ngagement there has certainly been a lucrative
speculation for the proprietors. "Mother Goose," we believe, drew more
money than any other piece which has been produced during the present
century; and no Pantomime since brought forward at Covent Garden has
been unsuccessful; which is mainly to be attributed to his inimitable
performance of Clown. It is scarcely possible for language to do justice
to his unequalled powers of gesture and expression. Do our readers
recollect a Pantomime some years ago, in which he was introduced begging
a tart from a pieman? The simple expression, "May I?" with the look and
action which accompanied it, are impressed upon our recollection, as
forming one of the finest pieces of acting we ever witnessed. Indeed,
let the subject be what it may, it never fails to become highly amusing
in the hands of Grimaldi; whether it is to rob a pieman, or open an
oyster, imitate a chimney-sweep, or a dandy, grasp a red-hot poker, or
devour a pudding, take snuff, sneeze, make love, mimic a tragedian,
cheat his master, pick a pocket, beat a watchman, or nurse a child, it
is all performed in so admirably humorous and extravagantly natural a
manner, that spectators of the most saturnine disposition are
irresistibly moved to laughter.

Mr. Grimaldi also possesses great merit in Pantomimic performances of a
different character, which all are aware of, who have ever seen him in
the melodrama, called "Perouse," and other pieces of the same
description.

We cannot better terminate this article, than with a poetical tribute to
his powers, addressed to him by one of the authors of "Horace in
London," who appears to have had a true relish of his subject:--

Facetious Mime! thou enemy of gloom,
Grandson of Momus, blithe and debonair,
Who, aping Pan, with an inverted broom,
Can'st brush the cobwebs from the brows of care.

Our gallery gods immortalize thy song;
Thy Newgate thefts impart ecstatic pleasure;
Thou bid'st a Jew's harp charm a Christian throng,
A Gothic salt-box teem with attic treasure.

When Harlequin, entangled in thy clue,
By magic seeks to dissipate the strife,
Thy furtive fingers snatch his faulchion too;
The luckless wizard loses wand and wife.

The fabled egg from thee obtains its gold;
Thou sett'st the mind from critic bondage loose,
Where male and female cacklers, young and old,
Birds of a feather, hail the sa