XXI.—JOCULAR DANCES.
In the Roman de la Rose, we read of a dance, the name of which is not recorded, performed by two young women lightly clothed. The original reads, "Qui estoient en pure cottes, et tresses a menu tresse;" which Chaucer renders, "In kyrtels, and none other wede, and fayre ytressed every tresse." The French intimates that their hair was platted, or braided in small braids. The thin clothing, I suppose, was used then, as it is now upon like occasions, to show their persons to greater advantage. In their dancing they displayed a variety of singular attitudes; the one coming as it were privately to the other, and, when they were near together, in a playsome manner they turned their faces about, so that they seemed continually to kiss each other
A dance, the merit of which, if I mistake not, consisted in the agility and adroitness of the performer, has been noticed already, and is represented by the engraving No. 51; [739] and likewise in No. 59, [740] where a woman is dancing, and eluding the pursuit of a bear made angry by the scourge of his master. The various situations of the actress and the disappointment of the animal excited, no doubt, the mirth as well as the applause of the spectators.
Many of the ancient dances were of a jocular kind, and sometimes executed by one person: we have, for instance, an account of a man who danced upon a table before king Edward II. The particulars of the dance are not specified; but it is said, that his majesty laughed very heartily at the performance: "Et lui fist tres grandement rire." [741] It probably consisted of quaint attitudes and ridiculous gesticulations. The king, however, was so delighted, that he gave a reward of fifty shillings to the dancer, which was a great sum in those days. A few years ago, [742] there was a fellow that used to frequent the different public-houses in the metropolis, who, mounting a table, would stand upon his head with his feet towards the ceiling, and make all the different steps of a hornpipe upon it for the diversion of the company. His method of performing was to place a porter-pot upon the table, raised high enough for his feet to touch the ceiling, when his head was upon the pot. I have been told that many publicans would not permit him to come into their houses, because he had damaged their ceiling, and in some places danced part of it down. An exhibition nearly as ridiculous is here represented from a MS. in the Royal Library.
Here we perceive a girl dancing upon the shoulders of the joculator, who at the same time is playing upon the bagpipes, and appears to be in the action of walking forwards. [743]
XXII.—WIRE-DANCING.
Wire-dancing, at least so much of it as I have seen exhibited, appears to me to be misnamed: it consists rather of various feats of balancing, the actor sitting, standing, lying, or walking, upon the wire, which at the same time is usually swung backwards and forwards; and this, I am told, is a mere trick, to give the greater air of difficulty to the performance. Instead of dancing, I would call it balancing upon the wire.
XXIII.—BALLETTE-DANCES.
The grand figure-dances, and ballettes of action, as they are called, of the modern times, most probably surpass in splendour the ancient exhibitions of dancing. They first appeared, I believe, at the Opera-house; but have since been adopted by the two royal theatres, and imitated with less splendour upon the summer stages. These spectacles are too extensive by far in their operations, and too multifarious to be described in a general work like this: suffice it to say, they are pantomimical representations of historical and poetical subjects, expressed by fantastical gestures, aided by superb dresses, elegant music, and beautiful scenery; and sorry am I to add, they have nearly eclipsed the sober portraitures of real nature, and superseded in the public estimation the less attractive lessons of good sense.
XXIV.-LEAPING AND VAULTING.
There are certain feats of tumbling and vaulting that have no connexion with dancing, such as leaping and turning with the heels over the head in the air, termed the somersault, corruptly called a somerset. Mrs. Piozzi, speaking of Robert Carr, earl of Somerset, and favourite of James I., says, "and the sommerset, still used by tumblers, taken from him." [744] The word, however, was in use, and applied by the tumblers to the feat above mentioned, before the birth of Carr. There was also the feat of turning round with great rapidity, alternately bearing upon the hands and feet, denominated the fly-flap. In a satirical pamphlet, entitled The Character of a Quack Doctor, published at London, 1676, the empiric, boasting of his cures, says, "The Sultan Gilgal, being violently afflicted with a spasmus, came six hundred leagues to meet me in a go-cart: I gave him so speedy an acquittance from his dolor, that the next night he danced a saraband with fly-flaps and somersets," &c.: but this is evidently conjoining the three for the sake of ridicule. The performance of leaping through barrels without heads, and through hoops, especially the latter, is an exploit of long standing: we find it represented in the annexed engraving from a drawing in an ancient manuscript.
Two boys are depicted holding the hoop, and the third preparing to leap through it, having deposited his cloak upon the ground to receive him.
William Stokes, a vaulting master of the seventeenth century, boasted, in a publication called The Vaulting Master, &c. printed at Oxford in 1652, that he had reduced "vaulting to a method." In his book are several plates containing different specimens of his practice, which consisted chiefly in leaping over one or more horses, or upon them, sometimes seating himself in the saddle and sometimes standing upon the same. All these feats are now [745] performed at Astley's, and at the circus in St. George's Fields, with many additional acquirements; and the horses gallop round the ride while the actor is going through his manœuvres: on the contrary, the horses belonging to our vaulter remained at rest during the whole time of his exhibition.
