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PANTOMIME

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Originally appearing in Volume V20, Page 686 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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PANTOMIME , a See also:

term which has been employed in different senses at different times in the See also:history of the See also:drama. Of the See also:Roman pantomimus, a spectacular See also:kind of See also:play in which the functions of the actor were confined to gesticulation and dancing, while occasional See also:music was sung by a See also:chorus or behind the scenes, some See also:account is given under DRAMA. In Roman usage the term was applied both to the actor of this kind of play and to the play itself; less logically, we also use the term to signify the method of the actor when confined to gesticulation, Historically speaking, so far as the Western drama is concerned there is no See also:intrinsic difference between the Roman pantomimus and the See also:modern " See also:ballet of See also:action," except that the latter is accompanied by instrumental music only, and that the personages appearing in it are not usually masked. The See also:English " dumb-show," though fulfilling a See also:special purpose of its own, was likewise in the true sense of the word pantomimic. The modern pantomime, as the word is still used, more especially in connexion with the English See also:stage, signifies a dramatic entertainment in which the action is carried on with the help of spectacle, music and dancing, and in which the performance of at action or of its adjuncts is conducted by certain conventional characters, originally derived from See also:Italian "masked See also:comedy," itself an See also:adaptation of the fabulae Atellanae of See also:ancient See also:Italy. Were it not for this addition, it would be difficult to define modern pantomime so as to distinguish it from the masque; and the least rational of English dramatic See also:species would have to be regarded as essentially identical with another to which English literature owes some of its choicest See also:fruit. The contributory elements which modern pantomime contains very speedily, though in varying proportions and manifold combinations, introduced themselves into the modern drama as it had been called into See also:life by the See also:Renaissance. In Italy the transition was almost imperceptible from the See also:pastoral drama to the See also:opera; on the See also:Spanish stage ballets with allegorical figures and military See also:spectacles were known towards the See also:close of the 16th See also:century; in See also:France ballets were introduced in the days of See also:Marie de' See also:Medici, and the popularity of the opera was fully established in the earlier See also:part of the reign of See also:Louis XIV. The history of these elements need not be pursued here, but there is a special ingredient in modern pantomime of which something more has to be said. From the latter part of the 16th century (See also:Henry III. in 1596, sought to divert the dreaded states-See also:general at See also:Blois by means of the celebrated Italian See also:company of the Gelosi) professional Italian comedy (commedia dell' arte, called commedia all' improviso only because of the skill with which the schemes of its plays were filled up by improvisation) had found its way to See also:Paris with its merry company of characters, partly corresponding to the favourite types of See also:regular comedy both ancient and modern, but largely borrowed from the new species of masked comedy—so called from its action being carried on by certain typical figures in masks—said to have been invented earlier in the same century by Angelo Beolco (Ruzzante) of See also:Padua. These types, See also:local in origin, included Pantalooe the Venetian See also:merchant, who survives in the uncommercial See also:Pantaloon, the Bolognese Dottore. The Zannis (Giovannis) were the domestic servants in this species of comedy, and included among other varieties the Arlecchino.

This is by far the most interesting of these types, and by far the best discussed. The Arlecchino was formerly supposed to have been, like the See also:

rest, of Italian origin. The very remarkable contribution (cited below) of Dr See also:Otto Driesen to the literature of folk-See also:lore as well as to that of the stage seems however to establish the conclusion (to which earlier conjectures pointed) that the word See also:Harlequin or Herlequin is of See also:French origin, and that the dramatic figure of Harlequin is an See also:evolution from the popular tradition of the harlekin-folk, mentioned about the end of the 1th century by the See also:Norman Ordericus Vitalis. The " damned souls " of See also:legend became the comic demons of later centuries, the croque-sots with the See also:devil's See also:mask; they See also:left the impress of their likeness on the See also:hell-mouth of the religious drama, but were gradually humanized as a favourite type of the Parisian popular See also:street-masques (charivaris) of the 14th and 15th centuries. Italian literature contains only a single passage before the end of the 16th century which can be brought into any connexion with this type—the alichino (See also:cat's back) of See also:canto xxi. of the Inferno. The French harlequin was, however, easily adopted into the See also:family of Italian comedy, where he may, like his See also:costume,' have been associated with See also:early See also:national traditions, and where he continued to diverge from his See also:fellow Zannis of the stolid sort, the See also:Sea See also:pin of French comedy-See also:farce. From the See also:time of the performances in France of the celebrated Fedeli company, which played there at intervals from the beginning to the See also:middle of the 17th century onwards, performing in a See also:court ballet in 1636, Tristran Martinelli had been its harlequin, and the See also:character thus preceded that of the Parisian favourite Trivelin, whose name See also:Cardinal de See also:Retz was fond of applying to Cardinal See also:Mazarin. There can be no pretence here of pursuing the French harlequin through his later developments in the various species of the comic drama, including that of the See also:marionettes, or of examining the history of his supersession by See also:Pierrot and of his ultimate extinction. Students of French comedy, and of See also:Moliere in particular, are aware of the See also:influence of the Italian players upon the progress of French comedy, and upon the See also:works of its incomparable See also:master. In other countries, where the favourite types of Italian popular comedy had- been less generally seen or were unknown, popular comic figures such as the English See also:fools and clowns, the See also:German Hanswurst, or the Dutch Pickelhering, were ready to renew themselves in any and every See also:fashion which preserved to them the See also:gross See also:salt favoured by their patrons. Indeed, in See also:Germany, where the term pantomime was not used, a See also:rude See also:form of dramatic buffoonery, corresponding to the coarser sides of the modern English species so-called, See also:long flourished, and threw back for centuries the progress of the regular drama. The banishment of Hanswurst from the German stage was formally proclaimed by the famous actress See also:Caroline Neuber at See also:Leipzig in a play composed for the purpose in 1737.

