Adolphus William Ward

“ The modern pantomime, as the word is still used, more especially in connexion with the English 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 that action or of its adjuncts is conducted by certain conventional characters, originally derived from Italian “masked comedy,” itself an adaptation of the fabulae Atellanae of ancient Italy. Were it not for this addition, it would be difficult to define modern pantomime so as to distinguish it from the masque ”

“ About the second quarter of the 18th century, before these performers were incorporated with the Italians, the light kind of dramatic entertainment combining pantomime proper with dialogue and song enjoyed high favour with the French and their visitors during this period of peace. The vaudeville was cultivated by Le Sage and other writers of mark, though it did not conquer an enduring place in dramatic literature till rather later, when it had, moreover, been completely nationalized by the extension of the Italian types. ”

“ 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 life by the Renaissance. In Italy the transition was almost imperceptible from the pastoral drama to the opera ”

“ 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 marionettes, or of examining the history of his super session by Pierrot and of his ultimate extinction.
Students of French comedy, and of Moliere in particular, are aware of the influence of the Italian players upon the progress of French comedy, and upon the works of its incomparable master. ”

“ Hereupon, in December 1723, John Rich (1692–1761) , then lessee of the theatre in Lincoln's Inn Fields, produced there as a rival pantomime The Necromancer, or History of Dr Faustus, no doubt, says Genest, " gotten up with superior splendour." He had as early as 1717 been connected with the 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 London houses, which in 1723 really established pantomime on the English stage. ”

“ In 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.” ”