at older Joe--John Anderson.
Like vaulting ambition, I have overleaped myself, and pay the penalty in
an advanced old age. If I have now any aptitude for tumbling it is
through bodily infirmity, for I am worse on my feet than I used to be on
my head. It is four years since I jumped my last jump--filched my last
oyster--boiled my last sausage--and set in for retirement. Not quite so
well provided for, I must acknowledge, as in the days of my Clownship,
for then, I dare say, some of you remember, I used to have a fowl in one
pocket and sauce for it in the other.

"To-night has seen me assume the motley for a short time--it clung to my
skin as I took it off, and the old cap and bells rang mournfully as I
quitted them for ever.

"With the same respectful feelings as ever do I find myself in your
presence--in the presence of my last audience--this kindly assemblage so
happily contradicting the adage that a favourite has no friends. For the
benvolence that brought you hither--accept, ladies and gentlemen, my
warmest and most grateful thanks, and believe, that of one and all,
Joseph Grimaldi takes a double leave, with a farewell on his lips, and a
tear in his eyes.

"Farewell! That you and yours may ever enjoy that greatest earthly
good--health, is the sincere wish of your faithful and obliged servant.
God bless you all!"

Poor Joe was buried in the burying-ground of St. James' Chapel, on
Pentonville Hill, and in a grave next to his friend, Charles Dibdin. May
the earth lie lightly over him!

CHAPTER XVII.

Plots of the old form of Pantomimes--A description of "Harlequin and the
Ogress; or the Sleeping Beauty of the Wood," produced at Covent
Garden--Grimaldi, _Pere et Fils_--Tom Ellar, the Harlequin, and Barnes,
the Pantaloon--An account of the first production of the "House that
Jack built," at Covent Garden--Spectacular display--Antiquity and Origin
of some Pantomimic devices--Devoto, Angelo, and French, the Scenic
Artists--Transparencies--Beverley--Transformation Scenes.

Of the plots of the old form of Pantomime and what these entertainments
were generally like, graphically, does Planche describe them.

How different (he says) were the Christmas Pantomimes of my younger
days. A pretty story--a nursery tale--dramatically told, in which "the
course of true love never did run smooth," formed the opening; the
characters being a cross-grained old father, with a pretty daughter, who
had two suitors--one a poor