After being at last suppressed, it found a commendable substitute in the modern Zauber posse, the more genial See also:

Vienna counterpart of the Paris feerie and the modern English extravaganza. In See also:England, where the masque was only quite exceptionally revived after the Restoration, the love of spectacle and other frivolous allurements was at first mainly met by the various forms of dramatic entertainment which went by the name of " opera." In the See also:preface to See also:Albion and Albanius (1685), See also:Dryden gives a See also:definition of opera which would fairly apply to modern extravaganza, or to modern pantomime with the harlequinad' ' The traditional costume of the ancient Roman mimi included the centunculus or variegated (harlequin's) jacket, the shaven See also:head, the sooty See also:face and the unshod feet. left out. Character-dancing was, however, at the same time largely introduced into regular comedy; and, as the theatres vied with one another in seeking quocunque modo to gain the favour of the public, the English stage was fully prepared for the innovation which awaited it. Curiously enough, the long-lived but cumbrous growth called pantomime in England owes its immediate origin to the beginnings of a dramatic species which has artistically furnished congenial delight to nearly two centuries of Frenchmen. Of the early history of See also:vaudeville it must here suffice to say that the unprivileged actors, at the fairs, who had borrowed some of the favourite character-types of Italian popular comedy, after eluding prohibitions against the use by them of See also:dialogue and See also:song, were at last allowed to set up a comic opera of their own. About the second See also:quarter of the 18th century, before these performers were incorporated with the Italians, the See also:light kind of dramatic entertainment combining pantomime proper with dialogue and song enjoyed high favour with the French and their visitors during this See also:period of See also:peace. The vaudeville was cultivated by Le See also:Sage and other writers of See also:mark,. though it did not conquer an enduring See also:place in dramatic literature till rather later, when it had, moreover, been completely nationalized by the See also:extension of the Italian types. It was this popular species of entertainment which, under the name of pantomime, was transplanted to England before in France it had attained to any fixed form, or could claim for its productions any place in dramatic literature. See also:Colley See also:Cibber mentions as the first example, followed by " that See also:Succession of monstrous Medlies," a piece on the See also:story of See also:Mars and See also:Venus, which was still in dumb-show; for he describes it as " form'd into a connected Presentation of Dances in Character, wherein the Passions were so happily expressed, and the whole Story so intelligibly told, by a See also:mute Narration of Gesture only, that even thinking Spectators allow'd it both a pleasing and a rational Entertainment." There is nothing to show that Harlequin and his companions figured in this piece. Genest, who has no See also:record of it, See also:dates the period when such entertainments first came into See also:vogue in England about 1723. In that See also:year the pantomime of Harlequin Dr Faustus had been produced at See also:Drury See also:Lane—its author being See also:John Thurmond, a dancing master, who afterwards (in 1727) published a See also:grotesque entertainment called The See also:Miser, ar See also:Wagner and Abericock (a copy of this is in the See also:Dyce Library).

Hereupon, in See also:

December 1723, John See also:Rich (1692-1761), then lessee of the See also:theatre in See also:Lincoln's See also:Inn See also:Fields, produced there as a See also:rival pantomime The Necromancer, or History of Dr Faustus, no doubt, says Genest, " gotten up with See also:superior splendour." He had as early as 1717 been connected with the See also:production of a piece called Harlequin Executed, and there seem traces of similar entertainments as far back as the year 1700. But it was the inspiriting influence of French example and the keen rivalry between the See also:London houses, which in 1723 really established pantomime on the English stage. Rich was at the time fighting a difficult See also:battle against Drury Lane, and his pantomimes at Lincoln's Inn Fields, and afterwards at Covent See also:Garden, were extraordinarily successful. He was himself an inimitable harlequin, and from See also:Garrick's lines in his See also:honour it appears that his acting consisted of " frolic gestures " without words. The favourite Drury Lane harlequin was Pinkethman (See also:Pope's " poor Pinky ") ; readers of the Taller (No. 188) will remember the ironical nicety with which his merits are weighed against those of his competitor See also:Bullock at the other See also:house. Colley Cibber, when described by Pope as " mounting the See also:wind on grinning dragons " briskly denied having in his own See also:person or otherwise encouraged such fooleries; in his See also:Apology, however, he enters into an elaborate See also:defence of himself for having allowed himself to be forced into countenancing the " See also:gin-shops of the stage," See also:pleading that he was justified by See also:necessity, as Henry IV. was in changing his See also:religion. Another See also:butt of Pope's, See also:Lewis See also:Theobald, was himself the author of more than one pantomime; their titles already run in the See also:familiar fashion, e.g. A Dramatick Entertainment, See also:call'd Harlequin a Sorcerer, with the Loves of See also:Pluto and See also:Proserpine (1725; the " See also:book of the words," as it may be called, is in the Dyce Library). Inanother early pantomime (also in the Dyce Library) called See also:Perseus and See also:Andromeda, with the See also:Rape of Colombine, or The Flying. Lovers, there are five " interludes, three serious and two comic." This is precisely in the manner of See also:Fielding's dramatic See also:squib against pantomimes, Tumble-down See also:Dick, or Phaeton' in the Suds, first acted in 1744, and ironically dedicated to " Mr John Lun," the name that Rich See also:chose to assume as harlequin. It is a See also:capital See also:bit of See also:burlesque, which seems to have been directly suggested by See also:Pritchard's Fall of Phaeton, produced in 1736.

