PANTOMIME (Lat. pantomimus, from (1k. ravrej./nLos, one who acts by dancing and dun h show, all-imitating, from ray, pas, all Lthos, //limos, imitator, from inimeisthai, to imitate). The art of dramatic representation without words, through expression by attitudes and gestures. Among the Romans the term pantomimus was applied to the actor himself. Whether pantothimic performances had a dis tinct existence under the Republic it is hard to say, but Augustus showed great favor to this kind of entertainment, which seems to have arisen from the older custom of separating the actor and the reciter of dramatic dialogue; the fact also that iu the great open theatres the Roman public could see much more easily than it could hear, probably contributed to the popularity of mute acting. As the pan tonirai wore masks. no facial mimicry was possible; everything depended on the movements of the body. There was, how ever. commonly at the rear of the theatre, a choir, which sang the story by way of interlude or accompaniment: and as the subjects presented in dumb show were chiefly mythological love stories, they were consequently well known to the spectators. The earlier pantomimi came singly upon the stage, acting successively all the characters involved in the story; later several appeared together. The most celebrated pan toniimi of the Augustan Age were Bathyllus (a freedman of Abecenas) in comedy. and Py lades and Ilylas in tragedy. The class soon spread over Italy and the provinces, and became so popular with the Roman aristocracy, who used to invite male and female performers to their houses to entertain their guests, that Tiberius thought it necessary to check the vanity of the pantomimi by issuing a decree forbidding the senators to go to their houses and knights to be seen walking with them on the streets. Under Caligula they were again in favor, and Nero even went the length of acting in a pantomime. From this period the pantomimi enjoyed unbroken popularity so long as paganism held sway in the Empire.
Pantomimic elements have always been found in the popular theatres, notably in the early Italian paramedic arte, in which were veloped the characters of Harlequin, I'anta loon, Columbine, and the rest of their familiar troupe. In France in the seventeenth and eight eenth centuries the word pantomime was ap plied to a kind of mythological spectacle at the Opera, in which allegorical characters appeared in appropriate costumes. The great ballets d'ae
lion of Noverre were really pantomimic in char acter. In the first half of the nineteenth cen tury, at the famous little Thatre des Funam bules in Paris, pantomime enjoyed for some years a remarkable revival under the genius of Deburau and his associates.
In England the first pantomime is said to have been produced at Drury Lane in 1702. It was The Turf rn Bilkers, by a dancing-master named John Weaver, another of whose panto mimes. The Loges, of Mars and tenns. had a re markable success. But it is to the noted harle quin John Rich that the establishment of the familiar Christmas pantomime is generally cred ited. In December, 1723, he brought out at Lincoln's Inn Fields The Necromancer, or the History of Dr. Faustus, by way of rivalry to Harlequin Dr. Faustus, which had been produced at Drury Lane not long before. Pantomimes were not then, however, limited to the Christmas season, but were regarded, as they have some times been since then, as a means for filling the theatre's treasury and .supplementing the at tractions of the legitimate drama. English pan tomime was further developed by the coming in 175S of the Grimaldi family. Joseph Grimaldi (q.v.), who was born in 1779, was especially clever at inventing tricks and devising machin ery. Mother Goose and others of his harlequin ades were long popular. A special feature in the early part of the last century was the 'transformation scene,' in which was made the change of characters to the harlequinade proper, or latter part of the programme. The subjects of these pantomimes have been generally found in popular tales like those of Aladdin. Blue Beard. Cinderella, or Little Red Riding Hood.
In the United States pantomime has for the most part been little more than an occasional importation, though such a show as Humpty Dumpt y, with George L. Fox as clown, about 1870, had an enormous and long-continued popu larity.
Consult:. Broadbent, A History of Panto mime (London, 1901) ; Friedlander, Sit ten gesehichte Rows (Leipzig, 1890) : Champtleury, sou rot irs des Funambules (Paris, 18i9) : Disraeli, "The Pantomimical Characters," in Curiosities of Literature (12th ed., Lon don, 1841). See BALLET; HARLEQUIN; MIME, etc.