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We went last night to see the Fantoccini, where we had infinite entertainment from the performance of a little comedy in French and Italian, by puppets, so admirably managed, that they both astonished and diverted us all, except the Captain, who has a fixed and most prejudiced hatred of whatever is not English.
If people, like the Vicar of Wakefield, will sometimes "allow themselves to be happy," they can hardly fail to have a hearty laugh at the drolleries of the Fantoccini.
The figures were carved by the most skilful wood-carvers of Paris, and the play was written by a pious monk of the Benedictines." The jester seemed not to be listening very attentively. He twirled the stem of the wine-cup in his hand, crooning, "'Fantoccini, fantoccino, Chi s'arrischia baldacchino, Ognuno per se, Diavolo per tutti."
On one occasion he accompanied Edmund Burke to witness a performance of the Italian Fantoccini or Puppets, in Panton Street; an exhibition which had hit the caprice of the town, and was in great vogue. The puppets were set in motion by wires, so well concealed as to be with difficulty detected.
Make use of his name!-what impertinence-he can never know how it happened,-he can only imagine it was from an excess of vanity;-well, however, I shall leave this bad city to-morrow, and never again will I enter it. The Captain intends to take us to-night to the Fantoccini. I cannot bear that Captain; I can give you no idea how gross he is.
That which had been so lately nothing but flesh and blood, a living fibre, 'instinct with fire' and spirit, was no better than a little fantoccini figure, darting backwards and forwards on the stage, starting, screaming, and playing a number of fantastic tricks before the audience.
Miss Montenero had not yet seen the Tower, and Mowbray engaged himself to be of our party. But at the same time, he privately begged me to keep it a dead secret from his sister. Lady Anne, he said, would never cease to ridicule him, if she were to hear of his going to the Tower, after having been too lazy to go with her, and all the fashionable world, the night before, to the Fantoccini.
And besides, I depend so much upon the professor and his introductory notes: 'Ladies and gents, permit me to introduce the world-renowned Signor Fantoccini, whose marvelous tricks have long puzzled all the crowned heads of Europe " "Fantoccini," musingly. "That's Italian for puppet show." "I know it, but the dime-museum visitors do not. It makes a fine impression."
Who work the contemptible fantoccini who gesticulate to the Ephesian hubbub of 'greatness' I neither know nor care, but it is simply out of credence that their motions are spontaneous. Expede Herculem. I will take a solitary story from Mr. Crockett's 'Stickit Minister.
At that period the city boasted of its Addison of letters since forgotten; its Feu-de-joie, the peerless dancer, whose beauty had fired the Duke Gambade to that extravagant conduct which made the recipient of those marked attentions the talk of the town; its Roscius of the drama; its irresistible ingenue, the lovely, little Fantoccini; and its theatrical carpet-knight, M. Grimacier, whose intrigue with the stately and, heretofore, saintly Madame Etalage had, it was said later, much to do with the unhappy taking-off of that ostentatious and haughty lady.
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