A show-bill for Bartholomew Fair, during the reign of queen Anne [746] announces "the wonderful performances of that most celebrated master Simpson, the famous vaulter, who, being lately arrived from Italy, will show the world what vaulting is!" The bill speaks pompously: how far his abilities coincided with the promise, I cannot determine, for none of his exertions are specified. But the most extraordinary vaulter that has appeared within my memory was brought forward in 1799, at the Circus. He was a native of Yorkshire, named Ireland, then about eighteen years of age, exceedingly well made, and upwards of six feet high. He leaped over nine horses standing side by side and a man seated upon the mid-horse; he jumped over a garter held fourteen feet high; and at another jump kicked a bladder hanging sixteen feet at least from the ground; and, for his own benefit, he leaped over a temporary machine representing a broad-wheeled waggon with the tilt. These astonishing specimens of strength and agility were performed, without any trick or deception, by a fair jump, and not with the somersault, which is usually practised on such occasions. After a run of ten or twelve yards, he ascended an inclined plane, constructed with thick boards, and about three feet in height at one end; from the upper part of this plane he made his spring, and having performed the leap, was received into a carpet held by six or eight men. I examined this apparatus very minutely, and am well persuaded that he received no assistance from any elasticity in the boards, they being too thick to afford him any, and especially at the top, where they were made fast to the frame that supported them; nor from any other kind of artificial spring. It may readily be supposed that exertions of such an extraordinary nature could not be long continued without some disastrous accident; and accordingly, in the first season of his engagement, he sprained the tendon of his heel so violently, that he could not perform for nearly two years afterwards.
XXV.—BALANCING.
Under this head perhaps may be included several of the performances mentioned in the preceding pages, and especially the throwing of three balls and three knives alternately into the air, and catching them as they fall, as represented by the engraving No 50, from a MS. of the eighth century. This trick, in my memory, commonly constituted a part of the puppet-showman's exhibition; but I do not recollect to have seen it extended beyond four articles; for instance, two oranges and two forks; and the performer, by way of conclusion, caught the oranges upon the forks.
In the Romance of the Rose, we read of tymbesteres, or balance-mistresses, who, according to the description there given, played upon the tymbres, or timbrels, and occasionally tossing them into the air, caught them again upon one finger. The passage translated by Chaucer, stands thus:
Towards the close of last summer (1799) I saw three itinerant musicians parading the streets of London; one of them turned the winch of an organ which he carried at his back, another blew a reed-pipe, and the third played on a tambourine; the latter imitated the timbesters above mentioned, and frequently during the performance of a tune cast up the instrument into the air three or four feet higher than his head, and caught it, as it returned, upon a single finger; he then whirled it round with an air of triumph, and proceeded in the accompaniment without losing time, or occasioning the least interruption.
XXVI.—REMARKABLE FEATS OF BALANCING.
Subjoined are a few specimens of the ancient balance-master's art.
This engraving, from a MS. in the Bodleian Library, [748] represents a girl, as the length of the hair seems to indicate, habited like a boy, and kneeling on a large broad board, supported horizontally by two men; before her are three swords, the points inclined to each other, and placed in a triangular form; she is pointing to them with her right hand, and holds in her left a small instrument somewhat resembling a trowel, but I neither know its name nor its use.
The man in this engraving, from a drawing in a MS. book of prayers possessed by Francis Douce, esq., is performing a very difficult operation: he has placed one sword upright upon the hilt, and is attempting to do the like with the second; at the same time his attitude is altogether as surprising as the trick itself. Feats similar to
I have seen carried into execution, and especially that of balancing a wheel.
This was exhibited about the year 1799, at Sadler's Wells, by a Dutchman, who not only supported a wheel upon his shoulder, but also upon his forehead and his chin: and he afterwards extended the performance to two wheels tied together, with a boy standing upon one of them. The latter engravings are from the MS. in the Bodleian Library just referred to. The following is from a MS. Psalter formerly belonging to J. Ives, esq. of Yarmouth.
In the middle of the eighteenth century, there was a very celebrated balance-master, named Mattocks, who made his appearance also at the Wells; among other tricks, he used to balance a straw with great adroitness, sometimes on one hand, sometimes on the other; and sometimes he would kick it with his foot to a considerable height, and catch it upon his nose, his chin, or his forehead. His fame was celebrated by a song set to music, entitled Balance a Straw, which became exceedingly popular. The Dutchman mentioned above performed the same sort of feat with a small peacock's feather, which he blew into the air, and caught it as it fell on different parts of his face in a very surprising manner.
XXVII.—THE POSTURE-MASTER.
The display of his abilities consisted in twisting and contorting his body into strange and unnatural attitudes. This art was, in doubt, practised by the jugglers in former ages; and a singular specimen of it, delineated on the last mentioned Bodleian MS., in the reign of Edward III., is here represented.
The performer bends himself backwards, with his head turned up between his hands, so as nearly to touch his feet; and in this situation he hangs by his hams upon a pole, supported by two of his confederates.
