Harlequin in His Element: The English Pantomime, 1806-1836 [Reprint 2014 ed.] 9780674429871, 9780674429864

Citation preview

Harlequin in His Element

Harlequin in His Element The English Pantomime, 1806-1836

David Mayer III Harvard University Press Cambridge, Massachusetts 1969

© Copyright 1969 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College All rights reserved Distributed in Great Britain by Oxford University Press, London Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 79-88809 SBN 674-37275-1 Printed in the United States of America

For Anne

Acknowledgments

My indebtedness to those who have guided and assisted in preparing this book extends over a decade to persons in America and England, and the pleasure of working with these scholars and performers and the travel associated with that work have more than repaid my efforts. To Professor Walter B. Scott, Jr., whose humanity and scholarship I hope to emulate, I am grateful for the encouragement to undertake this project and for thoughtful guidance throughout. Richard Findlater, sharing his knowledge of Grimaldi and the workings of the stage censor, has made invaluable suggestions as this study evolved. And Miss Kay Robertson, who generously put her unmatched collection of Grimaldiana at my disposal, earns my unreserved gratitude. Professors Ben R. Schneider and Joseph A. Hopfensperger, my colleagues at Lawrence University, have helped me to answer questions of historical interpretation and stage techniques. I have been equally fortunate in enjoying the interested attention of many members of the Society for Theatre Research, especially Miss Sybil Rosenfeld and George Speaight, who have heard my problems and who have, in return, volunteered information from their considerable knowledge of the stage and the drama of the nineteenth century. Assistance has also come from the modern stage. Many pantomimists and variety artists have given me insight into the traditions and practice of their craft, especially their skill in elaborating upon scripts that provide the merest outline of dialogue and business. In particular, Ron Moody has demonstrated the hazards and rewards of reviving Joseph Grimaldi's comic routines and songs. Albert J. Knight, arranger of the London Palladium pantomimes, Mrs. Eileen Blakemore, and Arthur Askey, by allowing me to observe the evolution of pantomime from earliest rehearsal to opening performance, have taught me the durability of pantomime tradition and much of the commercial side to modern pantomime.

viii

Acknowledgments

My wife Anne and my daughters Cassandra, Lise, and Catherine have made willing and uncomplaining gifts of their time and patience to this book, allowing home to be moved, schooling and holidays to be interrupted. Their enthusiasm and curiosity were a constant asset to me. Moria W. Tjossem and my editor Nancy demente discerningly advised and assisted in the preparation of the manuscript. The music was edited by Jane H. Richards. Final research on this project and time in which to write were made possible by a generous fellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. D. Μ. Ill March London

1969

Contents

I. Harlequin Everywhere II. The Structures of Pantomime, 1806-1836 III. Theatrical Borrowings, Theatrical Satire

1 19 75

IV. The Pantomime Scene

109

V. Fashions and Foibles

165

VI. Aspects of the Economy VII.

Censorship and Political Expression

VIII. War and Empire IX. Harlequin Out of Place

191 238 270 309

Appendix A. Pantomime Trickwork

331

Appendix B. Pantomime Music

337

Note on Pantomime Sources

365

Pantomimes Cited

369

Notes

379

Index of Pantomimes and Other Entertainments

389

General Index

393

Illustrations

1. The Monster Melodrama; engraving published by S. Tipper, 1807. Kay Robertson collection 2. Samuel Simmons as Mother Goose in Harlequin and Mother Goose (1806). Collection of the author. 3. A toy theatre sheet illustrating benevolent agents; published by W. West, London, 1819. Trustees of the British Museum. 4. Clown, Pantaloon, Harlequin, and Columbine in Harlequin and Padmanaba (1811); toy theatre sheet published by H. Burtenshaw, London, 1812. Trustees of the British Museum. 5. Joseph Grimaldi's costume for Queen Rondabellyana in Harlequin and the Red Dwarf (1812); toy theatre sheet published by W. West, 1818. Trustees of the British Museum. 6. J. H. Grieve's design for "The Pavilion of Pantomime," Harlequin and Mother Shipton (1826). University of London Library. 7. J. H. Grieve's design for "Grotto of the Dolphins," Harlequin and Number Nip (1827). University of London Library. 8. Harlequins; from a toy theatre sheet published by W. West, 1828. Trustees of the British Museum. 9. Harlequin disguised as a woman dances with Clown, Harlequin and Mother Goose (1806). Collection of the author. 10. Columbines; from a toy theatre sheet published by W. West, 1828. Trustees of the British Museum. 11. Pantaloons; from a toy theatre sheet published by W. West, 1828. Trustees of the British Museum.

12 25

26

27

29

32

32 39

41 42 42

xii

Illustrations

12. William West as Lover in Harlequin and Humpo (1812); toy theatre sheet published by W. West, 1824. Victoria and Albert Museum; Crown copyright. 13. A toy theatre sheet illustrating various Clowns; published by I. K. Green, London, 1812. Trustees of the British Museum. 14. Elizabeth Poole as Hop o' my Thumb in Hop o' my Thumb and his Brothers (1831); painting by Henry Meyer. The Garrick Club.

65

15. Elizabeth Poole as Josselin the Miller's son in Puss in Boots (1832); painting by Henry Meyer. The Garrick Club.

66

16. Clarkson Stanfield's diorama of the Plymouth Breakwater as printed in the "Book of Songs" to Harlequin and the Flying Chest (1823). Kemble-Devonshire Collection, Henry E. Huntington Library. 17. A toy theatre sheet illustrating Harlequin and the Swans (1813); published by W. West, 1824. Trustees of the British Museum. 18. A toy theatre trick-sheet reflecting the popularity of the violinist Paganini; published by S. Stokes, London, 1832. Trustees of the British Museum. 19. A toy theatre scene sheet showing the final scene of Harlequin Brilliant (1815); published by W. West, 1815. Trustees of the British Museum. 20. Thomas Rowlandson's illustration of a pantomime finale at Sadler's Wells; from The Microcosm of London (London, 1809). Collection of the author. 21. Grimaldi's burlesque of the Epping Hunt in Harlequin and the Red Dwarf (1812); published by W. Heath, 1813. Collection of the author. 22. Grimaldi and the "Nondescript" in Harlequin and the Red Dwarf (1812); published by W. Heath, 1813. Collection of the author. 23. J. H. Grieve's scene design for the opening of Harlequin and Don Quixote (1819). Trustees of the British Museum. 24. A toy theatre sheet of Harlequin and Padmanaba (1811); published by W. West, 1812. Trustees of the British Museum.

45

46

72

87

89

98

100

105

105 113

116

Illustrations 25. Tom Ellar as Harlequin leaps through a mirror; from a toy theatre sheet published by W. West, 1824. Collection of the author. 26. The Gothic opening of Harlequin and the Red Dwarf (1812); a toy theatre scene. Trustees of the London Museum.

xiii

117

120

27. Gothic ruins: J. H. Grieve's design for the opening of an unidentified pantomime. Victoria and Albert Museum; Crown copyright.

122

28. J. H. Grieve's design for the opening of Harlequin and Old Gammer Gurion (1836). Victoria and Albert Museum; Crown copyright.

123

29. J. H. Grieve's design for "The Glaciers," Harlequin and Number Nip (1827). University of London Library.

124

30. J. H. Grieve's design for the opening scene of Harlequin and Poor Robin (1823). Trustees of the British Museum.

127

31. J. H. Grieve's design for the opening of Puss in Boots (1832). Trustees of the British Museum.

128

32. A toy theatre scene of "Strand Bridge," Harlequin and Fancy (1815); published by W. West, 1816. Trustees of the London Museum. 33. The Grieve family's diorama for Puss in Boots (1832); from the "Book of Songs and Choruses." Collection of the author. 34. J. H. Grieve's design for the aerial diorama Harlequin and and Old Gammer Gurton (1836). University of London Library.

129

133

135

35. Clarkson Stanfield's diorama of Venice, Harlequin and Little Thumb (1831); from the "Book of Songs and Choruses." Harvard Theatre Collection. 36. Watercolor of Venice by Clarkson Stanfield, done at the same time as the diorama for Harlequin and Little Thumb. Trustees of the British Museum.

137

37. Grimaldi as Whang Fong, the Clown of China, in Whang Fong (1812). Trustees of the British Museum.

141

38. Japanese costumes for the opening of Harlequin Harper (1813); published by W. West, 1814. Trustees of the British Museum.

143

136

xiv

Illustrations

39. Chinese costumes for the opening of The Mandarin (1825); published by W. West, 1825. Trustees of the British Museum.

144

40. Characters in Chinese dress, Harlequin and Fortunio (1815); published by W. West, 1827. Trustees of the London Museum. 41. A toy theatre reproduction of J. H. Grieve's design of "An Apartment in the House of Foghi Fum," Harlequin and Fortunio (1815); published by W. West, 1816. Trustees of the London Museum. 42. A toy theatre reproduction of J. H. Grieve's design of "The Grand H a l l . . . of Tongluck," Harlequin and Fortunio (1815); published by W. West, 1816. Trustees of the London Museum.

149

43. A toy theatre reproduction of J. H. Grieve's design of a "Chinese Tent," Harlequin and Fortunio (1815); published by W. West, 1816. Trustees of the London Museum.

150

44. A toy theatre reproduction of J. H. Grieve's design of a "Chinese Port," Harlequin and Fortunio (1815); published by W. West, 1816. Trustees of the London Museum.

151

45. A toy theatre reproduction of J. H. Grieve's design of "A View of the Steyne at Brighton," Harlequin and Fortunio (1815); published by W. West, 1816. Trustees of the London Museum.

152

46. Comic business in front of the Royal Pavilion in Harlequin and the Ogress (1823). The London Borough of Islington Libraries. 47. Decorations for the victory celebration, St. James's Park, 1814. Trustees of the London Museum. 48. Toy theatre trick-sheet showing an "asiatic pavilion" and the Cadiz Mortar; published by W. West, 1824. Trustees of the British Museum. 49. The "Egyptian Desert" in Harlequin Colossus (1812); published by W. West, 1812. Trustees of the British Museum. 50. Characters in Persian dress, Harlequin and Padmanaba (1811); published by W. West, 1812. Trustees of the British Museum. 51. Grimaldi and Richard Norman in Persian dress, Harle-

146

148

153 154

155 156

158

Illustrations quin and Padmanaba (1811); published by W. West, 1812. Trustees of the British Museum. 52. J. H. Grieve's design for the Hindu opening of Harlequin and Number Nip (1827). University of London Library. 53. The Royal Pavilion at Brighton. Courtesy of the Royal Pavilion. 54. Characters in The White Cat (1811); from a toy theatre sheet published by W. West, 1825. Victoria and Albert Museum; Crown copyright. 55. Characters in ]ack and Jill (1812); from a toy theatre sheet published by W. West, 1812. Trustees of the British Museum. 56. Lover transformed from a peacock in Harlequin and Fancy (1815); from a toy theatre sheet published by J. H. Jameson, London, 1816. Trustees of the British Museum. 57. Grimaldi's burlesque of the gentlemen jockies; print by George Cruikshank, 1810. Collection of the author. 58. Grimaldi as My Lord Humpy Dandy in Harlequin Munchausen (1818); published by J. Sidebethem, London, 1819. Collection of the author. 59. Grimaldi's burlesque of the "Whip Club" in Fashion's Fools (1809); drawing by J. M. Grimshaw. Trustees of the London Museum. 60. Grimaldi's burlesque of Robert "Romeo" Coates's curricle in Harlequin and Padmanaba (1811); etching by W. Heath. Collection of the author. 61. "Romeo" Coates's curricle; detail from a print by George Cruikshank published by Town Talk, 1813. Collection of the author. 62. W. H. Grieve's design for Grimaldi's scene with the Aidgate Pump, Harlequin and Friar Bacon (1820). Victoria and Albert Museum; Crown copyright. 63. A trick-sheet showing a provender wagon and card table turned into a cart drawn by demons; published by W. West, 1824. Trustees of the British Museum. 64. A toy theatre trick-sheet in which miscellaneous bundles, chops, and a cow are turned into a steam packet; published by W. West, 1825. Trustees of the British Museum.

xv

159 160 161

170

171

173 179

180

186

188

189

211

212

215

xvi

Illustrations

65. A toy theatre trick-sheet illustrating an insurance company's fire apparatus; published by W. West, 1824. Trustees of the British Museum. 66. Mr. Montgomery, as Clown, performing the Hope Insurance Company song in Kelaun and Guzzarat (1807). Harvard Theatre Collection. 67. J. H. Grieve's design for the cosmorama of the opening of the new London Bridge, Hop o' my Thumb (1831). University of London Library. 68. J. H. Grieve's design for the launch of the Thunderer at Woolwich, Hop o' my Thumb (1831) University of London Library.

224

225

252

252

69. The new Metropolitan Police making an arrest in Harlequin and the Royal Ram (1832). Harvard Theatre Collection. 70. Grimaldi's drunken watchman in Harlequin in his Element (1807). Collection of the author.

261

71. Grimaldi's "charger" on which to lead "troops," Harlequin and the Swans (1813); published by W. West, 1824. Trustees of the British Museum. 72. Grimaldi exercising his recruits in Harlequin's Jubilee (1814). Trustees of the British Museum.

277

73. Signor Redige Paulo's Bold Dragoons, Sadler's Wells (1817). Trustees of the British Museum. 74. James Kirby's burlesque of the military uniform, The White Cat (1811); etching by W. Heath. Collection of the author. 75. The uniform of the 10th Hussars, burlesqued by Grimaldi in Harlequin and the Red Dwarf (1812). Trustees of the British Museum. 76. Grimaldi's burlesque of the Hussar uniform in Harlequin and the Red Dwarf (1812); published by W. Heath, 1813. Collection of the author. 77. A toy theatre sheet illustrating the Hussar, Grimaldi's burlesque of the Hussar's uniform, and "Little Boney," Harlequin and the Red Dwarf (1812); published by W. West, 1813. Trustees of the British Museum. 78. George Cruikshank's version of Grimaldi's Hussar bur-

263

278 278

280

282

283

284

Illustrations

lesque, Harlequin and the Red Dwarf (1812). Collection of the author. 79. A toy theatre sheet illustrating the "King of Rome" satire in Harlequin Harper (1813); published by W. West, 1814. Trustees of the British Museum. 80. J. H. Grieve's diorama of the trip from Calais to Antwerp, Puss in Boots (1832). University of London Library. 81. J. H. Grieve's diorama of the polar expedition, Old Mother Hubbard and Her Dog (1835). Trustees of the British Museum.

xvii

285

287 304

307

Harlequin in His Element

I. Harlequin Everywhere

Any study of the drama of the early nineteenth century invites confusion. The variety of dramatic genres that proliferated in these years, and the tendency to interpret some of these new modes as debased versions of seventeenth-century and eighteenth-century theatrical forms, the ambiguities of the theatrical licensing laws, and the irregularity with which they were enforced or obeyed, conspire to mislead the student. With disheartening regularity the early nineteenth-century stage is condemned as decadent and inconsequential, a stage fleeing social and ethical dilemmas and purveying triviality and escapism. Indeed, to those who hold this view, few dramatic forms seem intended to provide their audiences with such a vehicle for escape from immediate problems as the pantomime, that seemingly bizarre, wasteful, and gaudy concatenation of irrelevant theatrical events: a simple tale of virtuous young love thwarted by the refusal of parents' and rivals' schemes, which is abruptly and magically changed into a harlequinade with the original characters transformed into Harlequin, Columbine, Pantaloon, and Clown, who comically pursue, assault, and betray one another for a succession of scenes, at length terminating in a final scene of splendor. The very titles of the pantomimes, with their profusion of Aladdins, Jacks and Jills, Red and Yellow Dwarfs, Fairies of Crystal or Diamond or Emerald, Magic Fountains, Magic Fires, Flying Islands, and Singing Trees suggest a swift return to the nursery or the childhood hearth. Criticism of the pantomime as escapist drama is in part due to its exotic settings. The World of Dreams, a Valley of Diamonds, or a Pavilion of Pearls seem irrelevant to the preoccupations of the mill-owner who must produce and market cotton stockings or to the cottage weaver whose livelihood is threatened by the mill-owner's stocking frames. The costumes also suggest distance from everyday cares. The ornate, imaginative, and traditionally elaborate dress of

2

Harlequin in His Element

pantomime "openings" and the timeless motley of the harlequinade seem calculated to avoid comment on anything contemporary. Hunger would seem to be ignored; violence, cruelty, greed, callousness, indifference, folly appear all but concealed behind jollity, plenty, and splendor. But despite all of these picturesque trappings, the pantomime was a highly topical form of dramatic art offering audiences immediate and specific comment on the issues, major and minor, of the day. Disguised in its exotic and traditional ornamentation, the pantomime held up an imperfect mirror to its audiences. The audiences saw themselves, their countrymen, the ambitions and triumphs of their nation, the pitfalls that an unwary people might tumble into. They saw their achievements glorified and their failures ridiculed. Whenever the English went to the theatre at holiday time, pantomime shared the bill with other dramatic pieces; it entertained them, chided and criticized and praised them; it aroused and satisfied their curiosity. That pantomime was able to do all these things makes it a subject of considerable interest. It was a major and significant dramatic form for decades before 1806 in London theatres and fairgrounds. But from 1806 to 1836, the period of this study, pantomime structure was cast in a more fixed form than previously and assumed conventions of characterization, performance, and methods of production which made it unique at a time when innovation and novelty, not necessarily good, were endemic to the theatre. This is not to say that pantomime resisted novelty and innovation, for these were its stock in trade. Rather, the structure and conventions of pantomime, stabilized in 1806, allowed only gradual mutations. Briefly defined for the moment, this is the pantomime of the Clown-centered harlequinade made popular by the comic genius of Joseph Grimaldi who, with his son and the pantomime arrangers Charles Farley, Thomas J. Dibdin, and his elder brother Charles Dibdin, the younger, laid out pantomime boundaries for most of the period. The popularity of pantomime observing these conventions, even when deficient in interesting subject matter, is supported by the consistency with which theatrical managers not only regained their expenses in staging pantomime but recouped losses from offering Shakespeare and Rowe to half-filled houses. Thus, it may even be suggested that the popularity of pantomime delayed the reform of other theatrical genres.

