and from the beginning of the world,

we may presume to have had in some form or another, the Pantomimic Art.

In the lower stages of humanity, even in our own times, there is, in all

probability, a close similarity to the savagedom of mankind in the early

Antediluvian period as "This is shown (says Darwin) by the pleasure

which they all take in dancing, rude music, painting, tattooing, and

otherwise decorating themselves--in their mutual comprehension of

_gesture language_, and by the same inarticulate cries, when they are

excited by various emotions." It naturally follows that even if there

was only dancing, there must necessarily, as a form of entertainment,

have also been Pantomime. Again, all savage tribes have a war-dance of

some description, in which in fighting costume they invariably go

through, in Pantomimic form, the respective movements of the Challenge,

the Conflict, the Pursuit, and the Defeat, whilst other members of the

tribe, both men and women, give additional stimulus to these

representations by a rude form of music.

The Ostyak tribe of Northern Asia give us a specimen of the rude

imitative dances of early civilization in a Pantomimic exhibition of the

Chase; the gambols and habits of the wolf and other wild beasts. The

Pantomimic dances of the Kamchadales are in imitation of birds, dogs,

and bears; and the Damaras represent, by four of the tribe stooping down

with their heads together, and uttering harsh cries, the movements of

oxen, and of sheep. The Australian Bushmen Mimic the leaping of calves,

the antics of the baboon, and the buzzing of swarms of bees. Primitive

Pantomimic dancing is practised amongst the South Sea Islanders, and

other races, and just as it was, presumably, at the beginning of the

world.

Having briefly traced the origin of Pantomime, and the source of

dancing, let us, in order to further amplify my subject, look at also

for a moment the origin of music, in the time of prehistoric man.

From Nature also do we derive this art, as "The sighing of the wind

passing over a bed of reeds is Nature's first suggestion of breath," and

of music. The clapping of hands and the stamping of feet is man's first

element in the making of music, which developed itself into the

formation of drums, bells, and cymbals, and the evolution of the same

primary principle.

It has been argued, and also ridiculously pretended, that in the

Antediluvian period mankind only lived in caves with the hairy mammoth,

the cave bear, the rhinoceros, and the hyaena, in a state of barbarous

savagery; and that only since the Deluge have the Arts been known and

cities built on this terrestrial sphere of ours. Could anything be more

fallacious?

We know, from the Bible, that the first man was created about six

thousand years ago, and some sixteen hundred and fifty-six years

afterwards the inhabitants of the world, with the exception of Noah and

his family, consisting of eight souls all told, were destroyed by the

flood. Noah and his family, we can take it, were of the same race of

mankind then on the earth, of the same descent and of the same flesh and

blood (as we all are) of our common father and mother, Adam and Eve; yet

we are not told that Noah (he was six hundred years old when he went

into the Ark) and his family were savages. In the 4th chapter, 21st

verse of Genesis, of Jubal-Cain, we learn that "He was the father of all

such as handle the harp and organ"; and in the following verse,

Tubal-Cain is described as "An instructor of every artificer in brass

and iron."

We learn, also, that magnificent statues were made in Egypt some six

thousand years ago; and that mention is made of a statue of King

Cephren, said to have been chiselled about this period, and many learned

men also affirm that letters were known to the inhabitants of the

Antediluvian world. All this, however, hardly looks like the work of a

barbarous race, and points to an acquaintance with the Arts, at any rate

of Music and Sculpture, and that of the artificers and workers in brass

and iron.

To follow, for my subject, this reasoning a little further, if there was

music (which, doubtless, there was) there must also have been dancing,

and, if dancing, there must, in the Antediluvian age, as a form of

entertainment, have also been Pantomime. On the other hand, even

supposing that man, at this period, was nothing else but a complete

savage, the words of Darwin, that I have quoted on a previous page,

conclusively proves, I think (on a common-sense like basis), of the

existence of dancing, a rude form of music, and, of course, Pantomime at

this epoch.

Ingersoll's doctrine was that "The distance from savagery to Shakespeare

must be measured not by hundreds, but by millions, of years."

Finally, why, and for what reason, should the Lord God, in His

all-seeing goodness and mercy, punish the inhabitants of the

Antediluvian world if they were only poor unenlightened savages? Was it

not because they were idolaters and worshippers of idols, "And that

every imagination of the thoughts of his (man's) heart was only evil

continually," as the sixth chapter and fifth verse of Genesis tells us?

This then being so, we know also that in every ancient form of religion

dancing was one of the acts of worship, and if dancing, there must as

previously stated, have also been Pantomime.

CHAPTER II.

Origin of Tragedy and Comedy--Mythology--The meaning of the word

Pantomime--The origin of Harlequin, Columbine, Clown, and

Pantaloon--Grecian Mythology--Transformation Scenes--The rise of Grecian

Tragedy and Comedy--The Satirical Drama.

In the year 2347 B.C., in Chapter 9, verse 20, in Genesis, there occurs:

"And Noah began to be a husbandman, and he planted a vineyard." This is

one of the first acts that Noah did after the Deluge, and it is, as

history tells us, from the rites and ceremonies in celebration of the

cultivation of the vine, that we owe the origin of Tragedy and Comedy.

After the Deluge God placed His bow in the heavens as His covenant with

man that the world should no more be accursed; and in the first ages of

this world's history, Noah and his descendants celebrated their

deliverance from the Ark, the return of the seasons, and the promise of

plenty in their several religious rites and ceremonies. The children of

Shem had in general Asia as their portion; Japhet had Europe; and Ham,

Africa.

Soon, however, religion began to lose its purity, and it then began to

degenerate very fast. Men began to repair to the tops of mountains,

lonely caves and grottoes, where they thought resided their gods. To

honour them they erected altars and performed their vows. Amongst the

Ancients their Mythology went no further than the epoch of the Deluge,

and in honour of which, and also of the Ark, they erected many temples

called Aren, Theba, Argus (from whence was probably derived the Argo of

the Argonauts, and the sacred ship of Osiris), Cibotus, Toleus, and

Baris.

The symbol by which the Mythologists represented the Ark was an immense

egg. This was supposed to have been produced by Ether and Chaos, at the

bidding of Time, the one ethereal being who created the universe. By Nox

(Night) the egg was hatched, which, being opened into two parts, from

the upper part was formed heaven, and the lower earth.

In the sacred rites of Osiris, Isis, and the Dionysia of Bacchus, the

Ark or Ship was introduced. The Dove, by many nations, in their

celebrations, was looked upon as a special emblem of peace and

good-will. Theba, in Egypt, was originally one of the temples dedicated

to the Ark. Both priests and sooth-sayers were styled Ionah or Doves. To

Dodona, in Epirus, was brought this and the first Grecian oracle all the

rites and history of the Thebans. The priestesses of this temple were

known in the Latin as _Columbae_. It is from this word that we derive

the name Columbine, which means, in the Italian, "little dove." Homer

alludes to the priestesses as doves, and that they administered to Zeuth

(Noah). Nonnus speaks of Cadmus, and others of Orpheus, as introducing

into Greece the rites of Dionysus or Bacchus.

The Ancients, mentions Kennedy in his work on "Mythology," have highly

reverenced Noah, and designated him as Noa, Noos, Nous, Nus, Nusas,

Nusus (in India), Thoth, Hermes, Mercury, Osiris, Prometheus,

Deucalion, Atlas, Deus, Zeus, and Dios. Dios was one of the most ancient

terms for Noah, and whence was derived Deus--Nusus compounded of Dios

and Nusos, which gives us Dionysus, the Bacchus of the Greeks, and the

chief god of the heathen world. Bacchus was, properly speaking, Cush

(the son of Ham, and grandson of Noah), though both Dionysus and Bacchus

are, by ancient writers, frequently confounded with one another.

The resting of the Ark upon Mount Baris, Minyas, the Ararat of Moses in

Armenia, the dispersal of the flood, the multiplication of the families

of the earth, and the migration from the plains of Shinar of the

descendants of the sons of Chus or Cush (as it is sometimes written),

and called Chushites or Cushites, to different parts of the world, being

joined by other nations, particularly those of the descendants of Ham,

one of the sons of Noah. They were the first apostates from the truth,

but being great in worldly wisdom and knowledge they were thought to be,

and looked upon as a superior class of beings. Ham they looked upon as a

divinity, and under the name of Ammon they worshipped him as the Sun,

and Chus likewise as Apollo, a name which was also bestowed by the

Ancients upon Noah. The worship of the sun in all probability originated

the eastern position in our churches.

Another of the ancient deities worshipped by the Ammonians was Meed, or

Meet, the Cybele of the Phrygians, the nurse of Dionysus, and the Soul

of the World.

Nimrod, the "mighty hunter" (who possessed the regions of Babylonia and

Chaldee), and one of the sons of Cush, was the builder of that seminary

of idolatory the City and Tower of Bel, and erected in honour of the god

Bel, and another name for the sun. Upon the confusion of tongues when

hitherto "The whole earth was of one language, and of one speech," it

came to be known as Babylon, "The City of Confusion." Homer introduces

Orion (Nimrod) as a giant and a hunter in the shades below, and the

author of the "Pascal Chronicles" mentions that Nimrod taught the

Assyrians or Babylonians to worship fire. The priests of Ammon, named

Petor or Pator, used to dance round a large fire, which they affected in

their dancing to describe. Probably from this the Dervish dances all

over the East may be traced to this source.

Kennedy observes, of the confusion of tongues at Babel, that it was only

a labial failure, so that the people could not articulate. It was not an

aberration in words or language, but a failure and incapacity in labial

utterance. Epiphanius says that Babel, or Babylon, was the first city

built after the flood.

The Cushites were a large and numerous body, and after their dispersion

from Babylon they were scattered "Abroad upon the face of the earth."

They were the same people who imparted their rites and religious

services into Egypt, as far as the Indus and the Ganges, and still

further into Japan and China. From this event is to be discovered the

fable of the flight of the Grecian god Bacchus, the fabulous wanderings

of Osiris, and the same god under another name, of the Egyptians.

Wherever Dionysus, Osiris, or Bacchus went, the Ancients say that he

taught the cultivation of the soil, and the planting of the vine.

Dionysus, Bacchus, or Osiris, as I have shown in a preceding page, were

only other designations for Noah.

