The year will close with a literal crowd of pantomimes;
Harlequin having utterly driven his old rival, Burlesque, out of the field, so that the latter has not place of sojourn except the Olympic Theatre, which belongs to him of prescriptive right, as much as Muscovy belongs to the Czar. Here afr. Planche and Mr. Robson will reign unrivalled, as in a little fairy islend surrounded by an ocean of pantomimes; Professor An- derson having even converted Covent Garden into a house for harlequin- ade, to increase the competition of motley with motley. In the middle of the last century, the Shaksperians looked upon Harlequin himself as an Italian invader ; but so long hashe been naturalised, and so closely is he associated, even in the minds of our grandfathers, with the festivities of Christmas, that his reestablishment on his now ancient throne may be regarded with a Jacobite sort of satisfaction.
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