Harlequin Everywhere

3

Joseph Grimaldi was chiefly responsible for the acclaim and financial success of the pantomime from 1806 to 1823, just as he is the chief personality in the long history of this genre. Born in 1778, to Giuseppe "Iron Legs" Grimaldi, ballet master at Drury Lane and Sadler's Wells, and Rebecca Brooker, a dancer at the former theatre, Joseph Grimaldi was reared in a theatrical environment to which he soon contributed, performing minor roles in pantomimes and pantomime ballets, including, by his own admission, that of a monkey led on a chain by his father in the role of Pantaloon. 1 By 1800, "Joe Grimaldi," "Joe," "Joey," names better known to the public than his formal Christian name, was performing the roles of Clown and Pierrot in pantomimes at Drury Lane and Sadler's Wells and had established a reputation as a performer of comic songs. Harlequinades in which he appeared were interrupted to indulge this talent, and the published songs, illustrated with his pictures, enjoyed a widespread popularity. In 1806 Grimaldi ended his association with Drury Lane and signed articles at Covent Garden where, apart from provincial tours and summer performances at Sadler's Wells, he played until infirmity and exhaustion forced him from the stage in the spring of 1823. At Covent Garden Grimaldi collaborated first with Thomas J. Dibdin and later Charles Farley to articulate a style of pantomime which for decades influenced the entire tone and method of pantomime production. The role of Clown had been written into pantomimes in the last quarter of the eighteenth century, but the part was rudimentary in concept and, performed by acrobats, remained tied to the harlequinade pursuit. The satiric potential of the pantomime, only tentatively exercised before this time, was stimulated as Grimaldi brought Clown into the center of the harlequinade. Grimaldi's ebullience, visual wit, comic ingenuity, and, above all, his talent for ridiculing pomposity and sham were first given range in Dibdin's Harlequin and Mother Goose; or, The Golden Egg, first staged at Covent Garden on December 29, 1806. That pantomime is a landmark that signifies the beginning of a new period and, for all but a few diehard theatre managers, the end of nearly one hundred and forty years of fitful pantomime evolution. The periods of pantomime which Grimaldi's triumph as Clown brought to an end, the earlier periods of the English pantomime, are hidden in shadows and confusion. To an extent the pantomime

4

Harlequin in His Element

owes its foundation to the commedia dell' arte companies that followed the court of Charles II to England in the years following the Restoration. Ifan Fletcher in his account of Italian companies in England from 1660 and their reception at the English court, discusses the influence that the Italians had on such native English dramatists as Edward Ravenscroft and Aphra Behn. But unlike historians who see in Ravenscroft and Behn the beginnings of the English pantomime, Fletcher states that the playwrights were doing no more than attempting to emulate Italian models.2 Their plays confirm that the Italians had stimulated in the English a taste for the antics of their zannis, especially Harlequin and Scaramouche. The earliest piece to contain a characteristic of the pantomime, though not so identified, was William Mountford's 1685 adaptation of Marlowe's Doctor Faustus entitled The Life and Death of Doctor Faustus, made into a Farce. To the plot of Marlowe's play, Mountford added the comic antics of Harlequin and Scaramouche, 3 thereby uniting a popular fable with the stock masks of the commedia dell' arte. Faustus was followed in the early years of the eighteenth century by pantomime ballets presented as afterpieces to the plays staged at Drury Lane by John Weaver, dancing master of Shrewsbury. The playbill to one of his entertainments, The Loves of Mars and Venus, performed in 1717, was the first to use the term "pantomime," describing the piece as "a New Dramatick Entertainment of Dancing after the Manner of the Antient Pantomimes." 4 The following season Weaver worked at Lincoln's Inn Field with John Rich who, as "Lun," established himself as the foremost English Harlequin. Weaver's The Cheats; or, The Tavern Bilkers starred Rich and set Harlequin, Scaramouche, and Punch loose to roister in a setting of contemporary London.® With Weaver's departure, Rich took the management of pantomime into his own hands, adding to a farcical "overplot" an "underplot" peopled by Harlequin, Columbine, Scaramouche, and Punch. Slandered by poets and critics, remembered as illiterate and slow of speech, Rich developed his pantomime as a wholly silent enactment of Harlequin's escapades. 6 Thelma Niklaus has recognized a consistent form in Rich's pantomimes, and that form, though somewhat more elaborate by the time Grimaldi appeared on the stage, constituted the basic structure of all pantomimes until late in the nineteenth century:

Harlequin Everywhere

5

The first and shorter part held the serious theme, taken from Greek and Roman mythology, or legend nearer his own time. The second and longer part consisted of the serio-comic love affair of Harlequin and Columbine, in the course of which the lovers were pursued, by Columbine's father, or guardian, or suitor Pantaloon, into extraordinary and unlikely places. Harlequin invariably effected transformations and enchantments with his magic bat, and it was certain that in the end the lovers would be united, and their enemies routed. 7 The "second and longer part," in many ways the more significant of the two, is the harlequinade, taking its name from the antics of Harlequin. Rich devised for his Harlequin a variety of comic business that enlivened the pursuit and added to it a comic rowdiness enhancing Harlequin's reputation for quickness and wit. Rich and later pantomimists added machinery to embellish scenic effects. Some machinery, employed for scenic novelty, enabled demons to fly or rainbows to appear; other apparatus performed the tricks that gave Harlequin's bat its magic powers, working such marvels as converting a beehive into a statue, a coach into a wheelbarrow. From the time of Rich to the period of Grimaldi, the evolution of the pantomime was gradual, although there is little doubt that its hold on audiences was strengthened by the Licensing Act of 1737, which confirmed the Patent houses' monopoly on spoken drama and virtually forced the performance of eccentric genres at the lesser theatres. The subject matter in the first section of the pantomime was broadened to include plots extracted from nursery fables, popular literature, chapbooks, and broadsides. The second section was lengthened to allow the pursuit of Columbine and Harlequin to continue for as many as a dozen scenes, each new scene giving the pantomimists the chance to exhibit the curiosities and novelties of the day and to use them as backgrounds for knockabout humor or as subjects for temperate satire. Such was the pantomime in the years before 1800. Its potential for extended satire was there, its capacity for comic action had been discovered. It was a form of drama unique in British theatre. Pantomime before and during the period of Grimaldi's domination had two characteristics: treatment of a wide range of comic subjects in a single dramatic piece and the capacity to reuse the chief pantomime characters endlessly. A comparison will help to make these features clear. Traditional drama, serious or comic, is

6

Harlequin in His Element

written around a dramatic action central to the playwright's purpose. Characters of comedy are revealed as they respond to the situations in which they are placed, and the topics which the playwright chooses for comic or satiric discussion are few in number because to extend the range of subjects would impede the plot and confuse characterization. A comedy is, in this way, similar to a hunting expedition organized and equipped to bring down or capture a particular quarry; every time it is sent out, it hunts the same game. Only by organizing a new expedition or by writing a new play can different objectives be pursued. Pantomime, however, was not devised to point laughter at a single comic subject. Its structure enabled fleeting comedy or satire to be directed at many topics without requiring that they be shown in a logical or plausible sequence. It was more effectual by being random rather than precise. A few laughs on one topic and the action of the pantomime moved to another subject. In this respect pantomime resembled a different kind of hunting expedition, one always organized in the same fashion but equipped to hunt any sort of game. The quarry was always mixed, often illogical, and frequently barely worth the shot that brought it down. Further, the agents who manipulated the audience's attention were always the same: Harlequin, Columbine, Clown, Pantaloon, and a few other stock characters. And the behavior of these characters in one pantomime did not compromise their identity or behavior in another. The characters were able to appear season after season and simultaneously upon different stages without producing charges of inconsistency. Their actions, wherever and whenever they were seen, were only more adventures in the lives of indestructible Harlequin and his inexhaustible friends. When, at last, Grimaldi's talents were united with those of the Dibdins and Farley, they stimulated a pantomime that progressed from a cheerful and somewhat mindless entertainment to the only effective means of satire to hold the stage in the first thirty years of the nineteenth century. These men diverted the harlequinade of Rich, dominated by Harlequin and consequently emphasizing knockabout pursuit and gymnastic feats, to a harlequinade dominated by Clown and consequently emphasizing comedy and satire. Although this progression was never complete, for there were distinct limits to what might be satirized without offending the licensing authority, the range of comic subjects widened far

Harlequin Everywhere

7

beyond that of earlier pantomimes to reach from the Crown to the poor, from questions of religious tolerance to the conduct of the Napoleonic War, from fashion to fine art. Moreover, much of the satire was of a high quality: carefully thought out, entertainingly presented, and wholly unambiguous. Pantomime was at its comic and satiric best between 1806 and 1823, the year Grimaldi retired; thereafter it declined and was eclipsed in popularity by the extravaganza, a newer form of musical and comic spectacle. To the detriment of satire, arrangers quickly incorporated in the pantomime the elements of extravaganza that best seemed to attract audiences, and pantomime lost much of its social purpose. Grimaldi, however, continued to influence the pantomime, although he was to appear only for his farewell benefits in 1828. Critics for the daily newspapers and theatrical journals anxiously watched his son's performances at Covent Garden and the Minor theatres to reassure their readers and themselves that the Clown's abilities survived in his son. And Grimaldi himself continued to be engaged in staging pantomimes. As a proprietor of Sadler's Wells he was temporarily to secure the position of acting manager of that theatre, where he arranged pantomimes, engaged and trained pantomimists, and had some part in determining expenditures and salaries. He suggested bits of comic business to his friends; he supervised his son's short career, even to the point of signing for his wages in the Covent Garden ledgers; he built model trickwork for stage carpenters at both Patent houses to copy at full scale. The entire period, to Grimaldi's death early in 1837, is properly the "period of Grimaldi." Even after Grimaldi's retirement it is partially the satiric approach and the extensive choice of subjects that make the pantomime claim our attention. At the same time pantomime in this period, by the very nature of its wide scope and satiric tone, was an unofficial and informal chronicle of the age. It is possible to see these thirty years, the final years in the reign of George III, the period of the Regency, and the reigns of George IV and William IV, the years of the Napoleonic wars and the First Reform Act, recorded in often comically satiric terms which illuminate events and attitudes, technical achievements and artistic movements, major political and social crises, and everyday trivia. The pantomime is by its nature an imperfect instrument for recording history, for the greatest of its faults was a refusal to

8

Harlequin in His Element

discriminate between the worthy and the paltry; like the tabloid of today, the pantomime leaned toward the immediate, the sensational, the most readily apparent or easily understood, and, above all, it deferred to the view that theatrical managers and pantomime arrangers calculated to be most popular with their audiences. For these reasons pantomime paid more attention to the spread of gas illumination through London than to the rioting of laborers in the new manufacturing towns, more attention to voyages of sub-Arctic exploration than to the problems of Catholic emancipation and franchise. A pantomime might contain a scene concerned with the fastest transportation of the day, or even a patent folding step that enabled the traveler to enter a coach with greater ease, but at the same time it failed to anticipate or speculate on the effect on English life of a new form of transport. Pantomime's concern was often superficial; it never pretended to profundity. Still, the two qualities which are pantomime's weakest, lack of discrimination and lack of profundity, when coupled with its greatest strength, its comprehensiveness, permit seeing this portion of the nineteenth century as Britons of no special perceptiveness were likely to view it. Like popular entertainment today, pantomime easily and confidently documented the everyday trivia of its milieu, but when confronted with more complex issues it became tentative and hesitant. The period in which pantomime reached its highest level was also one of substantial change in England and in her relationships with the rest of the world. Pantomime chronicled the war that England fought with France to emerge the strongest power in Europe. Popular concern with England's growing empire and the dividends that this growth was paying in trade and power were also recorded, along with English efforts to explore and complete the map of the world. The pantomime reflected various attitudes toward the monarchy as England was governed successively by a pitiable but mad George III, the Prince Regent and later King George IV, both admired and suspect for his extravagances, and a popular but inept William IV. England's domestic excursions into manufacturing and the triumphs, frustrations, and social malaise resulting from these efforts came within the scope of the pantomime. Nor did the pantomime neglect the gadgetry that was the product of Britain's scientific growth and the popular Benthamism which sought to put science to useful purposes. England's industrial growth was accompanied by the expansion of cities, the

Harlequin Everywhere

9

emergence of new towns, and attendant problems as industry threatened rural wages. In emotional terms, the pantomime pointed to the conflict between city-dweller and farmer and the speculators who battened on the needs of both. Inevitably the pantomime turned its attention to the more immediate and lesser social questions of the day. It elaborately showed daily life, with its frivolities and fashions. It recorded the English attitudes toward law and obedience, attitudes which perceptibly changed within the thirty-year period. And the pantomime also acknowledged the fine arts that had a share in its own development: painting, architecture, music, and, of course, drama. Much of the nineteenth-century theatre was in the pantomime in miniature. Whatever claims might be made for the range and quality of entertainment provided by the pantomime, or, to a lesser extent, the insistence of some nineteenth-century Englishmen that the pantomime was the only effective critic of public activities to speak from the public stage, these claims are meaningless without evidence of public willingness to listen and to enjoy it. Certainly the importance of the pantomime in English life was extensive. Early in the century, theatre-goers might find four wholly distinct pantomime seasons, with pantomimes at both Patent and Minor houses. The conditions favoring pantomime were those regulations that controlled the burletta and the Minor theatres licensed to perform them; nevertheless, the Patent theatres, where pantomimes had been successfully performed in the eighteenth century, continued to depend on them to fill their houses long after their monopoly on spoken drama was upheld by Parliament. The Patent and winter Minor houses regularly performed pantomimes on November 9, Lord Mayor's Day, and for some weeks following, then offered new pantomimes on December 26, Boxing Day,8 which might run, if successful, until mid-February. On Easter Monday or Whitmonday, when the summer Minors might open, they entertained their patrons with pantomimes, often competing with refurbished ones staged by the winter houses whose closing was postponed to obtain additional revenue from holiday audiences. Again in early July new pantomimes were often performed at the summer theatres. In between London engagements, performers such as Grimaldi toured English provincial towns with pantomime olios, composite scenes from earlier pantomimes, 9 or played to appreciative audiences in Dublin. In time, the efforts of staging so many pantomimes in so brief a

10

Harlequin in His Element

period led the Patent houses to omit the Lord Mayor's Day pantomimes, but as late as 1830, Christmas, Easter, and July pantomimes were still offered by London theatres. Not until the repeal of the Theatrical Licensing Act in 1848 were pantomimes limited to the Christmas season. Although today considered a Christmas treat for children and condescending adults, pantomimes of the early nineteenth century were attended by adults of all social classes and by comparatively few children. In his droll and withering account of the Hanoverian kings, The Four Georges, William Thackeray somewhat patronizingly wrote that George III "is said not to have cared for Shakespeare or tragedy much; farces and pantomimes were his joy; and especially when clown swallowed a carrot or a string of sausages, he would laugh so outrageously that the lovely Princess by his side would have to say, 'My gracious monarch, do compose yourself.' But he continued to laugh, and at the very smallest farces as long as his poor wits were left him." 1 0 Charles Dickens, who edited or perhaps rewrote Grimaldi's memoirs, describes a backstage visit paid by the Duke of York, brother to George III, during the performance of a Covent Garden pantomime. One of the courtiers attending the Duke offered Grimaldi snuff "from the largest snuff box Grimaldi had ever beheld," and urged him to share the snuff then and there with Norman, the pantomime's Pantaloon, then on stage. Grimaldi, improvising both business and dialogue, introduced the snuff box into the harlequinade to the pleasure of the audience and the satisfaction of the royal party, who had privately wagered on Grimaldi's resourcefulness. 11 The pantomime was also appreciated in literary circles. William Hazlitt wrote enthusiastically on the pantomime for the London Magazine, and Leigh Hunt, in the Examiner (January 26, 1817), offered the opinion that a Pantomime, at present, is . . . the best medium of dramatic satire. Our farces and comedies spoil the effect of their ridicule by the dull mistakes of their author; but the absence of dialogue in pantomime saves him this contradiction, and leaves the spectators, according to their several powers, to imagine what supplement they please to mute caricature before them. Thus the grotesque mimicry of Mr. Grimaldi has its proper force; and the bullies and coxcombs who he occasionally imitates come in one respect nearer to the truth than in the best dialogue. Harlequin's sword also, besides being a thing very pleasant in the imagination to handle, is

Harlequin Everywhere

11

excellent at satiric strokes. Lissom as a cane, and furnishing all that little supply of conscious power which a nervous mind requires, and which is the secret of all button-pulling, switch-carrying, seal-twirling, and glove twirling, it is not possible to witness its additional possession of a magic power without envy. More critical attitudes are to be found in popular prints (see Fig. 1) and in a poem by Lord Byron. His "English Bards and Scotch Reviewers," deploring the debased comedy then on the stage, singled out the farces of Lumley Skeffington, Andrew Cherry, Theodore Hook, and Thomas J. Dibdin's Harlequin and Mother Goose; or, The Golden Egg for special opprobrium: Oh! SHERIDAN! if aught can move thy pen, Let Comedy assume her throne again; Abjure the mummery of German schools; Leave new Pizarros to translating fools; Give, as thy last memorial to the age, One classic drama and reform the stage. Gods! o'er these boards shall folly rear her head, Where GARRICK trod, and SIDDONS lives to tread? On those shall farce display Buffoonery's mask, And HOOK conceal his heroes in a cask? Shall sapient managers new scenes produce From CHERRY, SKEFFINGTON, and MOTHER GOOSE? While SHAKESPEARE, OTWAY, MASSINGER, forgot, On stalls must moulder, or in closets rot? Lo! with what pomp the daily prints proclaim. The rival candidates for Attic fame! In grim array though LEWIS' spectres rise, Still SKEFFINGTON AND GOOSE divide the prize. But Byron's attitude was ambivalent. Although he could condemn the most popular and influential pantomime of the era, he also found pleasure in attending pantomimes and meeting the performers. Dickens reports Lord Byron bantering with Grimaldi, the Clown of Mother Goose, and asserts that Byron regularly subscribed for Grimaldi's benefit performances at Covent Garden. 12 Beyond the small words of the court and of letters, the pantomime reached into the everyday life of England, into the popular idiom itself. In 1803, when Britain was preparing to repel the armies of Frenchmen momentarily expected to cross the Channel, a broadside was circulated in the form of a pantomime playbill.

