PANTOMIMES.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR.") SIR,—With reference to "Tarn's " interesting speculations as to the folk-lore of pantomime in your issue of January 8th, don't you think it probable that the principal boy and heroine are reincarnations of the Morris king and queen, both of which parts were played by men? Then when women began to appear on the stage the aesthetic taste of the day demanded that the queen should be a woman, but tradition was sufficiently 'strong to keep them both of the same sex. And may not the dame " be the man dressed in woman's clothes who carries a broom to sweep away "winter's rains and ruins—and all the season of MOMS and of sins "?—truly Ceres, or our northern comedy version of her. These pageants can still be seen in their native state at certain places in the Peak of Derbyshire, and very im-
pressive they are.—I am, Sir, &c., X.
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