at gentleman to sit down," "Take off your
hat?" and the like. "But the moment," continues Dibdin, "the curtain
goes up (on the Pantomime), if any unfortunate gentleman speaks a word
they make no reply, _but throw him over directly_."

Seemingly afterwards, at Pantomime time, "Barnwell" was discarded in
favour of "Jane Shore," as in "The Theatrical Magazine" we find a writer
penning the following:--

A few years since it was the established rule to play "George Barnwell,"
by way, we suppose, of a "great moral lesson" to the apprentices of
London. In this age of innovation this venerable custom has been broken
down, but the principle seems not wholly to have been abandoned. "Jane
Shore" has supplanted "Barnwell," and the anxieties of the age, are, it
would appear, now directed towards the softer sex. Seriously speaking,
we consider these Christmas selections as exceedingly absurd. Visitants
at this period of the year frequent the theatre less for the purpose of
seeing the play than the Pantomime, and at both theatres it was this
evening their chief, and almost only, attraction; for the tragedy of
Rowe, which is of very little merit, derived but trifling interest or
effect from the performers who personated the prominent characters.
Moreover the lessons of the pulpit have unfortunately but too slight an
influence on those who attend them, and we are rather fearful the moral
benefits to be derived from these stage lectures, to the apprentices and
servants of the metropolis, do not countervail the loss of pleasure
sustained by those who would be so much better pleased; and, therefore,
perhaps, taught by a lively comedy, satirising some of the light vices
or laughable follies of the age. We trust this theatrical nuisance will
be for the future reformed; we can almost excuse the holiday folks for
being turbulent, when we reflect upon the insult offered to their
understandings, in the treatment they receive on these occasions.

In 1830, at Covent Garden Theatre, Peake introduced into the Pantomime
of "Harlequin Pat, and Harlequin Bat" a "speaking opening." Pantomime,
however, pursued the even tenour of its way until the production at the
Adelphi, about 1857, of a Pantomime, with a "burlesque opening," and
"the thin end of the wedge" was provided, written by Mark Lemon. In the
Harlequinade, Madame Celeste appeared as Harlequin _a la Watteau_, and
Miss Mary Keeley was the Columbine. These Extravaganzas, from the pen of
Planche,