Although in "Harlequin in his Element" there appears little answering
to the modern "opening," and no "transformation" of the characters,
yet both these peculiarities are to be discovered in the famous
pantomime of "Mother Goose," which was presented to the town a year
sooner, and was the work of the same author. In "Mother Goose" there
are four opening scenes and fifteen of harlequinade--the pantomime of
to-day generally reversing this arrangement of figures. Colin, a young
peasant, is changed to Harlequin; Collinette, his mistress, to
Columbine; Squire Bugle to Clown; and Avaro, an old miser, to
Pantaloon. In the harlequinade are scenes of Vauxhall Gardens, and the
exterior of St. Dunstan's Church, Fleet Street, with a crowd assembled
to see the figures strike the bell (these figures were subsequently
removed to the Marquis of Hertford's villa, in the Regent's Park), a
grocer's shop and post-office, an inn, a farm-yard, &c.; while many of
the tricks are identical with those still delighting holiday
audiences; but the allusions to political events and current topics,
so dear to modern purveyors of burlesque and pantomime, have no place
in the entertainment.
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