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Show ON PANTOMIME. 115 that we cannot perfectly understand but with the assistance of our imagination; and all events, of which the extent and multiplicity cannot be represented by one person only. Such are, for instance, a festival, a wedding, a coronation, the imitation of a father, a husband, a son, the indication of power, slavery, revolt, &c. All of which cannot be clearly understood but by gestures of convention. The spectator soon learns their meaning from theatrical habit 5 besides, they always bear some kind of analogy to the things they represent, which makes them sufficiently intelligible ; they are, indeed, a sort of symbolic signs. From what we read of ancient Pantomimes, it seems evident that they had a great variety of gestures, both of art and of convention or agreement, since we are told that they could express past and future time, and even abstract ideas. An ancient writer' speaks of a trial of skill between Roscius and Cicero, in which these two celebrated men were to express the same things by different means-the orator by his speech, the player by his gestures. It does not appear that Roscius gained the victory over his rival, neither is he to be considered as vanquished, for he conceived so high an idea of his own art from this trial, shat he immediately wrote a work on gesticulation, which he therein placed on a level with eloquence itself. A greater proof cannot be brought forward, in favour of the perfection of ancient mimicry. Among the ancients, the name of mimes was originally given to those dialogues, which were founded upon their habits and morals. These dialogues were spoken by men, and, when necessary, by women also.- The best compositions of the kind were those of Sophron, w ho lived before Plato, those of Xenaichus, and those of Publius Sirus, a Roman. Laberius, Philistion, Lentulus and Marulus shone also in this class of comedy, which was very similar to |
