98.-Hawking, 98.-Theatrical Entertainments, 99. Royal Musical Festival, 99.-Dover, 133.-Pan- theon Bazaar and Saloon of Arts, 133.-A Word or Two from Paris, 136.- Catacombs of Paris, 135.- Hints upon Stays, 135.-St. Patrick's Day, 136.— Greenwich Observatory, 169.- Fashionable Inqui- sitors, 169.-Spanish Dancers, 170.— Sale of the Effects of Mrs. Burns, 171.-Fashionable Mobs, 171. Musical Festival, 233.-The Queen's Visit to Ger- many, 233.-Death of the Prince of the Belgians, 233. EMBELLISHMENTS. The Moralist... London Morning Dress.. The Milk Maid, facing Vignette Title. Page 32 35 54 63 Italy, if it was not the birth-place of those pantomimes which have since delighted all countries and all ages, was unquestionably the place in which they were carried to the highest perfection. The natural disposition of the people leads them to that broad humour which is the principal character of pantomimes, and their extraordinary vivacity and facility at improvisation of all sorts is admirabl y adapted to this species of entertainment. It appears that the pantomimes, as they now exist at carnivals and festivals, and in the entertainments of the populace in Italy, were, in their commencement, a sort of offset, from the chorus of the regular ancient drama. Under Augustus, all public amusements, and particularly pantomimes, were encouraged for the purpose of diverting the minds of the people from reflecting on the tyranny in which they were held. The encomiums which are heaped upon the mimes, Pylades and Bathyllus, the first of whom excelled in the tragic, and the other in the comic style of acting, show that this art had been carried to a high point of perfection at this period. They enjoyed the favour of the emperor; established schools, which were soon filled with pupils. Their importance grew with their good fortune; and we have the testimony of Seneca, that nobles and privileged persons did not disdain to court their friendship. As it usually happens with such folks, their pride at length was their destruction; for to such a pitch of insolence did they arrive, that Augustus himself was forced to take part against them. Pylades was banished from Italy; and Hylas, a dancer, who had been his pupil, and had become his rival, was publicly scourged in the palace. Of the characters of these ancient pantomimes nothing remains to the present day but the Harlequin. The dress, altered as it has been repeatedly, yet retains, even in the present degraded days for pantomimes, unquestionable marks of its origin. The faces were blackened with soot and grease; their shoes were flat, or else they were without shoes, a token of vulgarity at a time when the tragic and comic actors wore invariably the buskin or the sock. It is easy to recognize in this description some of the more remarkable features of the Harlequin as he now exists. The old one of Italy is exactly represented in the cut. Other characters have been introduced at various periods, but all of them with a view of satirising the different States of Italy in the persons of the various actors who represented the inhabitants of those States. Thus the Pantaloon was the representative of Venice, the wealth and pride of which State made it, at the period when the Pantaloon was brought on the stage (about the beginning of the thirteenth century), the envy of the other Italian powers. The name is a satire on the Venetians, who, in allusion to their foreign victories, called themselves the planters of the lion, their national standards being decorated with the lion of St. Mark. The dress was such as was usually worn by the citizens of that republic, who were most of them merchants, and consisted of a robe of eastern shape, which they kept on at home and in their counting-houses, and exchanged for a cloak, the dress of gentlemen, when they went abroad. The stockings and breeches, joined together, was a garb peculiar to Venice, and this retains to the present day the name of the pantomimic character. This part of the dress was originally scarlet; but, when Venice lost the Sovereignty of Negropont, the whole population went into mourning, and the pantaloons remained black from that period. The Pantaloon was always represented as an old man, and generally a kind, well-disposed, but simple personage; often amorous, and always the dupe of his rival, his mistress, his son, or his servants. The Doctor was another of the most important personages in the pantomime. In his person the Bolognese people were ridiculed. They are said to be great talkers; and, for this reason, the Doctor is an eternal chatterer. He was generally made to look like a fat man. His dress, a caricature on that of medical practitioners of his day, consisted of a large broad-leafed hat, a long black cloak, with the sleeves hanging loose, and a pouch filled with vials and the tools of his trade. The comic effect of his character was produced by the impositions, of which he was made either the object or the instrument, by the contrivance of Scapin, who will be hereafter described, or of Harlequin, when Harlequin had, in process of time, grown to be witty and mischievous. Another means of exciting the laughter of the audience was |