Of the Hindu heathen deity, Vishnu, Father Boushet mentions an Indian

tradition, concerning a flood which covered the whole earth, when Vishnu

made a raft, and, being turned into a fish, steered it with his tail.

Vishnu, like Dagon, was represented under the figure of a man and fish.

Strangely enough, the regions said to have been traversed by Dionysus,

Osiris, or Bacchus were, at different times, passed through by the

posterity of Ham, and in many of them they took up their residence. In

his journeyings the chief attendants of Osiris, or Bacchus, were Pan,

Anabis, Macedo, the Muses, the Satyrs, and Bacchic women were all in his

retinue. The people of India claim him as their own, and maintain that

he was born at Nusa in their country. Arrian speaks of the Nuseans as

being the attendants of Dionysus. In all traditions Dionysus appears as

the representative of some power of Nature.

The first who reduced Mythology to a kind of system were, in all

probability, the Egyptians. Egypt was ever the land of graven images,

and under the veil of Allegory and Mythology the priests concealed

religion from the eyes of the vulgar. In the beginning, brute animals

and certain vegetables were represented as the visible symbols of the

deities to which they were consecrated. Hence Jupiter Ammon was

represented under the figure of a Ram; Apis under a Cow; Osiris of a

Bull; Mercury or Thol of an Ibis; Diana or Babastis of a Cat; and Pan of

a Goat. From these sources are derived the fabulous transformation of

the gods celebrated in Egyptian Mythology, and afterwards imported into

Greece and Italy to serve as the subjects of the Grecian and Roman

Pantomimes.

Pantomime as we now know the term, means, not only the Art of acting in

dumb show, but also that of a spectacle or Christmas entertainment. (I

may add in parenthesis, that in the early part of the last century--the

nineteenth--the dictionaries only refer to Pantomime as meaning the

former of the above two definitions, and not the latter.)

Pan, regarded as the symbol of the universe, was also the god of flocks,

pastures, and shepherds in classic Mythology, and the guardian of bees,

hunting and fishing in his Kingdom of Arcadia. His form, like the

Satyrs, both supposed to have been the offsprings of Mercury, was that

of a man combined with a goat, having horns and feet like the latter

animal.

_Mimos_ (Gr.), as I have stated in the beginning, means an "imitator,"

or a "mimic," and from which word we have the derivation of the words

"mimicry," "mimetic," and the like.

Pan was the traditional inventor of the Pandean pipes, and also from

his name we derive many words that are in our language, such as "panic"

(Pan used to delight in suddenly surprising the shepherds whilst tending

their flocks), and the other attributes of this noun, including that

recently coined term of the Americans, "panicy."

Pan is said to have been the son of Mercury, or even Mercury himself,

and others say that he was the son of Zeus. Mercury and Zeus, it will be

remembered in Mythology, were only names for Noah. Pan is unnoticed by

Homer.

A heathen deity of Italy, Lupercus, the guardian of their flocks and

pastures, has also been identified with Pan, and in whose honour annual

rural festivals, known as Lupercalia, were observed.

The Lupercalian festivals were held on the 15th of the Kalends of March.

The priests, Luperci, used to dance naked through the streets as part of

the ceremonies attached to the festival.

Mention has been made by Dr. Clarke, in his "Travels," Vol. IV., that

Harlequin is the god Mercury, with his short sword _herpe_, or his rod,

the _caduceus_ (which has been likened to the sceptre of Judah), to

render himself invisible, and to transport himself from one end of the

earth to the other, and that the covering on his head, the winged cap,

was the _petasus_. Apropos of this, the following lines in the tenth

Ode, of the first book of Horace, will probably occur to the reader:

"Mercury! Atlas' smooth-tongued boy, whose will

First trained to speed our wildest earliest race,

And gave their rough hewn forms with supple skill

The gymnast's grace.

"'Tis thine the unbodied spirits of the blessed,

To guide to bliss, and with thy _golden rod_

To rule the shades; above, below, caressed

By every god."

Mercury, as we have seen, was among the Ancients, only another name for

Noah. "Indeed," says Dr. Clarke, "some of the representations of Mercury

upon ancient vases are actually taken from the scenic exhibitions of the

Grecian theatre; and that these exhibitions were also the prototypes

whereon D'Hancarville shows Mercury, Momus, and Psyche delineated as we

see Harlequin, Columbine, and Clown on our stages. The old man

(Pantaloon), is Charon (the ferryman of hell). The Clown is Momus, the

buffoon of heaven, the god of raillery and wit, and whose large gaping

mouth is in imitation of the ancient masks."

Amongst the Aryans, Medians, Egyptians, Chaldeans, Babylonians, and

other nations (including our own, as did not Lilly predict the execution

of Charles I., the plague, the great fire of London, and other events)

was astrology practised. The Egyptians peopled the constellation of the

Zodiac (the first open book for mankind to read), with Genii, and one of

the twelve Zodiacal signs was Aries (the Ram). The ram is of the same

species as the goat, and the god Pan was the Goat god, as we know. The

astrologers, in their divinations and rulings of the planets placed the

various parts of the body under a planetary influence. The head and face

were assigned to the house of Aries, and therefore the face notably for

the Pantomimic Art was placed by the ancient astrologers under the

influence of this particular planet.

The heathen worship of Pan was not only known in Arcadia, but also

throughout Greece, although it did not reach Athens until after

Marathon.

Of Pan's death Plutarch tells the story that in the reign of Tiberius,

one Thamus, a pilot, visiting the islands of Paxae, was told of this

god's death. When he reached Palodes he told the news, whereupon loud

and great lamentations were heard, as of Nature herself expressing her

grief. The epoch of the story coincides with the enactment of that grim,

and the world's greatest tragedy on the hill of Golgotha, and the end,

and the beginning of a new world. Rabelais, Milton, Schiller, and also

Mrs. Browning, have allusions to this story of Plutarch's.

The ambitious family of the Titans (the bones of the "giants on the

earth" before the Deluge, gave rise to the stories of the Titans found

in caves), and their scions and coadjutors Jupiter, Juno, Mars, Mercury,

Apollo, Diana, Bacchus, Minerva, or Pallas, Ceres, Proserpine, Pluto,

and Neptune furnish by far the greatest part of the Mythology of Greece.

Tradition says that they left Phoenicia about the time of Moses to

settle in Crete, and from thence they made their way into Greece, which

was supposed at that time to be inhabited by a race of savages. The arts

and inventions were communicated to the natives, and the blessings of

civilization in process of time inspired the inhabitants with

admiration. They, therefore, relinquished worshipping the luminary and

heavenly bodies, and transferred their devotion to their benefactors.

Then into existence sprang the most inconsistent and irreconcilable

fictions. The deified mortals, with their foibles and frailities, were

transmitted to posterity in the most glorious manner possible, and hence

accordingly, in both the Odyssey and the Iliad of Homer, we have a

strange and heterogeneous mixture of what is not only mighty in heroes,

but also that which is equally mean.

In the Grecian Mythology the labours of Hercules, the expedition of

Osiris, the wanderings and transformation of Io, the fable of the

conflagration of Phaeton, the rage of Proserpine, the wanderings of

Ceres, the Eleusinian Mysteries, the Orgia, or sacred rites of Bacchus,

in fine, the ground work of Grecian Mythology is to be traced to the

East, from where also all our nursery tales, and also our popular

Pantomime subjects; (which is the subject of another chapter) perhaps,

with the exception of our own "Robinson Crusoe," originated.

The nine Muses called Pierides in Grecian Mythology were the daughters

of Jupiter and Mnemosyne (Memory), supposed to preside over the liberal

Arts and the sciences. They were Calliope (Heroic Poetry), Clio Euterpe

(Music), Erato (Love Poetry), Melpomene (Tragedy), Polyhymnia (Muse of

Singing and Rhetoric), Terpsichore (Dancing), Thalia (Comedy), and

Urania (Astronomy). Mount Parnassus, Mount Helicon, and the fountains of

Castalia and Aganippe were the sacred places of the Muses.

The Eleusinian Mysteries are of a period that may be likened to the 7th

century B.C., and at these Mysteries as many as 30,000 persons, in the

time of Herodotus, assembled to witness them. The attributes of these

Grecian Mysteries, like those of the Egyptians, consisted of

processions, sacrificial offerings, purifications, dances, and all that

the Mimetic and the other Arts could convey; add to this the various

coloured lights, and the fairy-like grandeur of the whole, we have

something that may be likened to the Transformation, and other

fairy-like scenes of English Pantomimes and Extravaganzas.

At the Orgia, or sacred rites of Bacchus, the customary sacrifice to be

offered, because it fed on vines, was the goat. The vine, ivy, laurel,

asphodel, the dolphin, lynx, tiger, and ass were all sacred to Bacchus.

The acceptable sacrifice to Venus was a dove; Jupiter, a bull; an ox of

five years old, ram or boar pig to Neptune; and Diana, a stag. At the

inception of the Bacchanalian festivals in Greece, the tragic song of

the Goat, a sacred hymn was sung, and from which rude beginning sprang

the Tragedy and Comedy of Greece. The Greeks place every event as

happening in their country, and it is not surprising that they claim for

themselves the inception of Tragedy and Comedy, which they undoubtedly

were the originators of in Greece, but the religious festivals of

Dionysus, Osiris, and Bacchus, to which we are supposed to owe the

inception of Tragedy and Comedy, were known long before the Greeks knew

them. (Dionysus was the patron and protector of theatres.) "The purport

of the song was that Bacchus imparted his secret of the cultivation of

vines to a petty prince in Attica, named Icarius, who happened one day

to espy a goat brouzing upon his plantations, immediately seized, and

offered it up as a sacrifice to his divine benefactor; the peasants

assembled round their master, assisted in the ceremony, and expressed

their joy and gratitude in music, songs, dances, and Pantomime on the

occasion; the sacrifice grew into a festival, and the festival into an

annual solemnity, attended most probably every year with additional

circumstances, when the countrymen flocked together in crowds, and sang

in rustic strains the praises of their favourite deity."

