Garrick was one of the first of our English actors to realize how much the success of a piece depended upon appropriate costume, and, on his taking the management of Drury Lane Theatre in 1747, at once turned his attention to this important branch of dramatic art. He refused to tolerate the absurdity of a heterogeneous mixture of the foreign and ancient modes, which had hitherto debased tragedies by representing, for instance, Greek soldiers in full-bottomed wigs, and the King of an Oriental Nation in trunk hose. The improvement, however, must have been very gradual, for Garrick is said to have played the part of Macbeth ten years later in a gold-laced suit of sky blue and scarlet; while Mrs. Yates as Lady Macbeth appeared in a hooped court petticoat of enormous dimensions, with tight-fitting pointed bodice and elbow sleeves, and her powdered hair dressed over a high cushion. Garrick's suits for the characters of King Lear and Hamlet also followed the fashions of the 18th century, though he played Richard III. in a fancy dress designed with some regard to correctness of detail. Even during the present century, an equally absurd anachronism may be recorded. The late Mr. Charles Mathews made his first appearance in public, at the Theatre Royal, Richmond, as Richmond in Richard III., wearing the helmet and jacket of a modern light horse soldier. [Illustration: A TURKISH MAIDEN.] The first pantomime or harlequinade was played in England in 1717, and the earliest illustration of an English harlequin in the dress now familiar to us, is to be found in a sketch of Bartholomew Fair, dated 1721. Of the characters of columbine, pantaloon, and clown, we have no contemporary drawings. Of the French ballet dancers of this period there are some carefully-executed plates in Planché's "Cyclopædia of Costume." They are all represented in long, and sometimes in trained skirts. The first example of the abbreviated ballet skirt, reaching to the knee, is given in the portrait of an actress personating Le Zephyr, about the middle of the 18th century. The peasant costume of various nations has also been adapted to stage purposes with excellent effect.