ruth, a burlesque comedy. Some of the finest
geniuses of Italy became the votaries of Harlequin; and the Italian
Pantomime may be said to form a school of its own. The invention of
Ruzzante was one capable of perpetual novelty. Many of these actors have
been chronicled either for the invention of some comic character, or for
their true imitation of nature in performing some favourite one. One,
already immortalised by having lost his real name in that of Captain
Matamoros, by whose inimitable humours he became the most popular man in
Italy, invented the Neapolitan Pullicinello; while another, by deeper
study, added new graces to another burlesque rival. One Constantini
invented the character of Mezetin, as the Narcissus of Pantomime. He
acted without a mask, to charm by the beautiful play of his countenance,
and display the graces of his figure; the floating drapery of his
fanciful dress could be arranged by the changeable humour of the wearer.
Crowds followed him in the streets, and a King of Poland ennobled him.
The Wit and Harlequin Dominic sometimes dined at the table of Louis
XIV.--Tiberio Florillo, who invented the character of Scaramouch, had
been the amusing companion of the boyhood of Louis XIV.; and from him
Moliere learnt much, as appears by the verses under his portrait:--

Cet illustre comedien
De son art traca la carriere:
II fut le maitre de Moliere,
Et la Nature fut le sien.

The last lines of an epitaph on one of these Pantomimic actors may be
applied to many of them during their flourishing period:--

Toute sa vie il a fait rire;
Il a fait pleurer a sa mort.

Several of these admirable actors were literary men, who have written on
their art, and shown that it was one. The Harlequin Cecchini composed
the most ancient treatise on this subject, and was ennobled by the
Emperor Matthias; and Nicholas Barbieri, for his excellent acting called
the Beltrame, a Milanese simpleton, in his treatise on comedy, tells us
that he was honoured by the conversation of Louis XIII., and rewarded
with fortune.

A sketch of Harlequin's original part is worth recording. "He is a
mixture of wit, simplicity, ignorance, and grace, he is a half made up
man, a great child with gleams of reason and intelligence, and all his
mistakes and blunders have something arch about them. The true mode of
representing him is to give him suppleness, agility, the playfulness of
a kitten with a certain coarseness of