1890 Acrobats and Mountebanks

Description

First Edition, Illustrated, Publishers' Original Binding

Le Roux and Garnier look at the subculture and history of travelling performers, such as acrobats and the circus. In English, translated by A P Morton. With chapters on the history of mountebanks, the circus as an institution, acrobats, gymnasts, hippodrome, clowns. 'This publication is really the monograph of an unknown people, related by the pen and pencil. Its laws, its customs, its traditions, its secrets, its hopes, have been seized, defined in spite of reticence, evasions, wavering and contradictory witnesses. It describes the organization of the banquiste people, the foundation of its agencies, newspapers and syndicates, it follows the mountebank from his birth in the wandering caravan to his apotheosis in the friezes of the circus, and at the same time it penetrates into the stables to explain the secrets of the trainer, the tamer and the ring master; into the booths to ask the clown for the story of his adventures and by what chance,having become a gentleman himself, he one day met in the land of whims a gentleman who had become a clown!' Illustrated throughout, with 233 vignette illustrations depicting venues, audiences, the talent and important individuals regarding the management of such troupes such as P T Barnum, M Victor Franconi and Agoust. A comprehensive history, in a bright condition.