ck Tarleton, the famous Clown, is preserved, I believe, in Dulwich
College. It consists of a pasteboard fifteen inches high, and nine in
breadth, and on it is written, in two columns, the following:--

"A tent being placed on the stage for Henry the Sixth; he in it asleep.
To him the lieutenant, and a pursuivant (R. Cowley, Jo. Duke), and one
warder (R. Pallant). To them Pride, Gluttony, Wrath, and Covetousness at
one door; at another door Envy, Sloth, and Lechery. The three put back
the four, and so _exeunt_.

"Henry awaking, enter a keeper (J. Sinclair), to him a servant (T. Belt),
to him Lidgate and the keeper. _Exit_, then enter again--then Envy
passeth over the stage. Lidgate speaks."

These "Platts" were, in all probability, one of the first written forms
of Pantomimic entertainments known in England, and borrowed, as
mentioned, from the Scenarios of the Italians. That form of home
amusement well-known in family circles, "Acting Charades," may be
likened to them.

To get all the information that we can obtain of the "Platts," I am sure
I cannot do better than quote the words of Mr. Isaac Disraeli, well
assured that they will be more acceptable than any I can make.

Some of these "Platts" are on solemn subjects, like the tragic
Pantomimes; and in some appear "Pantaloon, and his man Peascod, with
_spectacles_." Steevens observes, that he met with no earlier example of
the appearance of Pantaloon, as a specific character on our stage; and
that this direction concerning "the spectacles" cannot fail to remind
the reader of a celebrated passage in "As you like it." (Scene 6, Act
II.).

... "The sixth age shifts
Into the lean and slippered pantaloon;
With spectacles on nose, and pouch on side;
His youthful hose well saved, a world too wide
For his shrunk shank; and his big manly voice,
Turning again toward childish treble, pipes
And whistles in his sound."

Perhaps, he adds, Shakespeare alludes to this personage, as habited in
his own time. The old age of Pantaloon is marked by his leanness, and
his spectacles and his slippers. He always runs after Harlequin, but
cannot catch him; as he runs in slippers and without spectacles, is
liable to pass him by without seeing him. Can we doubt that this
Pantaloon had come from the Italian theatre, after what we have already
said? Does not this confirm the conjecture, that there existed an
intercourse between the Italian theatre and