Amongst the reported followers of these Bacchanalian festivals were

those fabulous race of grotesque sylvan beings, previously referred to,

known as the Satyrs. They were of a sturdy frame, in features they had

broad snub noses, and appeared in rough skins of animals with large

pointed ears, heavy knots on their foreheads, and a small tail. The

elder Satyrs were known as Sileni. The younger were more pleasing and

not so grotesque or repulsive in appearance as the elder Satyrs. To the

Satyrs can be traced the variegated dress of the modern Harlequin, as in

ancient Greek history mention is made of the performers enacting Satyrs

being sometimes habited in a tiger's skin of various colours, which

encircled the performer's body tightly, and who carried a wooden sword,

wore a white hat, and a brown mask. According to Servius (as we have

seen) Pan had also a bright spotted dress "in likeness of the stars."

From these rustic festivals originated the Satyr, or Satirical Drama, as

did its Italian prototype, the _Fabulae Atellanae_ or, _Laudi Osci_.

These rural sacrifices became, in process of time, a solemn fast, and

assumed all the pomp and splendour of a religious ceremony; poets were

employed by the magistrate to compose hymns, or songs, for the occasion;

such was the rudeness and simplicity of the age that their bards

contended for a prize, which, as Horace intimates, was scarce worth

contending for, being no more than a goat or skin of wine, which was

given to the happy poet who acquitted himself best in the task assigned

him.

From such small beginnings Tragedy and Comedy took their rise; and like

(as the best writers on these subjects tell us) every other production

of human art, extremely contemptible; that wide and deep stream, which

flows with such strength and rapidity through cultivated Greece, took

its rise from a small and inconsiderable fountain, which hides itself in

the recesses of antiquity, and is almost buried in oblivion; the name

alone remains to give us some light into its original nature, and to

inform us, that Tragedy and Comedy, like every other species of poetry,

owe their birth to Religion.

Appropriately does Horace observe:--

"Nor was the flute at first with silver bound,

Nor rivalled emulous the trumpet's sound;

Few were its notes, its forms were simply plain,

Yet not unuseful was its feeble strain,

To aid the chorus, and their songs to raise,

Filling the little theatre with ease,

To which a thin and pious audience came

Of frugal manners, and unsullied fame."

CHAPTER III.

The origin of the Indian Drama--Aryan Mythology--Clown and

Columbine--Origin of the Chinese Drama--Inception of the Japanese

Drama--The Siamese Drama--Dramatic performances of the South Sea

Islanders, Peruvians, Aztecs, Zulus, and Fijis--The Egyptian Drama.

Of the Indian Drama we learn that the union of music, song, dance, and

Pantomime took place centuries ago B.C., at the festivals of the native

gods, to which was afterwards added dialogue, and long before the

advent, out of which it grew, of the native drama itself.

The progenitors of the Indo-European race, the Aryans--in Sanscrit

meaning Agriculturists--who crossed the Indus from Amoo, where they

dwelt near the Oxus, some two thousand years before Christ, were the

original ancestors and people of India.

The Aryan race (Hindus and Persians only speak of themselves as Aryans)

laid the foundation of the Grecian and Roman Mythology, the dark and

more sombre legends of the Scandinavian and the Teuton; and all derived

from the various names grouped round the Sun god, which in the lighter

themes the Aryans associated with the rising and the setting of the sun,

in all its heavenly glory, and with the sombre legends the coming of the

winter, and marking the difference between lightness and darkness.

In India the origin of dramatic entertainments has been attributed to

the sage Bharata (meaning an actor), who received, it is said, a

communication from the god Brahma to introduce them, as the latter had

received his knowledge of them from the Vedas. Bharata was also said to

be the "Father of dramatic criticism." Pantomimic scenes derived from

the heathen Mythology of Vishnu--a collection of poems and hymns on the

Aryan religion--are even now in India occasionally enacted by the Jatras

of the Bengalis and the Rasas of the provinces in the west, and, just as

their forefathers did ages and ages ago. An episode from the history of

the god Vishnu, in relation to his marriage with Laxmi, was a favourite

subject for the early Indian Drama. Of Vedic Mythology Professor Max

Müller observes that in it "There are no genealogies, no settled

marriages between gods and goddesses. The father is sometimes the son,

the brother, the husband, and she who in one hymn is the mother, is in

another the wife. As the conceptions of the poet vary so varies the

nature of these gods."

The Hindoo dramatic writer, Babhavñti--the Indian

Shakespeare--introduced with success in one of his dramas, like in our

"Hamlet," "a play within a play," and much in a similar way as our early

dramatists used in their plays, the "dumb shows."

Between the native Tragedy and Comedy, as in China, there was no

definite distinction, and, although both contained some of the best and

noblest sentiments, yet the racial philosophy of caste enters greatly

into the construction of each.

In the Hindoo Mythology we have prototypes of the gods of the Egyptian,

Grecian, and Roman Mythologies. The god Vishnu, who, in Aryan Mythology,

is the wind and "Traverses the heavens in three strides," is the

greatest of all heathen deities. His dwelling-place was "The aerial

mountains, where the many horned and swiftly moving cattle abide." In

Grecian Mythology Hermes or Mercury took on some of the characteristics

of Vishnu.

In the Eleusinian Mysteries of the Greeks, the signs and symbols that

marked the worship of Vishnu by the Aryans, are apparent; and in the

British Museum the scenes of the vases of the Hamilton collection agree

closely with the Sacti rites of Hindustan.

After having briefly noticed and introduced Vishnu or Hermes to the

notice of the reader, we will now take another of the Aryan

deities--See-Va, the Wine god. This myth was the Dionysus, or Bacchus,

of the Greeks, and the expedition of this "immortal" through the world

to instruct mankind in agriculture, is likened as well as the god

himself by the Egyptians to their deity Osiris--the god of the Nile. The

worship of See-Va, Bacchus, or Osiris extended over Asia Minor, Greece,

and Italy.

The visit and advent of the Wine or Pleasure god Bacchus to India, with

his accompanying train of sylvan and rural deities, and nymphs, is

supposed to have conquered the Hindoos, and taught them civilization,

besides the cultivation of the vine. Strange to relate that when

Alexander and his army reached the present Cabul they found ivy and

wild vines (both sacred to Bacchus) growing in abundance, and they were

met by processions dressed in parti-coloured dresses, playing on drums

like the Bacchic festivals of Greece and Lower Asia of that time.

Female parts were acted by women, but it was not a general custom; and

the Clown of the piece was always a Brahma, or if not, at any rate a

pupil of Brahma.

Also among the minor characters was the _Vita_, "the accomplished

companion," a part sometimes played by men and sometimes by women.

Probably in this in the latter instance we have the origin of the

Columbine and Soubrette part in after years of the European stage as the

term "accomplished companion," would equally apply to both. It is only a

surmise, yet history as we know is continually repeating itself--even in

Soubrette parts, and in more senses than one.

Of scenic displays that it possessed there was little or none, though

the exits and entrances to the stage had probably some device to denote

them. What they possessed in the way of properties it is more than

useless to speculate, as, whatever could be said, could only be

conjectural. In dressing their parts propriety in costume, and in

adhering to the habits of the Indian Drama, seems to have been observed

with some show of consistency.

The Chinese Drama also arose from the Hindoo developing itself as time

rolled on from Pantomimes and ballets. A very ancient Pantomime is said

to have been symbolical of the conquest of China by Wou Wang. Others

were on subjects of the Harvest, War, and Peace; whilst many were only

of an obscure nature. With the rise and progress of the native drama

about five hundred years before Christ Pantomimes fell into disrepute.

It is interesting to note that one of the penal codes of the Celestial

Empire was, that those who wrote plays with vicious, or immoral

tendencies, should stay in "purgatory" as long as their plays were

performed. This precept was all right in theory, but in practice it was

more honoured in the breach than in the observance, as amongst the whole

of the Celestial dramatic writers only one in about ten thousand seems

to have conformed to this rule.

The dramatic writers of China duly observed the question of rank and

priority, and just as much as the native Hindoo writers observed that of

the various phases of caste.

Plays were divided into acts and scenes, and occasionally were prefixed

by a prologue. Performances took sometimes a single day, and favourite

plays oftentimes longer.

The Japanese type of drama seems to have originally evolved itself from

that of the Chinese, though its singing, dancing, historical, and

Pantomimical displays are, of course, purely native.

A native of Japan, though of Chinese descent, Hadu Kawatsa, at the

close of the 6th century (A.D.) gave dramatic entertainments in Japan.

The Japanese claim for the Pantomimical dance Sambâso as a preventative

of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions; and this dance, it is said, that

within recent years, is used as a prelude to dramatic entertainments.

Isono Zenji is thought to have been the originator of the Japanese

Drama, but her performances were more those of the _Mima_--dancing and

posturing.

In the seventeenth century Saruwaka Kanzaburô introduced the drama

proper into Japan by the erection, in 1624, of a theatre, and nearly

fifty years later than the first permanent theatre that was erected

(1576) in England.

Popular historical subjects were chosen for the plays, though the names

of the characters were transformed. Fancy plays, operas, ballets, which

in the latter women appeared, became also very popular.

Within sight of the closing years of the last century (the nineteenth),

Japanese actors were more or less under a ban when the same was happily

removed.

Siam was content with the Indian style of dramatic and Pantomimic

entertainments. Theatrical performances were also slightly known--though

no regular type of drama is known--amongst the South Sea Islanders, the

Peruvians, the Aztecs, the Zulus, and the Fijis, the two last named

having a similar version of our popular Pantomime subject, "Jack and the

Beanstalk."

The Egyptians possessed no regular type of drama, yet in both the Books

of Job and Ruth the dramatic element is strongly marked. At the rustic

festivals of the native gods, as in Greece and Italy, there was,

however, the dramatic elements of the union of song, dance, and

Pantomime, and we are told that the priests not only studied music, but

also taught the art to others. Again in the rites of the dead the

Mysteries of the sepulture over the transmigration of souls, the

dramatic element entered largely into these mystic rites and

celebrations. Amongst the Pagan Greeks, as I have previously stated, and

the Romans, we learn of similar celebrations, carried out with great

pomp and ceremony, such as the apotheosis of the soul departing from its

earthly to its heavenly abode.

CHAPTER IV.

"Dancing," _i.e._ Pantomime--Grecian Dancing and Pantomimic

Scenes--Aristotle--Homer--Dances common to both Greeks and Romans.

