Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary/Mimus

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Rich, Anthony (1849). The illustrated companion to the Latin dictionary, and Greek lexicon. p. vi. OCLC 894670115. https://archive.org/details/illustratedcompa00rich. 

MI'MUS. In a general sense, means any person who takes off or imitates the manners, deportment, or expression of another, by gesticulation, grimace, or feigned tones of the voice, corresponding with our mimic. But, in a more restricted meaning, the name was given to an actor on the stage, who played a part in a particular kind of drama, designated by the same name; a very broad, and for the most part indecent farce, in which private characters were shown up and exposed to ridicule. The mimic who performed these parts expressed his meaning by gesticulation and pantomimic action chiefly, though dialogue was not entirely excluded. Originally he danced upon the floor between the stage, not upon it, and without a mask; accordingly, in the annexed example (Mimus/1.1), from an engraved ring, it will be perceived that nearly the whole of the face is exposed to view; the mask, unlike those usually worn by comic actors, only covering a small portion of the cheeks; the scalp is covered by a fur cap. Cic. Or. ii. 59. Ov. A. Am. i. 501. Id. Trist. ii. 497. Diomed. iii. 487. Compare PLANIPES.

2. Buffoons, or mimics of this description, were also employed off the stage, especially at great funerals (indictiva funera), at which they followed the Praeficae, dancing grotesque dances, and acting the part of merry-andrews, as exhibited by the annexed figure (Mimus/2.1) from a sepulchral lamp found in a tomb excavated in the Villa Corsini; whilst the leader of their band (archimimus) affected to personate the deceased. (Dionys. viii. 72. Suet. Vesp. 19.) The instruments, which the figure holds, are crotala (see p. 217.); and his head is decorated with the appropriate appendage of a fool's cap.

• 
  Mimus/1.1
• 
  Mimus/2.1