Among the pastimes exhibited for the amusement of queen Elizabeth at Kenilworth castle, there were shown, as Laneham says, before her highness, surprising feats of agility, by an Italian, "in goings, turnings, tumblings, castings, hops, jumps, leaps, skips, springs, gambauds, somersaults, caprettings, and flights, forward, backward, sideways, downward, upward, and with sundry windings, gyrings, and circumflections," which he performed with so much ease and lightness, that words are not adequate to the description; "insomuch that I," says Laneham, "began to doubt whether he was a man or a spirit;" and afterwards, "As for this fellow, I cannot tell what to make of him; save that I may guess his back to be metalled like a lamprey, that has no bone, but a line like a lute-string." [695] So lately as the reign of queen Anne, this species of performance continued to be fashionable; and in one of the Tatlers we meet with the following passage: "I went on Friday last to the Opera; and was surprised to find a thin house at so noble an entertainment, 'till I heard that the tumbler was not to make his appearance that night." [696]
Three ancient specimens of the tumbler's art are subjoined.
55. Tumbling.—XIII. Century.
This engraving represents a woman bending herself backwards, from a MS. of the thirteenth century, in the Cotton Library. [697]
56. Tumbling—XIV. Century.