In tracing the History of Pantomime it becomes a matter of considerable

difficulty, and, as Baron, in his _Lettres sur la Danse_, observes that

when the word Dancing occurs in an old author, that it should always be

translated by "gesticulation," "declamation," or "Pantomime." When we

read that an actress "danced" her part well in the tragedy of Medea,

that a carver cut up food dancing, that Heligobalus and Caligula

"danced" a discourse for an audience of state, we are to understand that

they--actress, carver, and emperor--declaimed, gesticulated, made

themselves understood in a language without words. Acting is also

oftentimes confounded with dancing, and it is, therefore, manifestly

impossible to distinguish now one from the other.

"The Greeks," mentions Butteux, applied the term "Dancing" to all

measured movements, even to military marching. They danced anywhere and

everywhere; and we are told that both their limbs and bodies spoke.

Cybele was supposed by the Greeks to have taught dancing on Mount Ida to

the Corybantes, and they also say that it was in their country that

Apollo revealed the Terpsichorean Art, and that of Music and Poetry.

After all this, it is not very surprising that they make claim for the

innovation of Pantomime. This, of course, we know is different, as we

have seen that, from time immemorial Pantomimic scenes and dances have

been represented. Cassiodorus attributes its institution to Philistion;

Athenaens assigns it to Rhodamanthus, or to Palamedes.

With the Greeks, Pantomimes became very popular, and they were

distinguished by various names. Before they began their Tragedies the

Greeks used to give a Pantomimic display. The principal Pantomimists

were known as _Ethologues_, meaning painters of manners. One of the most

celebrated of these Mimes was Sophron of Syracuse. In depicting the

conduct of man so faithfully, the Pantomimes of the Greek Mimes served

to teach and inculcate useful moral lessons. The moral philosophy of the

Mime, Sophron, was so pure that Plato kept a book of his poems under his

pillow when on his death-bed. Besides these Moralities, as they were

termed, there were, in addition, light pieces of a farcical kind, in the

portrayal of which the Mimes were equally as successful as in the other

species.

The dancing of the Greeks was an actual language, in which all

sentiments and passages were interpreted. By the aid of the

Terpsichorean Art, Professor Desrat says, "That the Greeks, a nation of

heroes, trained themselves in the art of hand-to-hand combat."

"Dancing," says another writer, "and imitative acting in the lower

stages of civilization are identical, and in the sacred dances of

ancient Greece we may trace the whole Dramatic Art of the modern world.

The Spartans practised dancing as a gymnastic exercise, and made it

compulsory upon all children from the age of five."

And we are also told that religious processions went with song and dance

(and, of course, Pantomime), to the Egyptian temples; the Cretan chorus

sang hymns to the Greek gods; David danced in procession before the Ark

of the Covenant; and that we are to "Praise the Lord with the sound of

the trumpet, praise Him with the psaltery and the harp; praise Him with

the timbrel and the _dance_."

Aristotle speaks of Mimetic dances three hundred years before the

Augustan era. He also says that dancers want neither poetry or music, as

by the assistance of measure and cadence only they can imitate human

manners, actions, and passions.

Again, "Homer, describing the employment of the Delian priestesses, or

Nuns, of the order of St. Apollo of Delos, that they were great adepts

in the Art of Mimicry, and that part of the entertainment which they

afforded to the numerous people of different nations; who formed their

congregations was, as the poet expresses it, from their _being skilled

to imitate the voices and the pulsation or measure of all nations, and

so exactly was their song adapted that every man would think he himself

was singing_."

Homer also mentions a dance invented for Ariadne. In the midst of the

dancers, there were two dancers who sang the adventures of Daedalus,

supplementing their singing by gestures, and explaining in Pantomime the

subject of the whole performance.

The Pyrrhic dance of the Greeks was a sort of military Pantomime. The

Greeks had several kinds of Pyrrhic dances, the names of which varied

with the character of the performance.

The Hyplomachia imitated a fight with shields.

The Skiamachia was a battle with shadows,

The Monomachia was an imitation of single combat.

Some of the Mimetic dances common to both Greeks and Romans were The

Loves of Adonis and Venus, the Exploits of Ajax, the Adventures of

Apollo, the Rape of Ganymede, the Loves of Jupiter and Danae, the Birth

of Jupiter, Hector, the Rape of Europa, the Labours of Hercules,

Hercules Mad, the Graces, Saturn devouring his Children, the Cybele in

honour of Cybele, the Cyclops, the Sorrows of Niobe, the Tragic End of

Semele, the Wars of the Titans, the Judgment of Paris, Daphne pursued by

Apollo, the Bucolic Dance, and the Dance of Flowers.

CHAPTER V.

Thespis--The Progress of Tragedy and Comedy--Aeschylus--The

Epopée--Homer--Sophocles--Euripides--Grecian Mimes--The First Athenian

Theatre--Scenery and Effects.

When Thespis first pointed out the tragic path, and when (as Horace

tells us in his Odes) that "The inventor of the Art carried his vagrant

players on a cart," by his introduction of a new personage, who relieved

the chorus, or troop of singers, by reciting some part of a well-known

history, or fable, which gave time for the chorus to rest. All that the

actors repeated between the songs of the chorus was called an episode,

or additional part, consisting often of different adventures, which had

no connexion with each other. Thus Pantomime, the song, and the dance,

which were at first the only performances, became gradually and

insensibly a necessary and ornamental part of the drama.

From this time, the actor, or reciter, was more attended to than the

chorus; however, his part was executed, and it had the powerful charms

of novelty to recommend it, and quickly obscured the lustre of the

chorus, whose songs were now of a different nature, insomuch that the

original subject of them, the praise of Bacchus, was by degrees either

slightly mentioned, or totally passed over and forgotten; the priests,

who we may suppose for a long time presided over the whole, were alarmed

at so open a contempt of the deity, and unanimously exclaimed, that this

was nothing to Bacchus; the contempt grew into a kind of proverbial

saying, and as such is handed down to us.

From the origin of Tragedy and Comedy, and to the days of Thespis, and

from this time to that of Aeschylus, all is doubt, conjecture, and

obscurity; neither Aristotle, nor any other ancient writer, gives us the

least insight into the state and progress of the Greek Drama; the names

of a few, and but a few, tragedians, during this dark period, are handed

down to us; such were Epigenes, the Sicyonion, and Pratinas, who wrote

fifty-two plays, thirty-two of which are said to be satirical. After

Thespis, came his scholar Phrynicus, who wrote nine tragedies; for one

of which, we are told, he was fined fifty drachmas, because he had made

it (an odd reason) too deep, and too affecting; there was another, also

named Phrynicus, author of two tragedies: to these must be added

Alcaeus, Phormus, and Choeritas, together with Cephisodorus, an

Athenian, who wrote the "Amazon," and Apollophanes, supposed to have

been the author of a tragedy named "Daulis," though Suidas is of another

opinion. Tragedy had, during the lives of these writers, probably made

but a slow progress, and received but very little culture and

improvement; when at length the great Aeschylus arose, who, from this

rude and undigested chaos, created as it were a new world in the system

of letters.

Poets, and perhaps epic poets, there might have been before Homer (the

latter, who, in all probability, lived within fifty years of the Fall of

Troy--1250 B.C.). Dramatic writers there certainly were before Aeschylus

the former notwithstanding, we may, with the utmost propriety, style the

inventor and father of heroic poetry, and the latter of the ancient

drama, which, before his time, does not appear to have had any

particular form but that of Pantomime, song, and the union of song and

dance. _Aeschylus first introduced dialogue_, that most essential part

of tragedy, and by the addition of the second personage, threw the whole

fable into action, and restored the chorus to its ancient dignity.

Aeschylus having, like a tender parent, endowed his darling child with

every mental accomplishment, seemed resolved that no external ornaments

should be wanting to render her universally amiable; he clothed her,

therefore, in the most splendid habit, and bestowed upon her everything

that Art could produce, to heighten and improve her charms. Aeschylus,

who being himself author, actor, and manager, took upon him the whole

conduct of the drama, and did not neglect any part of it; he improved

the scenery and decorations, brought his actors into a well constructed

theatre, raised his heroes on the _cothurnus_, or buskin, invented the

masks, and introduced splendid habits with long trains, that gave an air

of majesty and dignity to the performers.

From the time when Tragedy began to assume a regular form, we find her

closely following the steps of epic poetry; all the parts of _epopée_,

or heroic poem, may be traced in tragedy, though, as Aristotle observes,

all the parts of tragedy are not to be found in the _epopée_; whence the

partisans of the stage with some reason conclude, that perfection in the

former is more difficult to be attained than in the latter. Without

entering into a dispute, we may venture, however, to say that from Homer

the tragedians drew the plan, construction, and conduct of their fables,

and not unfrequently, the fable itself; to him they applied for

propriety of manners, character, sentiment, and diction.

From this era then, we are to consider Tragedy as an elegant and noble

structure, built according to the rules of art, symmetry, and

proportion; whose every part was in itself fair, firm, and compact--and

at the same time contributed to the beauty, utility, and duration of the

whole edifice.

Sophocles and Euripides carefully studied the plan laid down by

Aeschylus, and by their superior genius and judgment, improved it in a

short time to its highest state of perfection, from which it gradually

declined to the rise of the Roman Drama.

Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides were the three great tragic poets;

and from the works of these three illustrious writers, and from them

alone, we must draw all our knowledge of the ancient Greek Tragedy.

Comedy, like Tragedy, owes its origin to the union of music, song,

dance, and Pantomime; Tragedy to the dithyrambick, and Comedy to the

phallica; and each of them (emulating Pantomime), began to form

themselves into dramatic imitations; each studied to adopt a measure

suited to their purpose:--Tragedy, the more lofty, chose the tetrameter;

and comedy, which aimed at familiarity, the iambic. But, as the style of

tragedy improved, Nature herself, says Aristotle, directed the writers

to abandon the capering tetrameter, and to embrace that measure which

was most accommodated to the purposes of dialogue; whence the iambic

became the common measure of both Tragedy and Comedy.

Sophocles brought on a third actor, which number was not exceeded in the

Greek tragedies during the same scene. Horace alludes to this, "_nec

quarta loqui persona laboret_," (Let not a fourth person strive to

speak): but it was not observed in comedy. Players of second parts were

obliged to speak so low as not to drown the voice of the chief actor.

Tyrants were always played by subalterns. The women were only dancers

(and Pantomimists). Female parts were performed by eunuchs.

On the Grecian stage, those performers who devoted themselves entirely

to the Art of Miming originally came from Sicily and southern Italy,

though the exact period is difficult to determine with any degree of

certainty.

