Tom Ellar died April 8, 1842, aged 62. Previous to his death he must
have fallen upon evil days, as Thackeray, in 1840, wrote: "Tom, who
comes bounding home from school, has the doctor's account in his trunk,
and his father goes to sleep at the Pantomime to which he takes him.
_Pater infelix_, you too, have laughed at Clown, and the magic wand of
spangled Harlequin: what delightful enchantment did it wave round you in
the golden days 'when George the Third was King?' But our Clown lies in
his grave; and our Harlequin Ellar, prince of many of our enchanted
islands, was he not at Bow Street the other day, in his dirty, faded,
tattered motley--seized as a law breaker for acting at a penny theatre,
after having well nigh starved in the streets, where nobody would listen
to his old guitar? No one gave a shilling to bless him: not one of us
who owe him so much!"
Another Pantomime family were the Ridgways. Tom Ridgway was Clown under
Madame Vestris's management at Covent Garden.
There have been several Bradburys since the time of Grimaldi's great
rival, Robert Bradbury, died July 21, 1831, who wore on his person nine
strong "pads," in order to go through some extraordinary feats.
The Montgomerys; the Paynes, Harry and Fred; nor should the name of "Old
Billy" Payne be omitted. "Billy" Payne it was, it will be remembered,
who, in 1833, helped, from the stage of Covent Garden, the dying Edmund
Kean.
Then there were the Marshalls, Harry and Joseph; Charles and Richard
Stilt; and a very original and amusing Clown, Richard Flexmore, died
August 20, 1860, aged 36. Tom Gray, a famous Clown of Covent Garden,
died January 28th, 1768, aged upwards of 100 years; the Paulo family of
Pantomimists; Dubois, Arthur and Charles Leclerq, Walter Hilyard, and
many, many others.
In the 'twenties and 'thirties a popular and famous Pantaloon was
"Jimmy" Barnes, died September 28th, 1838. Barnes, in the summer of
1830, was engaged to play in an English company at Paris, but they had
hardly commenced to perform when the Revolution of July broke out. Some
years afterwards Barnes published in "Bentley's Miscellany," from his
old original M.S., an amusing and illustrated account of his wanderings.
Amongst other Pantaloons there have been--Thomas Blanchard, died August
20, 1859, aged 72; William Lynch, died June 29, 1861, aged 78; R.
Norman, died September 16, 1858, aged 70; George Tanner, died February
8, 1870; and Paulo, a member of Mr. Charles Kean's Company at the
Princess's Theatre, had as Pantaloon appeared in many Pantomimes. It is
a notable fact that a good number of our Mimes were long-livers.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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