Mr. Byrne, also gave the character of Harlequin an entirely new reading.  The colours of Harlequin’s dress had every one a significance, as follows:—­Red, temper; blue, love; yellow, jealousy; brown or mauve, constancy.  When Harlequin wore his mask down he was supposed to be invisible.  On his mask he had two bumps, denoting knowledge on the one hand, and thought on the other, whilst in his cap he wore a hare’s foot, and a worked device on his shoes, indicating flight and speed.  Can we not from the bumps of knowledge and the hare’s foot trace the characteristics of the god Mercury, which, as previously stated, was the prototype of Harlequin.  With the bat, or magic sword, the gift from the fairies to him, Harlequin was supposed to be invulnerable, and if he lost his sword he would fall into the power of the Clown.

Byrne’s innovation was not resisted, and it was well received, and ever since this memorable occasion, the character of Harlequin has, for the most part, been dressed as Byrne dressed it.  The significance of the present-day variegated colours of Harlequin’s costume are somewhat different to the above, and denote:  red, fire; blue, water; yellow, air; and black, earth.  These—­the four elements—­are typical of the regions governed by Mercury.

Mr. Byrne was at Drury Lane in the time of Garrick.  He died December 4th, 1845, in the eighty-ninth year of his age.  Mrs. Byrne, who was also a dancer, pre-deceasing her husband by a few months in her seventy-fourth year.

Joseph Grimaldi, son of “Old Joe,” made, at twelve years of age, his first appearance at Sadler’s Wells in 1814, playing Man Friday to his father’s Robinson Crusoe.  For several years both father and son played together in various Pantomimes; and it was thought that before young Joe there was a brilliant future.  This, however, was soon dissipated, as he embarked upon vicious courses, and through a blow on the head received in some brawl “He became a wild and furious savage; he was frequently attacked with dreadful fits of epilepsy, and continually committed actions which nothing but insanity could prompt.  In 1828 he had a decided attack of insanity, and was confined in a strait waistcoat in his father’s house for some time.”

From engagements at Drury Lane, Sadler’s Wells, the Pavilion and the Surrey Theatre in turn, he was dismissed, finally “Falling into the lowest state of wretchedness and poverty.  His dress had fallen to rags, his feet were thrust into two worn-out slippers, his face was pale with disease, and squalid with dirt and want, and he was steeped in degradation.”  This unhappy life came to a final close in a public-house in Pitt Street, off the Tottenham Court Road.

Signor Pietro Bologna, a country-man and friend of Giuseppe Grimaldi, Joe Grimaldi’s father, brought with him from Genoa his wife, two sons and a daughter.  They were all Mimes, and, in a Pantomime produced in 1795, entitled, “The Magic Feast,” Signor Bologna was Clown, and his son, “Jack” Bologna, was Harlequin; the latter being also Harlequin to Grimaldi’s Clown, both at Covent Garden and Sadler’s Wells.  “Jack” Bologna married a sister of Mary Bristow, Joe Grimaldi’s second wife, and the mother of poor young Joe.