Verum qui non manibus clare, quantum
Potent, plauserit,
Ei, pro scorto, supponetur hircus unctus nantea."

On the Roman stage female parts were represented in tragedy by men, is
ascertained (says Malone) by one of Cicero's letters to Atticus, and by
a passage in Horace. Horace mentions, however, a female performer called
Arbuscula, but as we find from his own authority men personated women on
the Roman stage, she was probably an _Emboliariae_. Servius calls her a
_Mima_, or one who danced in the Pantomimic dances, and which seems more
probable, as she is mentioned by Cicero, who says the part of Andromache
was played by a male performer on the very day Arbuscula also performed.

The principal Roman _Mimas_ were:--Arbuscula, Thymele, Licilia,
Dionysia, Cytheris, Valeria, and Cloppia.

In the satirical interludes of the Grecian stage, and the _Fabulae
Atellanae_ of the Roman theatres, the _Exodiarii_ and _Emboliariae_ of
the Mimes, were the remote progenitors (says Malone) of the Vice or
Devil, and the Clown of our English Mystery plays, the latter series of
plays being the origin of the drama of this country. The exact
conformity between our Clown and the _Exodiarii_ and _Emboliariae_ of
the Roman stage is ascertained by that passage in Pliny--"_Lucceia Mima
centum annis in scena pronuntiavit. Galeria, Copiola, Emboliariae,
reducta est in scenam: annum certissimum quartum agens_," is thus
translated by an English author, Philemon Holland, "Lucceia, a common
Vice in a play, followed the stage, and acted thereupon 100 yeeres. Such
another Vice that _plaied the foole, and made sporte between whiles in
interludes_, named Galeria Copiola, was brought to act upon the stage
when she was in the 104th yeere of her age." We shall, in another
chapter, return to the Vice, or Clown.

CHAPTER VII.

Introduction of the Roman Pantomimic Art into Britain--First English
reference to the word Pantomime--The fall of the Roman Empire--The
sacred play--Cornish Amphitheatres--Pantomimical and Lyrical elements in
the sacrifice of the Mass--Christian banishment of the
_Mimis_--Penalties imposed by the Church--St. Anthony on Harlequin and
Punch--Vandenhoff--what we owe to the _Mimis_.

With the advent of Julius Caesar and the conquest of Britain by the
Romans, about the year 52 B.C., we have, in all probability, the first
introduction of the Roman Pantomimic Art into this country. Inasmuch as
we have it upon the autho