12

Harlequin in His Element

£ >> E? Η ^ ο a

60 (0 !h •G»Η Λ tx _U K 5 & « u*irfatA* Π ·π J ? ? r T f ' t) ) r r

•; f —

•m-

*

>

oco

· ·

Cadence

r\

344

Appendix Β

tV\

? ι

,

I f f f

p . l||Tgs

I,

ι ' ·

> rjfa = t e ipi ^. τί » 1»fι "Γ

P

=M=ß=

ö pia.

- f

Ii r r Γ Γ r ff ^ i r J - ^ r

^ r

.

η

-1—

—r = t = f

r

·—

t

-

: —·—•

J

*

Τ •

1

•

r iH•—-— •— I

*

'

m

r

Φ

t

ί

>r ' r

. ,

V Tl* ρ

i—a fl—

^

^

=P=±

r

r ir

Y_—J

Pantomime Music ι· Γ Γ Γ

\f=r ΨΦ

5

ir 7 h U

4

-)

i

*—ι J

7

ιΓ

ι ι

Φ ύ

ί—t i

τ~

7

*

7

-Γ-Φ—m—

ρ r

ρ

¥

i

τ '

Π r r

r

7

tr

8'" •

t — 8" R F — -fl-f ÄM=

II i

•

ρ

HI

Ν —ι 'J

J

S— J

V ι J

h V ι Γ - 1 M

τ Ir

r r Γ r — id

— 1

s—

ir

p

ft=F

_—ri·

Ρ

345

-—y— I j

I

J

-s-

Η j

J

'j

" j

1

, » r f ^ t)

U S ; — ιΓ r r f

u

ι

, 1* f

I

7

'L

F#=S=

•G I

β

» ·

I

.

Ρ

'I

ß

m

*

I

»

I 1

» —

W

W

Ι Γ Γ Γ Γ , Γ . L L L Γ Γ Γ- U L / U L S 1

~ Ι — Ϊ — Ι — ¥ 7 j

'j

"

"

ι Ü-r rJ

jgfg tr r

linn

»

β »

- f c

r

•

fr

-Mi

J

Fυ

J

¥

Ρ /T\

IP • /TS

CHINESE DANCE as danced in the Grand Christmas Pantomime called PUNCH'S PANTOMIME, or Harlequin

King John and Magna

Charta,

Performed at the Theatre Royal Covent Garden Composed by J. Collett

348

Appendix Β

Γ

fi

Ρ

ι Π 3

ι Li: ill a

Γ

Ρ

f f

Γ

If

! M F —11

f f

Κ

1

1

ηΙΓΠΓ Γ=

fif

Pf

f

f

1 1 —t

1

P Μ

r

- 1 1=1W 1=

f

Η

ι,-

j

[

C J

1

ff .

I

t J

L.

>

^

B'

•UJ

[

=t

Fine

f # j • •

ii Μ

C i f l

Y 11 ^ [ - - t : — JT: gp

g »

Ii Μ

-f-8—

1

ι

W

liΜ

Φ"

l

l

.

f fi r

r

-j

•

J

fi ' '

•

·

1

f

^ Γ Ώ γ

f

'

I)

M H - j

Γ— /

U M y

ip F Η ^ LR L-R P M γ

Ρ 'HI' f Μ f ./S

J

1»

^ Γ Π Γ - Τ;--F a rrir LR CJ- ^ ι—ä· «

J

m

ä r r

—Ί 1

—

Jf

~

' f

!

>

1

,

i

Μ —i^

"If

'P

\lU

J = i Ν

f ^ i J

ffitJ

»

•

9

m

M

M

i

r

,

1.

rR

J

1

R

ι

WHAT'LL MRS. GRUNDY SAY? A favorite Comic Song, Sung by Mr. Grimaldi, at the Aquatic Theatre Sadler's Wells, in Pantomime of BANG UP!; or, Harlequin

Prime,

Written by C. Dibdin Junr. Composed by W. Reeve

350

Appendix Β Moderato ' RFRJUJ·

I T Ü L Ρ

» — · — · — τ

IT Ρ

-

mHΒ

RF¥I

•

^

TR « ,J

J ·

••JJJ · •

Li R »··

RRRF Γ »

#

•—

FF

-? 7 F

J I

J I

I 1

'PLF"

J

Μ

Η

Π·

RFT

R Ι! Ι' Τ

h-

Κ K —

i

9—

«

Γ

Γ

L

.

Γ

*

HI) Η

f * h 3

3

Γ

1

R" R

H I A. ^

Ι Ρ

= -1—= N =

*

I*—Γ—Ι»—Ϊ H

J J

ir

1

—I-I

Ί 4. = . Μ- ) . ΓW F¥=I

Γ1

TR

tr

TR

[KIRR

Γ

=FFH

-9-

R

Ι

Pantomime Music

f m

m»

351

fefifel

—

r Γr rΓ

ι .ft. . P .

- f f - »

•

ι·"» ' ' [

Jtö

-η-

J 1 vv If Ώ=±=Φ=·

>

>

>

!*

F Γ

J

Γ ΡΡ

Γ

-ψ

ιΓ Γ

J

—

J) •hM •• m a ί Γ PP

m-m

« . " ι•iJJTl ι n J r r*

>

I

t ϊ

£

Ψ

Ts

——Is

Ί

ft a—

T\

η 0

f—i#r

>

"f=

Spoken

part

•

J) wρft1— f) h *

ΤΏ

7-

r P

e

b .

i>

nJ

•

J—

•

'r τ

r

r

352

Appendix Β

What'll Mrs. Grundy Say? Mrs. Mag Mantua-Maker Ax'd Ladies to Tea, They came all fig'd out as is Customaree! All talking at once, or as near as may be, With a hurrah whurrah click clack! Fal de ral de ra But all entertaining and innocent chat, Now and then rather can-did when purpose was pat, A little like Scandal but never mind that. Spoken in different voices, Pray ladies is your tea to your liking?—Dear Mrs. Mag you've made mine too sweet.—La, Mem, you're not like Miss Muzzlemump fond of the grocer—aye, and if report speaks true there's no love lost between 'em—he! he! he!—I purtest Miss, you're quite scandalous—pray ladies how long has the invisible girl opened shop?—dear me Mem that's a queer question—I suppose the lady deludes to the adwertisement about inwisible peticoats— Dear me, aye,—Mrs. Roundabout bought one,—she'd no occasion, her peticoats were always inwisible.—Bless me, Mrs. Crump you're quite shocking—delicacy I say is the honour of our sect— suppose ve elect that lady of peticoat government—Fye, ladies, if you go on so— Sung What'll Mrs. Grundy say, what'll Mrs. Grundy say, Hurrah whurrah click clack! What'll Mrs. Grundy say. 2 Mr. Buz an old buck had a party to dine, He was famous for giving good venison and wine, 'Twas a gentleman's party about twenty-nine Hurrah, &c Tho' little was spoken while at the repast, The wine on the table bye silence all cast, Talk'd as much as the ladies tho' no quite so fast. Spoken The King in a bumper, gentlemen, says the president, and God bless him!—never sherry while you've such port as this, Mr. Buz —Buz, then for the next toast—Take off your heel taps Mr. Cordovan.—No day-lights, Mr. Putty—Dr. Dump, you Don't take your dose—Lawyer Botherbag, will you charge?—6s.8d. says the law-

Pantomime Music

353

yer, waking from a brown study—Mr. Diddle's toast or sentiment.—"Honest men and pretty women," —Aye that means ourselves and our wives. Speaking of pretty women, what d'ye think of Mrs. Clarke?—Vy I thinks she's let the cat out at both ends of the bag. Sung: "But what'll Mrs. Grundy say?" &c. 3 Miss Scrimp, a staid spinster, her compliments sends, To both Ladies and Gents a long list of her friends, For a sandwich and cards; each invited attends. Hurrah, &c. Ceremonials all over the tables are set, The favorite games are loo, whist, and piquet, And while some cut in others cut out to bet. Spoken Bless me what cards! What news from the continent?—I'm told Buonaparte Has made.—14 kings and as many knaves, Sir—Dear me, Mr. Rasp that's the 13th card—Never mind neighbour Rasp, a baker has a right to 13 to the dozen—I insists upon it we've a right to that odd trick—and if some people a'n't up to an odd trick or two, I don't know what's what—Pray be cool Mr. Cucumber, Miss Bodkin you're a little too sharp—I purtest that Gentleman has provoked—and it's enough to provoke any body to be loo'd every time—You shuffle Pam into your own hand very prettily, Sir—Fie, Mem if you talk about shuffling I must cut, Sung: "Or what'll Mrs. Grundy say?" &c.

TIPPITY WITCHET, A favorite Comic Song, Sung by Mr. Grimaldi, at the Aquatic Theatre Sadlers Wells, in Pantomime of BANG

UP!

or Harlequin Prime Written by C. Dibdin Junr. Composed by W. Reeve.

Pantomime Music

355

Allegro moderate

rι j>

M

r

tsrr

j

ι

d

rfrf-

^

Ε ,

A

>

rf- Γ

f

r

Γ

If'

fC —

Γ

J

J

Γ

1

2

ιr

ι

ΓΊ

-|f

fi.

jt—.

n f1 f ha f

Β

tit

h -

' V J

r =

η

i-l> = rf

Γ

f

*

J 1

μ

J

J

A.

L

A

fc ^ ι - fι - ι M

Ρ ΙΓ

J

b n— HP

7

-

\t_jsif

1Γ

J) J)

J J ι

if

t

iE

r

1

·

Ρ

ir

Τ

_

=»

J

h

J)|.=

ί — 3 — ι 1—. Γ

ρ

z

356

Appendix Β

f f ι * Τ

^ Ρ Ρ Ρi J w>

M l t f

π

η -

J

π c-f

ΙΓΊ

r

rn-i

' j ^ i j •3

' Br >

-- r

. J) ι

>

—' ΐ-Γ r f ^ — =f>= IT '

j y i

r

Γ

d

hjln

m

J

Γ

r

f

π

Η -

-Γ-Γ-

/

•

.

i)

"

fi

'

i J

^ ^

Γ

r Γ C»f ι »——u

- η Π * J r

κ

Γ ·Γ

r ^

• Γ r Γ •r Γ r Γ -j

Γ Γ

Γf r

f

μ 9

£

Pantomime Music

Tippity Witchet Sung:

(Sneeses)

This very Morning handy My malady was such I in my Tea took Brandy And took a Cup too much hiccup hiccup Fol lol de rol lol la! hiccup hiccup Fol lol de rol lol la! But, stop, I mustn't mag hard. My Head aches, if you please, One pinch of Irish blackguard I'll take, to give me ease, tish-u tish-u tol lol de rol lol la! tish-u tish-u tol lol de rol lol la!

I ν J>]

J)J

tish-u

1

tish-u

Now I'm quite drowzy growing,

(Yawns)

For this very morn. I rose when cock was crowing Excuse me if I yawn. yawaw aw yawaw aw tol lol de rol lol la! yawaw aw yawaw aw tol lol de rol lol la!

\p j \P j I yaw aw

(Laughs)

aw

yaw

aw

aw

I'm not in mood for crying, Care's a silly calf, If to get fat you're trying, The only way's to laugh. ha ha ha ha ha ha tol lol de rol lol la! ha ha ha ha ha ha tol lol de rol lol la!

i n ha

ι i ha

ha

n ι ι ha

ha

ha

357

Mr. Grig and Miss Snap A Favorite Comic Song, sung by Mr. Grimaldi, in Harlequin and Blue Beard, at Sadler's Wells Theatre, Written by C. Dibdin, Junr. Composed by W. Reeve

Pantomime Music Allegretto

(p r

ΙΓΓΓΡ if

-r^f

y

Η t-7-1 --I— m

W ? 1i

t f l H >r — l-f· - - » b» 1

If

JJL·]

r f r r j

1 J-·

*=1 I

359

—F3

*—

#-

»

^ - f f - Φ= ——j—

•

=3= J> .Μ ρ

ψ=

r

r

r •

·

r ·

£

L_J

? Λ Ρ β

360

Appendix Β =ψ

7

= Φ

m

fH

•

1

|

Ρ

* f il

IM /SN

«Ρ

Ms

ν ν y η

f

9 9 f l

Έ—r—F—

r 1

-I CJ

Γ1 /Ts r* ι ., 1

/T\ -1

τ

a

-Mr Μ Λ Γ

j

J

J

I

u

?*

l·

M=i

-J-4 -££fH

3

ä^

η ·Ε Ρ a

d

Γ Γ r l·

1

— — J These bars repeated at the last verse

J

Pantomime Music

Mr. Grig and Miss Snap There was one Mister Grig Wore a cauliflower wig, And a wooing he went with his set O' toes, To one Miss Sukey Snap, Who wore a high cawl cap, And was monstrously fond of pigs pettitoes, Week! Week! Week! Week! Toi de rol de ra. In her favor to get He sent her a set, And to ax him to sup with Miss Snap Betty goes And likewise to bespeak Some nice bubble and squeak For he lov'd it as well as she lov'd Pettitoes Week! Week! Toi de rol. Mrs. Betty for fun Ere to sup they begun Sneezing powder to mix with the pepper chose. Mr. Grig was caught and sneez'd Saying Chih! I hope you're pleas'd With the Chih! with the Chih! with the pettitoes Chih! Chih! Week! Week! Toi de rol. I vow Sir says she Nothing better can be Than Chih! Chih! He, he, he! Betty goes How's the bubble sir and squeak? He for sneezing coudn't speak Till he sneez'd off his Wig among the pettitoes Chih! Chih! Toi de rol. Sneezing, Nodding, went Miss Snap Till the candle caught her cap And to put out the flame Water Betty throws In vain, till Mr. Grig On her noddl clapp'd his wig Which was soak'd in the gravy of the pettitoes Week! Week! Toi de rol.

362

Appendix Β

Thus poor Mr. Grig Spoil'd his Cauliflower wig And Miss Snap lost her cap what a set o' woes For the house dog in the freak Bolted bubble and squeak And Puss ran away with the pettitoes.

V i

r I H ' J ιj r Ι j r I V - J H J

Mieaw! mieaw. Bow wow wow!

Chih! Chih! Week! Week!

