The Mirror Of Literature, Amusement, And Instruction. Volume 14, No. 391, September 26, 1829

Decline of the Drama

It is not unlikely that the drama would be more successful if it were conducted more plainly, and in a less costly style. The perfection of the machinery and scenery of the modern theatres, seems to be unfavourable to the goodness of composition and acting; since the accessaries are so excellent, the opinion is encouraged, that the principals are less important, and may be neglected with impunity. The effect of good scenery at the first glance is, no doubt, very striking, but it soon passes away. If we saw a Garrick acting Shakspeare in a large hall, without any scenes, we should cease in a few minutes to be sensible of the want of them. We are almost disposed to believe, that exactly in proportion as scenery has been improved, good acting has declined.

The present age is too much inclined to make human life, in every department, resemble a great lottery, in which there are a very few enormous prizes, and all the rest of the tickets are blanks. The stage has not escaped the evil we complain of; on the contrary, it is a striking instance of the mischief of this unequal partition. The public are of opinion, that it is impossible to reward a small number of actors too highly, and to pay the remainder at too low a rate; to neglect the latter enough, or to be sufficiently attentive to the former. On our stage, therefore, the inferior parts, and indeed all but one or two, and especially in tragedies, where the inequality is more intolerable, and more inexcusable, are sustained in a very inadequate manner. In foreign theatres, on the contrary, and especially in France, the whole performance is more equal, and consequently more agreeable. There is perhaps less difference than is commonly supposed between the best performers and those in the next class. Whatever the difference be, it is an inconvenience and an imperfection that ought to be palliated; but we aggravate it. The first-rate actor always does his best, because the audience expect it, and reward him with their applause; but no one cares for, or observes, the performer of second-rate talents: whether he be perfect in his part, and exert himself to the utmost, or be slovenly and negligent throughout, he is unpraised and unblamed. The general effect, therefore, of our tragedies, is very unsatisfactory; for that is far greater, where all the characters are tolerably well supported, than where there is one good actor, and all the other parts are inhumanly murdered. This latter is too often the case on our stage for with us art does little, nothing being taught systematically. The French players, on the contrary, are thoroughly drilled, and well instructed, in every requisite.

BISHOPS' SLEEVES

To Joan it has been always conceded that she is as good as her lady in the dark, but it is only of late years that Joan has presumed to rival her mistress in the light. The high price of silks and satins protected the mistress against this usurpation of her servant in the broad day. Clad in these, she was safe, as in a coat of mail, from the attack of the domestic aspirant, who was seldom able to obtain possession of the outworks of fashion beyond an Irish poplin or a Norwich crape. The silks and satins were a wall of separation, as impenetrable as the lines of Torres Vedras, or the court hoop and petticoat of a drawing-room in the reign of George III. The new liberal commercial system has entirely changed the position of the parties. The cheapness of French silks, and other articles of dress, has placed female finery within the reach of even moderate wages, and a kitchen-wench will not condescend to sweep the room in any thing less than a robe of Gros de Naples or batiste. Something must be done on the part of the mistress to arrest the progress of invasion, and assert the vested rights of the superior classes of female society. Invention is the first quality of genius, and to woman it is granted in a high degree. Thus gifted, the mistress, in a happy moment, conceived the idea of bishops' sleeves, an article of dress which precludes all hope or chance of imitation in the kitchen. A muffled cat might as well attempt to catch mice, as a maid-servant to go about the business of the house in bishops' sleeves. She could not remove the tea-equipage from the table without the risk of sweeping the china upon the floor; if she handed her master a plate, he must submit to have his head wrapped up in her sleeve; and what a figure must the cook present after preparing her soups and sauces! The female servant thus accoutred might, indeed, perform the office of a flapper, and disperse the flies; but although this was an office of importance among the ancients, it is dispensed with at a modern table. With the introduction of bishops' sleeves, the rivalry on the part of the maid must cease, and the mistress remain in undisturbed possession of her pre-eminence. Every friend of good order, every one who would retain each individual female in her proper place in society, and prevent its members from trespassing on each other, must, therefore, rejoice in bishops' sleeves; and devoutly pray, that differing from every other fashion that ever preceded it, the fashion of bishops' sleeves may endure for ever.—New Monthly Magazine.

SPIRIT OF DISCOVERY

Iris Lunaris

That rare and beautiful phenomenon the Iris Lunaris, or moonlight rainbow, was observed by Mr. W. Colbourne, jun. and a friend of his, from an eminence about a quarter of a mile from Sturminster, on the evening of the 14th instant, about twenty minutes before nine o'clock, in the north-west. Its northern limb first made its appearance; but after a few minutes, the complete curvature was distinctly and beautifully displayed. The altitude of its apex seemed to be nearly forty degrees. Nothing could exceed the beauty of the appearance of this arch of milky whiteness, contrasted as it was with the sable rain fraught clouds which formed the background to this interesting picture. It continued visible more than five minutes, and gradually disappeared at the western limb.

