ACROBATIC FEATS.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume X, Issue 5, 4 February 1893, Page 119

ACROBATIC FEATS.

Acrobatic performances were of very ancient date. In old times every King or great noble had his troops of acrobats and dancers, and after the master and his guests had feasted, the performers were called in to amuse them with dances and tumblings. Some kings were fonder of this style of amusement than others. Henry VIII. of England was said to be particularly devoted to it. He paid large sums to professors in the art. Queen Mary, his daughter, inherited his tastes. At her coronation, a Hollander, named Peter—his surname seems to be lost—executed feats of agility under the summit of St. Paul’s. He walked a tight-rope stretched to the summit of the steeple of that imposing and venerable church, sustaining himself ‘ sometimes on one foot, sometimes the other, while he brandished a huge flag which he waved in the air.’ But rope-dancing is a much older amusement than King Henry VIII.’s time. We read of rope-dancing among the Greeks, B.c. 1345. Some historians give it an older date than that. Some performers, we read, suspended by their feet, threw themselves over and over the rope as a wheel revolves around its axis. Others rested on it, with the stomaeb, the arms and legs extended, and slid down from some great elevation with the rapidity of an arrow. Some ran upon a rope stretched obliquely, others, walking upon a horizontal cord, leaped and threw somersaults as if they hail been upon the ground. These ancient artists seem to have been quite equal to the performers of to-day. The Romans, not content with the exhibition of men upon the tight-rope, instructed animals in the art. Under Tiberius there were spectacles of elephants walking the rope. During the reign of Nero a Roman horseman drove his horse over this flexible roadway. The historian Pliny speaks of gladiatorial combats at which appeared ‘ elephants which performed astonishing tricks, throwing swords in the air, fighting like gladiators, dancing the Pyrrhic dance, and walking up tights-ropes both forward and backward.’