little platform of hardly a hand's breadth, and licks the salt under
its feet. He makes it also go round upon its hind legs, with a long
spear over its shoulder, making fools of all beholders, who present it
with pence for food.

"Sometimes a bold rope-dancer is to be seen, who walks on the rope,
till at last he breaks his leg, or falls headlong; or a daring Turkish
juggler who lies on the ground, and allows himself to be struck on the
chest by a great hammer, as if he were an anvil; or by a jerk, tears up
a big pile which has been driven by force into the ground, whereby he
obtains a good sum for his journey to Mecca.

"Sometimes a baptized Jew makes his appearance, who bawls and cries
out, till at length he collects a few people, when he begins to preach
about his conversion; whereby one comes to this conclusion, that he has
become a crafty vagrant instead of a pious Christian.

"In short there is no market-place, either in village or town, where
some of these fellows are not to be found, who either perform divers
facetious juggling tricks, or sell various drugs.

"These are the tricks of charlatans, strollers, and jugglers, and other
idle people, whereby they get on in the world."

Here ends the narrative of Garzoni. Numberless light-footed people also
of the same class thronged into the German market towns. But besides
the old traders and jugglers, a new class of strollers had come into
Germany, harmless people of far higher interest for these days, the
wandering comedians. The first players that made a profession of their
performances came to Germany from England or the Netherlands, towards
the end of the sixteenth century. They were still accompanied with rope
dancers, jumpers, fencers, and horsebreakers; they still continued to
furnish the courts of princes and the market-places of great cities
with clowns and the favourite figure of jack-puddings, and soon after,
the French "Jean Posset," on bad boarded platforms still continued to
excite the uproarious laughter of the easily amused multitude. Shortly
after, the popular masques of the Italian theatre became familiar in
the south of Germany and on the Rhine. At the same time that the
regular circulation of newspapers commenced, the people received the
rough beginnings of art; the representation of human character and the
secret emotions of restless souls by the play of countenance, gestures,
and the deceptive illusion of action.

It is remarkable also, that