The figures of tragic or comic actors were known by the long and strait

sleeves which they wore. The servants in comedy, below the dress with

strait sleeves, had a short cassock with half-sleeves. That the

characters might be distinguished (a difficulty in this respect arising

from the size of the theatres) parasites carried a short truncheon; the

rural deities, shepherds, and peasants, the crook; heralds and

ambassadors, the _caduceus_; kings, a long, straight sceptre; heroes, a

club, etc. The tunic of tragic actors descended to the heels, and was

called _palla_. They generally carried a long staff or an erect sceptre.

They who represented old men, leaned upon a long and crooked staff.

The first Greek theatre at Athens (says Fosbroke, in his "Antiquities,")

was a temporary structure of boards, removed after the performances were

closed. This fashion continued till the erection of the theatre of

Bacchus, at Athens, which served as a model for the others. The Greek

theatre was no more than a concave sweep, scooped out of the hollow side

of a hill, generally facing the sea. The sweep was filled with seats,

rising above each other, and ascended by staircases, placed like the

_radii_ of a circle. This semi-circular form was adopted not merely for

convenience of vision, but for an aid to the sound. This range for

spectators was called the _coilon_ or hollow. The area below was the

_conistra_, or pit. There was no superstructure for a gallery, but

around the rim of the building were porticos, by which the spectators

entered, and whither they could retire, if it rained. The portico just

about the highest corridor, or lobby, was denominated the _cercys_, and

used by the women. Where is now the orchestra, was a platform, called

by that name; and here, among the Greeks, were stationed the musicians;

chorus and Mimes; among the Romans, the Emperor, Senate, and other

persons of quality. Seven feet above the orchestra, and eleven above the

_conistra_, or pit, was the front stage, or proscenium, upon which stood

an altar to Apollo. Here the principal actors performed, and the site of

the altar was devoted to the dances (of the Mimes) and songs of the

chorus. The part called the _scena_ was in line with the ornamental

columns, upon the sides of the stage.

The ancient scenery at first consisted of mere boughs, but afterwards of

tapestry, not painted canvas. The Greek stage consisted of three parts,

the _scena_, across the theatre, upon the line of the curtain in our

theatres; the proscenium, where the actors performed; and the

post-scenium, the part behind the house, before-mentioned. To form parts

of the scenes there were prisms of framework, turning upon pivots, upon

each face of which was strained a distinct picture, one for tragedy,

consisting of large buildings, with columns, statues, and other

corresponding ornaments; a second face, with houses, windows, and

balconies, for comedy; a third applied to farce, with cottages,

grottoes, and rural scenes. There were the _scenae versatiles_ of

Servius. Besides these, there were _scenae ductiles_, which drew

backwards and forwards, and opened a view of the house, which was built

upon the stage, and contained apartments for machinery, or retirement

for the actors. As to the patterns of the scenes, in comedy, the most

considerable building was in the centre; that on the right side was a

little less elevated, and that on the left generally represented an inn.

In the satirical pieces they had always a cave in the middle, a wretched

cabin on the right, and on the left an old ruined temple, or some

landscape. In these representations perspective was observed for

Vitruvius remarks (C. 8) that the rules of it were invented and

practised from the time of Aeschylus, by a painter named Agararchus, who

has even left a treatise upon it. After the downfall of the Roman

Empire, these decorations of the stage were neglected, till Peruzzi, a

Siennese, who died in 1536, revived them.

There were three entries in front, and two on the sides; the middle

entry (termed the Royal door) was always that of the principal actor;

thus, in tragedy, it was commonly the gate of a palace. Those on the

right and left were destined to the second-part players, and the two

others, on the sides, one to people from the country, the other to those

from the harbour, or any public place.

Pollux informs us, that there were trap-doors for ghosts, furies, and

the infernal deities. Some under the doors, on one side, introduced the

rural deities, and on the other the marine. The ascents or descents were

managed by cords, wheels, and counter-weights. Of these machines none

were more common than those which descended from heaven in the end of

the play, in which the gods came to extricate the poet in the

_denouement_. The kinds were chiefly three; some conveyed the performer

across the theatre in the air; by others, the gods descended on the

stage; and a third contrivance, elevated, or supported in the air,

persons who seemed to fly, from which accidents often happened. (It is

from this that the well-known phrase "_Deus ex machina_" has its

origin.) As the ancient theatres were larger than ours, and unroofed,

there was no wheel-work aloft, but the performer was elevated by a sort

of crane, of which the beam was above the stage; and turning upon

itself, whilst the counter-weight made the actor descend or ascend,

caused him to describe curves, jointly composed of the circular motion

of the crane, and the vertical ascent. The _anapesmata_ were cords for

the sudden appearance of furies, when fastened to the lowest steps; and

to the ascension of rivers, when attached to the stage. The

_ceraunoscopium_ was a kind of moveable tower, whence Jupiter darted

lightning, supposed to be the Greek fire, as in Ajax Oielus. The machine

for thunder (_bronton_) was a brazen vase, concealed under the stage, in

which they rolled stones. Festus calls it the Claudian thunder, from

Claudius Pulcher, the inventor. The most dreadful machines were,

however, the _pegmata_ (a general term also for all the machines), which

first consisted of scaffolds in stories, &c. These first exhibited

criminals fighting at the top, and then, dropping to pieces,

precipitated them to the lower story, to be torn to pieces by wild

beasts. Sometimes they were for vomiting flames, &c. The _theologium_

was a place more elevated than the stage, where the gods stood and

spoke, and the machines which held them rested.

The seats of the spectators were divided into stories, each containing

seven rows of seats, with two passages (_praecinctiones_) around them

above and below. Small staircases divided the seats into sections,

called _cunei_, and ended in a gate at the top, which communicated with

passages (the _vomitoriae_) for admission.

CHAPTER VI.

Roman Theatres--Description--"Deadheads"--Pantomime in Italy--Livius

Andronicus--_Fabulae Atellanae_--Extemporal Comedy--Origin of the

Masque, Opera, and Vaudeville--Origin of the term

Histrionic--Etruscans--Popularity of Pantomime in Italy--Pantomimists

banished by Trajan--Nero as a Mime--Pylades and Bathyllus--Subjects

chosen for the Roman Pantomimes--The Ballet--The _Mimi_ and

_Pantomimi_--_Archimimus_--Vespasian--Harlequin--"Mr. Punch"--Zany, how

the word originated--Ancient Masks--Lucian, Cassiodorus, and Demetrius

in praise of Pantomime--A celebrated _Mima_--Pantomimes denounced by

early writers--The purity of the English stage contrasted with that of

the Grecian and Roman--Female parts on the Grecian and Roman stages--The

principal Roman _Mimas_--The origin of the Clown of the early English

Drama.

The Roman theatres (continues Fosbroke) were of a similar D form. Two

lofty arched doorways entered into the pit. In front of the stage, which

was very shallow, was a pew-like orchestra. The proscenium was very

narrow, and instead of a drop scene was the _elisium_, a house, narrow,

with a kind of bow window front in the centre, and a door on each side:

for Pollux says that a house with two stories formed part of the stage,

whence old women and panders used to look down and peep about them.

Within the house were apartments. Around the back of the stage was a

_porticus_. At Herculaneum, on a balustrade which divided the orchestra

from the stage, was found a row of statues, and on each side of the

_pulpitum_, an equestrian figure. Below the theatre (great and small)

was a large square constructed, says Vitruvius, for the reception of the

audience in bad weather. It consisted of Doric columns, around an open

area, forming an ample portico for this purpose, whilst under it were

arranged _cellae_, or apartments, amongst which were a soap manufactory,

oil mill, corn mill, and prison. An inner _logia_ was connected with a

suite of apartments. There was also an _exedra_, or recess.

Among the Romans, theatrical approbation was signified by an artificial

musical kind of noise, made by the audience to express satisfaction.

There were three species of applause denominated from the different

noises made in them, viz.: _Bombus_, _Imbrius_, and _Testae_.

First, a confused din, made either by the hands or mouth. The second and

third, by beating on a sort of sounding vessel placed in the theatres

for that purpose. Persons were instructed to give applause with

skill--and there were even masters who professed to teach the art. The

proficients in this way let themselves out for hire to the poets,

actors, &c., and were so disposed as to support a loud applause. These

they called _Laudicena_. At the end of the play, a loud peal of applause

was expected, and even asked of the audience either by the chorus or by

the person who spoke last. The formula was "_Spectatore Claudite_," or

"_Valete et Plaudite_." The applauders were divided into _Chori_, and

disposed in theatres opposite to each other, like the choristers in

cathedrals, so that there was a kind of concert of applause. The free

admission tickets were small ivory death's heads, and specimens of these

are to be seen in the Museum of Naples. From this custom, it is stated,

that we derive our word "Deadhead," as denoting one who has a free

entrance to places of amusement.

With the dawn of the Roman Empire, Pantomime, in Italy, is first

authentically mentioned. The Emperor Augustus always displayed great

favour to the Art, and even by some writers he has been credited with

being the originator of Pantomime. This, of course, as we have seen, is

impossible, and to use a familiar and trite saying, the Pantomimic Art

is "as old as the hills" themselves. Again, Bathyllus and Pylades (both

freed slaves, the former born in Cilicia, and the latter came from

Alexandria), and Hylas, the principal exponents of Pantomime during the

reign of Augustus, have also been credited with the honour of

originating Pantomime.

The early Roman entertainments only consisted of the military and sacred

dances, and the scenes in the circus. With the advent of the arts of

Greece the austerity hitherto practised by the Romans, which had arisen,

says Duray, "Much more from poverty than conviction," for "Two or three

generations had sufficed to change a city which had only known meagre

festivities and rustic delights into the home of revelry and pleasure."

With the Romans, in their Pantomimic entertainments, the whole gamut of

the emotions were gone through.

When the Greek drama was brought into Rome by Livius Andronicus, the

_Fabulae Atellanae_, or _Laudi Osci_--derived from the town of Atella,

in Campania, between Capua and Naples--was still employed to furnish the

Interludes, and just in a similar way as the _Satyra_ Extemporal

Interludes supplied the Grecian stage. None of these Atellan Farces

have been committed to us, but Cicero, in a letter to his friend

Papyrius Paetus, speaks of them as the "More delicate burlesque of the

old Atellan Farces." From them also, we derive the Extemporal Comedy, or

_Comedia del' Arte_ of Italy (afterwards to be noted), with its

characters, Harlequin, Clown, Pierrot, and the like, associated with

English and Italian Pantomime, and the progenitor also of all those

light forms of entertainment known as the Masque, the Opera, and the

Vaudeville. On English dramatic literature the Italian Extemporal

Comedies and their Pantomimical characters have also had a considerable

amount of influence.

