him with bread and butter on the stage, and knowing him, cried out, ’Cuz!  Cuz! give me some!’ to the great pleasure of the audience.  And so naturally did he act the smith’s part, that being at a fair in a country town, and that farce being presented the only master-smith of the town came to him, saying, ’Well, although your father speaks so ill of you, yet when the fair is done, if you will come and work with me, I will give you twelve pence a week more than I give any other journeyman.’  Thus was he taken for a smith bred, that was, indeed, as much of any trade.”

With the death of the Lord Protector, Cromwell, “The merry rattle of Monk’s drums coming up the Gray’s Inn Road, welcomed by thousands of dusty spectators,” the return of Charles II., 1660, and though Charles was more a lover of the stage than of the drama, the theatre again recovered its credit, and to vigorously flourish once more.

CHAPTER XIV.

Introduction of Pantomimes to the English Stage—­Weaver’s “History of the Mimes and Pantomimes”—­Weaver’s Pantomimes—­The prejudice against Pantomimes—­Booth’s counsel.

The year 1702 marks the appearance of the first Pantomime introduced to the English stage, written by John Weaver, a friend of Addison and Steele’s, and entitled “Tavern Bilkers.”  It was produced at Drury Lane.

The author was by profession a dancing-master; his name is not to be found in any biographical dictionary, yet, it is evident that the “little dapper, cheerful man” had brains in his head as well as talent in his heels.

John Weaver was the son of a Mr. Weaver, whom the Duke of Ormond, the Chancellor of Oxford, licensed in 1676 to exercise the profession of a dancing-master within the university.  The date of his birth is unknown, but we first hear of him as stage-managing the production of his own Pantomime at Drury Lane, 1702, an entertainment which he described as one of “dancing, action, and motion.”  The latter would appear to have been a failure, as in his “History of the Mimes and Pantomimes,” published in 1728, Weaver states that his next attempt on similar lines did not take place until many years afterwards—­not until the year 1716, in fact.  In 1716 Weaver was back in London producing two burlesque Pantomimes, “The Loves of Mars and Venus,” and “Perseus and Andromeda.”  At Drury Lane, in the following year, “Orpheus and Eurydice,” and “Harlequin Turn’d Judge,” was produced, and “Cupid and Bacchus” in 1719.  Weaver also wrote many treatises on dancing, some of which were highly commended by Steele.

Another Pantomime of Weaver’s was “The Judgment of Paris”—­date uncertain—­performed by the author’s pupils “in the great room over the Market-house,” Shrewsbury—­in which town he had taken up his residence—­in the year 1750.  John Weaver died September 28th, 1760, and was buried at St. Chads, Shrewsbury.

The mention above of “Perseus and Andromeda” calls to mind that there were several pieces of this name.  One of them was severely commented on in “The Grub-Street Journal” of April 8, 1731.  Its title was:—­“Perseus and Andromeda; or the Flying Lovers, in five Interludes, three serious and two comic.  The serious composed by Monsieur Roger, the comic by John Weaver, dancing-masters.”