The posture-master is frequently mentioned by the writers of the two last centuries; but his tricks are not particularised. The most extraordinary artist of this kind that ever existed, it is said was Joseph Clark, who, "though a well-made man, and rather gross than thin, exhibited in the most natural manner almost every species of deformity and dislocation; he could dislocate his vertebræ so as to render himself a shocking spectacle; he could also assume all the uncouth faces that he had seen at a Quaker's meeting, at the theatre, or any other public place." To this man a paper in the Guardian evidently alludes, wherein it is said: "I remember a very whimsical fellow, commonly known by the name of the posture-master, in Charles the Second's reign, who was the plague of all the tailors about town. He would send for one of them to take measure of him; but would so contrive it as to have a most immoderate rising in one of his shoulders; when his clothes were brought home and tried upon him, the deformity was removed into the other shoulder; upon which the taylor begged pardon for the mistake, and mended it as fast as he could; but, on another trial, found him as straight-shouldered a man as one would desire to see, but a little unfortunate in a hump back. In short, this wandering tumour puzzled all the workmen about town, who found it impossible to accommodate so changeable a customer." [749] He resided in Pall Mall, and died about the beginning of king William's reign. Granger tells us he was dead in the year 1697. [750] There was also a celebrated posture-master, by the name of Higgins, in the reign of queen Anne, who performed between the acts at the theatre royal in the Haymarket, and exhibited "many wonderful postures," as his own bill declares: [751] I know no farther of him. In the present day, the unnatural performances of the posture-masters are not fashionable, but seem to excite disgust rather than admiration in the public mind, and for this reason they are rarely exhibited.
XXVIII.—THE MOUNTEBANK.
I may here mention a stage-performer whose show is usually enlivened with mimicry, music, and tumbling; I mean the mountebank. It is uncertain at what period this vagrant dealer in physic made his appearance in England: it is clear, however, that he figured away with much success in this country during the two last centuries; he called to his assistance some of the performances practised by the jugglers; and the bourdour, or merry-andrew, seems to have been his inseparable companion: hence it is said in an old ballad, entitled Sundry Trades and Callings,
The mountebanks usually preface the vending of their medicines with pompous orations, in which they pay as little regard to truth as to propriety. Shakspeare speaks of these wandering empirics in very disrespectful terms:
In the reign of James II. "Hans Buling, a Dutchman, was well known in London as a mountebank. He was," says Granger, [752] "an odd figure of a man, and extremely fantastical in his dress; he was attended by a monkey, which he had trained to act the part of a jack-pudding, a part which he had formerly acted himself, and which was more natural to him than that of a professor of physic." The ignorance and the impudence of the mountebanks are ridiculed in the Spectator, and especially in that paper which concludes with an anecdote of one who exhibited at Hammersmith. [753] He told his audience that he had been "born and bred there, and, having a special regard for the place of his nativity, he was determined to make a present of five shillings to as many as would accept it: the whole crowd stood agape, and ready to take the doctor at his word; when, putting his hand into a long bag, as every one was expecting his crown-piece, he drew out a handful of little packets, each of which, he informed the spectators, was constantly sold for five shillings and sixpence, but that he would bate the odd five shillings to every inhabitant of that place. The whole assembly immediately closed with this generous offer, and took off all his physic, after the doctor had made them vouch that there were no foreigners among them, but that they were all Hammersmith men."
XXIX.—THE TINKER.
Another itinerant, who seems in some degree to have rivalled the lower classes of the jugglers, was the tinker; and accordingly he is included, with them and the minstrels, in the act against vagrants established by the authority of queen Elizabeth. [754] His performances were usually exhibited at fairs, wakes, and other places of public resort: they consisted in low buffoonery and ludicrous tricks to engage the attention and move the laughter of the populace. Some of them are specified in the following speech from The Two Maides of Moreclacke, an old dramatic performance, printed in 1609: "This, madame, is the tinker of Twitnam. I have seene him licke out burning firebrands with his tongue, drink two-pence from the bottome of a full pottle of ale, fight with a masty, [755] and stroke his mustachoes with his bloody-bitten fist, and sing as merrily as the soberest querester."
XXX.—THE FIRE-EATER.
The first article in the foregoing quotation brings to my recollection the extraordinary performances of a professed fire-eater, whose name was Powel, well known in different parts of the kingdom about forty years ago. Among other wonderful feats, I saw him do the following:—He ate the burning coals from the fire; he put a large bunch of matches lighted into his mouth, and blew the smoke of the sulphur through his nostrils; he carried a red-hot heater round the room in his teeth; and broiled a piece of beef-steak upon his tongue. To perform this, he lighted a piece of charcoal, which he put into his mouth beneath his tongue, the beef was laid upon the top; and one of the spectators blew upon the charcoal, to prevent the heat decreasing, till the meat was sufficiently broiled. By way of conclusion, he made a composition of pitch, brimstone, and other combustibles, to which he added several pieces of lead; the whole was melted in an iron ladle, and then set on fire; this he called his soup; and, taking it out of the ladle with a spoon of the same metal, he ate it in its state of liquefaction, and blazing furiously, without appearing to sustain the least injury. And here we may add the whimsical trickery of a contemporary artist, equal to the above in celebrity, who amused the public, and filled his pockets, by eating stones, which, it is, said he absolutely cracked between his teeth, and afterwards swallowed.