s--Charles and Richard
Stilt--Richard Flexmore--Tom Gray--The Paulos--Dubois--Arthur and
Charles Leclerq--"Jimmy" Barnes--Famous Pantaloons--Miss Farren--Mrs.
Siddons--Columbines--Notable Actors in Pantomime.

In the histrionic profession the genius of hereditary is shown over and
over again; and no more so than in Pantomimic families. For, if blessed
with a numerous progeny, the sons became--the eldest, of course, could
only, as the place of honour, be Clown--the others, Harlequins,
Pantaloons; the daughters, Columbines; and, perhaps, Harlequinas.

In the last chapter but one I have referred to Grimaldi's father,
Giuseppe Grimaldi, "Iron Legs," and now let us recall something more of
the sire of so worthy a son.

As a dancer--as his father was before him--and Pantomimist, Giuseppe
Grimaldi, before coming to England, had appeared at the fairs of France
and Italy. In 1758 Giuseppe made his first appearance on the stage of
Drury Lane, under Garrick's management, in a new Pantomime dance,
entitled, "The Millers."

For some thirty years afterwards the Signor continued to be a member of
the Drury Lane _corps de ballet_, and appearing as Clown, Harlequin, and
Pantaloon.

In 1764, Giuseppe played Harlequin in a Clown-less Pantomime at Sadler's
Wells, and in the Drury Lane Pantomime of the same year, though there
were Harlequin, Pantaloon, and Columbine in it, there was no Clown.
Drury Lane was then only open in the winter, and Sadler's Wells in the
summer months.

A notable Harlequin was Mr. James Byrne, the ballet-master. "Mr. Byrne,"
says Grimaldi, in his "Memoirs," "was the best Harlequin on the boards,
and never has been excelled, or even equalled, since that period."

Mr. Byrne came of a well-known dancing family, and to him we owe the
introduction of the tight-fitting dress worn by Harlequin. Until the
production of the Pantomime of "Harlequin Amulet, or the Magic of Mona,"
at Drury Lane Theatre, written by Mr. Powell, produced at Christmas,
1799, by Mr. Byrne, and which ran until Easter, 1800--it had been the
loose jacket and trousers of the ancient Mimes. It had also been
considered indispensable that Harlequin should be continually
attitudinising in the five different positions of Admiration,
Flirtation, Thought, Defiance, and Determination; and continually
passing from one to the other without pausing. Byrne, for newer
attitudes, abolished these postures, but long afterwards the old form of
posing was, and