Livy mentions that actors were sent for (_circa_ 364 B.C.) from Etruria,

who, without verses or any action expressive of verses, danced not

ungracefully, after the Tuscan manner to the flute. In process of time

the Roman youth began to imitate these dancers intermixing raillery with

unpolished verses, their gestures corresponding with the sense of the

words. Thus were these plays received at Rome, and being improved and

refined by frequent performance the Roman actors acquired the name of

_Histriones_, from the Etruscan _Hister_, meaning a dancer or a stage

player. (From this we obtain our words histrion and histrionic). But

their dialogue did not consist of unpremeditated and coarse jests in

such rude verses as were used by the _Fescennini_, but of satires,

accompanied with music set to the flute, recited with suitable gestures.

After satires, which had afforded the people subject of coarse mirth

and laughter, were, by this regulation, reduced to form and acting, by

degrees became an art, the Roman youth left it to players by profession,

and began, as formerly, to act farces at the end of their regular

pieces. These dramas were called _Exodia_, and were generally woven with

the _Atellanae_ Comedies. These were borrowed from the Osci, and were

always acted by the Roman youth. Tacitus speaks of _Atellanae_ Comedies

written in the spirit and language of the Osci having been acted in his

time.

It is thought that the Etruscans possessed histories, poems, and dramas,

and, if these, then certainly they knew the Pantomimic Art, out of

which, in all probability, their dramatic entertainments grew. To the

Etruscans the Romans owe their early civilization.

The Etruscan era is supposed to have commenced about 1044 B.C., and we

are told that the Etruscans shared with the Greeks, and the Phoenicians,

the maritime supremacy of the Mediterranean. In the sepulchral chambers

of the Necropolis of Tarquinii, which extends for many miles, there are

several scenes painted in the archaic style by the Etruscans,

representing the Chase, the Circus, and Dancing Girls.

Soon after its innovation among the Romans, Pantomime spread all over

Italy and the provinces. So attractive did it become in Rome, and so

popular, that Tiberius issued a decree forbidding the knights and nobles

to frequent their houses of entertainment, or to be seen walking in the

streets with them. Trajan also oppressed and banished the Pantomimists.

Under Caligula, however, they were received with great favour, and

Aurelius made them priests of Apollo. Nero, who carried everything to

the extremity of foolishness, was not content in patronising the

Pantomimes, but must needs assist, and appear himself, as a _Mimi_. Here

again, in Nero, another claimant as the author of Pantomime has been put

forward.

"So great (observes Gaston Vuillier, in his 'History of Dancing,') was

the admiration for Pylades and Bathyllus that the theatrical supporters

clothed themselves in different liveries, and broils in the public

streets were of frequent occurrence." "The rivalries of Pylades and

Bathyllus," says De Laulnaye, "occupied the Romans as much as the

gravest affairs of state. Every citizen was a Bathyllian or a Pyladian."

Augustus reproved Pylades on one occasion for his quarrels with

Bathyllus. The Mime retorted, "It is well for you that the people are

engrossed by our disputes; their attention is thus diverted from your

actions." A bold retort, but it shows how important these Mimes were.

The banishment of Pylades brought about an insurrection, and the Emperor

had to recall him.

Cassius attributes the disgrace of Pylades to the intrigues of

Bathyllus, Suetonius to his effrontery; for on one occasion, when acting

Hercules, annoyed by the criticism of the spectators, he tore off his

mask, and shouted to them: "Fools, I am acting a madman." They thought

his gestures too extravagant. Another time he shot off arrows amongst

the spectators. Amongst other privileges extended by the Emperor

Augustus to the _Mimis_ was being exempt from magisterial control and

immunity from military serving.

The subjects chosen for the Roman Pantomimes, like those of the Grecian

mysteries, from which they doubtless were borrowed, were of a

Mythological description, and they were of such a nature that the

audience could follow them easily, even if they were not already

previously acquainted with them. Between the Roman Pantomime, and the

Western _ballet d'action_, there is hardly any difference. The Romans

always liked to see their stages well peopled; and to help in the action

of their Pantomimes, a chorus accompanied with music, formed part of the

entertainment. The _Mimis and Mimas_, like the ballet of the present

day, provided the dances in addition to their Pantomimic Art of posing

and posturing.

Mr. Isaac Disraeli, in his work, "Curiosities of Literature," edited by

the late Earl of Beaconsfield, thus distinguishes between the _Mimi_ and

the _Pantomimi_ of the Ancients. The _Mimi_ were an impudent race of

buffoons who excelled in mimicry, and like our domestic fools, were

admitted into convivial parties to entertain the guests. Their powers

enabled them to perform a more extraordinary office; for they appear to

have been introduced into funerals to mimic the person, and even the

language of the deceased. Suetonius describes an _archimimus_

accompanying the funeral of Vespasian. This _archimimus_ performed his

part admirably, not only representing the person, but imitating,

according to custom, _ut est mos_, the manners and language of the

living Emperor. He contrived a happy stroke at the prevailing foible of

Vespasian, when he enquired the cost of all this funeral pomp--"Ten

million of sesterces!" On this he observed that if they would give him

but a hundred thousand they might throw his body into the Tiber.

The _Pantomimi_ were quite of a different class. They were tragic

actors, and usually mute; they combined the arts of gesture, music, and

dances of the most impressive character. Their silent language has often

drawn tears by the pathetic emotions they excited; "Their very nod

speaks, their hands talk, and their fingers have a voice," says one of

their admirers.

These Pantomimists seem to have been held in great honour. The tragic

and the comic masks were among the ornaments of the sepulchral monuments

of an _Archmime_ and a _Pantomimi_. Montfaucon conjectures that they

formed a select fraternity.

The parti-coloured hero (Harlequin), with every part of his dress, has

been drawn out of the greatest wardrobe of antiquity; he was a Roman

Mime. Harlequin is described with his shaven head (_rasis capitibus_);

his sooty face (_fuligine faciem abducti_); his flat unshod feet,

(_planipedes_), and his patched coat of many colours, (_Mimi

centunculo_). Even _Pulcinello_, whom we familiarly call "Punch," may

receive, like other personages of no great importance, all his dignity

from antiquity; one of his Roman ancestors having appeared to an

antiquary's visionary eye in a bronze statue; more than one erudite

dissertation authenticates the family likeness; the nose long, prominent

and hooked; the staring goggle eyes; the hump at his back, and at his

breast; in a word, all the character which so strongly marks the Punch

race, as distinctly as whole dynasties have been featured by the

Austrian lip and the Bourbon nose.

The genealogy of the whole family is confirmed by the general term which

includes them all: in English, Zany; in Italian, _Zanni_; in the Latin,

_Sannio_; and a passage in "Cicero _De Oratore_," paints Harlequin and

his brother gesticulators after the life; the perpetual trembling motion

of their limbs, their ludicrous and flexible gestures, and all the

mimicry of their faces: "_Quid enim potest tam ridiculum quam Sannio

esse? Qui ore vultu, imitandis motibus, voce, denique corpore ridetur

ipso._" Lib II., Sect. 51. ("For what has more of the ludicrous than

Sannio? Who, with his mouth, his face, imitating every motion with his

voice, and, indeed, with all his body, provokes laughter.")

The Latin Sannio was changed by the Italians into (as Ainsworth

explains) Zanni, as, in words like Smyrna and Sambuco, they change the

s into z, which gives Zmyrna and Zambuco, and hence we derive our word

Zany. The word is, however, originally obtained from the Greek _Sannos_

(observes Quadrio), from whence the Latins derived their _Sannio_.

From the size of the ancient theatres it was not possible to notice the

visage of the actors, and this was one, but not the only reason, why

masks were adopted. The Ancients did not like a character to be

attempted, to which a proper appropriation was not annexed, and these

masks were so contrived, that the profile on one side exhibited chagrin,

and on the other serenity, or whatever other passion was most required.

The actor thus, according to the part he was playing, presented the side

of the mask best suited to the passage which he was reciting. The large

mouths of these masks were presumed to have contained some bronze

instrument suited to assist the voice, upon the principle of the

speaking trumpet; for the mask was wider, and the recitation in tragedy

much louder than in comedy, so that the voice might be heard all over

the theatre. The masks of the dancers were of regular features.

By some it has been contended that these masks covered both the head and

the shoulders under the supposed idea that when the head was thus

enlarged it would throw the whole body into symmetry when raised upon

stilts. It has, also, been argued that the masks for some of the

characters were made of gold-beaters skin, or some transparent substance

just covering the face so that the facial muscles could be seen through

it, and the eyes, mouth, and ears being left uncovered. These masks,

however, delineated very carefully the features of the character that

were to be represented. Something not unlike the huge Pantomime masks of

a hideous and frightful shape that we sometimes see in our present day

Pantomimes must have appeared, especially those that covered the head

and shoulders of the _Mimis_ in the days of the Romans. Those that were

just of the size of the face in all probability were fantastic and

picturesque; and the third and remaining species of mask made of a

transparent substance could hardly have been very effective.

Mr. Wright tells us, in his book on the Chester Mystery plays (which

work I shall again refer to later on), that masks were used in the

Mystery series of plays acted in England during the thirteenth and

fourteenth centuries.

Julius Pollux is still more ample in his account of theatrical masks

used in Tragedy, Satyr, and Comedy. Niobe weeping, Medea furious, Ajax

astonished, and Hercules enraged. In Comedy, the slave, the parasite,

the clown, the captain, the old woman, the harlot, the austere old man,

the debauched young man, the prodigal, the prudent young woman, the

matron, and the father of a family, were all constantly characterised by

particular masks.