RURIS.

Sturminster.

Westphalia Hams

Are prepared in November and March. The Germans place them in deep tubs, which they cover with layers of salt and saltpetre, and with a few laurel leaves. They are left four or five days in this state, and are then completely covered with strong brine. At the end of three weeks they are taken out, and left to soak for twelve hours in clear well-water; they are then exposed, during three weeks, to a smoke produced by the branches of juniper.—From the French.

London Porter

The bitter contained in porter, if taken wholly from hops, would require an average quantity of ten or twelve pounds to the quarter of malt, or about three pounds per barrel; so that if we consider the fluctuation in the price of hops, we shall not be surprised at the numerous substitutes, by which means the brewer can procure as much bitter for sixpence as would otherwise cost him a pound.

Quassia is, probably, the most harmless of all the illegal bitters. The physicians prescribe the decoction to their patients to the extent of a quarter of an ounce of the bark a day—as much as the brewer was accustomed to put into nine gallons of his porter.—Library of Useful Knowledge.

Black Game

Have increased greatly in the southern counties of Scotland and north of England within the last few years. It is a pretty general opinion, though an erroneous one, that they drive away the red grouse; the two species require very different kinds of cover, and will never interfere.—Note to White's Selborne, by Sir W. Jardine.

Birds of Prey

All birds of prey are capable of sustaining the want of food and water for long periods, particularly the latter, but of which they also seem remarkably fond, drinking frequently in a state of nature, and during summer washing almost daily.—Ibid.

Egypt

M. Champollion, in one of his recent letters, tells us that the whole of the island of Elephantina would hardly make a park fit for a good citizen of Paris, although certain modern chronologists would fain make it into a kingdom, in order to dispose of the ancient Egyptian dynasty of the Elephantines.

In another letter dated March last, he says, "Our establishment is in the Valley of Kings, which may truly be called the abode of death, as not a blade of grass is to be found in it, nor any living creature, except the jackall and hyæna, which the night before last devoured, at the distance of 100 steps from our palace, the ass which had carried my Barabra servant Mahomet, during the time that he was agreeably passing the night of the Ramadan in our kitchen, which is in a royal tomb, entirely dilapidated."—Translated in the Literary Gazette.

Beet-Root Sugar

The Anti-Slavery Monthly Reporter for September, among the advantages which will probably lead to the discontinuance of the cultivation of sugar by slaves, enumerates the rapid extension of the manufacture of beet-root sugar in France; a prelude, as the editor conceives, to its introduction into this country, and especially into Ireland.

Dry Rot

The American Commodore Barron recommends pumping air from the holds of vessels as a remedy against dry rot; the common mode of ventilation, by forcing pure air, or dashing water into the hold, being found an imperfect preservative.

Alloyed Iron Plate

Iron, coated with an alloy of tin and lead, so as to imitate tin plate, and not to rust, is now manufactured to a considerable extent in Paris; and its use for sugar-pans and boilers, and in the construction of roofs and gutters is expected to be very considerable.

Interesting Question

Whether in the sea there be depths where no creature is able to live, or whether a boundary be assigned to organic life within those depths, cannot be ascertained. It, however, clearly appears from the observations made by Biot, and other naturalists, that fishes, according to their different dispositions, live in different depths of the ocean.—From the German.

Cats

In Kamtschatka, Greenland, Lapland, and Iceland, there are no cats, nor does the lynx in Europe extend farther than Norway.—Ibid.

Vessels made of the Papyrus

The last number of the Magazine of Natural History contains an article of great interest, on Vessels made of the Papyrus, illustrated with cuts, from which it appears that vessels have from the earliest times, been formed from the paper reed, and that they are at present in use in Egypt and Abyssinia. The author is John Hogg, Esq. M.A. F.L.S. &c. whose antiquarian attainments have greatly assisted him in the elucidation of this very curious subject.

Remains of La Perouse. 10

M. Derville, who commanded the Astrolabe, in the lute-voyage undertaken to search for traces of the expedition of La Perouse, considers the island, the summits of which were observed fifteen leagues to windward, by the frigates La Récherche and L'Esperance, which composed the expedition of Admiral D'Entrecasteaux, in 1793, and to which the name of the Isle de la Récherche was then given, to be the identical island, Vanikoro (or Vanicolo) on the shores of which the remnants of La Perouse's vessel have been found. The geographical position of latitude and longitude of the Isle of Vanikoro, agrees exactly with that of the island to which the name of Récherche was given by D'Entrecasteaux. That island was then confounded with the number of other islands, which had been seen by the expedition, and which it had been found impossible to examine in detail.—Athenæum.

