"The Wonderful Strong and Surprising Persian Dwarf, three feet six inches high. He is fifty-six years old, speaks eighteen languages, sings Italian songs, dances to admiration, and with ropes tied to his hair, when put over his shoulders, lifts the great stone A." This "great stone" is half as big as the little Sampson himself!
I then jostled to a booth, in which was only a puppet-show, * where, for twopence, I saw Jepthas rash Vow; or, The Virgins Sacrifice. In I went, almost headlong, to Pinkethmans Medley, ** to see the Vaulting of the horse, and the famous wooden puppets dance a minuet and a ballet.
* Only a Puppet-show!--Marry-come-up! Goodman Chronicler, doth not the mechanist, a very Prometheus, give life, spirit, and motion to what was a mopstick or the leg of ajoint-stool?
** "At Pinkethman, Mills, and Bullock's booth, over-against the Hospital Gate, will be presented The Siege of Barcelona, or the Soldier's Fortune; containing the comical exploits of Captain Blunderbuss and his man Squib; his adventures with the Conjuror, and a surprising scene where he and Squib are enchanted. Also the Diverting Humours of Corporal Scare- Devil. To which will be added, The wonderful Performance of Mr. Simpson, the vaulter, lately arrived from Italy. The musick, songs, and dances are by the best performers, whom Mr. Pinkethman has entertained at extraordinary charge, purely to please the town."
At the Dutch Womans booth, * the Wheelbarrow dance, by a little Flemish girl ten years old, was in truth a miracle! A bill having been thrust into my hand, of a man and woman lighting for the breeches.
*** "You will see the famous Dutchwoman's side-capers, upright-capers, cross-capers, and back-capers on the tight rope. She walks, too, on the slack rope, which no woman but herself can do."--"Oh, what a charming sight it was to see Madam What-d'ye-call-her swim it along the stage between her two gipsy daughters! You might have sworn they were of right Dutch extraction."--A Comparison between the Two Stages, 1702.
Dancing on the rope was forbidden by an order of Parliament, July 17, 1647. The most celebrated rope-dancer on record is Jacob Hall, who lived in the reign of King Charles the Second. His feats of agility and strength, and the comeliness of his person, gained him universal patronage, and charmed, in particular, that imperious wanton, the Duchess of Cleveland. Henry the Eighth, in one of his "Progresses" through the city of London, "did spye a man upon the uppermost parte of St. Powle's Church: the man did gambol and balance himself upon his head, much to the fright and dismay of the multitude that he might breake his necke. On coming down, he did throw himselfe before the King beseechingly, as if for some reward for the exployt; whereupon the King's highness, much to his surprise, ordered him to prison as a roge and sturdy vagabonde."--Black- Letter Chronicle, Printed in 1565.