acitus, Annals, lib. i. sect. 77, in Murphy's
translation.]

[Footnote 34: This measure of "restrictive policy," which gave to the
patent theatres the sole right of performing the legitimate drama
properly, led to the construction of plays for the minor theatres,
entirely carried on by action, occasionally aided by inscriptions
painted on scrolls, and unrolled and exhibited by the actor when his
power of expressing such words failed. This led to the education of a
series of pantomimists, who taught action conventionally to represent
words. At the close of the last century, there were many such; and the
reader who may be curious to see the nature of these dumb dramas, may do
so in two volumes named "Circusiana," by J.C. Cross, the author of very
many that were performed at the Royal Circus, in St. George's Fields.
The whole action of the drama was performed to music composed expressly
to aid the expression of the performers, among the best of whom were
Bologna and D'Egville. It is a class of dramatic art which has now
almost entirely passed away; or is seen, but in a minor degree, in the
pantomimic action of a grand ballet at the opera.]

[Footnote 35: L'Antiq. Exp. v. 63.]

[Footnote 36: Louis Riccoboni, in his curious little treatise, "Du
Theatre Italien," illustrated by seventeen prints of the Italian
pantomimic characters, has duly collected the authorities. I give them,
in the order quoted above, for the satisfaction of more grave inquirers.
Vossius, Instit. Poet, lib. ii. 32, Sec. 4. The Mimi blackened their faces.
Diomedes, de Orat. lib. iii. Apuleius, in Apolog. And further, the
patched dress was used by the ancient peasants of Italy, as appears by a
passage in Varro, De Re Rust, lib. i. c. 8; and Juvenal employs the term
_centunculus_ as a diminutive of _cento_, for a coat made up of patches.
This was afterwards applied metaphorically to those well-known poems
called _centos_, composed of shreds and patches of poetry, collected
from all quarters. Goldoni considered Harlequin as a poor devil and
dolt, whose coat is made up of rags patched together; his hat shows
mendicity; and the hare's tail is still the dress of the peasantry of
Bergamo. Quadrio, in his learned _Storia d'ogni Poesia_, has diffused
his erudition on the ancient _Mimi_ and their successors. Dr. Clarke has
discovered the light lath sword of Harlequin, which had hitherto baffled
my most painful researches, amidst the dark mysteries of the ancient