From 1560 his dress was that of a professor’s, a short, black tunic, stockings, and a black mask covering the forehead and nose.  Another, Facanappa, had a long parrot nose, surmounted by a pair of green spectacles, a flat hat, with a broad brim, a waistcoat covered with tinsel, and a long white coat with large pockets.  Like the Clown of our early English plays, and like his ancestors, the Atellans and Mimes, he had the privilege of making allusions from the stage, in what, I suppose, were something like the Interludes.  Il Barone is another variety.  He was a Sicilian lord, deceived by his daughter, and also duped by his valets. “Il Barone” was a favourite subject for another form of “Miming,” that of the wooden figures called Marionettes.

Marionette entertainments were known both to the Greeks and the Romans.  The adventures of “Don Juan” and “Don Giovanni,” of the Italian Opera, in all probability sprang originally from the adventures of Punch in the puppet shows.

Puppet shows introduced into France (temp. Charles IX.) from Italy, where they were and are still known as Fantoccini, by Marion—­hence their name—­and then into this country, are mentioned by Shakespeare, Pepys, Jonson, Swift, and the Essayists.

Puppet shows, in this country, were formerly known as “Motions.”  Shakespeare’s Antolycus frequented fairs and the like, and he also composed a “Motion” of “The Prodigal Son.”  Mystery plays were also represented by puppets.

In England, especially at Bartholomew Fair, they were always very popular, and the chief survivor of this form of “dumb show” is “Mr. Punch” of our streets, whose ancient history I have briefly mentioned in another chapter, but not that of “Mrs. Punch,” on whose history I am unable—­however so brief—­to throw any light.

Let us now, dear reader, return to England, and trace in this country something more of the History of Pantomime, and for which we will now open another chapter.

CHAPTER XIII.

Italian Scenarios and English “Platts”—­Pantaloon—­Tarleton, the Clown—­Extemporal Comedy—­The Poet Milton—­Ben Jonson—­The Commonwealth—­“A Reign of Dramatic Terror”—­Robert Cox and his “Humours” and “Drolleries”—­The Restoration.

It has been thought that our dramatic poet, Massinger, drew upon the Italian Comedy for the humour of some of his plays.  That there was some form of intercourse between the English and Italian stage is shown by the discovery of one of the Italian Scenarios, or “Platts,” as we know them, at Dulwich College, which discovery Steevens describes as “a mysterious fragment of ancient stage direction, and of a species of dramatic entertainment which no memorial is preserved in any annals of the English stage.”  The “Platt,” written in a large hand, “And containing directions, was thought to have been affixed near the prompter’s stand, and it has even an oblong hole in its centre to admit of being suspended on a wooden peg (Disraeli).  On it, and in a familiar way, appear the names of the players, such as:  Pigg, White and Black, Dick and Sam, Little Will Barne, Jack Gregory, and the Red-faced fellow.”