Apes and monkeys seem always to have been favourite actors in the joculator's troop of animals. A specimen of the performance of a monkey, as far back as the fourteenth century, is represented by the last engraving; and the following is from another of the same date, already referred to, in the Bodleian Library. [761]
75. A tumbling Ape.
Leaping or tumbling over a chain or cord held by the juggler, as we here see it depicted, was a trick well received at Bartholomew fair in the time of Ben Jonson; and in the induction, or prologue, to a comedy written by him, which bears that title, in 1614, it is said, "He," meaning the author, "has ne're a sword and buckler man in his fayre; nor a juggler with a well educated ape to come over the chaine for the king of England, and back again for the prince, and sit still on his haunches for the pope and the king of Spaine." In recent times, and probably in more ancient times also, these facetious mimics of mankind were taught to dance upon the rope, and to perform the part of the balance-masters. In the reign of queen Anne, there was exhibited at Charing Cross, "a wild hairy man," who, we are told, danced upon the tight rope "with a balance, true to the music;" he also "walked upon the slack rope" while it was swinging, and drank a glass of ale; he "pulled off his hat, and paid his respects to the company;" and "smoaked tobacco," according to the bill, "as well as any Christian." [762] But all these feats were afterwards outdone by a brother monkey, mentioned before, who performed many wonderful tricks at the Haymarket theatre, both as a rope-dancer and an equilibrist. [763]
III.—TRICKS PERFORMED BY HORSES AMONG THE SYBARITES.
The people of Sybaris, a city in Calabria, are proverbial on account of their effeminacy; and it is said that they taught their horses to dance to the music of the pipe; for which reason, their enemies the Crotonians, at a time when they were at war with them, brought a great number of pipers into the field, and at the commencement of the battle, they played upon their pipes; the Sybarian horses, hearing the sound of the music, began to dance; and their riders, unable to manage them as they ought to have done, were thrown into confusion, and defeated with prodigious slaughter. This circumstance is mentioned by Aristotle; and, if not strictly true, proves, at least that the teaching of animals to exceed the bounds of action prescribed by nature was not unknown to the ancients. [764]