Still burlesque of the
worthy Planche form, and of the spuriously imitative kind, which
copied, and at the same time degraded him, grew and throve, and at
last invaded the domains of pantomime. "Openings" fell into the hands
of burlesque-writers, their share in the pantomime work ceasing with
the transformation scene; punning rhymes and parodies, and comic
dances, delayed the entrance of clown and harlequin, till at last
their significance and occupation seem almost to have gone from them.
The old language of gesture, with perhaps the occasional resort to a
placard to supplement and interpret the "dumb motions" of the
performers (a concession to, or an evasion of the old prohibition of
speech in the "burletta houses"), vanished from the stage. The
harlequinade characters ceased to take part in the opening, and that
joy to youthful cunning of detecting the players of the later scenes
in the disguises of their earlier presentment--harlequin, by the
accidental revelation of parti-colour and spangles, and clown by the
chance display of his motley trunk and hose--was gone for ever.
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