Toi

de rol

de

ra

Note on Pantomime Sources Pantomimes Cited Notes Index of Pantomimes and Other Entertainments General Index

Note on Pantomime Sources

Comparatively little pantomime memorabilia survive from the period 1806-1836. It is of some importance, therefore, to describe the materials we have remaining to us for the reconstruction of pantomime, and to weigh their reliability. The basic source is the pantomime libretto or script, which may exist in one or more of three forms. The form most common between 1806 and 1820 and most useful to the student is the booklet of "Songs, Choruses, Recitations, together with a description of the Scenes." These booklets, ranging from twenty to forty quarto pages, were printed at the order of the theatre for sale in theatres at the time of performance, for 10d., later 6d. when advertisements were included. These booklets met the customary need for a souvenir program listing the actors and their roles and, quite important to the pantomime audience, they contained the "succession" and descriptions of the scenery for the twenty-odd scenes. With such a booklet, someone who had seen the pantomime and who could recall the music might reconstruct the pantomime, describing the activity and singing the airs for his own or others' pleasure. Rarely, though, can a pantomime be thoroughly reconstructed from the books of the songs alone, for they are not complete scripts of the pantomime. Most of them, following the dramatis personae, give the recitatives or dialogue, songs and choruses of the pantomime's opening and transformation scene, but merely list scene descriptions for the harlequinade, each with an oblique or punning reference to the comic business of the scene. These libretti do include all songs, and there may be as many as half a dozen; but only in a very few instances does the printed booklet describe harlequinade comic business with any thoroughness. Much of the business of the harlequinade can, however, be reconstructed from reviews and prints. After 1820, when the scenic diorama became a fixture of the pantomime, the diorama was occasionally reproduced in miniature and appended to the booklet. Printed booklets are relatively abundant in the period 1806-1836. Only a few pantomimes appeared in print before 1806, and certainly the few printed libretti extant provide no more than a tenuous notion of pantomime in the late eighteenth century and the first five years of the nineteenth century. Grimaldi's influence on the structure and content of the pantomime and the increased popularity of the pantomime when he was active account for the great number of printed libretti, in fact all pantomime memorabilia, to survive. In like manner, the number of printed

366

Note on Pantomime Sources

pantomimes began to drop after 1828, the year of Grimaldi's formal retirement. Although pantomimes continued to be performed, I have been unable to find any printed libretti for the years between 1838 and 1847, nor can I account for this shortage. Pantomimes from 1848 to the end of the century are plentiful. Of almost equal value, but in somewhat shorter supply, are pantomime manuscripts. These are to be found exclusively in two collections, the Larpent Collection of the Henry E. Huntington Library and the Lord Chamberlain's Collection in the British Museum. The Larpent Collection is a considerable body of plays in manuscript sent by theatre managers to John Larpent, Examiner of Plays from 1778 to 1824, which instead of placing in the official archives of the Lord Chamberlain, he kept for his own use. The Lord Chamberlain's Collection begins at the time of Larpent's death in 1824 and continues to the end of the century. Pantomime manuscripts in both collections are principally those pieces intended for performance at the two Patent houses, although there are a few libretti for the Lyceum, Adelphi, Olympic, and Surrey theatres. The irregularity with which the Minor theatres submitted manuscripts reflects the enduring confusion as to the Lord Chamberlain's jurisdiction over theatres outside the City of London boundaries. It is impossible to tell from the small accumulation of manuscripts whether the Lord Chamberlain occasionally demanded scripts from the Minors or whether managers at these theatres relied on the approval of the Lord Chamberlain to answer the city and suburban magistrates who from time to time questioned the legality of the Minors to give performances. There are disparities between the printed libretti and the manuscripts submitted for approval by Drury Lane and Covent Garden. The Covent Garden manuscripts are almost as complete as the printed libretti sold in the theatres, although they may omit scene descriptions. The advantage of these manuscripts over their printed counterparts is the inclusion of encore material normally omitted in print. The Drury Lane manuscripts are the more valuable. These are complete to the point of outlining comic business, scene descriptions, and occasionally details of trick construction. It is regrettable that Covent Garden was not meticulous in the preparation of its manuscripts, for it was there and at Sadler's Wells that Grimaldi performed. The third variant of the pantomime libretto is what might be called a narrative miniature. These versions are found in such magazines as the Theatrical Inquisitor and the Theatrical Observer and in Dramatic Tales and Romances: Pantomimes (London, 1833), an isolated volume of literary hackwork from the 1832 pantomime season. In these reasonably welldetailed prose descriptions are substituted for the lyrics and recitatives of the opening. Some of the harlequinade scenes are described with similar accuracy, and others appear as they were obviously described in the theatre's printed booklet. Sometimes the numbering of scenes in

Note on Pantomime Sources

367

the narrative versions differs from that in the printed libretti. The playbill has been of inestimable value in answering many questions about the pantomime. Of all pantomime memorabilia it is the most ubiquitous. In the absence of other sources, the playbills identify those responsible for the words, music, and choreography. They list the dramatis personae and "The Order and Succession of the Scenery," frequently with the name of the artist following the description of the scenery. These playbills are especially valuable in fleshing out the skeletons of the Covent Garden manuscripts. By comparing playbills issued at different times in the run of the piece it is possible to determine when scenes have been added or deleted, or when their order was rearranged. Next to the pantomime libretto, the playbill is the surest indication of a pantomime's structure. Other useful source materials are the numerous theatrical prints, reviews, theatrical memoirs, and previous studies of the pantomime. Of the prints, two kinds are useful: the first kind illustrates some moment in a pantomime that particularly delighted pantomime audiences, a rare touch of satire or pantomime wit. Prints of this sort were struck from the beginning of the nineteenth century and are especially helpful in reconstructing pantomimes through 1812. The vogue for these prints thereafter faded, and the few struck after that date are inferior in workmanship. Fortunately a second kind of print, the "juvenile drama," "toy theatre," or "penny-plain, twopence-colored" sheet became popular about 1809 and remained profitable to the printers through 1836. Printers engaged artists to attend performances at theatres and to sketch the action of the play, reproducing the actors' gestures, costumes, and, whenever possible, impressions of the scenery. These sketches were reduced to groups of individual figures or illustrations of the scenery engraved on numbered plates identifying the piece in which the characters or the scenery were to be found. Printers and toy shops sold the sets of images at the price of one penny a sheet, or twopence if the sheet were hand colored by a watercolorist in the employ of the printer. The customer could also buy an abbreviated and highly simplified version of the playscript. The illustrations, when mounted on stiff cardboard and trimmed, together with the script, were used in parlor entertainments, the play or pantomime restaged for family amusement. The toy theatre scripts of the pantomimes are not sufficiently reliable to have been consulted. They do not follow the original sequence of scenes of the full-scale pantomimes, and many scenes are abbreviated or missing. Nor are the reproductions of moving scenery or comic trickwork for the miniature stages of much help. Again, as with the libretti, the operation of the trickwork is oversimplified past accuracy, especially as many original tricks required "rise and sink" machinery beneath the stage floors, and this machinery cannot be approximated in the toy theatres. However, the illustrations of trickwork are useful for identifying the

368

Note on Pantomime Sources

topics that arrangers introduced to the pantomimes for satirical jibes. The settings that do not call for trickwork are likely to be accurate reproductions of full-scale scenes. Of considerable use are the toy theatre "four sheets" or "six sheets" or the occasional single character sheet that illustrate actors costumed for their roles. These sheets reproduce with considerable fidelity the cut and appearance of the costumes worn. The hand coloring, however, is unreliable and inconsistent from print to print, as the paints were not always applied in accordance with the printer's or artist's instructions. The colorists are consistent only in painting Lover's or Dandy Lover's coat: it is always a bright green. Some of the six and four sheets are enlivened by a small cartouche or vignette containing a sketch of an amusing scene or effective bit of business. Pantomime reviews are uneven both in number and quality. The dramatic magazines reviewed pantomimes regularly, but the reviewer's task was often confused with that of press agent, and many reviews, especially in the earlier part of the period, were puffs rather than effective criticism. Any critical comment on the pantomime tends to be concentrated on the effectiveness of scenic changes and tricks which, almost as a matter of tradition, proved refractory on opening night, and on the merits of the performers, without being specific about what dismayed or delighted the critic. Criticism from the Times is of a different sort. Early in the period pantomimes were beneath the notice of this newspaper, but the artistry of Grimaldi in partnership with the Covent Garden arranger Charles Farley inspired a change of attitude. The Times's criticism grew longer and more perceptive as the years passed. An unidentified Times critic, writing in the mid-1820's, sensed that the pantomime had reached its highest point when Grimaldi performed, and recognizing a progressive deterioration, he attempted to explain what made pantomime an art, what made if funny, where its satire lay. Reviews from the Times provided the fullest and best descriptions of the capabilities and content of pantomime. Theatrical memoirs are useful in determining circumstances in the creation and production of certain pieces and contain some of the few generalizations on the early pantomime. Those by J. R. Planche and Thomas Dibdin are well enough known to make comment unnecessary, but the memoirs , of Charles Dibdin, the younger, elder brother to Thomas, only recently available to scholars, are superior in description and detail to those of Planche and Thomas Dibdin. Charles Dibdin's accounts of the operations of the Minor theatres, his reasons for writing certain pantomimes, his descriptions of audiences, performers, and activities of his day greatly augment our knowledge.

Pantomimes Cited Extant pantomimes used in this study are listed below in chronological order. Following the title are the theatre where performed, date of first performance, author or arranger if known, and the location of the libretto in either or both printed "Book of Songs" or Examiner of Plays' manuscript. Abbreviations Manuscript Collections LA

Larpent Collection, Henry E. Huntington Library, San Marino, California

LC

Lord Chamberlain's Collection, British Museum Collections of Printed Libretti

BM

British Museum

Chi.

University of Chicago Library

Ent.

Enthoven Collection, Victoria and Albert Museum

Fin.

Finsbury Public Library, London Borough of Islington

HTC

Harvard Theatre Collection

KD

Kemble-Devonshire Collection, Henry E. Huntington Library

New. Newberry Library, Chicago 1805 Harlequin, Perizade, and the Talking Bird; Sadler's Wells; April 15; Charles Dibdin, Jr.; Ent. Harlequin's Magnet; or, The Scandinavian Sorcerer; Covent Garden; December 30; Thomas J. Dibdin; BM, LA 1468. 1806 Harlequin and the Water Kelpe; Sadler's Wells; April 14; Charles Dibdin, Jr.; Ent. Harlequin and Mother Goose; or, The Golden Egg; Covent Garden; December 29; Thomas J. Dibdin; Ent., HTC.

370

Pantomimes Cited

1807 Harlequin in his Element; or, Fire, Water, Earth, and Air; Covent Garden; December 26; Thomas J. Dibdin; Ent., HTC, KD. Furibond; or, Harlequin Negro; Drury Lane; December 28; anon.; HTC. Kelaun and Guzzarat; or, Harlequin in Asia; Royalty; December; J. F. Roberts; HTC. 1808 Thirty Thousand; or, Harlequin's Lottery; Sadler's Wells; April 18; Charles Dibdin, Jr.; BM. Harlequin Highflyer; or, Off She Goes; Sadler's Wells; July 4; Charles Dibdin, Jr.; Ent. 1809 Fashion's Fools; or, Aquatic Dibdin, Jr.; BM.

Harlequin;

Sadler's Wells; July 3; Charles

Jack the Giant Killer; Lyceum; August 13; anon.; LA 1587. 1810 Harlequin and Moore's Almanack; or, The Astrologer; Sadler's Wells; April 23; Charles Dibdin, Jr.; BM, Ent., New. Bang-Up! or, Harlequin Prime; Sadler's Wells; July 23; Charles Dibdin, Jr.; BM. The Turret Demon; or, Harlequin and Flora; Olympic Pavilion; October 10; O. Barrett; LA 1640. Harlequin's Salutation to John Bull, Paddy Bull, Sandy Bull and Taffy Bull; Olympic Pavilion; December 17; anon.; LA 1647. Harlequin and Asmodeus; or, Cupid on Crutches; Covent Garden; December 26; Charles Farley; KD, Larpent ms. as Harlequin Zambullo; or, The Devil on Two Sticks, LA 1651. 1811 Harlequin and Padmanaba; or, The Golden Fish; Covent Garden; December 26; Charles Farley; LA 1701. The White Cat; or, Harlequin in Fairy Wood; Lyceum (Drury Lane company); December 26; anon.; LA 1699.

Pantomimes Cited

371

1812 Whang-Fong; or, The Clown of China; Sadler's Wells; May 11; Charles Dibdin, Jr.; Fin. Jack and Jill; or, The Clown's Disasters; Lyceum; July 30; anon.; LA 1728. Fairlop Fair; or, The Genie of the Oak; Sadler's Wells; September 7; Charles Dibdin, Jr.; Ent. Harlequin and the Red Dwarf; or, The Adamant Rock; Covent Garden; December 26; Charles Farley; BM, LA 1749. Harlequin and Humpo; or, Columbine by Candlelight; Drury Lane; December 26; Thomas J. Dibdin; BM, LA 1750.

1813 London; or, Harlequin and Time; Sadler's Wells; April 19; Charles Dibdin, Jr.; author's collection. The Brachman; or, The Oriental Harlequin; Sadler's Wells; June 28; Charles Dibdin, Jr.; Fin. Harlequin and the Swans; or, The Bath of Beauty; Covent Garden; December 27; Charles Farley; BM, LA 1791. Harlequin Harper; or, A Jump from Japan; Drury Lane; December 27; Thomas J. Dibdin; BM, Larpent ms. as Harlequin Harmonist; or, A Trip to Japan; LA 1790.

1814 Harlequin Whittington; or, Lord Mayor of London; Covent Garden; December 26; Charles Farley; LA 1835. The Valley of Diamonds; or, Harlequin Sinbad; Drury Lane; December 26; anon.; LA 1837.

1815 Broad Grins; or, Harlequin Mag and Harlequin Tag; Olympic; February 11; Thomas J. Dibdin; LA 1844. The Mermaid; or, Harlequin Pearl Diver! Sadler's Wells; March 27; Charles Dibdin, Jr.; Ent. Harlequin and Fortunio; or, Shing-Moo December 26; Charles Farley; KD.

and Thun-Ton;

Covent Garden;

372

Pantomimes Cited

Harlequin and Fancy; or, The Poet's Last Shilling; Drury Lane; December 26; Thomas J. Dibdin; LA 1896. Harlequin's Hour Glass; or, Time Works Wonders; Olympic; December 26 or January 8, 1816; anon.; LA 1897. 1816 Harlequin and the Sylph of the Oak; or, The Blind Beggar of Bethnal Covent Garden; December 26; Charles Farley; KD, LA 1946.

Green;

Harlequin Horner; or, The Christmas Pie; Drury Lane; December 26; anon.; LA 1947. 1817 Harlequin Gulliver; or, The Flying Island; Covent Garden; December 26; Charles Farley; KD, LA 2003. The Feast of the Statue; or, Harlequin Libertine; Drury Lane; December 26; anon.; Larpent ms. as Harlequin Libertine, LA 2004. 1818 Harlequin Munchausen; or, The Fountain of Love; Covent Garden; December 26; Charles Farley; HTC. Harlequin and the Dandy Club; Drury Lane; December 26; Robert Bradbury; KD, LA 2064. Rodolph the Wolf; or, Columbine Red Riding Hood; Olympic; December 26; J. R. Planche; LA 2065. 1819 The Silver Arrow; or, Harlequin and the Fairy Pari Banon; Drury Lane; January 6; anon.; LA 2066 (it replaced Harlequin and the Dandy Club, see under 1818). Harlequin and Don Quixote; or, Sancho Panza in his Glory!!! Covent Garden; December 27; Charles Farley; LA 2132. Jack and the Beanstalk; or, Harlequin and the Ogre; Drury Lane; December 27; anon.; LA 2133. 1820 Harlequin and Cinderella; or, The Little Glass Slipper; Covent Garden; April 3; Charles Farley; LA 2144. Harlequin and Friar Bacon; or, The Brazen Head; Covent Garden; December 26; Charles Farley; HTC.

Pantomimes Cited

373

The North West Passage; or, Harlequin Esquimaux; Drury Lane; December 26; Charles Dibdin, Jr.; LA 2190. Harlequin Tom, The Piper's Son Stole a Pig and Away he Ran; Olympic; December 26; anon.; LA 2195. Doctor Syntax; or, Harlequin Planche; KD, LA 2191.

in London; Adelphi; December 26; J. R.

1821 Harlequin and Mother Bunch; or, The Yellow Dwarf; Covent Garden; December 26; Charles Farley; HTC. The House that Jack Built; or, Harlequin Tattered and Torn; Olympic; December 26; George Fox; LA 2269. Beauty and the Beast; or, Harlequin and the Magic Rose; Adelphi; December 26; anon.; LA 2270. 1822 Harlequin Achilles; or, A Trip to Hyde Park; Royal Amphitheatre; November 11; Charles Dibdin, Jr.; BM. Harlequin and the Ogress; or, The Sleeping Beauty of the Wood; Covent Garden; December 26; Charles Farley; HTC. Gog and Magog; or, Harlequin Antiquary; Thomas J. Dibdin; LA 2326.

Drury Lane; December 26;

Harlequin's Holy day; or, Who Killed the Dog; Adelphi; December 26; anon.; Larpent ms. as Who Kill'd the Dog; or, Harlequin's Triumph, LA 2325. 1823 Harlequin and Poor Robin; or, The House that Jack Built; Covent Garden; December 26; Charles Farley; HTC. Harlequin and the Flying Chest; or, Malek and the Princess Schirine; Drury Lane; December 26; William Barrymore; KD. Doctor Faustus and the Black Demon; or, The Seven Fairies of the Grottos; Adelphi; December 26; anon.; LA 2392. 1824 Monkey Island; or, Harlequin and the Loadstone Rock; Lyceum; July 3; anon.; LC. Harlequin and the Dragon of Wantley; or, More of More Hall; Covent Garden; December 27; Charles Farley; KD, LC.

374

Pantomimes Cited

Harlequin and the Talking Bird, the Singing Tree and the Golden Waters; Drury Lane; December 27; anon.; LC ms. as The Golden Waters; or, Harlequin and the Talking Bird and the Singing Tree. Mother Red-Cap; or, Harlequin ber 27; anon.; LC.

and the Fairies of the Rose; Adelphi; Decem-

1825 Harlequin and the Magic Rose; or, Beauty and the Beast; Covent Garden; December 26; Charles Farley; KD, LC. Harlequin

Jack of All Trades; Drury Lane; December 26; anon.; LC.