There seems no need to pursue further the history of English pantomime in detail. " Things of this nature are above See also:

criticism," as Mr See also:Machine, the " composer " of Phaeton, says in Fielding's piece. The See also:attempt was made more than once to See also:free the stage from the See also:incubus of entertainments to which the public persisted in flocking; in vain Colley Cibber at first laid down the See also:rule of never giving a pantomime together with a See also:good play; in vain his son See also:Theophilus after him advised the return of part of the entrance See also:money to those who would leave the house before the pantomime began. " It may be questioned," says the chronicler, " if there was a demand for the return of 20 in ten years." Pantomime carried everything before it when there were several theatres in London, and a dearth of high dramatic See also:talent prevailed in all; and, allowing for occasional See also:counter-attractions of a not very dissimilar nature, pantomime continued to flourish after the Licensing See also:Act of 1737 had restricted the number of London play-houses, and after Garrick's See also:star had risen on the theatrical See also:horizon. He was himself obliged to satisfy the public appetite, and to disoblige the admirers of his See also:art, in deference to the drama's most imperious patrons—the public at large. In France an attempt was made by See also:Noverre (q.v.) to restore pantomime proper to the stage as an See also:independent species, by treating mythological subjects seriously in artificial ballets. This attempt, which of course could not prove permanently successful, met in England also with See also:great See also:applause. In an See also:anonymous See also:tract of the year 1789 in the Dyce Library, attributed by Dyce to See also:Archdeacon See also:Nares (the author of the Glossary), Noverre's pantomime or ballet See also:Cupid and See also:Psyche is commended as of very extraordinary merit in the choice and See also:execution of the subject. It seems to have been without words. The writer of the tract states that " very lately the serious pantomime has made a new advance in this See also:country, and has gained See also:establishment in an English theatre "; but he leaves it an open question whether the See also:grand ballet of See also:Medea and See also:Jason (apparently produced a few years earlier, for a burlesque on the subject came out in 178r)was the first See also:complete performance of the kind produced in England. He also notes The See also:Death of See also:Captain See also:Cook, adapted from the Parisian stage, as possessing considerable dramatic merit, and exhibiting " a pleasing picture of See also:savage customs and See also:manners." To conclude, the See also:chief difference between the earlier and later forms of English pantomime seems to See also:lie in the fact that in the earlier Harlequin pervaded the action, appearing in the comic scenes which alternated throughout the piece with the serious which formed the backbone of the story. See also:Columbine (originally in Italian comedy Harlequin's daughter) was generally a See also:village See also:maiden courted by her adventurous See also:lover, whom village See also:con-stables pursued, thus performing the laborious part of the See also:police-See also:man of the modern harlequinade.

The brilliant scenic effects were of course accumulated, instead of upon the transformation See also:

scene, upon the last scene of all, which in modern pantomime follows upon the shadowy See also:chase of the characters called the rally. The commanding influence of the See also:clown, to whom pantaloon is attached as friend; flatterer and See also:foil, seems to be of comparatively modern growth; the most famous of his See also:craft was undoubtedly See also:Joseph See also:Grimaldi (1779-1837). His memory is above all connected with the famous pantomime of See also:Mother See also:Goose, produced at Covent Garden in ,8o6. The older See also:British type of See also:Christmas pantomime, which kept its place in London till the 'seventies, has been preserved from oblivion in See also:Thackeray's Sketches and Travels in London. The species is not yetwholly See also:extinct; but, by degrees, the rise of the music-halls and the popularity of a new type of music-See also:hall performer influenced the character of the show which was given under the name of a Christmas pantomime at the theatres, and it became more of a burlesque " variety entertainment," dovetailed into a See also:fairy play and with the" harlequinade " part (which had formed the closing scene of the older sort) sometimes omitted. The word had really lost its meaning. The thing itself survived rather in such occasional appearances of the Pierrot " drama without words as charmed London playgoers in the early 'nineties in such pieces as L'Enfant prodigue. (A. W.

End of Article: PANTOMIME

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