Lucian and the other writers of the Augustan era, have handed down to us

sufficient information to show how Pantomime in Rome was so highly

thought of. Cassiodorous, speaking of them, says:--"Men whose eloquent

hands had a tongue, as it were, on the tip of each finger--men who spoke

while they were silent, and knew how to make a recital without opening

their mouths--men, in short, whom Polyhymnia had formed in order to show

that there was no necessity for articulation in order to convey our

thoughts." Demetrius, a cynic philosopher, laughed at the Romans for

permitting so strange an entertainment; but having been, with much

difficulty, prevailed upon to be present at the representation of one of

them, he was confounded with wonder. The story represented was that of

Mars and Venus, the whole performed by a single actor, who described the

fable in _dumb show_. At length the philosopher, wrought up to the

highest pitch of admiration, exclaimed, "That the actor _had no occasion

for a tongue, he spoke so well with his hands_."

Of one Pontus, who had come on a visit to Nero, we are told that he was

present at a performance, in the course of which a favourite Mime gave a

representation of the Labours of Hercules. The Mime's gestures were so

precise that he could follow the action without the slightest

hesitation. Being struck by the performance, on taking leave he begged

Nero to give him the actor, explaining that there was a barbarous tribe

adjoining his dominions, whose language no one could learn, and that

Pantomime could express his intentions to them so faithfully by gestures

that they would at once understand.

The dress of the performers of Pantomime was made to reveal, and not to

conceal, their figures. After the second century women began to act in

their representations, and even down to the sixth century we find them

associating themselves with Pantomime, and mention is made of a

celebrated _Mima_, who was ultimately raised to the imperial throne.

Through the lewdness of the _Mimis_ and _mimas_ in Pantomime, their

dress, or rather lack of dress, Pantomimes were denounced, not only by

the early Christian writers, but also by some of the Pagan writers, like

Juvenal, as being very prejudicial to morality.

It has, however, always been a favourite topic of the Prynne's, the

Jeremy Collier's and the Dr. Style's, and such like opponents of the

theatre, to contrast the English stage with the purity of the Grecian

and Roman Theatres. Now, without stopping to enquire whether this has

any particular connection with the subject of their dissertations, or

whether it is not in fact quite irrelevant to the question, it is

impossible not to remark the crass ignorance which these assertions

display of the manners and customs of the theatres of either the Greeks

or the Romans. Without wearying the reader by entering into a long

discussion upon the subject, it will be sufficient to recall certain

passages in Aristophanes, Xenophon, Plautus, and Terence to induce them

to hesitate in assenting to such vague assertions of the purity of

either the Grecian or Roman dramatic writers. William Prynne, the

English Puritan writer, in his violent attack on the stage in the

"_Histrio-Mastix_" or "Players Scourge"--which book, by the way, for

some unfavourable comments therein on the Queen of Charles I., and the

ladies of her Court, for attending theatrical representations, was

debarred his rooms (he was a barrister), by the Court of Star Chamber,

sentenced to be imprisoned for life, fined £5,000, committed to the

Tower, placed in the pillory, both ears cut off, and his book burnt by

the common hangman; yet after undergoing all these pains and penalties,

he published a _recantation of all that he had previously written in his

"Histrio-Mastix_"--says "It seems that the Grecian actors did now and

then to refresh the spectators, bring a kind of cisterne on the stage,

wherein naked women did swim and bathe themselves between the acts and

scenes; which wicked, impudent, and execrable practice the holy father

Chrysostom doth sharpely and excellently declaime against."

Xenophon mentions the tale of "Bacchus and Ariadne," Pantomimically

played, and Martial tells us he saw the whole story of "Pasiphae,"

minutely represented on the stage of the _Mimis_, and Plautus, in his

epilogue to "Casina," has--

"Nunc vos aequim est, manibus meritis,

Meritam mercedem dare.

Qui faxit, clam uxorem, ducat scortum

Semper quod volet.

Verum qui non manibus clare, quantum

Potent, plauserit,

Ei, pro scorto, supponetur hircus unctus nantea."

On the Roman stage female parts were represented in tragedy by men, is

ascertained (says Malone) by one of Cicero's letters to Atticus, and by

a passage in Horace. Horace mentions, however, a female performer called

Arbuscula, but as we find from his own authority men personated women on

the Roman stage, she was probably an _Emboliariae_. Servius calls her a

_Mima_, or one who danced in the Pantomimic dances, and which seems more

probable, as she is mentioned by Cicero, who says the part of Andromache

was played by a male performer on the very day Arbuscula also performed.

The principal Roman _Mimas_ were:--Arbuscula, Thymele, Licilia,

Dionysia, Cytheris, Valeria, and Cloppia.

In the satirical interludes of the Grecian stage, and the _Fabulae

Atellanae_ of the Roman theatres, the _Exodiarii_ and _Emboliariae_ of

the Mimes, were the remote progenitors (says Malone) of the Vice or

Devil, and the Clown of our English Mystery plays, the latter series of

plays being the origin of the drama of this country. The exact

conformity between our Clown and the _Exodiarii_ and _Emboliariae_ of

the Roman stage is ascertained by that passage in Pliny--"_Lucceia Mima

centum annis in scena pronuntiavit. Galeria, Copiola, Emboliariae,

reducta est in scenam: annum certissimum quartum agens_," is thus

translated by an English author, Philemon Holland, "Lucceia, a common

Vice in a play, followed the stage, and acted thereupon 100 yeeres. Such

another Vice that _plaied the foole, and made sporte between whiles in

interludes_, named Galeria Copiola, was brought to act upon the stage

when she was in the 104th yeere of her age." We shall, in another

chapter, return to the Vice, or Clown.

CHAPTER VII.

Introduction of the Roman Pantomimic Art into Britain--First English

reference to the word Pantomime--The fall of the Roman Empire--The

sacred play--Cornish Amphitheatres--Pantomimical and Lyrical elements in

the sacrifice of the Mass--Christian banishment of the

_Mimis_--Penalties imposed by the Church--St. Anthony on Harlequin and

Punch--Vandenhoff--what we owe to the _Mimis_.

With the advent of Julius Caesar and the conquest of Britain by the

Romans, about the year 52 B.C., we have, in all probability, the first

introduction of the Roman Pantomimic Art into this country. Inasmuch as

we have it upon the authority of history that Caesar travelled with his

Mimes, and it is, therefore, not improbable that they came into Britain

with him. England, then, during the occupancy of the Romans, must have

known the Dramatic Art, or else (as Dibdin observes) Pacuvius, Accius,

and Livius Andronicus were ignorant of it. Martial tells us that it did,

and so does Boadicea, so that we have not only Roman authorities for it,

but also British.

The word "Pantomime" could not, I may say here, have been Anglicised

earlier than sometime during the seventeenth century. Dr. Johnson's

earliest example is from "Hudibras"--

"Not that I think those _Pantomimes_,

Who vary action with the times,

Are less ingenious in their art

Than those who duly act one part."

Bacon and Ben Jonson use the Latin _Pantomimi_--"Here be certain

_Pantomimi_ that will represent the voices of players." Again in the

"Masque of Love's Triumph," etc., 1630, "After the manner of the old

_Pantomimi_ they dance over a distracted Comedy of Love."

The fall of the Roman Empire and the progress of Christianity in Europe

sounded the death knell of Paganism and its attributes, of which

Pantomime was deemed to be one, owing to the bad odour in which this

form of entertainment had got to during the last days of the Empire.

Notwithstanding this the church was only too glad to avail itself of

Pantomime as a vehicle to portray before the world at large, and in

order to turn attention to the great moral truths to be deduced from the

death of Him on Calvary Hill. These exhibitions of religious subjects,

in the form of _tableaux vivants_, took place in the churches, and,

having regard to the sacred edifices in which they were given, they

were, especially in the beginning, I conjecture, performed in dumb show,

without any dialogue. Afterwards dialogue was introduced, and they began

to be, not only held in the churches, but also in the church-yards, the

streets, and in booths.

It is true the sacred play was not a new institution, as one is said to

be mentioned about the time of the Fall of Jerusalem. In Cornwall, plays

were given in the ancient times in the open air, after the fashion of

the Roman Amphitheatre, with the dialogue in the Cymric tongue.

Pantomimical performances might also have been given in those open-air

theatres by the Romans.

Perhaps no better example of the early Sacred Drama I can give, and

which is still with us, and performed daily, is the sacrifice of the

Mass in all Roman Catholic Churches throughout the length and breadth of

the world. In the Mass we have a dramatic action _pantomimically_

presented, in part aided by lyrical and epical elements. I will not,

however, pursue this portion of my subject further, save than to add

that at the Catholic Churches' festivals, especially during Holy Week or

Passion Week, what I have mentioned of the Mass becomes at these times

marked in even a greater degree.

With the decline and fall of the Roman Empire, the _Mimis_ became

wanderers on the face of the earth, only appearing at festivals and the

like, when they were wanted, and returning to their haunts as

mysteriously as they came.

In the fourth century A.D. they were excluded from the benefit of the

rites of the Church, and even those who visited their entertainments,

instead of churches, on the Sundays and holidays, were excommunicated.

The Theodosian creed provided that the actors were not to have the

sacraments administered to them save when death was imminent, and then

only that, in case of recovery, their calling should be renounced.

In the second century one of the Fathers of the Church wrote a special

treatise against plays (_Tertulian De Spectaculis_), in which he asks

those who will not renounce them "Whether the God of truth, who hates

all falsehood, can be willing to receive into His kingdom those whose

features and hair, whose age and sex, whose sighs and laughter, love and

anger, are all feigned. He promises them a tragedy of their own when, in

the day of Judgment, they shall be consigned to everlasting suffering."

However, the church was not always against the stage, even in those

early times, as St. Thomas Aquinas says that "The office of the player

as being serviceable for the enlivenment of men, and as not being

blameworthy if the player leads an upright life." Both Saints Thomas

Aquinas and Anthony supported the stage, the latter only stipulating

that the character of Harlequin should not be represented by a

clergyman, nor that Punch should be exhibited in church.

It is one of the most remarkable things that, despite the bitterness,

hostility, and deadly enmity that has been levelled at the stage, and

its players termed "Rogues and Vagabonds" from time immemorial, how it

has lived through it all. In connection with this how the lines of that

great actor, Vandenhoff, occurs to me, a few of which, with the reader's

permission, I subjoin.

"The drama's now a great established fact,

That can't be blink'd, ignored how'er attack'd

By vain abuse or angry prejudice;

The time's gone by when _playing was a vice_;

When bigots mark'd the actor with a ban,

(Tho' saintly crowds to hear his accents ran),

Denied him sacred rite and hallowed grave--

Filching from God the soul he made to save--

And, for the pleasure which his life had giv'n

On earth, refused him dead, a place in heav'n.

