ance.

TUMBLING-BALANCING.

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The swinging, however, gave the actor a better opportunity of keeping his equipoise. There are certain feats of tumbling and vaulting, that have no connection with dancing; such as leaping and turning with the ' heels over the head in the air, which is called the Somervault, or, corruptly, the Somerset; also turning over backwards with great rapidity, alternately bearing upon the hands and the feet, denominated the Fly-flap; and leaping through barrels without heads, and through hoops, especially the latter, which is an exploit of long standing.

Balancing formed a material part of the joculator's profession; as did also the art of the posture-master, which consisted in twisting and contorting his body into strange and unnatural attitudes. In a delineation, so old as

the time of Edward III. the performer has bent himself backward, with his head turned up between his hands, so as nearly to touch his feet; and in this situation he hangs by his hams upon a pole supported by two of his confederates. The posture-master is frequently mentioned by the writers of the two last centuries; but his tricks are not particularized. In the present day, these performances are not fashionable, but seem to excite disgust rather than admiration in the public mind; and for this reason they are rarely exhibited.

MOUNTEBANKS.

The Mountebank, who united the professions of joculator and physician, was of ancient date, and, during the last two centuries, figured away in England with considerable success. He appeared upon a temporary stage, and

prefaced the vending of his medicines with a pompous harangue; and, the better to attract the notice of the gaping spectators, he displayed some of the performances practised by jugglers, whilst his inseparable companion, the bourdour, or merry-andrew, exhibited numerous tricks of vaulting, jumping, or contortions of the body, to put the populace in a good humour, and induce them to purchase the nostrums of his principal.

TINKERS.

ANOTHER itinerant, who seems in some degree to have rivalled the lower classes of the jugglers, was the Tinker, and he is accordingly included with them and the minstrels in the act of Elizabeth against vagrants. His performances were usually exhibited at fairs, wakes, and other places of public resort, and

consisted in low buffoonery and ludicrous tricks, to engage the attention and move the laughter of the populace. Among his most notable performances were fire-eating, licking out burning firebrands or red-hot pokers with the tongue; taking melted lead or burning pitch into the mouth; pretending to eat burning tow, and then drawing it out in ribands, &c.

DANCING ANIMALS.

ONE great part of the joculator's profession was the teaching of bears, apes, horses, dogs, and other animals, to imitate the actions of men, to tumble, dance, and perform a variety of tricks contrary to their nature; and sometimes he would himself counterfeit the gestures and articulations of the brutes.

In some ancient drawings, we meet with representations of the tutored bear. In one, he