THE MIMIC HARLEQUIN "I'll make believe, and fancy something strange: I will suppose I have the power to change And make all things unlike to what they were, To jump through windows and fly through the air, And quite confound all places and all times, Like Harlequins we see in Pantomimes.

The English people in the present generation are falsely reputed to know Shakspere (as, by some innocent persons, the Florentine mule-drivers are believed to have known the Divina Commedia, not, perhaps, excluding all the subtle discourses in the Purgatorio and Paradiso); but there seems a clear prospect that in the coming generation he will be known to them through burlesques, and that his plays will find a new life as pantomimes.

On their backs were gaudy wings resembling the butterflies of children's pantomimes.

Degraded condition of parentsDreadful effects of drunkennessNeglect of children inevitable and wilfulThe tutorship of wicked companionsTricks of pantomimes injuriousMischiefs arising from sending children to pawnbrokersFairs demoralizingAll Kinds of begging to be repressed.

As children are such imitative beings, I cannot help making a few observations on the tricks which are usually introduced into our pantomimes.

It is also equally well known, that the pantomimes are particularly designed to amuse children, for which reason they are generally represented during the Christmas holidays, If, however, they were merely intended to amuse them, they who have introduced them have, perhaps, gained their object; but what kind of instruction they afford, I shall here attempt to shew.

In my humble opinion, children cannot go to a better place for instruction in these matters, or to a place more calculated to teach them the art of pilfering to perfection, than to the theatre, when pantomimes are performed.

Many unfortunate persons, who have heard sentence of death passed upon them, or who are now suffering under the law, in various ways, have had to lament that the first seeds of vice were sown in their minds while viewing the pilfering tricks of clowns in pantomimes.

His birth-day was the fifteenth of January, which was lucky, because they always perform pantomimes in the Christmas holidays, and he was very desirous of seeing harlequin and columbine, and the clown, as he had heard a great deal about them from his young friends in the square, who had been to see them.

Caricatures, whether exhibited in pantomimes or print shops, (though often got up for any other purpose than instruction) are not sufficient; they are too ridiculous, though sometimes not devoid of humour, instance the picture of a lady striving ineffectually to make a way through Temple Bar, but is prevented by the enormous size of her bonnet, which shows likewise that this extravagance in dress is not confined to the west end.

At our theatres, operas are sung by children, and the pantomimes are full of juvenile fun.

THE MIMI AND PANTOMIMES.

Another set of players were called pantomimes: these were, at least, so far preferable to the former, that they gave no offence to the ears.

These pantomimes, among the Greeks, first mingled singing with their dances; afterwards, about the time of Livius Andronicus, the songs were performed by one part, and the dances by another.

We must not, however, imagine, at least, in my opinion, that the pantomimes did literally represent regular tragedies or comedies by the mere motions of their bodies.

I have made this mention of the mimi and pantomimes, only to show how the most noble of publick spectacles were corrupted and abused, and to conduct the reader to the end through every road, and through all the by-paths of human wit, from Homer and Eschylus to our own time.

At Rome and Athens, comedy produced mimi, pantomimes, burlettas, tricks, and farces, for the sake of variety; such is the character, and such the madness of the mind of man.

It is the licentiousness of the mimi and pantomimes, against which the censure of the holy fathers particularly breaks out, as against a thing irregular and indecent, without supposing it much connected with the cause of religion.

Creative rhythms, pantomimes and plays, with music by various composers, by Virginia Bennett Whitlock.

MOTHER'S CROWN; Mothers' Day songalogue, Story and poems by J. Reeder Reeves; pantomimes by E. Warner Bradley; music by I. H. Meredith.

This feature is simply a series of movie-like pantomimes showing humorous events, real or imaginary, in the life of the host and hostessgiven, of course, by their friends.

Besides their stories of love, the Maoris of New Zealand also have poems, some accompanied with (often obscene) pantomimes, others without accompaniment.

To him, with his light, pleasure-loving nature, it was as the return of the schoolboy from pantomimes and pony-riding to the more sober delights of Dr. Swishtail's; and, in a letter to Hall Stevenson, Sterne reveals his feelings with all the juvenile frankness of one of the Doctor's pupils: "I rejoice you are in Londonrest you there in peace; here 'tis the devil.

DRURY LANE, a celebrated London theatre founded in 1663, in what was a fashionable quarter of the city then; has since that time been thrice burnt down; was the scene of Garrick's triumphs, and of those of many of his illustrious successors, though it is now given up chiefly to pantomimes and spectacular exhibitions.

The modern dress of Harlequin, rarely seen save in pantomimes, is a very brilliant close-fitting costume, composed of small triangles of bright cloth covered with spangles.