“Noow within allso ... waz thear showed before her Highness by an Italian, such feats of agilitie, in goinges, turninges, tumblinges, castinges, hops, jumps, leaps, skips, springs, gambauds, soomersaults, caprittiez and flights; forward, backward, sydewize, a downward, upward, and with sundry windings, gyrings and circumflexions; allso lightly and with such easiness, as by me in feaw words it is not expressible by pen or speech ... I bleast me by my faith to behold him, and began to doout whither a waz a man or a spirite.... Az for thiz fellow I cannot tell what to make of him, save that I may geese his back be metalld like a lamprey, that haz no bones but a line like a lute-string.”
Pantomime was popular in England during the Reformation and morality plays were given in dumb show.
French actors were greatly influenced by these clever traveling Italian artists. They set up similar plays at their great fairs and finally established a theater in Paris, in which music and pantomime were developed to the highest perfection.
Until recent years nearly all that we have known of the great tradition of pantomime came to us through the circus clowns. Among these were a few artists such as Grimaldi, who never allowed their art to become low and trivial.
Now, all this is quite changed, since the coming of the movie. The moving picture depends entirely upon pantomime for interpreting character and expressing emotion. The greatest of the movie actors are great pantomimists. When we study the movements and gestures and the facial expressions of such actors as Emil Jannings and Charlie Chaplin, we begin to understand what pantomime really is. Chaliapin is another great actor who understands the art of pantomime and uses it in opera.
Let us see how pantomime, music, and dance were used in the Christmas mask described at the end of chapter II “Occasions for Wearing the Mask.” Masks for this play had been made for the following characters: a dignified king, a mournful queen, a gentle lady-in-waiting, an austere learned bishop, a faithful son, a clever jester, a rollicking band of mummers. Each pupil had made his own mask after very thorough study of the character that he had chosen. Knowing his character well enabled each student to interpret that character when he put on his mask, and for the time of the play, each student sought to become that character, king, queen, bishop, or mummer. The problem for each actor was that of bringing his movements and gestures into harmony with his mask. The king’s movements should be no less dignified and stately than his mask suggested. The unhappy queen must express the sadness of her mask by her drooping head and shoulders and by her impassive hands. Her mask was so modeled that when lifted, it suggested a smile. This expression was required when she lifted her head in joy at her son’s return.
The lady-in-waiting used pantomime to interpret her gentleness and modesty and the music which accompanied her XIIIth Century song. This song, sung off stage by one of the chorus, was singularly appropriate to the pensive quality of her mask.
Lady-in-Waiting’s Song
Though the winter be a-cold
Safe the lamb lies in the fold