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 the acrobat becoming a leader amongst the Queen's, and even so late as 1601 Henslowe fitting out the Admiral's boy Nick to tumble in the presence of royalty. The country tours of the Queen's were for some time accompanied by a Turkish rope dancer. In the theatres themselves Italian players made their success and their scandal, with the help of tumbling women. Whether English players did the same we do not know. But we do know that the dance by way of afterpiece was a regular and enduring custom. It was known as the jig. At first, perhaps, nothing more than such dancing, with the help of a variety of foreign costumes, as was also an element in the early masks, it developed into a farcical dialogue, with a musical and Terpsichorean accompaniment,