Keeley, and subsequently by Mr. F. Matthews.
Gradually, speaking was to be heard more and more in pantomimes; and
some forty years ago an attempt was made to invest this form of
theatrical entertainment with peculiar literary distinction. In 1842
the staff of _Punch_, at that time very strong in talent, provided
Covent Garden with a pantomime upon the subject of King John and Magna
Charta. The result, however, disappointed public expectation. _Punch_
was not seen to advantage in his endeavour to assume the guise of
harlequin. At a later date, Mr. Keeley, at the Lyceum, produced a
fairy extravaganza of the Planche pattern, called "The Butterfly's
Ball," and tacked on to it several "comic scenes" for clown and
pantaloon. The experiment was not wholly successful in the first
instance; but by degrees the burlesque leaven affected the pantomimic
constitution, and pantomimes came to be what we find them at present.
The custom of interrupting the harlequinade by the exhibition of
dioramic views, at one time contrived annually by Clarkson Stanfield,
expired about thirty years ago; as a substitute for these came the
gorgeous transformation scenes, traceable to the grand displays which
were wont to conclude Mr.
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