No! wiser days bring gentler feelings in,

And 'Nature's touches makes the whole world kin'."

By degrees the _Mimis_, or mummers, with their fellows, spread

themselves all over Europe. The humbler of the craft, in fact it might

be said of them all, as Othello's occupation had (for them) long since

been gone, strolled from castle to castle, from village to town, and

earning their livelihood as best they could. To these wandering

Bohemians we owe such traditions of the drama that survived with them

into succeeding ages; and to them also we are indebted for keeping alive

by inculcating unto others the Art of _Pantomimus_, when in the heyday

of its popularity in the Roman Empire.

CHAPTER VIII.

Pantomime in the English Mystery or Miracle Plays and Pageants--A

retrospect of the Early Drama--Mysteries on Biblical events--Chester,

Coventry, York, and Towneley Mystery Plays--Plays in Churches--Traces of

the Mystery Play in England in the Nineteenth Century--Mystery Plays on

the Continent--The Chester series of Plays--The Devil or Clown and the

_Exodiarii_ and _Emboliariae_ of the Ancient Mimes.

It is presumed that, not only were the early sacred plays acted in

dumb-show, but that the Miracle or Mysteries of Religion series of

plays--which grew out of the sacred play--also the Pageants in the

beginning, and for long afterwards were acted in this wise. Percy, in

his "Reliques of Ancient English Poetry," also takes this view. He

says:--"They were (the Mysteries) probably a kind of _dumb show_,

intermingled, it may be, with a few short speeches, at length they grew

into regular scenes of connected dialogues, formally divided into acts

and scenes." Colley Cibber has: "It has been conjectured that the actors

of the Mysteries of Religion were _mummers_, a word signifying one who

makes and disguises himself to play the fool _without speaking_. They

were dressed in an antic manner, _dancing, mimicking_, and _showing

postures_." Mr. Wright also observes (in his work on the Mystery Plays

of Chester, published by the Shakespearean Society) that the "_chief

effect seems to have been caused by the dumb show_."

Before dealing with the Mysteries, and as perhaps a kind of retrospect,

let us have a look what Wharton has to say of the early drama. "Trade,"

he says (in the early centuries) "was carried on by means of fairs, which

lasted several days. Charlemagne established many great marts of this

sort in France, as did William the Conqueror and his Norman successors

in England. The merchants, who frequented these fairs in numerous

caravans and companies, employed every art to draw the people together.

They were, therefore, accompanied by jugglers, minstrels, and buffoons

(_i.e._, Pantomimists), who were no less interested in giving their

attendance and exercising their skill on these occasions. Few large

towns existed, no public spectacles or popular amusements were

established; and as the sedentary pleasures of domestic life and private

society were yet unknown, the fair time was the season for diversion. In

proportion as the shows were attended and encouraged, they began to be

set off with new decorations and improvements; and the arts of

buffoonery being rendered still more attractive by extending their

circle of exhibition, acquired an importance in the eyes of the people.

By degrees the Clergy, observing that the entertainments of dancing,

music, and mimicry exhibited at these annual celebrations made the

people less religious by promoting idleness and a love of festivity,

proscribed these sports and excommunicated the performers."

Mystery plays were afterwards divided into three classes, though the

generic term Mysteries, meaning all three, is generally used. In the

Mysteries, Biblical events were principally used; Miracle plays were

obtained from the legends of the saints; and the last, Moralities,

allegorical stories of a moral character not essentially taken from the

Bible, or from the legends of the saints, comprised the third heading.

The Mysteries were for several centuries known on the Continent before

they were performed in England. The earliest Mystery play known to have

been acted in England was at Dunstable about the year 1110. It was

probably in Latin, and composed by a Norman monk.

It is a peculiarity of the English Mystery plays that they were combined

into a series of plays on the Old and New Testament; and in which the

whole course of Divine Providence, from the Creation to the Day of

Judgment, is set before the spectator. Four noted groups of plays were

the Chester, the Towneley, Coventry, and York Mystery plays. The Chester

plays began on Whit Monday, and, continued till the following Wednesday.

Permission to perform them, in the beginning of their institution, had

twice to be asked of the Pope. They consisted of 24 plays, and were

almost annually performed till 1577. Before the suppression of the

monasteries the Grey Friars at Coventry were celebrated for their

exhibitions of the Mystery plays usually on _Corpus Christi_. The

Towneley, or Woodkirk group of plays were acted at Woodkirk, about four

miles from Wakefield, and they are of a style that may be likened to the

times of Henry VI., or Edward IV. Until the Mystery play fell into

disuse, the trading companies and guilds seem principally to have

maintained them. The mixture of secular with ecclesiastical players

helped to change the characters of the English plays and to provoke

censure, which began to be levelled at them from the beginning of the

thirteenth century.

The practise of performing plays in sacred edifices in England, had not

ceased in 1542, when Bishop Bonner prohibited them in his diocese.

However, so late as 1572, it appears that Interludes were occasionally

performed in Churches.

Collier speaks of a kind of Mystery, or Miracle play, exhibited in the

last century, with the characters of Herod, Beelzebub, and others. In

1838 Sandy mentions of having seen the play of "St. George and the

Dragon," presented in the Northern and Western parts of the Kingdom, or

rather Queendom, as Victoria had just ascended the throne. I myself

remember quite well, within a couple of decades ago, what was probably

at the time a remnant of the old Mystery play presented in a rural part

of Lancashire by men in a fantastic garb, and termed by the country

folk, "Paste-eggers." They generally appeared about Good Friday and on

to Easter; and their performance consisted of a mixture of music (?),

songs, and sometimes not over choice language. This custom does not now

exist where I write of, but it may do--though I very much doubt--in some

rural parts. On the Continent, as at Oberammergau, Mystery plays are

still enacted.

The following account of the Chester Mysteries may be of interest, and

appears (says Warton) in the Harleian Catalogue. M.S. Harl. 2013, etc.

Exhibited at Chester in the year 1327 at the expense of the different

trading companies of that city. "The Fall of Lucifer," by the tanners;

"The Creation," by the drapers; "The Deluge," by the dyers; "Abraham,

Melchizedeck and Lot," by the barbers; "Moses, Balak and Balaam," by the

cappers; "The Salutation and the Nativity," by the wrights (carpenters);

"The Shepherds feeding the Flocks by Night," by the painters and

glaziers; "The Three Kings," by the vintners; "The oblation of the Three

Kings," by the mercers; "The Killing of the Holy Innocents," by the

goldsmiths; "The Purification," by the blacksmiths; "The Temptations,"

by the butchers; "The Blindmen and Lazarus," by the glovers; "Jesus and

the Lepers," by the cowesarys; "Christ's Passion," by the bowyers,

fletchers and ironmongers; "Descent into Hell," by the cooks and

inn-keepers; "Resurrection," by the skinners; "Ascension," by the

taylors; "The Election of St. Matthias," "Sending of the Holy Ghost,"

etc., by the fishmongers; "Anti-christ," by the clothiers; and "The Day

of Judgment," by the websters (weavers). The reader will perhaps smile

at some of these combinations. This is the substance and order of the

former part of the play. God enters, creating the world, he breathes

life into Adam, leads him into Paradise, and opens his side while

sleeping. Adam and Eve appear _naked_, and _not ashamed_; and the old

Serpent enters, lamenting his fall. He converses with Eve. She eats part

of the forbidden fruit, and gives part to Adam. They propose, according

to the stage directions, to make themselves, _subligacula a folis

quibus tegamus pudenda_, cover their nakedness with leaves and converse

with God. God's curse. The Serpent exits, hissing. They are driven from

Paradise by four angels, and the Cherubim with a flaming sword. Adam

appears digging the ground, and Eve spinning. Their children, Cain and

Abel, enter, the former kills his brother. Adam's lamentation. Cain is

banished, etc., etc.

Adam and Eve, in the "altogether," so to speak, were acted like this as

late as the sixteenth century. In a play called "The Travails of the

Three English Brothers," acted in 1607, there occurs this:--

"Many idle toyes, but the old play _that Adam and Eve acted in bare

action under the figge tree draws most of the gentlemen_."

An Account of the Proclamation of the Mystery plays, acted in "Ye Citye

on ye Dee," may prove of interest, and the copy of which I subjoin is

taken from the Harleian M.S. No. 2013.

"The proclamation for Whitsone playes made by Wm. Newell, Clarke of the

Pendice, 24 Hen. 8. Wm. Snead 2nd yere Maior."

"For as much as auld tyme, not only for the augmentation and increese of

the holy and catholick faith of our Saviour Jesu Christ, and to exort

the mindes of comon people to good devotion and holsome doctrine

thereof, but also for the comonwelth and prosperity of this citty, a

play and declaration of divers storyes of Bible beginning with the

Creation and fall of Lucifer, and ending with the generall Judgment of

the world, to be declared and played in Whitsonne weeke, was devised and

made by one Sir Henry Frances, sometyme moonck of this monastrey

disolved, who obtayning and gat of Clemant, then Bushop of Rome, a 1000

dayes of pardon, and of the Bushop of Chester at that tyme 40 dayes of

pardon, graunted from thensforth to every person resorting, in peaceable

manner with good devotion, to heare and see the sayd playes, from time

to time as oft as they shall be played within the said citty (and that

every person or persons disturbing the sayd playes in the maner wise to

be acused by the authority of the sayd pope Clemant's bulls, untill such

tyme as he or they be absolved thereof) which playes were devised to the

honor of God by John Arnway, then maior of this citty of Chester, his

brethren and whole cominalty thereof, to be brought forth, declared, and

played, at the cost and charges of the craftesman and occupations of the

sayd citty, which hitherto have from tyme to tyme used and performed the

same accordingly.

"Wherefore Mr. maior, in the King's name, stratly chargeth and

commandeth that every person and persons of what estate, degree, or

condition so ever he or they be resorting to the sayd playes, do use

themselves peaciblie, without making any assault, affray, or other

disturbance, whereby the same playes shall be disturbed, and that no

manner of person or persons, whiche so ever he or they be, do use or

wear any unlawfull weapons within the precinct of the sayd citty during

the tyme of the sayd playes (not only upon payn of cursing by authority

of the sayd Pope Clemant's bulls but also) upon payn of imprisonment of

their bodyes, and making fine to the King at Mr. maior's pleasure."