The proposition is agreed to, and thereupon, according to stage direction, “Harlequin is produced from a bed of parti-coloured flowers, and the magic sword is given to him.”  He is addressed by each of the spirits in turn.  Then we read:  “Ignoso sinks.  Aquina strikes the fountains; they begin playing.  Terrena strikes the ground; a bed of roses appears.  Harlequin surveys everything, and runs round the stage.  Earth sinks in the bed of roses, and Water in the fountains.  Air ascends in the car.  Columbine enters dancing; is amazed at the sight of Harlequin, who retires from her with equal surprise; they follow each other round the fountain in a pas de deux.  They are surprised by the entrance of Columbine’s guardian, who comes in preceded by servants in rich liveries.  Clown, as his running footman, enters with a lap-dog.  Old man takes snuff; views himself in a pocket-glass.  Clown imitates him; old man sees Harlequin and Columbine, and pursues them round the fountains, but the lovers go off, followed by Sir Amoroso and servants.”  The lovers are pursued through some sixteen scenes, till the fairies unite them in the Temple of the Elements.  At this time, it is to be noted, the last scene held that place as a spectacle which is now enjoyed by the transformation scene.  Throughout the pantomime the relations of Clown and Pantaloon, or Sir Amoroso, the guardian (he is called by these titles indifferently), as master and servant are carefully preserved.

Although in “Harlequin in his Element” there appears little answering to the modern “opening,” and no “transformation” of the characters, yet both these peculiarities are to be discovered in the famous pantomime of “Mother Goose,” which was presented to the town a year sooner, and was the work of the same author.  In “Mother Goose” there are four opening scenes and fifteen of harlequinade—­the pantomime of to-day generally reversing this arrangement of figures.  Colin, a young peasant, is changed to Harlequin; Collinette, his mistress, to Columbine; Squire Bugle to Clown; and Avaro, an old miser, to Pantaloon.  In the harlequinade are scenes of Vauxhall Gardens, and the exterior of St. Dunstan’s Church, Fleet Street, with a crowd assembled to see the figures strike the bell (these figures were subsequently removed to the Marquis of Hertford’s villa, in the Regent’s Park), a grocer’s shop and post-office, an inn, a farm-yard, &c.; while many of the tricks are identical with those still delighting holiday audiences; but the allusions to political events and current topics, so dear to modern purveyors of burlesque and pantomime, have no place in the entertainment.  The doggerel and songs of the opening are without puns or pretensions of a comic kind, and must certainly be described as rather dull reading.