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mime did good service to all concerned. Besides, if people of position and taste could, if so minded, leave before the nonsense commenced--an opportunity they do not seem to have embraced since Booth reminded the opponents of Pantomime how Italian opera had drawn the nobility and gentry away from the play-houses, as appeared by the melancholy testimony of their receipts, until Pantomime came to the rescue when pit and gallery were better filled, and the boxes too put on a nobler appearance." CHAPTER XV. John Rich and his Pantomimes--Rich's Miming---Garrick, Walpole, Foote--Anecdotes of Rich--Pope--The dance of infernals in "Harlequin Sorcerer"--Drury Lane--Colley Cibber--Henry Fielding, the Novelist--Contemporary Writers' opinion of Pantomime--Woodward, the Harlequin--The meaning of the word Actor--Harlequins--"Dr. Faustus," a description--William Rufus Chetwood--Accidents--Vandermere, the Harlequin--"Orpheus and Eurydice" at Covent Garden--A description--Sam. Hoole, the machinist--Prejudice against Pantomime--Mrs. Oldfield--Robert Wilks--Macklin--Riot at Lincoln's Inn Fields Theatre--Death of Rich. It was in 1717 that Rich devised this new form of entertainment, though it was not till 1724, when "The Necromancer, or History of Dr. Faustus" was produced by Rich, which took the town by storm, that Pantomime became such a rage. It has been stated that what induced Rich to turn his attention to Pantomime was the bringing over of a German, named Swartz, who had two performing dogs that could dance. They were engaged at L10 a night; and brought full houses. However, be this as it may, in the "Daily Courant," of December 20, 1717, we find him, advertising for his "Italian Mimic Scenes"--as he, for long enough, so termed his Pantomimes--as follows:-- "Harlequin Executed: a new Italian Mimic Scene between a Scaramouch, a Harlequin, a Country Farmer, his Wife, and others." Of Rich and his early Pantomimes, Davies observes:-- John Rich was the son of Christopher Rich, formerly patentee of Drury Lane Theatre, and he imbibed from his father a _dislike of people with whom he was obliged to live and converse_. His father wished to acquire wealth by French dancers and Italian singers, than by the united skill of the most accomplished comedians. The son inherited the same taste, and when he came into the patent, with his brother Christopher, of Drury Lane, and after having ineffectually tried h
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