In “The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood,” the maiden has been likened to the Morning dawn, and the young Prince, who awakens her, with a kiss, to the Sun.

“Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves,” in concluding this chapter, I may say, with “The Fair One with Golden Locks,” forms to the superstitious the only two unlucky Pantomime subjects.

“Sindbad, the Sailor,” taken from the “Arabian Nights,” has its origin in Persian and Arabian tales.

Of all our Pantomime subjects, “Robinson Crusoe,” seems to be the only one we can properly lay claim to as being “of our own make,” so to speak, and written by Daniel De Foe, and, in the main, from the imagination.  De Foe, it has been stated, derived his idea for this story from the adventures of one, Alexander Selkirk, a Scotchman, who had been a castaway on the Island of Juan Fernandez.  The first portion of “Robinson Crusoe” appeared in “The Family Instructor,” in 1719, of which De Foe was the founder.  It, at once, sprang into popularity, and has left its author undying fame.  De Foe was born about 1660 in the parish of St. Giles, Cripplegate, died 26th April, 1731, and was buried in Bunhill Fields.

CHAPTER XX.

Pantomime in America.

Pantomime, in America, had not a very long run, it being killed by the farcical comedy.  Mr. E.L.  Blanchard supposes that “Mother Goose” was the first Pantomime played in America, but this is an error, as it was not until 1786, when Garrick’s “Harlequin’s Invasion,” and R. Pocock’s “Robinson Crusoe” were played at the John Street Theatre, New York, that Pantomime made its advent in America.  “Mother Goose” was afterwards played, but it did not suit the Yankee’s taste.  Rich’s Harlequin, Gay of “The Beggars Opera,” produced at Lincoln’s Inn Fields Theatre, and which it is said made “Rich Gay, and Gay Rich,” also went to America, and where, it is said, he became the Chief of an Indian tribe in the Far West.  In the South Sea Bubble Gay held some L20,000.  His friends advised him to sell, but he dreamed of greatness and splendour, and refused their counsel.  Ultimately, both the profit and the principal was lost, and Gay sunk under the calamity so low that his life became in danger.

American Pantomimes consisted of a semi-pastoral “opening,” performed almost entirely in dumb show, and a big trick Harlequinade, and down to the time of Pantomime’s decease in America was it played like this.

George L. Fox made Pantomime highly popular in America.  Born in May of 1825, he, as an actor and comedian in Yankee and Irish parts, held his own in popularity with the great Joseph Jefferson.

Fox might be properly termed “The Grimaldi of America,” as he was the representative Clown of the land of the stars and stripes.  His Clown’s parts he dressed like Grimaldi, and with the whitened face and bald head of Pierrot, the French type of Clown.