Harlequin and Golden Eyes; or, The Goblin Wood; Olympic; December 26; anon.; LC. 1826 Harlequin and Mother Shipton; or, Riquet with the Tuft; Covent Garden; December 26; Charles Farley; BM, LC. The Man in the Moon; or, Harlequin anon.; LC.

Dog-Star;

Drury Lane; December 26;

Harlequin and the Eagle; or, The Man in the Moon and his Wife; Adelphi; December 26; Thomas Crofton Croker; BM, LC ms. as Daniel O'Rourke; or, Harlequin from Kilarney. Aesop's Fables; or, Harlequin from Elysium; Olympic; December 26; anon.; LC ms. as Harlequin from the Shades. 1827 Harlequin and Number Nip; or, The Giant Mountain; cember 26; Charles Farley; LC.

Covent Garden; De-

Harlequin and Cock Robin; or, The Babes in the Wood; Drury Lane; December 26; William Barrymore; LC. Harlequin Demon; anon.; LC.

or, The Moonlight

Enchantress;

Olympic; December 26;

Harlequin and the White Mouse; or, A Frog in an Opera Hat; Adelphi; December 26; J. B. Buckstone (opening), G. H. Younge (harlequinade); HTC, LC. 1828 Harlequin and Little Red Riding Hood; or, The Wizard and the Wolf; Covent Garden; December 26; Charles Farley; HTC, LC.

Pantomimes Cited

375

The Queen Bee; or, Harlequin and the Fairy Hive; Drury Lane, December 26; William Barrymore; LC. The Enchanters;

or, Harlequin

Cymon;

Harlequin and the Magic Marrowbone; December 26; anon.; LC.

Olympic; December 26; anon.; LC. or, Taffy was a Welshman;

Adelphi;

1829 Harlequin and Cock Robin; or, Vulcan and Venus; Covent Garden; December 26; Charles Farley; LC ms. as Harlequin Vulcan and Venus; or, Who Kill'd Cock Robin? Jack in the Box; or, Harlequin and the Princess Lane; December 26; anon.; LC.

of the Hidden Island; Drury

The Polar Star; or, Harlequin King of the Golden Mountain; no record of performance, but submitted by Adelphi management and approved by Examiner of Plays on December 24; LC. 1830 Harlequin Pat and Harlequin Bat; or, The Giant's Causeway; Covent Garden; December 27; Charles Farley; LC ms. as The Giant's Causeway; or, Harlequin Bat. Davy Jones; or, Harlequin and Mother Carey's Chickens; cember 27; William Barrymore; HTC, LC. Grimalkin the Great; or, Harlequin ]. B. Buckstone; LC.

Drury Lane; De-

King of Cats; Adelphi; December 27;

1831 Hop o' my Thumb and his Brothers; or, Harlequin and the Ogre; Covent Garden; December 26; Charles Farley; HTC, LC. Harlequin and Little Thumb; or, The Seven-Leagued December 26; anon.; KD, LC.

Boots;

Drury Lane;

Harlequin and Little Bo-Peep; or, The Old Woman that Lived in a Shoe; Adelphi; December 26; J. B. Buckstone and ? Foster; LC. 1832 Puss in Boots; or, Harlequin and the Miller's Son; Covent Garden; December 26; Charles Farley; HTC, LC ms. as Harlequin and Puss in Boots. Harlequin Traveller; or, The World Inside Out; Drury Lane; December 26; R. B. Peake; HTC, KD, LC ms. as Europe, Asia, Africa, and America; or, Harlequin Mercury.

376

Pantomimes Cited

Harlequin and the King of Clubs; or, The Knave that Stole the Syllabubs; Adelphi; December 26; J. B. Buckstone; HTC, LC ms. as Harlequin and the King of Clubs. Goosey, Goosey Gander; or, Harlequin and the Fairy of My Lady's Royal Pavilion; December 26; anon.; HTC.

Chamber;

Humpty Dumpty; or, Harlequin and the Fairy of the Enchanted Egg; Sadler's Wells; December 26; anon.; HTC. The Valkyrae; or, Harlequin the Patriot Pole and the Maid of Surrey; December 26; anon.; HTC.

Muscovy;

Harlequin and the Royal Ram; or, The Brazen Dragon; Coburg; December 26; anon.; HTC. Harlequin and the Elfin Arrow; or, The Basket Maker Queen's; December 26; anon.; HTC.

and his

Brother;

1833 Old Mother Hubbard and Her Dog; or, Harlequin and the Tales of the Nursery; Covent Garden; December 26; Charles Farley; HTC, LC ms. as Old Mother Hubbard; or, Harlequin and the Magic Pie, or, The Island of Flatheads. Harlequin and Margery Daw; or, The Saucy Slut and the See-Saw; Adelphi; December 26; John Maddison Morton; LC. 1834 Harlequin and Queen Mab; or, The Three Glass Distaffs; Covent Garden; December 26; Frederic Reynolds; LC ms. as Harlequin and Queen Mab; or, Finetta and the Three Glass Distaffs. Oranges and Lemons; or, Harlequin and the Bells of St. Clements; Adelphi; December 26; R. N. Lee; LC ms. as Bell Pantomime. 1835 Harlequin and Guy Fawkes; or, The Fifth of November; December 26; G. H. Younge; HTC, LC.

Covent Garden;

Ride A Cock Horse; or, Harlequin and the Lady with Bells on Her Toes; Lyceum; December 26; J. H. Webb; LC ms. as Ride Α-Cock Horse to Banbury Cross. 1836 Harlequin and George Barnwell; or, The London 'Prentice; Covent Garden; December 26; G. H. Younge; Chi., LC.

Pantomimes Cited

377

Harlequin and Old Gammer Gurton; or, The Lost Needle; Drury Lane; December 26; Frederick Reynolds; Garrick Club. Cowardy, Cowardy, Custard; or, Harlequin Jim Crow and the Magic Mustard Pot; Adelphi; December 26; anon.; LC.

Notes

I. Harlequin Everywhere 1. Boz (Charles Dickens), The Memoirs of Joseph Grimaldi, with Notes and Additions, rev. Charles Whitehead (London, 1860), p. 11. 2. Ifan Kyrle Fletcher, "Italian Comedians in England in the Seventeenth Century," Theatre Notebook, VII (1953), 86-91. 3. William Van Lennep, ed., The London Stage, 1660-1800, pt. I: 16601700 (Carbondale, 111.: Southern Illinois University Press, 1963), p. 342. 4. Emmet Avery, ed., The London Stage, 1660-1800, pt. II: 1700-1729 [2 vols.] (Carbondale, 111.: Southern Illinois University Press, 1960), p. 439. 5. Ibid., p. 475. 6. Ibid., p. 751. 7. Thelma Niklaus, Harlequin, or The Rise and Fall of a Bergamask Rogue (London: Bodley Head, 1956), p. 141. 8. The exception to this rule was when Boxing Day fell on a Sunday, when pantomimes were opened on December 27. 9. For a more thorough discussion of the olio, see my "The Pantomime Olio and Other Pantomime Variants," Theatre Notebook, XIX (1965), 22-28. See also note 12, p. 384. 10. William Makepeace Thackeray, The Four Georges: Sketches of Manners, Morals, and Court Life (New York: E. P. Dutton, 1960), pp. 75-76. 11. Boz, Memoirs of Grimaldi, p. 216. 12. Ibid., pp. 179-181. 13. John Ashton, English Caricature and Satire on Napoleon I (London, 1884), I, 200-201. 14. General Platoff was a Cossack chieftain who figured prominently in the defeat of Napoleon's plans to subdue Russia. His portrait may be seen in the Waterloo Chamber at Windsor Castle. Popular myth assigned this genuine Cossack a fictitious daughter who was to be given with a large dowry to the soldier bringing him Napoleon's head. 15. Thackeray, The Four Georges, pp. 107-108. 16. Playbills for Covent Garden, February 5,1819, and January 19,1814. 17. The crush so jocularly discussed in this notice could have calamitous consequences. At the first performance of the younger Charles Dibbin's The Talking Bird at Sadler's Wells, April 12,1819, a sixteen-year-old boy fell between the benches and was trampled to death by a crowd rush-

380

Notes to Pages 17-43

ing for seats. Several others were thrown from the balcony into the pit with less severe results. Only Grimaldi's appeal for order averted further injuries. 18. James Robinson Planche, The Recollections of ]. R. Planchi (London, 1872), I, 52.

II. The Structures of Pantomime, 1806-1836 1. Watson Nicholson, The Struggle for a Free Stage in London (Boston and New York, Archibald Constable, 1906). 2. Ibid,, p. 282. 3. Ibid., p. 283. 4. Further discussion of the complex question of spoken dialogue and accompanied recitative may be found in Allardyce Nicoll, Early Nineteenth Century Drama, 1800-1850, vol. IV of A History of English Drama, 1660-1900 (Cambridge, Eng.: Cambridge University Press, 1955), pp. 138-141. 5. Allardyce Nicholl, The Development of the Theatre (London: G. G. Harrap, 1937), p. 187. 6. A habitual misquotation of "inexplicable dumb-shows and noise" (Hamlet, III, iii). 7. Theatrical Inquisitor and Monthly Mirror, July 1816. 8. Grimaldi was regularly engaged for winter seasons at Covent Garden and performed from Easter through August at Sadler's Wells. Bologna's engagements at Covent Garden were less frequent, particularly from 1816 on, when Thomas Ellar became the established Harlequin at Covent Garden. Boz in the Memoirs furnishes anecdotes of Grimaldi's exertions when the Sadler's Wells and Covent Garden seasons overlapped and Grimaldi was obliged to race by coach or, on one occasion, by foot between theatres. 9. Grimaldi also preferred Barnes's interpretation of Pantaloon to that of Blanchard. On April 12, 1832, Grimaldi wrote to Charles Farley on behalf of Mr. Morton, a performer at Sadler's Wells "who has been in our Establishment some time, but as Economy is now the order of the day, and as we have another in his line of Acting he has been dismissed. He is a very usefull young man, can assist in Combats—Good as a Figure Dancer—small Speaking parts—and above all a Good Pantaloon—he has made Barnes his model and if Barnes was to act one Night and Mr. Morton the next in the same Pantomime it might puzzle you which to admire most thought first impressions mostly predominate the only fault I have to find in him is, that he is forgetting Barnes's style and in some measure is aiming at Blanchard's extravagant unnatural ways which in my opinion he had better not persevere in, but if he was only one Season again where Barnes is concerned he would once more imbibe those fine touches of

Notes to Pages 49-94

381

Nature which only Barnes at present is in possession of." The letter is in the Kay Robertson Collection, London. 10. There are two notable exceptions to this dearth: V. C. ClintonBaddeley, The Burlesque Tradition in the English Theatre after 1660 (London: Methuen, 1952) and Stanley Wells, "Shakespeare in Planche's Extravaganzas," Shakespeare Survey 16 (Birmingham: Cambridge University Press, 1963). 11. Mary Dorothy George, Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires in the British Museum (London: Trustees of the British Museum, 1947-1954), VIII (1801-1810), IX (1811-1819), X (1820-1827), XI (1828-1832). 12. Lord Byron, speech in the House of Lords upon the second reading of the work-frame bill, February 27,1812. He was one of the few to oppose the death penalty for the willful destruction of stocking-frames. 13. R. J. White, Waterloo to Peterloo (London: William Heinemann, 1963), p. 36. 14. Theatrical Observer, December 29, 1823. 15. The proscenium opening of Drury Lane was thirty-three feet across. Nicoll, Development of the Theatre, p. 185.

III. Theatrical Borrowings, Theatrical Satire 1. Richard Findlater, Grimaldi, King of Clowns (London: MacGibbon and Kee, 1955), pp. 55-56. 2. Charles Dibdin, Jr., Memoirs of Charles Dibdin the Younger, Dramatist and Upward of Thirty Years Manager of Minor Theatres, ed. George Speaight (London: Society for Theatre Research, 1956), p. 102. 3. Rev. John Genest, Some Account of the English Stage (Bath, 1832) VII, 232. 4. Bertrand Evans, Gothic Drama from Walpole to Shelley (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1947), p. 10. 5. Ibid., p. 56. 6. The pantomime dark scene is not to be confused with the "Italian night scene" briefly popular in London in the first quarter of the eighteenth century. The Italian night scene, clearly a precursor of harlequinade knockabout, was the term given to narrative dances taken from the commedia dell' arte. Most were set in a tavern or familiar urban resort and presented a comic misunderstanding and scuffle between the commedia characters, often Scaramouche, Harlequin, and Punch, and such artisans and citizens as "a Cooper, his wife, and his Man." Avery in The London Stage, pt. II, vol. I, lists many Italian night scenes performed at Drury Lane and Lincoln's Inn Fields between 1709 and 1726. 7. Evans, Gothic Drama, p. 239. 8. Molly N. Ramshaw, "Jump Jim Crow! A Biographical Sketch of Thomas D. Rice (1808-1860)," Theatre Annual, XVII (1956), 36-47.

382

Notes to Pages 95-114

9. Charles Rice, The London Theatres in the Eighteen-Thirties, ed. Arthur Colby Sprague and Bertram Shuttleworth (London: Society for Theatre Research, 1950), p. 14. 10. Charles Dibdin, Jr., Memoirs, pp. 112-113. 11. There is some confusion about what Rowlandson's illustration of Sadler's Wells represents. M. W. Disher, in Clowns and Pantomimes (London: Constable, 1925; opposite p. 273) identifies the picture with Harlequin Neptune, staged in 1775, a full twenty-nine years before the tanks were installed at Sadler's Wells. George Speaight, the editor of the younger Charles Dibdin's Memoirs says (p. 113) that the print shows the last scene of Harlequin Brilliant (1815). The subject matter matches Dibdin's account, as it matches a harlequinade scene from Harlequin and Moore's Almanack (1810), but Rowlandson's print was issued in 1809, four years and one year before these pantomimes. The picture in all likelihood shows a pantomime scene, but which pantomime is it? See also Fig. 19. 12. Charles Dibdin, Jr., Memoirs, p. 39. 13. Ibid., pp. 90-91. 14. Thomas J. Dibdin, Reminiscences of Thomas Dibdin (London, 1827), II, 144. 15. Charles Dibdin, Jr., Memoirs, p. 145. IV. The Pantomime Scene 1. Richard Southern, Changeable Scenery: Its Origin and Development in the British Theatre (London: Faber and Faber, 1951), pp. 273-281. 2. Richard Southern, "Trickwork on the English Stage," The Oxford Companion to the Theatre, ed. Phyllis Hartnoll, (London: Oxford University Press, 1957), pp. 800-801. 3. Dibdin assures his reader that "the Tomb Piece . . . will not be 6 feet long." This fact seems unnecessary to mention unless it relates to limited hanging room beneath the grid. We may assume hanging space of approximately eight to ten feet above the lower edges of the borders. 4. Southern, "Trickwork," pp. 800-801. 5. Southern, Changeable Scenery, p. 322. 6. Southern, in Changeable Scenery, commends scenery for the toy theatres, in particular the scene sheets of pantomime tricks, as a source helpful in reconstructing trickwork in this period. There may be some value in these miniature tricks to the extent that they reveal the elaborate folding or hinging of scenery, but I doubt that techniques such as the rise and sink were effectively adapted to the toy stages. Because these stages had inadequate means for removing pieces upward and no means for taking out pieces from beneath the stage, trickwork originally operated by the rise and sink method would have to be redesigned in a toy version. 7. Many varieties of traps survive from pantomimes of the mid and late nineteenth century, and they are still used in modern pantomimes

Notes to Pages 118-182

383

that employ acrobats in a form of comic pursuit called a "dumb-ballet." Dumb-ballets generally use the star trap, vamp[ire] traps, and at least two kinds of pivot traps. Acrobats who use them have told me that "these traps were used by Grimaldi"; however, I find no evidence to support their statements. 8. Boz, Memoirs of Grimaldi, pp. 214-215. 9. Although diorama was the word most often used to advertise and describe the moving backcloth, rival theatres to Drury Lane preferred the terms panorama and cosmorama. 10. Roger Fulford, George IV (New York: Doubleday, 1963), p. 125. 11. This tent was moved to Woolwich and still stands as the Rotunda Museum. It houses a historic collection of arms and memorabilia of the Royal Artillery. 12. The greater number of Grieve family designs are to be found in the collection of the University of London Library. A smaller collection is owned by the Victoria and Albert Museum. 13. This playbill is in the Enthoven Collection, Victoria and Albert Museum. V. Fashions and Foibles 1. Thomas Carlyle, Sartor Resartus: The Life and Opinions of Herr Teüfelsdrockh (New York, 1937), pp. 272-273. 2. Thackeray, The Four Georges, p. 92. 3. Ellen Moers, The Dandy, Brummell to Beerbohm (New York: Viking, 1960), p. 62. 4. Boz, Memoirs of Grimaldi, p. 221. 5. A single exception to this statement may be found in the illustration "Costumes of the Regency Harlequinades" in Disher, Clowns and Pantomimes, opposite p. 294. This is a juvenile drama "six sheet" printed without captions for an unspecified pantomime. The figure in the upper righthand corner is clearly Dandy Lover. Mr. George Speaight has tentatively identified the print as the work of J. Bailey, c. 1830 (personal communication). 6. V. C. Clinton-Baddeley, "Notes and Queries," Theatre Notebook, XX (Autumn 1965), 52. 7. From an unidentified review in the Enthoven Collection, Victoria and Albert Museum. 8. The libretto of this pantomime is lost, but the lyrics of the song were printed with an illustration of Grimaldi performing it while astride an ass. Kay Robertson Collection, London. 9. The account of Robert Bradbury's impertinences before the Drury Lane curtain is in all likelihood the incident remembered by Grimaldi and placed in the Memoirs, p. 152, between 1807 and 1808. Boz furnishes, at this point, a comparison between Bradbury and Grimaldi:

384

Notes to Pages 184-209

This Bradbury was a clever actor in his way, and a very good Clown, but of so different a character from Grimaldi, that it was hardly fair to either, to attempt instituting a comparison between them. He [Bradbury] was a tumbling Clown rather than a humorous one, and would perform many wonderful and dangerous feats. He would jump from the flies—that is, from the curtains above the stage—down to the stage itself, and do many other things equally surprising. To enable himself to go through these performances without danger, he always occupied a long time in dressing for the part, and adjusting no fewer than nine strong pads about his person, in such a manner as to protect those parts of his frame which were the most liable to injury;—wearing one on the head, one round the shoulders, one round the hips, two on the elbows, two on the knees, and two in the heels of his shoes. Thus armed, he would proceed to throw and knock himself about in a manner which, to those unacquainted with his precautions, appeared to indicate an intense anxiety to meet with some severe, if not fatal accident. Grimaldi, on the contrary, never wore any padding in his life; nor did he attempt any of the great exploits which distinguished Bradbury. His Clown was of a much more composed and subdued temperament, although much more comical and amusing . . . Bradbury was very original withal, and copied no one; for he had struck out a peculiar line for himself, and never departed from it." 10. European Magazine, January 1813. 11. Charles Dibdin, Jr., Memoirs, p. 103. 12. The typical pantomime olio was composed of an opening from a favorite pantomime and a harlequinade assembled from the most popular scenes in other well-received pantomimes. Olios were regularly used by pantomimists on their provincial tours and in London on the occasions of their benefits. Thus, when Bologna and Grimaldi engaged Covent Garden for their benefit night on June 29,1814, they enticed a capacity audience with an olio made up from the opening of Harlequin and Mother Goose (1806); a brief harlequinade containing the bullfight scene from Harlequin and Asmodeus (181 ) and the dog cart from Bang-Up! (1810) and Harlequin and Padmanaba (1811); a duet between Grimaldi and "an oyster cross'd in love" and a final scene, the dissection of Harlequin, both from Harlequin and the Swans (1813).

VI. Aspects of the Economy 1. Nicoll, Early Nineteenth Century Drama, pp. 14-15. 2. Charles Dibdin, Jr., Memoirs, pp. 39-40. 3. The Oxford Companion to the Theatre, p. 466, states that the Lyceum in 1815 became the first London theatre to light its auditorium with gas. Although there is no stage direction in the manuscript of Broad Grins to

Notes to Pages 219-247

385

indicate that the gas lights are turned on, it is possible that this scene may document an early use of gas light on the stage. 4. Although no libretto exists for Harlequin Whittington this and subsequent references to it are inferred from the review in the Times, December 28,1835. 5. Rice, The London Theatre, p. 11. 6. Ibid., p. 14. 7. Charles Dibdin, Jr., Memoirs, p. 101. 8. This lottery puff is in the Kay Robertson Collection, London. 9. It is tempting in this day of television rating services and audience surveys to estimate the number of persons who witnessed these dramatic advertisements and paid for the privilege of doing so. It is difficult to calculate the actual numbers who saw a pantomime during its run, let alone the number who were sufficiently literate to read the shop signs painted on flats and backcloths. It is known, however, that Covent Garden pantomimes in which Grimaldi appeared enjoyed runs of forty or more performances, and if the house were nearly filled to its estimated capacity of 3,000 persons for every performance through the thirty-fifth, it is likely that 105,000 persons, or approximately one eighth of London's population in 1815 would have seen the harlequinade. 10. The exact nature of these transactions is uncertain, but continuation of this practice up to the present day provides evidence that, in the early nineteenth century as now, individual performers and perhaps scenepainters and theatre managers were at liberty to make private arrangements with sponsoring firms. Theatre treasuries profited less than individual members of the theatre companies. This privilege is one of the perquisites that starring pantomimists continue to expect and to receive. Payment is more often in the product mentioned onstage than in money. I have observed pantomimists develop largely irrelevant business in order to mention a product in which they have some interest, and I have also witnessed in rehearsals comics trading the privilege to mention one brand name for the right to advertise another that they desire more. VII. Censorship and Political Expression 1. Richard Findlater, Banned! A Review of Theatrical Censorship in Britain, (London: MacGibbon and Kee, 1967), p. 53. 2. Thomas J. Dibdin, Reminiscences, II, 15. 3. Findlater, Banned! pp. 46-68. 4. This letter is with the manuscript of The House that Jack Built, LA 2269, Larpent Collection, Henry E. Huntington Library. 5. Planche, Recollections, II, 109-110. 6. Charles Dibdin, Jr., Memoirs, p. 124.

386

Notes to Pages 256-326

7. Charles Farley, Harlequin Pat and Harlequin Bat; or, The Giant's Causeway, (Covent Garden, December 27,1830), sc. 1-8. The pantomime played only four performances with this title. The Dramatic Magazine, February 1831, explained the reasons: "Mr. Power [who played Harlequin Pat] being disgusted with his character, gave it up, and the pantomime was therefore changed from Pat to Fat. Harlequin Fat, Mr. Keeley." No libretto of the revised opening survives. 8. Leigh Hunt, Tatler, December 28, 1831. VIII. War and Empire 1. Findlater, Grimaldi, p. 135. 2. Francis Grose, A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, 4th ed. (London, 1811). 3. Findlater, Grimaldi, p. 135. 4. Boz, Memoirs of Grimaldi, p. 224. There is no indication that Stanfield went to China. It is likely that his designs were taken from a standard source, perhaps Chambers, Alexander, or Staunton.

IX. Harlequin Out of Place 1. Andrew Halliday, Comical Fellows; or, The History and Mystery of the Pantomime: With Some Curiosities and Droll Anecdotes Concerning Clown and Pantaloon, Harlequin and Columbine (London, 1863), p. 50. 2. Ibid. 3. This practice, first criticized by Aristophanes in The Wasps, exists to this day. The pantomime comics stop the performance, order the house lights put up, drop their stage characters, and throw bags of sweets into the stalls and upper circle. 4. Planche, Recollections, II, 134-137. 5. Halliday, Comical Fellows, pp. 47-48. 6. The "principal boy" disappeared from London pantomime in the late 1950's to be replaced by young men already famous as pop singers. In the provinces, where tradition dies harder, the principal boy may be seen, but the role is not to be found in a London pantomime. 7. J. Hickory Wood, Dan Leno (London: Methuen, 1905), p. 154. 8. Max Beerbohm, Around Theatres (London: Rupert Hart-Davis, 1930), pp. 349-352. 9. E. L. Blanchard, The Life and Reminiscences of E. L. Blanchard With Notes from the Diary of William Blanchard, ed. Clement Scott and Cecil Howard (London, 1891), pp. 541-542. 10. Ibid., p. 597. 11. These figures are based on index numbers of wholesale prices dur-

Notes to Page 326

387

ing the nineteenth century. From 1820 to 1894 prices declined approximately 72 percent. W. T. Layton, An Introduction to the Study of Prices with Special References to the History of the Nineteenth Century (London: MacMillan, 1912), pp. 69-70. 12. A. E. Wilson, Pantomime Pageant (London: Stanky Paul, 1946), pp. 69-70. 13. Ibid., p. 30. Wilson's figures may be inflated. Richard Findlater informs me that "exaggerated budgets have been a form of publicity" and suggests that the sums may be reduced by at least a third (letter to author, July 30, 1967). A recent example of publicity obtained by exaggerating statistics appeared in the "Show News" column of the London Evening News (December 28, 1968). James Green, writing on Dick Whittington on Ice at Wembley Empire Pool, reported: Before the final performance on March 8 over 250,000 people will have seen the show. When Tom Arnold and Gerald Palmer produce an ice pantomime they work in Cinemascope terms: the largest ice rink, total cast of 180, London's biggest and most expensive (£150,000) show, and 6,000 seats for each performance. The cast. . . have 20,000 square feet of ice for a stage. The rink measures 200 by 85 feet (Wembley soccer pitch is 345 by 225 ft.) and it takes 20 men to look after the ice plant. Where else could a request for 3,000 seats for a firm's outing be considered? The big scene is an exact replica of the Guildhall interior and has cost £30,000. It takes almost as much to dress the cast as to pay them. I reckon the leading girls are on £350-a-week each, while a four man Italian clown act, the Rastellis, split £800 between them. So ice panto simply has to be mass entertainment. Customers arrive in train loads from the West, North, and Midlands, and there's one coach party traveling all night from Newcastle. 14. These sums were reported in an interview with Albert J. Knight, arranger of pantomimes at the London Palladium, in July 1967. I have no reason to believe that Mr. Knight was exaggerating. In 1968 Leslie Macdonnell, a co-producer of Palladium pantomimes, was quoted by James Green in the Evening News (December 14, 1968) as saying that the 1968 pantomime, Jack and the Beanstalk, had cost £75,000 and that three days before its opening performance it had an advance booking of £200,000. Macdonnell claimed that in its sixteen-week run (later extended to twenty weeks), the theatre would accept bookings from "6,000 0[ld] A[ge] P e n sioner] clubs making party bookings" at ten shillings per ticket. I have been unable to verify these figures.

Index of Pantomimes and Other Entertainments

Page references to illustrations are italicized. Aesop's Fables (Harlequin from Shades), 374 Aladdin, 63; later versions, 320 Alchymy, 276, 278, 279 April Fools, 276, 278, 279

the

Babes in the Woods, 320-321 Bang-Up! 97,101,176, 187, 188,276,370, 384nl2; songs from, 349-357 Beauty and the Beast, 373 Bell Pantomime, see Oranges and Lemons Black-Ey'd Susan pantomimes, 76,82-85 Blind Beggar of Bethnal Green, The, see Harlequin and the Sylph of the Oak Bluebeard, parody of, 78 Bondocani, 11, 240 Brachman, The, 86, 121, 371 Broad Grins, 85, 121, 208-209, 231, 291, 371 Caravan, The, 101 Cenerentola, La, 176 Chaos, 111-112, 334-336 Cheats, The, 4 Children in the Wood, The, 315 Cinderella, 316, 320, 324-326 Cowardy, Cowardy, Custard, 94, 377 Cupid, 88 Daniel O'Rourke, see Harlequin and the Eagle Davy Jones, 67, 83-85,134, 226-227, 251, 375 Davy Jones' Locker; or, Harlequin and Black Ey'd Susan, 82 Davy Jones's Locker; or, Black Ey'd Susan, 82-83 Dick Whittington, 322 Dick Whittington on Ice, 387nl3 Disputes in China, 296-297

Doctor Faustus, 4 Doctor Faustus and the Black Demon, 121, 299, 373 Doctor Syntax, 125, 373 Don Giovanni, pantomime adaptations of, 62, 79-80, 234 Don Giovanni in London, 63 Douglas, parody of, 78 Dragon of Wantley, The, 315 Dulce Dornum, 179 Enchanters, The, 195-196, 375 Europe, Asia, Africa, and America, Harlequin Traveller

see

Fairlop Fair, 99, 176, 371 Fairy of the North Star, 304-305 Fashion's Fools, 96-98,174-175,185-187, 186, 276, 370 Feast of the Statue, The (Harlequin Libertine), 372 Freischütz, Der, 93; pantomime adaptations of, 76, 81-82, 92-94, 183 Furibond, 28, 210, 212, 213, 253-254,275, 370; dandy scenes, 174, 176-177 Giant's Causeway, The, see Harlequin Pat and Harlequin Bat Gog and Magog, 232, 373 Golden Goose, 302 Golden Waters, The, see Harlequin and the Talking Bird, the Singing Tree, and the Golden Waters Goosey, Goosey Gander, 138, 184, 199, 205-206, 376 Grimalkin the Great, 256, 375 Hamlet, parody of, 77 Harlequin Achilles, 293, 373

390

Index of Pantomimes and Other Entertainments

Harlequin and Asmodeus (Harlequin Zambullo), 37-38, 63, 68, 121,176,230, 274-275, 279, 370, 384nl2 Harlequin and Bluebeard, 79, 358-362 Harlequin and Cinderella, 176, 372 Harlequin and Cock Robin; or, The Babes in the Wood, 265, 374 Harlequin and Cock Robin; or, Vulcan and Venus (Harlequin Vulcan and Venus), 86, 265-266, 306, 375 Harlequin and Don Quixote, 113, 114, 213, 372 Harlequin and Fancy, 77-78, 79,104,129, 172, 173, 223, 292, 372 Harlequin and Fortunio, 63, 64, 68, 78, 213, 227, 292-293, 371; Chinese influence, 142, 145, 146, 148, 149, 150, 151 Harlequin and Friar Bacon, 120, 172, 176, 210, 211, 216, 255, 372; diorama, 70, 129; dagger scene, 78, 85 Harlequin and George Barnwell, 73, 94, 119, 219-220, 236, 245, 376 Harlequin and Golden Eyes, 374 Harlequin and Guy Fawkes, 104, 216, 376 Harlequin and Humpo, 45, 92, 266, 371 Harlequin and Little Bo-Peep, 266, 375 Harlequin and Little Red Riding Hood, 121, 138-139, 183, 205, 235, 301-302, 374 Harlequin and Little Thumb, 88-89, 134, 236, 198-199, 266, 375 Harlequin and Margery Daw, 200-201, 205, 206, 376 Harlequin and Moore's Almanack, 98, 281, 370, 382nll Harlequin and Mother Bunch, 63, 214, 235, 247-248, 373 Harlequin and Mother Goose, 3, 11, 16, 37, 38, 116, 121, 202-203, 271-272, 275-276, 337, 369, 384nl2; characters, 25, 41; overture, 339-346 Harlequin and Mother Shipton, 32, 67, 111, 234-235, 374 Harlequin and Number Nip, 32, 160, 195, 218, 374; dark scene, 121, 124; Navarino diorama, 132, 300 Harlequin and Old Daddy Long Legs, 201 Harlequin and Old Gammer Gurton, 9 4 95, 123, 134, 135, 220, 377 Harlequin and Padmanaba, 115, 157, 194, 203, 208, 337, 370, 384nl2; characters, 27, 116, 158, 159, 188; performing elephant, 101-102, 157 Harlequin and Poor Robin, 115, 169, 172, 197-198, 204-205, 217, 244, 373; open-

ing set, 126, 127; balloon scene, 132, 219 Harlequin and Puss in Boots, see Puss in Boots Harlequin and Queen Mab, 121, 376 Harlequin and the Astrologer of Stepney, 300 Harlequin and the Dandy Club, 121, 178179, 181-182, 372 Harlequin and the Dragon of Wantley, 131, 208, 218, 250, 373 Harlequin and the Eagle (Daniel O'Rourke), 254, 255, 306, 374 Harlequin and the Elfin Arrow, 92-94, 199, 235-236, 266, 268, 297, 376 Harlequin and the Flying Chest, 295, 373; diorama, 70-73, 130, 131, 229 Harlequin and the King of Clubs, 184, 199-200, 257, 376 Harlequin and the Magic Marrowbone, 375 Harlequin and the Magic Rose, 88, 121, 132, 134, 183, 295-296, 374 Harlequin and the Ogress, 92, 126, 145, 153, 227, 267, 293, 373; diorama, 131, 248-250; Egyptian influence, 154,156, 213, 298 Harlequin and the Old Woman in the Bottle, 303 Harlequin and the Red Dwarf, 29, 38, 63, 77, 120, 157, 159, 184, 320, 371; animal scenes, 103-104, 105; auction scene, 177, 203, 275; camera obscura man, 177, 275, 284; Bold Dragoon burlesque, 279-281, 283, 284, 285 Harlequin and the Royal Ram, 107, 156, 228, 261, 297, 298, 376 Harlequin and the Swans, 35-36, 49, 86, 87, 100-101, 276, 277, 288, 289-290, 337, 371, 384nl2 Harlequin and the Sylph of the Oak; or, The Blind Beggar of Bethnal Green, 104, 106, 196-197, 203, 214, 260, 295, 372; Cadiz Mortar, 147, 293 Harlequin and the Talking Bird, the Singing Tree, and the Golden Waters (The Golden Waters), 81-82, 208, 239-240, 374 Harlequin and the Water Kelpe, 96, 369 Harlequin and the White Mouse, 67, 104, 374 Harlequin Brilliant, 98-99, 382nll Harlequin Cock-Robin and jenny Wren, 321 Harlequin Colossus, 154, 156

