Biography
Harry and Fred Payne were the sons of William Henry Schofield Payne (1804–1878), the classic pantomime artist who was a master of "dumb show" or comic mime, and who invented much of the Harlequinade action. Known as "the King of Pantomime", he trained with Joseph Grimaldi and the great Harlequin, Jack Bologna, at Sadler's Wells Theatre, and starred at Covent Garden in the 1830s and 40s. The dancing of the Payne Brothers was so celebrated that W.S. Gilbert referred to it in two of his comic Bab Ballads, "The Bishop of Rum-ti-Foo" and "The Bishop of Rum-ti-Foo Again". When the Paynes appeared in The Grand Duchess at the Gaiety in 1871, a reviewer in The Olio wrote, "People go rather to see the eccentric dancing than to hear the eccentric music. However, in justice to the latter, it may be urged that we have all heard enough of the 'Grand Duchess', while we are all agreed that we would never see sufficient of the Payne pantomimists – perhaps, taken for all in all, the best in the world."
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