is neither in Virgil nor Ovid, as often supposed, but in the
“Alexandrics” of Philip Gualtier a French poet of the thirteenth
century.
* * * * *
Under a portrait of Tiberio Fiurilli who invented the character of
Scaramouch, are these verses,
Cet illustre Comedien
De son art traca la carriere:
Il fut le maitre de Moliere
Et la Nature fut le sien.
* * * * *
A curious passage in a letter from Cicero to his literary friend
Papyrius Pætus, shows that our custom of annexing a farce or pantomime
to a tragic drama existed among the Romans.
* * * * *