Index of Pantomimes and Other Entertainments

Harlequin Demon, 374 Harlequin from the Shades, see Aesop's Fables Harlequin Gulliver, 80, 121, 372 Harlequin Harmonist, see Harlequin Harper Harlequin Harper (Harlequin Harmonist), 31, 33-34,121, 142, 143, 286,287,290291, 371 Harlequin Highflyer, 174, 208, 272-273, 370 Harlequin Horner, 119, 197, 214, 372; watch-house trick, 40, 219; Cadiz Mortar, 147, 293; gasworks scene, 174, 209 Harlequin in his Element, 37, 40, 48, 184, 208, 275, 337, 370; Eastern influence, 140, 147, 154; drunken watchman scene, 262-263 Harlequin Jack of All Trades, 131-132, 233-234, 374 Harlequin King John and Magna Charta, 347-348 Harlequin Libertine, see Feast of the Statue Harlequin Merman, 258 Harlequin Munchausen, 63, 86, 117-118, 125, 178, 180, 298, 304, 372 Harlequin Neptune, 382nll Harlequin Pat and Harlequin Bat (The Giant's Causeway), 251, 255-256, 375 Harlequin Pedlar, 337 Harlequin Rasselas, 161-163 Harlequin Tom, the Piper's Son Stole a Pig and Away He Ran, 197, 203-204, 373 Harlequin Traveller (Europe, Asia, Africa, and America), 258, 375 Harlequin Vulcan and Venus, see Harlequin and Cock Robin; or, Vulcan and Venus Harlequin Whittington, 194,207, 219, 231, 291, 292, 294, 371 Harlequin Zambullo, see Harlequin and Asmodeus Harlequin's Chaplet, 169 Harlequin's Holy day (Who Kill'd the Dog), 125, 204, 373 Harlequin's Hour Glass, 286, 372 Harlequin's Invasion, 14 Harlequin's Jubilee, 276, 278 Harlequin's Magnet, 100, 369 Harlequin's Salutation to John Bull, Paddy Bull, Sandy Bull and Taffy Bull, 176, 370

391

Harlequin's Vision, 62, 80, 125 Henry IV, Part II, 260 Hop o' my Thumb and his Brothers, 63, 64, 65, 68, 184, 198, 251, 252, 375 Horrification, 81 House that Jack Built, The, 197, 242-244, 373 Humpty Dumpty, 121,184, 257-258, 303, 376 Island of Jewels, The, 317-318 Jack and Jill, 169, 171, 172, 203, 371 Jack and the Beanstalk; or, Harlequin and the Ogre (1819), 64, 197, 372 Jack and the Beanstalk (1859), 314 Jack and the Beanstalk (1968), 387nl4 Jack in the Box, 73, 138, 183-184, 250, 375 Jack the Giant Killer, 61-62, 91, 203, 370 Jan Ben Jan, 177-178 Jane Shore, 21 Jocko, 106 Kelaun and Guzzarat, 121, 157, 208, 230, 370; fire insurance scene, 223, 225, 226; patriotic song, 247, 273-274 Killing No Murder, 241 King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, 74 King John, 319 King Lear, 239 Knight and His Page, The, 107 Life and Death of Doctor Faustus, The, 4 Life in London, 243 Little Goody Two-Shoes, 312-313, 319320 London, 34-35, 96, 371 London Merchant, The, 21, 73, 236 Loves of Mars and Venus, The, 4 Macbeth, parody of, 77, 78 Maid and the Magpie, The, adaptations of, 79 Man in the Moon, The, 244, 293, 374 Mandarin, The, 142, 144 Mermaid, The, 96, 97, 371 Monkey Island, 106, 373 Mother Goose, 321 Mother Red-Cap, 374 New Planet, The, 313 North West Passage, The, 214, 305-306, 373

392

Index of Pantomimes and Other Entertainments

Oberon, 111 Ocean Fiend, The, 101 Ogre, The, 100 Old Mother Hubbard and Her Dog, 63, 64, 245, 306, 307, 308, 376 Olympic Devils, 316 Olympic Revels, 316 Ora and the Red Woodman, 92 Oranges and Lemons (Bell Pantomime), 376 Paul Pry, 88 Pie Voleuse, La, adaptation of, 79 Polar Star, The, 375 Puss in Boots (Harlequin and Puss in Boots), 63, 88, 126, 128, 199, 217, 375; Miss Poole in, 64, 66; "Trip to Antwerp" diorama, 132, 133, 303, 304 Queen Bee, The, 268, 375 Ride a Cock Horse, 376 Rodolph the Wolf, 120, 372

St. George and the Dragon, 74 Seaman and La Belle Sauvage, The, 107 Silver Arrow, The, 86, 372 Sinbad the Sailor, 310-311, 324, 326 Thirty Thousand, 208, 221-222, 370 Three Golden Lamps, The, 227 Tom and Jerry, 88 Turret Demon, The, 91-92, 370 Two Farmers, The, 240 Valkyrae, The, 302-303, 376 Valley of Diamonds, The, 291, 295, 371 Vampyre, The, 115 Walooka and Noomahee, 107 Whang-Fong, 140-142, 176, 371 White Cat, The, 40, 103, 169, 170, 279, 280, 370 Whittington and his Cat, 216 Who Kill'd the Dog, see Harlequin's Holyday World Turned Upside Down, The, 256257

General Index

Page references to illustrations are italicized. Achilles statue, 119, 293 Acrobats, 315, 322 Actors, caricatured, 85, 86, 88 Adaptations, 89-94 Advertising, 220-228, 317; of plays, 75, 221, 223 Aerial dioramas, 130, 132,134,335,219220 Afterpieces, 4 Aldgate Pump scene, 210, 211 Alexander, William, 140; designs after, 145, 150, 151 Algiers, bombardment of, 299, 300 "All the World's in Paris" (song), 291 American War of 1812, 291 Animal drama, 40, 76, 79, 101-107 Antwerp diorama, 132, 233, 303, 304 Apes, 106-107, 276 Aquatic drama, 95-101, 100, 274 Architecture, 9, 119-120 Arctic exploration, 8, 303-308 Argyle Rooms fire, 226-227 Army, 36, 54, 55-56, 266, 271, 275-276, 277, 278; uniforms, 279-281, 280, 282, 283, 284, 285 Arnold, Samuel, 22 Arrangers, 31, 75, 108; satire on, 85 Artists, satire on, 119 Asiatic style, see Eastern style Auction scenes, 177, 203, 275 Avary (actor), 144 Awkward squads, 56, 276, 278, 279 Backcloths, 110, 111 Bakery advertisement, 227 Ballads, as pantomime source, 76. See also Black-Ey'd Susan pantomimes Ballets, 4. See also Dumb-ballets Balloon scenes, 40, 67, 73, 130, 132, 134, 219-220 Bannister, Miss (actress), 67 Barbering scene, 217

Barnes, James, 34, 43, 50, 132, 170, 217 Barrett, O., 370 Barry, George, 119 Barrymore, William, 373, 374, 375 Bat, Harlequin's, 24, 30, 38-39, 40; loss of, 90-91 Battle of the Nations, see Nations Bear-Bonaparte scene, 281, 285 "Beauty and the Beast" (fable), as pantomime source, 295 Bedford (actor), 94-95 Begging, 195, 196-197 Behn, Aphra, 4 Belgian revolution, 303 Benevolent agent, 24, 25, 26, 30-31 Berners Street hoax, 59-60, 207 Beverley, William, 317-318, 324 "Big heads," 21, 28, 29, 45, 317 Bill-posting scenes, 227-228 Bish (lottery contractor), 221-223 Black-Ey'd Susan pantomimes, 76,82-85 Blackfriars Bridge, 218 Blanchard, E. L„ 309, 313, 317, 323-324 Blanchard, Thomas, 42, 43 Blindness, 195, 196, 201 Boat-race diorama, 73, 131 Bold Dragoons, burlesque of, 279-281, 283, 284, 285 Boleno, Harry, 315 Bologna, Jack, 29, 34, 35, 64, 87, 144, 384nl2 "Book of Songs," 365-366 Bradbury, Robert, 181, 182, 372, 383n9384 Breeches roles, 63-64, 65, 66, 145. See also Principal boy Bridges, 217, 218 Brighton, see Royal Pavilion British Institution, 119 Brixton Prison, 196, 267 Broadhurst (actor), 29 Brooker, Rebecca, 3

394

General Index

Brougham, Henry, 257 Brown (actor), 144 Brummeil, George Bryan ( " B e a u " ) , 166, 167-168 Buckstone, J. B„ 374, 375, 376 Bull-fight burlesque, 274 Burlesque, see Parody Burletta license, 20 Byron, George Gordon, Lord, 11, 58 Cadiz Mortar, 140, 147, 155, 293 Cameleopard, 104 Camera obscura scene, 177, 275, 284 Canton fire, 297 Carlton House, 166, 167 Carlyle, Thomas, on dandyism, 166 Caroline, Q u e e n , 14, 54, 239, 248 Carpenters' scenes, 110, 193, 251 Cartoons, 22, 14, 5 0 , 1 7 9 , 189, 285 Catholic emancipation, 8, 254, 255 Censorship, 238-247, 366 Chabert ("Fire King"), 86 Chambers, Sir William, 140; designs

Codrington, Admiral Edward, 300 Collett (actor), 95 Collett, John, dance by, 3 4 7 - 3 4 8 Collins, Lottie, 322 Colman, George, 20, 239, 241, 244 Columbine, 24, 3 0 - 3 1 , 41; pictured, 27, 42, 45, 87, 144, 171; precursor of, 24, 37, 171, 287 Columbine's tomb, trickwork for, 111— 112, 3 3 1 - 3 3 4 Combination Acts, 58, 232 Comedy, compared with pantomime, 6. See also Normative comedy; Retributive comedy Commedia dell' arte, 4, 2 6 0 - 2 6 2 , 381n6 Commerce, 206-207. See also Trade Concrete manufacture, 147, 154 Copper-mining scene, 208 Corn Laws, 57, 192, 202, 205 Coronation scene, 2 4 7 - 2 4 8 Cosmorama, see Diorama Costume, 1 - 2 , 324, 368; authentic, 73, 319

after, 148, 149 Chapman (actor), 29 Characters, pantomime, 6, 2 3 - 2 4 , 28, 3 0 - 3 1 ; doubling of, 62, 3 1 3 - 3 1 5 , 323. See also Benevolent agent; Clown; Columbine; Harlequin; Lover; Pantaloon Charity, 197, 234 Charlotte, Princess, 54, 247 Chatterton, F. Β., 324 Chaubert, see Chabert Cherry, Andrew, 11 Child performers, 36, 67, 193, 194, 195,

Costumes of China, The, (William Alexander), 140 Cotton trade, 298 Covent Garden theatre, 15, 21; typical pantomime, 3 5 - 3 6 ; fire at, 242; manuscripts, 366 Croker, Thomas Crofton, 373 Cruikshank, George, 14, 50; Grimaldi prints, 179, 285; Coates print, 189 Cruikshank, Isaac, 50 Curricle satire, 188, 189 Cut glass, 2 0 7 - 2 0 8 Cut-outs, 73; transparent, 111

271-273 China, 2 9 6 - 2 9 7 "Chinese Dance," 347-348 Chinese style, 140-147, 148, 149, 150, 151 Chinese tent, 145,150, 156 Cities, expansion of, 8 - 9 , 1 9 2 - 1 9 3 Cline (tight-rope walker), 68 Clive, Robert, 294 Clown, 3, 6, 28, 30, 36, 4 0 - 4 1 , 44, 4 7 - 4 9 , 68, 69, 262; pictured, 27, 29, 41, 45, 46, 87, 143, 173, 277; precursor of, 38, 178, 180; later actors as, 315 Coaches, 8, 210, 212-213. See also Driving mania; Post-chaise trick; "Safety c o a c h " scenes Coal-mining scene, 208 Coates, Robert ( " R o m e o " ) , 86, 167, 168; curricle, 189; burlesqued, 188

Daly, Miss (actress), 200 Dame, role of, 3 2 0 - 3 2 1 Dance parody, 41 Dandies, 50, 51, 61, 165-168, 176-190. See also Lover; Uniforms Dandizettes, 61, 166, 184 Dandy Lover, see Lover Dark scenes, 30, 76, 90, 91, 121, 124 Death penalty, 258, 266 Decamp, Miss (actress), 79 Dialogue, 20, 21, 3 0 9 - 3 1 0 Dibdin, Charles, the younger, 2, 6, 75, 79, 337, 3 6 9 - 3 7 7 passim; letter describing trickwork, 111-112, 114, 3 3 1 - 3 3 6 ; songs by, 349-362; Memoirs, 368; quoted, 9 8 - 9 9 , 107, 187, 221 Dibdin, Thomas J., 2, 3, 6, 31, 75, 3 6 9 377 passim; quoted, 240

General Index

Dickens, Charles, cited, 10, 11, 168, 383n9-384 Diorama, 69,109,118,129-136,138-139, 308, 317, 365; cost of, 17, 70; Holyhead crossing, 70,129, 155; Plymouth Breakwater, 70-73, 130, 131, 229; royal journey, 73, 131, 248-250; Virginia Water, 73, 138, 250; aerial, 130, 132, 134, 135, 219-220; Antwerp, 132, 333, 303, 304; Navarino, 132, 300; "Poreibasilartikasparbosporas," 139, 301-302; London Bridge, 251, 252; Waterloo, 293; Chinese, 297; Algiers bombardment, 299, 300; arctic, 306, 307, 308 Docks, opening of, 235 Doctor, comic, 243-244 Doctor Syntax in Search of the Picturesque (William Combe), 125 Dogs, performing, 86, 101,104, 106, 188 Doubling of cast, 62, 313-315, 323 Drama, compared with pantomime, 5 - 6 Driving mania, 165, 184-189 Drury Lane theatre, 15, 17, 21, 381nl5; typical pantomime, 31, 33-34; manuscripts, 366 Ducrow, Andrew, 50, 169 Dumb-ballets, 382n7-383 Dyke (actor), 143

East India Company, 294, 296 Eastern Question, 138, 298-302 Eastern style, 156-163, 222. See also Royal Pavilion Ebsworth (actor), 273 Economics, 229-237 Egypt, 297-298 Egyptian style, 147, 154, 156, 298 Electioneering scenes, 257-258 Electoral reform, see Reform Bill Elephant: artificial, 40, 103; performing, 101-103, 157 Ellar, Thomas, 35-36, 50, 64, 87,117-118 Embassy to China, The (G. Knett Staunton), 140 Emery, John, 240 Encore material, 366 Entertainers, satire on, 86, 87, 88 Epping Hunt burlesque, 103-104, 105 Examiner of Plays, 21, 238, 265. See also Colman, George; Larpent, John Exmouth, Edward Pellew, Lord, 299 Exploration, 8, 303-308 Extravaganza, 7, 73, 300, 316, 317-318

395

Fairy cars, 26 Falling flap trickwork, 112-114,331-334 Farley, Charles, 2, 3, 6, 63, 75, 169, 369377 passim Farmers, 192, 206, 240 Fashion, see Dandies Fawcett (singer), 240 Final scenes, 20, 31, 109, 229; designs for, 32, 98, 100 Fire: at Covent Garden, 242; at Canton, 297 "Fire King," 86 Fire-fighting company advertising, 223, 224, 225, 226-227 Fireworks, 67, 292, 293 Fitzherbert, Mrs. Maria Anne, 54, 250 "Flags," 21 Flat scenery, 110-111 Flexmore (posture master), 44 Flexmore, Richard, 315 Food shortages, 56-57, 192 Foreign affairs, 270, 294-303 Forest Law, 204-205 Foster (arranger), 375 Four-in-hand mania, see Driving mania Fox, George, 373 Franchise, see Reform Bill Frost Fair scene, 214 Gadgetry, 8, 206 Gaming houses, 267 Gas lighting, 8,208-210,217; of theatres, 110, 208 Genest, John, quoted, 79 "Gentleman jockies," 165; burlesqued, 177-178, 179 George III, 8, 10, 53-54, 238, 247, 254 George IV, 8, 53-54, 238-239, 240, 247, 250, 254; Scottish journey, 73, 131, 248-250; dandyism of, 166-167, 281 Ghent, Treaty of, 291-292 Gibson (actor), 200 Gilbert, W. S„ 321 Gilray, Thomas, 50 Glass industry, 207-208 Glass-blowing scene, 48 Gothic drama, 75-76, 90-92, 119-121; sets for, 120, 122, 124 Gouffe ("Monkey man"), 106-107 Grave trap, 115, 116 Gray, Mabel, 321 Greece, independence of, 299 Greek style, 139 Green, Charles, 219-220

