Xenophon mentions the tale of "Bacchus and Ariadne," Pantomimically played, and Martial tells us he saw the whole story of "Pasiphae," minutely represented on the stage of the _Mimis_, and Plautus, in his epilogue to "Casina," has--
"Nunc vos aequim est, manibus meritis, Meritam mercedem dare. Qui faxit, clam uxorem, ducat scortum Semper quod volet. Verum qui non manibus clare, quantum Potent, plauserit, Ei, pro scorto, supponetur hircus unctus nantea."
On the Roman stage female parts were represented in tragedy by men, is ascertained (says Malone) by one of Cicero's letters to Atticus, and by a passage in Horace. Horace mentions, however, a female performer called Arbuscula, but as we find from his own authority men personated women on the Roman stage, she was probably an _Emboliariae_. Servius calls her a _Mima_, or one who danced in the Pantomimic dances, and which seems more probable, as she is mentioned by Cicero, who says the part of Andromache was played by a male performer on the very day Arbuscula also performed.
The principal Roman _Mimas_ were:--Arbuscula, Thymele, Licilia, Dionysia, Cytheris, Valeria, and Cloppia.
In the satirical interludes of the Grecian stage, and the _Fabulae Atellanae_ of the Roman theatres, the _Exodiarii_ and _Emboliariae_ of the Mimes, were the remote progenitors (says Malone) of the Vice or Devil, and the Clown of our English Mystery plays, the latter series of plays being the origin of the drama of this country. The exact conformity between our Clown and the _Exodiarii_ and _Emboliariae_ of the Roman stage is ascertained by that passage in Pliny--"_Lucceia Mima centum annis in scena pronuntiavit. Galeria, Copiola, Emboliariae, reducta est in scenam: annum certissimum quartum agens_," is thus translated by an English author, Philemon Holland, "Lucceia, a common Vice in a play, followed the stage, and acted thereupon 100 yeeres. Such another Vice that _plaied the foole, and made sporte between whiles in interludes_, named Galeria Copiola, was brought to act upon the stage when she was in the 104th yeere of her age." We shall, in another chapter, return to the Vice, or Clown.
Introduction of the Roman Pantomimic Art into Britain--First English reference to the word Pantomime--The fall of the Roman Empire--The sacred play--Cornish Amphitheatres--Pantomimical and Lyrical elements in the sacrifice of the Mass--Christian banishment of the _Mimis_--Penalties imposed by the Church--St. Anthony on Harlequin and Punch--Vandenhoff--what we owe to the _Mimis_.