equin was to enter almost
in the first scene. "I have hit on nothing I can think of better,"
writes Kemble, "than the story of King Arthur and Merlin, and the
Saxon Wizards. The pantomime might open with the Saxon witches
lamenting Merlin's power over them, and forming an incantation by
which they create a harlequin, who is supposed to be able to
counteract Merlin in all his designs for the good of King Arthur. If
the Saxons came on in a dreadful storm, as they proceeded in their
magical rites, the sky might brighten and a rainbow sweep across the
horizon, which, when the ceremonies are completed, should contract
itself from either end and form the figure of harlequin in the
heavens; the wizards may fetch him down how they will, and the sooner
he is set to work the better. If this idea for producing a harlequin
is not new do not adopt it."

The main difficulty of pantomime-writers at this time seems to have
been the contriving of some new method of bringing harlequin upon the
scene. Now he was conjured up from a well, now from a lake, out of a
bower, a furnace, &c.; but it was always held desirable to introduce
him to the spectators as early as might be. In Tom Dibdin's pantomime
of "Harlequin in his Element; or, Fire, Water, Earth, and Air,"
produced at Covent Garden in 1807, the first scene represents "a
beautiful garden, with terraces, arcades, fountains," &c. The curtain
"rises to a soft symphony." Aurino, the Genius of Air, descends on a
light cloud; Aquina, the Spirit of Water, rises from a fountain;
Terrena, the Spirit of Earth, springs up a trap; and Ignoso, the
Genius of Fire, descends amid thunder from the skies. These characters
interchange a little rhymed dialogue, and discuss which of them is the
most powerful. Ignoso is very angry, and threatens his associates.
Terrena demands:

Fire, why so hot? Your bolts distress not me,
But injure the fair mistress of these bowers,
Whose sordid guardian would her husband be,
For lucre, not for love.
Rather than quarrel, let us use our powers,
And gift with magic aid some active sprite,
To foil the guardian and the girl to right.

The proposition is agreed to, and thereupon, according to stage
direction, "Harlequin is produced from a bed of parti-coloured
flowers, and the magic sword is given to him." He is addressed by each
of the spirits in turn. Then we read: "Ignoso sinks. Aquina strikes
the fountains; they begin playing. Terren