Study of Chemistry

Numbers there are, far above the lower classes, who still consider the elements of all things as consisting of earth, air, fire, and water; an error which classical-learning, no less than the expressions of common parlance, tends to perpetuate. Let us hope that the days are at hand, if not already arrived, in which the acquirement of such fundamental knowledge will be looked upon as at least equally necessary with the study of languages, and the cultivation of taste and imagination.—Library of Useful Knowledge.

THE GATHERER

A snapper up of unconsidered trifles.—SHAKSPEARE.

ORIGIN OF THE WORD WORSTED

Worsted, in the county of Norfolk, though formerly a town of considerable trade, and much celebrity, is now reduced to a village, and the manufactures, which obtained a name from the place, are removed to Norwich and its vicinity.

Shakspeare has not been very courteous towards the worsted gentry; had he lived in our times, they might have worsted him for a libel: he says in King Lear, "A base, proud, shallow, beggarly, three suited, hundred pound, filthy, worsted stocking knave."

P.T.W.

I asked a poor man, how he did? He said, he was like a washball, always in decay.—Swift.

CAT-FANCIER

Lady Morgan gives the following anecdote in her Book of the Boudoir. "The first day we had the honour of dining at the palace of the Archbishop of Taranto, at Naples, he said to me, you must pardon my passion for cats, (la mia passione gattesca) but I never exclude them from my dining-room, and you will find they make excellent company." Between the first and second course the door opened, and several enormously large and beautiful Angola cats were introduced by the names of Pantalone, Desdemona, Otello, &c. They took their places on chairs near the table, and were as silent, as quiet, as motionless, and as well behaved, as the most bon ton table in London could require. On the bishop requesting one of the chaplains to help the Signora Desdemona, the butler stepped up to his lordship, and observed, "My Lord, La Signora Desdemona will prefer waiting for the roast."

ANCIENT FAMILY

There was much sound truth in the speech of a country lad to an idler, who boasted his ancient family: "So much the worse for you," said the peasant, as we ploughmen say, "the older the seed the worse the crop."

At North Ferryby, in Yorkshire, the following very instructive lines, are inscribed on a handsome tablet to the memory of Sir T. Etherington, an Alderman of Hull, and late a resident in the above place:—

"Taught of God we should view losses, sickness, pain, and death, but as the several trying stages by which a good man, like Joseph, is conducted from a tent to a court; sin his disease, Christ his physician, pain his medicine, the Bible his support, the grave his rest, and death itself an angel expressly sent to relieve the worn out labourer, or crown the faithful soldier!"

Louis XIV. was presented with an epitaph by an indifferent poet, on the celebrated Moliere. "I would to God," said he, "that Moliere had brought me yours."

ON MEMORY

What an unknown and unspeakable happiness would it be to a man of judgment, and who is engaged in the pursuit of knowledge, if he had but a power of stamping all his own best sentiments upon his memory in some indelible characters; and if he could but imprint every valuable paragraph and sentiment of the most excellent authors he has read, upon his mind, with the same speed and facility with which he read them?—Watts.

Upon a stone in St. Margaret's churchyard, at Lynn, in Norfolk, is the following inscription to the memory of William Scrivenor, Cook to the Corporation, who died in the year 1684:—

Alas! alas! Will Scrivenor's dead, who by his art,Could make death's skeleton edible in each part,Mourn, squeamish stomachs, and ye curious palates,You've lost your dainty dishes and your salades;Mourn for yourselves, but not for him i'th' leastHe's gone to taste of a more heav'nly feast.

At Whitchingham Magna, in the same county, is the following epitaph to Thomas Alleyne, gent. who died Feb. 3, 1650, and his two wives:—

Death here advantage hath of life I spye,One husband with two wives at once may lye.

A recent American newspaper has the following notice to its readers:—"The editor, printer, publisher, foreman, and oldest apprentice (two in all,) are confined by sickness, and the whole establishment is left in the care of the devil."

LIMBIRD'S EDITION OF THE

Following Novels is already Published:

1

"Literary Gazette," Sept. 19, 1829.

2

The propellers, I am informed, are not absolutely discarded. They are now not fixed, but movable, and reserved for extreme possible emergencies, or for certain military purposes.

3

Yorkshire. This wonderful assemblage lies scattered in groups, covering a surface of nearly forty acres of heathy moor. The numerous rocking-stones, rock-idols, altars, cannon rocks, &c. evidently point out this spot as having been used by the Druids in their horrid and mysterious ceremonies. The position of some of these rocks is truly astonishing; one in particular resting upon a base of a few inches, overhangs on all sides many feet; while others seem suspended and balanced as if they hung in air.

4

Human sacrifices formed part of the religious rites of the Druids.

5

Picturesque Promenade round Dorking. Second Edit. 12mo. 1823, p. 258, 259.

6

Ibid p. 143.

7

The Alpenstock, by C.J. Latrobe, 1829.

8

Gray's Alliance of Education and Government.

9

See the second Georgic of Virgil.

10

For a Report of this discovery, see MIRROR, vol. xiii p. 409.