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The pantomime's most admirable quality I have yet to mention, his combination of strength and suppleness of limb; it is as if brawny Heracles and soft Aphrodite were presented to us in one and the same person. I now propose to sketch out the mental and physical qualifications necessary for a first-rate pantomime.
These limitations we will concede to the pantomime's wide field of knowledge; but within them he must be familiar with every detail: the mutilation of Uranus, the origin of Aphrodite, the battle of Titans, the birth of Zeus, Rhea's deception, her substitution of a stone for her child, the binding of Cronus, the partition of the world between the three brothers.
American Pantomimes consisted of a semi-pastoral "opening," performed almost entirely in dumb show, and a big trick Harlequinade, and down to the time of Pantomime's decease in America was it played like this. George L. Fox made Pantomime highly popular in America.
Nor is any story more essential to the pantomime's purpose than that of Hypsipyle and Archemorus in Nemea; and, in older days, the imprisonment of Danae, the begetting of Perseus, his enterprise against the Gorgons; and connected therewith is the Ethiopian narrative of Cassiopea, and Cepheus, and Andromeda, all of whom the belief of later generations has placed among the stars.
Sir Harry set down his glass of claret, stared at the boy, and broke into musical laughter. Taffy perceived he had made some ridiculous mistake and blushed furiously. "God bless the child the Pantomime's at the theatre!" "Oh!" Taffy recalled the canvas booth and wheezy cornet of his early days with a chill of disappointment. But with George at his side it was impossible to be anything but happy.
The house was filled in every part, and the announcement of the Pantomime's repetition was received with the most clamorous approbation, undisturbed by a single dissentient voice. The first production of "The House that Jack Built," at Covent Garden, on December 26, 1824, also reads interestingly:
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