In Italy during the XVIth and XVIIth centuries there was a popular form of character comedy that was known as the _Commedia dell’ arte_. This was performed by bands of professional actors who strolled about the country giving their improvised plays to any chance audience. As time went on and their popularity grew, the more clever of these bands established themselves in theaters in the towns and cities, where they gave a great variety of performances. The principal characters of their plays were Harlequin, Scaramouch, Columbine, Pantalone, and Punchinello. These characters all wore masks and were adepts in the art of pantomime. These Italian musicians and actors of the _Commedia dell’ arte_ traveled to Spain, France, and finally to England, where their boisterous humor was warmly welcomed by high and low. Here is an account of one part of the festivities that were given in Kenilworth, in the year 1576: “Noow within allso ... waz thear showed before her Highness by an Italian, such feats of agilitie, in goinges, turninges, tumblinges, castinges, hops, jumps, leaps, skips, springs, gambauds, soomersaults, caprittiez and flights; forward, backward, sydewize, a downward, upward, and with sundry windings, gyrings and circumflexions; allso lightly and with such easiness, as by me in feaw words it is not expressible by pen or speech ... I bleast me by my faith to behold him, and began to doout whither a waz a man or a spirite.... Az for thiz fellow I cannot tell what to make of him, save that I may geese his back be metalld like a lamprey, that haz no bones but a line like a lute-string.” Pantomime was popular in England during the Reformation and morality plays were given in dumb show. French actors were greatly influenced by these clever traveling Italian artists. They set up similar plays at their great fairs and finally established a theater in Paris, in which music and pantomime were developed to the highest perfection. Until recent years nearly all that we have known of the great tradition of pantomime came to us through the circus clowns. Among these were a few artists such as Grimaldi, who never allowed their art to become low and trivial. Now, all this is quite changed, since the coming of the movie. The moving picture depends entirely upon pantomime for interpreting character and expressing emotion. The greatest of the movie actors are great pantomimists. When we study the movements and gestures and the facial expressions of such actors as Emil Jannings and Charlie Chaplin, we begin to understand what pantomime really is. Chaliapin is another great actor who understands the art of pantomime and uses it in opera.