ON EXERCISES. 



v with grace, 

 :y. 



XIII. Pantomimes ?.rc itations of thofe 



characters, manners, k-ritiments, actions and paf- 

 fions of man, .iv.li m.iy be made the fubject 



of a comedy or other theatric jx:-;o. . and 



prefer. cations arc exhibited by actors, 

 who exj-ivT;: their meanings by looks and i:ni- 

 e geilures, without the aid of words. The 

 i mime is Greek, and (igniiies an imitator, 

 and the word pan means all or all things -, fo 

 that the compound term pantomime implies an 

 imitator of all things. This term is now uied 

 for the repcefcrittctoni themielves ; and the per- 

 formers of -dies, which are called 

 mimes or p have been named mi- 

 moo . The ancient hiitorians, rhetors, 

 grammarians and critics, give marvellous ac- 

 counts of the performances of thefe mimes and 

 pantomimes. Cafiiodorus calls them men whofe 

 eloquent hands had, fo to fay, a t .: the 

 end of each finger. But when they come to 

 particulars, end give examples of their perfor- 

 mances, we lee that they were little better than 

 trifles. The following is an inftance recorded 

 by Macrobius in his Saturnalia : " Hilas, the 

 fcholar and competitor of Py lades, who was the 

 inventor of juntomimes, executed after his man- 

 ner, before -pie, a monologue, 

 which ended with L ,rds, Agamemnon the 

 great. 1: D xprefs thofe words, made the 

 !J. A a gcil 