396

General Index

Grieve, J. Η.: set designs by, 32, 113, 122, 123, 124, 127, 128, 160, 252; dioramas by, 134, 135, 252, 304, 306, 307, 308; toy theatre designs after, 148, 149, 150, 151, 152 Grieve, W. H„ design by, 211 Grieve family, 130, 132, 233 Grimaldi, Giuseppe, 3 Grimaldi, Joseph: influence and importance, 2, 6, 17, 28, 34, 44, 47-48, 6263, 68, 139, 262, 365; life and characteristics, 3, 7, 10, 11, 46, 85, 117-118, 384nl2; songs, 3, 35, 80, 185, 187, 291, 297, 349-362; imitators and successors, 22, 315; letter to Farley, 380n9381 satires and burlesques, 115, 116, 214, 218, 268; female parts, 29, 38, 184, 320; army, 49, 275-276, 277, 278, 279-281, 283, 284, 285; Shakespearean, 78, 85; sword-swallowing, 86, 87; driving, 101, 153, 185-188, 186, 188, 213; equestrian, 103-104, 105, 177-178, 179, 276, 277; Eastern, 141, 159; dandyism, 174, 176, 178, 180; Aldgate Pump, 210; Gretna Green, 250; drunken watchman, 262, 263; bull-fight, 274, 384nl2; auction, 275; Bear-Bonaparte, 281, 285 Grimaldi, Joseph Samuel, 2, 7, 44, 145, 176, 183; in Harlequin and Poor Robin, 47, 115, 132, 217, 244 Halliday, Andrew, quoted, 315, 319 Hammersmith Bridge, 218 Harlequin, 4, 24,38-41,48,68; pictured, 27, 29, 39, 45, 87, 144; disguised as girl, 40, 41; precursor of, 37, 193 Harlequinade, 5, 17-18, 28, 30-31, 3 8 49, 172, 174, 228-229, 260; number of scenes in, 61, 63, 312, 313; decline and omission of, 61-62, 300, 308, 309, 312-317, 320 Harris, Augustus, 309, 324-326 Hartland (actor), 45 Hastings, Warren, 294 Hazlitt, William, 10 "Hearts of Oak" (song), 14 Hesse, Capt. Charles, 247 Highgate Turnpike, 218 Hindu style, 156, 260, 295-296. See also Eastern style Historical record, pantomime as, 7 - 8 Hoax: Berners Street, 59-60, 207; on Robert Coates, 167

Holland, Henry, 140, 142 Hollond, Robert, 219-220 Holyhead crossing diorama, 70, 129, 255 Hook, Theodore, 11, 59; quoted, 241242 Hope (actor), 270 Hope Insurance Office, 223, 225, 226 Horseracing scene, 250 "Hot Codlins" (song), 297 Howard, Miss (actress), 319-320 "Human Salamander," 86 Hunt, Leigh, quoted, 10-11, 69 Hunting scenes, 103-104, 205, 204 Hussar uniform, 282; burlesque of, 279-281, 283, 284, 285 Ice pantomime, 387nl3 Image-seller's song, 286 India, 294-296 Indian jugglers, burlesqued, 86, 87 Industrial Revolution, 8 - 9 , 57-58, 191, 206, 228, 229-237 Industrial scenes, 208 Insurance company advertising, 223, 224, 225, 226-227 Irishmen, stage, 254-256 Ironworks scene, 208 Italian night scene, 381n6 Italian theatrical companies, 4 Japanese style, 142, 243 Jefferini (actor), 315 "Jim Crow" acts, 94-95 Jugglers, 49; burlesqued, 86, 87 Justice, 258-268 Juvenile drama sheets, see Toy theatre sheets Keeley, Robert, 386n7 Kemble, Charles, 319 Kemble, John, 289 Kemble, Stephen, 182 "King of Rome" satire, 286, 287 Kirby, James, 46, 143, 279, 280 Kitchener, Dr. William, 239-240 Lambert, Daniel, 210 Land, 204-205 Landscape in stage design, 125-229, 317. See also Diorama Larpent, John, 239, 240-244, 366 Larpent Collection of mss., 366 Launching ceremonies, 98-99,131-132, 251, 252, 274 Law enforcement, 258-268

General Index

Lee, R. N„ 376 Leipzig, withdrawal from, 288-289 Leno, Dan, 322-323 Libretti, printed, 365-366 Lighting, stage, 110, 111, 130, 208, 384n3-385 Liston, John, 88 "Lobsters" (red-coated soldiers), 266, 279 London Bridge, 218; state opening, 251, 252 London landscape, 129, 232 Lord Chamberlain, 239, 366 Lord Chamberlain's collection of mss., 366 Lottery scenes, 221-223, 234 Lover, 28, 44, 165, 168-176, 177, 182183, 368; pictured, 45, 170, 171, 173; precursor of, 38, 143, 169, 170, 171 Luddite riots, 57-58, 256 "Lun," see Rich, John Lyceum theatre, 384n3 Mackintosh, Sir James, 268 Magazines, theatrical, 366-367, 368 Magistrates, 202, 203, 204, 259-260 Manuscript collections, 366 Marriage, 53, 54, 229, 250 Masks, 4. See also "Big heads" Mason, Monck, 219-220 Matthews, Tom, 312-313, 320 Mazurier (actor), 106 Metamorphoses (Ovid), as plot source, 20 Methodism, 241-242 Meyer, Henry, paintings by, 65, 66 Millbank Penitentiary, 268 Mining scenes, 208 Minor theatres, 9, 21, 366 Modern pantomime, 323, 326, 327, 382n7-383, 385nl0 Money-lending, 228, 230 Monkeys, 106-107 Montgomery (actor), 225 Monument, trick of, 111-112, 114, 331334 Moorhead, John, 240 Morton (actor), 380n9 Morton, John Maddison, 376 "Mr. Grig and Miss Snap" (song), 358362 Munden, Joseph, 240 Music, 21, 31, 337-362 Music hall performers, 309, 320, 321323, 324

397

Nabobs, 295 Napoleon, satirized, 281, 285, 286, 287 Napoleonic wars, 8, 54-55, 56, 270, 271, 286, 288-291, 292-293, 297; mock playbill, 11, 13-14; Russian invasion, 14,281; Cruikshank cartoon, 281n, 285 Nash, John, 140, 142, 156 Nations, Battle of the, 288-289 Nautical dioramas, 129, 131-132, 133, 299, 300, 303, 304 Nautical songs, 84, 245, 271-274, 288 Navarino, Battle of, 300; dioramas of, 132, 300 Navy, see Royal Navy Nelson, Horatio, Lord, 55, 271, 275, 297 Newsboy scene, 231, 291 Newspaper tax, 220 Niagara Falls dioramas, 138 "Nondescript," 104, 105 Norman, Richard, 10, 35, 43, 159, 277 Normative comedy, 52-56 Northwest Passage, 303-304 Novello, Miss (actress), 200 O'Keeffe, John, 169 "Old Price" riots, 289 Olios, 9, 16, 169, 384nl2 Opening scenes, 20, 24, 28, 37-38, 53, 61, 109, 229; plots, 5, 23-24, 76, 311312; Lover in, 38, 169, 172; number of scenes in, 61, 63, 312; united with harlequinade, 62; diorama in, 73; Gothic, 90, 120-121, 123 Opera as pantomime source, 62, 76, 79-82, 92-94, 111, 176, 183 Opera House, Strand, 22 Opium trade, 296 Oriental style, 139-163 "Orphan boy" songs, 193, 194 Ottoman Empire, 299-301 Pack (actor), 287 Paganini mania, 88, 89 Pantalone, 260, 261 Pantaloon, 30-31, 43-44, 68, 260-261; pictured, 27, 42, 170, 277; precursor of, 28, 37-38, 143, 170, 277 Pantomime: definition of, 19-20; superficiality of, 8; seasons, 9-10; length of runs, 15, 16, 385nl9; speech in, 20-21. See also Characters; Final scenes; Harlequinade; Opening scenes; Trickwork Paper mill scene, 40

398

General Index

Parker, Mrs. (actress), 87 Parliament, 119 Parody, 76-89 Parry, Sir Edward, 305 Parsloe, James, 44, 171 Parson, comic, 242-244 Pastrycook's advertisement, 227 Patent theatres, 5, 7, 10, 21-22, 309, 366. See also Covent Garden theatre; Drury Lane theatre Patriarchy, 261 Patriotic songs, 14, 36, 226, 247, 270, 273-274, 281 Paulo, Redige, 276, 278 Peace news scene, 231, 291 Peacock transformation, 172, 173 Peninsula Campaign, 55, 271, 274 Persian style, 158,159, 161-163. See also Eastern style Peterloo Massacre, 58-59 Picturesque, taste for, 121, 124-125 Pitt, William, 240, 253 Pivot traps, 382n7-383 Planche, J. R„ 73, 74, 309, 316, 319, 372, 373; quoted, 17, 246, 317-318 Playbills, 15, 367; mock, 11, 13-14 Playing-card shop advertising, 227 Plot, 4, 5, 20, 23-24, 28, 30-31, 76, 311312 Plymouth Breakwater diorama, 70-73, 130, 131, 229 Poaching, 204 Polar exploration, see Arctic exploration Police, 259, 260, 261, 264-266 Polish revolution, 302 Poole, Elizabeth, 64, 65, 66, 183-184 Poor Laws, 193, 198, 199, 200, 201 Pop singers, 386n6 "Poreibasilartikasparbosporas," 139, 301-302 Post-chaise trick, 114, 334-336 Poverty, 192-201 Povey, Eliza, 64 Prince Regent, see George IV Principal boy, 309, 319-321, 323 Prints, 367 Print-seller's song, 286 Prisons, 267, 268 Processions, 31, 33, 34, 35, 36, 62, 324326 Profits from pantomime, 2, 326 Progress of man, 228-229, 231-232 Prose pantomimes, 20, 21 Provincial tours, 9 Puns, 310

Quadruped drama, 40, 76, 79, 101-107 Queen Charlotte, launch of, 274 Racing scene, 250 Rail travel, 216-217 Ranier family, 67 Rasselas (Samuel Johnson), adaptation of, 161-163 "Ratling Air" (song), 226 Ravenscroft, Edward, 4 Recruiting sergeant scenes, 49, 275-276 Reeve, G. W„ 242-243 Reeve, John, 88 Reeve, William, 337; songs by, 349-362 Reform Bill, 198, 228, 239, 256, 257 Regent's Bomb, see Cadiz Mortar Religion, banned as pantomime material, 238, 241 Retributive comedy, 52, 56, 60-61, 259, 260 Reviews, 368 Reynolds, F., 376, 377 Rice, Charles, quoted, 95, 220 Rice, Thomas D. ("Daddy"), 94 Rich, John ("Lun"), 4-5, 20 Ridgway, Thomas, 34 Rioting, 57-58, 198, 205, 256, 259, 266, 289. See also Luddite riots Rise-and-sink trickwork, 114 Roads, 217-218 Roberts, David, 130, 131-132, 139, 300, 301, 306 Roberts, J. F., 370 Ross, Sir John, 304, 306 Rotherhithe Tunnel, 218-219 Rotunda Museum, Woolwich, 383nll Roulette, 267 Rowlandson, Thomas, 50, 100, 125 Royal Navy, 54-55, 271-275. See also Arctic exploration Royal Pavilion, Brighton, 140, 142, 156, 160, 161; in comic prints, 145, 147, 153; toy theatre sheets of, 145, 152; state visit to, 250-251 Rural life, 126, 201-206 Russia: French invasion of, 14, 281, 285; and Eastern Question, 299, 301, 302 Sadler's Wells, 202 Sadler's Wells theatre, 7; typical pantomime, 34-35; aquatic drama, 95-200, 274 "Safety coach" scenes, 153, 213, 216 St. James's Park, victory celebrations in, 140, 147, 154, 291

General Index

St. Katharine's Docks, 235 Sartor Resartus (Thomas Carlyle), quoted, 166 Satire, pantomime, 6 - 7 , 4 9 - 5 2 ; by visual simile, 3 9 - 4 0 Savoyard singers, 29, 194 Scaramouche, 4, 20 Scenery, 1, 109, 110-111, 130, 317-318. See also Diorama Scotland, royal journey to, 2 4 8 - 2 5 0 Scott, Sir Walter, 248, 249; dioramas based on his novels, 138 Scripts, 3 6 5 - 3 6 6 ; toy theatre, 367 Sentences, 258, 2 6 6 - 2 6 8 Sexual humor, 321 Shakespearean plays, 17, 239, 260, 319, 324; parodied, 40, 7 7 - 7 8 , 234 Shipping, 192, 213-214, 225. See also Launching ceremonies; Nautical dioramas; Royal Navy Shops, 2 0 6 - 2 0 7 , 227-228, 245 Shutters, 110, 111 Simmons, Samuel, 25 Six Acts, 58 Skating scenes, 115, 214 Skeffington, Lumley, 11 Slave market scene, 3 1 0 - 3 1 1 Slave trade, 253 Slow trap, 115 Society for the Improvement of Prison Discipline, 267 Soldiers, see Army Songs, 30, 49, 337, 3 4 9 - 3 6 2 ; Irish, 67; about dandies, 175, 179, 184; driving mania, 185, 187; of poverty, 194-196; of Father Thames, 218; Scots, 249; astrologer's, 281; print-seller's, 286; Battle of Nätions song, 289; on Harlequin's passing, 313; "Ta-Ra-RaB o o m - D e - A y , " 322. See also Grimaldi, Joseph; Nautical songs; Patriotic songs Spa Fields riots, 58 Spanish scenes, 2 7 4 - 2 7 5 Spectacle, 61, 109, 300, 3 1 7 - 3 1 9 , 324. See also Extravaganza Speculators, 9, 56, 192, 216-217, 231, 244 Squirearchy, 192, 2 0 2 - 2 0 6 , 2 5 9 - 2 6 0 Stag hunt burlesque, 103-104, 105 Stamp tax, 220 Stanfield, Clarkson, 7 0 , 7 2 , 1 3 0 - 1 3 1 , 1 3 4 , 136, 137, 293, 297 Star trap, 116, 382n7-383 Steam carriages, 39, 2 1 5 - 2 1 6 , 217

399

Steam laundries, 217 Steam power, 192, 210 Steam shaving apparatus, 217 Steamships, 213-214, 215, 217 Stockbroker scene, 231, 291 Stocking-frame workers, 5 7 - 5 8 Strand Bridge, 129, 218 Street lighting, 2 0 8 - 2 0 9 Street singer, 194 Strike scene, 2 3 3 - 2 3 4 Sutton (actor), 43 Sword, Harlequin's, 10-11, 24. See also Bat Sword-swallowing burlesque, 87 " T a - R a - R a - B o o m - D e - A y " (song), Taylor, Miss (actress), 144 Telescope scenes, 266, 293 Temperance workers, 61, 245 Temple of Concord, 147, 291, 292 Thackeray, William Makepeace,

322

10,

1 4 - 1 5 , 53, 166 Thames Tunnel, 2 1 8 - 2 1 9 Theatre attendances, 1 5 - 1 6 , 385n9 Theatres, size of, 2 1 - 2 3 Theatrical Licensing Acts, 5, 10, 20, 309, 319 Theft, 2 6 2 - 2 6 4 , 266 Thompson, Lydia, 320 Thunderer, launch of, 251, 252 Tight-rope walker, 68 "Tippity W i t c h e t " (song), 3 5 4 - 3 5 7 Tollkeepers, 217, 218 Toy theatre scripts, 367 Toy theatre sheets: characters, 87, 117, 284, 287, 367, 368; trickwork, 89, 155, 212, 215,224,367-368,382n6; scenery, 109, 129, 145, 148, 149, 150, 151, 152, 367 Trade, 8, 2 3 2 - 2 3 7 ; foreign, 293-294. See also Advertising; Shops Trade unions, 58, 232 Transformation scenes, 20, 24, 61, 90, 312, 3 1 7 - 3 1 8 , 324 Transparencies, 111 Transport, 8, 192, 210, 2 1 2 - 2 1 7 , 258, 267-268 Traps, 38, 109, 1 1 5 - 1 1 8 Treadmill, 196, 267 Trickwork, 5, 4 8 - 4 9 , 89, 109, 110, 1 1 1 118, 155, 181, 210, 212, 215, 224, 275, 3 6 7 - 3 6 8 , 382n6; Dibdin's letter on, 111-112, 114, 331-336. See also Grimaldi, Joseph Turkey, 2 9 9 - 3 0 1

400

General Index

Uniforms, army, 56, 279-281, 282, 283, 284, 285. See also "Lobsters" Usury, 228, 230 Valency (or Valancey), Miss (actress), 45, 171 Vampire trap, 115, 382n7-383 Variety acts, 67-68 Vauxhall Bridge, 218 Venice: diorama of, 134, 236; watercolor of, 137 Verse pantomimes, 20 Vestris, Eliza, 316, 319 Victory celebrations, 140, 147, 154, 156, 290, 291, 292, 293 Virginia Water diorama, 73, 138, 250 Visual simile, 39-40, 49 Vokes family, 322 War of 1812, see American War of 1812 Ware (actor), 271 Ware, William Henry, 337; song by, 249-250 Water, see Aquatic drama Waterloo, Battle of, 55, 292-293

Waterloo Bridge (Strand Bridge), 129, 218 Weaver, John, 4 Webb, J. H„ 376 Weiland, George, 84, 315 Wellington, Arthur Wellesley, Duke of, 55, 290; statue of, 119, 293 Wellington Museum, 292 West, William, 44, 45, 171 "What'll Mrs. Grundy Say?" (song), 349-353 Whip Clubs, 184-187 Whitehead, Charles, quoted, 297 Wilberforce, William, 253, 268 William IV, 8, 239, 250-251 William of Orange, 54, 247 Wilson (actor), 67 Windmill transformation, Π 3 - 1 1 4 Wine merchant's advertisement, 227 Wings (scenery), 110 Wire and tight-rope walkers, 49, 67 Work, virtue of, 230, 234, 236 Wright, Charles, 227 Younge, G. H„ 374, 376