The National Register. — London, England, 1809-09-10 00:00:00

SEPT'.. 10. preseniatiou of toe (Yekpas ('al ineus of .'!..uphories ; it is certain that the ancients regarded ilieetriciii re ees as th e combinations of every churl of linnuta talent in the arts : their stage sceis the temple of poetry, where she received ai ;.istaner. ned homage of ail her other sisters. It must be acknowledi.;ed that. in the decline of just sia:avin C:eece, and particularly ia Itoine, the splendours of decoration, with the sioluptuousness of dance and of music, over Is h e l nie n the superior beauties of peetical : the hold energies of passim). or the awful sentiments of reason, liad no ell . ect on those who began he re. - ;aril the theatre as the plug-Gillz of the day : who Caine there to cease to think, not t o f o llow a train of the most dignified thought through a series of the most interesth:g incidents. unisic, the dance, the pomp of procession and sacrifice, and the licence of the scene Is ere all that remained of ilo! ancient drama er .I;stkelas: the body without Ike coal;--nay, the mere api:arel without son or body, for the veil' features and figure were lost. Music wets no longer impaieioncil it no longer uttered its wonderful I OeeS to the soul of the auditor a delicate yin« of sebdivided Pattes it tickled the ear, and pleased by the vacancy of idea which it induced. The dance no longer moved-through impressive attitudes—it no long er imparted a sense of the motiou of rods or the march of heroes ; the terrific agitation of the Furies, the delirium of Hereulcs,and the solemn step of the Ghost Of Darius were forgotten, and the immodest gesture was alt that rendered the dance expressive of any SCasli tiOn. The degradation of poetry is the degradation of every other art, which is only great according to the in spiration it seizes from toe eneegies of the superior muse. On the opening of the new Theatre we shall find oc casion to speak frequently of this union of the arts in theatrical representation : it is our business now to express our sentiments on certain innovations which seem to aim at that separation which we have remarked as one of the features or degenerated taste., The Creeks, as wet, ax the modern French, had their bullets of action ; the pieces of some of the first and hest authors were acted without the word ; and sometimes the words were read and recited aloud by an unseen person, while the actor went through tie part in silent or modulated action. The action of the Greek orators constituted a great portion of their astonishing eloquence, and therefore we may sup pose that the modulated motions of their actors, were far nnore impressive than any dance of which we can form an idea. Indeed, the actions of our modern ballet (lancers, Pre fir from being impressive at ail : in our ferandest bal lets d'action the motions are merely signs and mimicry ; if we could imagine any thing that these ballets might be said to resemble, it would be an assembly of dumb men bitten by a tarantula. To represent one of the finest tragedies of our Shakspeare iti the manner of a modern ballet seems therefore the height of absurdity ; but to give it all the expressive grace of action ss hile the words might be emphalleallN read to the spectators, seems soinew hat less absurd, particularly as it. k supported by the example of such high authority. It was certainty with sentimenty unfavourable to the purpose of Mr. Elkton, that we weet last week to the Circus. We felt persnaded, that soch piece r.. 41 Jlarbelh, required a ballet master more conver sant in the expression of action thaa any he esedd find : we had not formed any very high Opinion of kis own powers of attitude ; and we recollected, that even when alloyed the use of his tongue, he sV:IS almost as prone to the signs of the dumb as Mr. Young himself. Our expecta tions were therefore not a 9:a& step too high when we en tered his theatre. The manner in which he deliver ed a very excellent address, which we ,since under stand to have been the composition of Dr. Busby, did not in the least increase our hopes : his emphasis was false and his action extravagant : the poetry of Dr. Busby owed nothing to his recitation ; it however possessed such excellencies as spoke for themselves, and the best appear ance it has made hitherto before the public is 10 print rather than at the Circus. Ou the drawing up of the cu,rtaia we .JrBs were delighted with scone of the best scenery we ever re member to have seen. The prrspoetive and the colouring were exquisite, and in eyery chiane throughout the piece. the polut of sight 1 1 ::14 ii:cli tit) u sly preserved of the same height, and in the same direction ;—a great consideration, not sufficiently iegarded at our theatres. The music of Locke was given with considerable truth of execution. and the witches possessed as much of that wild and super natural grandi.sur as it is possible to give them on any stagc. ittit when we lieganto f . eel the loss of the recitation, neither the splendour oil the decorations, nor the beauty of the scene, y, a shiErle idca to our earnest suggestions. The inotihns of the actors were WO rqe than ineoilgruou9 ; they were frequeutly ridiculous, and the jumble of the: mu,;ie which accompanied these motions was absurd. Poor Elliston was too superior to those who moved with : he. laboured to be great in attitude, writ sonic' auk ward allow or other continually thwart ed him ; and what rendered it extremely provoking, was to perceive, that in some of the hest speeches, he muttered the NV Ord I to himself, while he could give Ike speclalors nothivg but the action. his action was forced and generally undignified ; in his first interview with Lad?! filacbelh, it was almost laughable, or perhaps was rendered so by the violence of the lady, who embracc:d him as if she would have leaped upon his shoulders. hi some points, the scenes of Shatiesocar hot riTid lv given, but II hat would hale been narrative, was ex hibited in incident : of this kind was the murder of Din:- eza. The accompaniment of pantomime music, added to the disgust which the acting of Lady illattelh created throughout the murder-scene. We did not wish For a reader in the manner of the Greek theatre, we wished we could for a while forget the very words of Shakspeare that arose in our recollection and seemed to be ridieu:ed by the the mute . • inery before us. The excellence of the scenery n some de rev relieved our attention : the descent of Hecate v. as ad mirable, and the cauldron scene was given with great effect. ‘Ve advise • Alr. Elliston to confine his future scenic display ti) such subjects as are more congenial to the naltire of his theatre and the powers of his actors.. The beauties of Shakespear are too intimately connected with character and sentimeut for such ti:tyn? i•x!iiLltions ; and although many of his pla , :s present gre. , l vanta ge .* for the admission of splendid sueetaele, yet no pass are so truly ir;dependent of the spectacle attached to them, as those of our immortal hard. This we felt severely at the Circus; and wished that Mr. Kilislon had contented himself with Clue Beard, or with Pizarro, and left Nacbuil! alone, at least until! he quits the empar.a/ of Ike niu;c:u. TO TU! EDl7'Ol:. Ole , —.l i'lo:i,ll4- a:;t3tIsTEIZ. GALV Vti :VP(' meu.c ti r Relit lodate purfor, gnarl vireg /erre revisent.—TlOß. Si tt-I.te l2rilish Pres. Stititr(ln se'nnight ediaititts a biter to the Editor on :he sith:oct of the recent cl . ;s.aiyeries in (:a 1 tn l ISIh, l% Ilti el, .' nen considered (-it !tor hi a (-hymnal Sf'n . q , , or A ith a reference to iis e raordinary ett. , et, ilpea t!ie animal economy, merits niintw! attention. And althosiga n.buit mtich luti been done. NCI Stilt much remains (input Povilied taor ('nn zw y thing. be m o re important to chemico eleCtLiC J;G:ne thlin a candid statement of fact.. This I'a not which by any meaos made in 'AI r. b y elvaier's letter, to which (throng!' the medium of yonr excellent P.:tier) 1 take this opportu nity of replying . , I agree ivith this t'. - titer, ho asserts that a't' live in an age when scientific inquiries have as , iittied rational and dignified eitararter. I was, therefore, a• little surprised at some other statements in hi paper ‘vaich app •ar t he at variance s the facts olltiticil to by him - as. the 1 - ..su!rof the labours of the French chemists. Ile tells Hsi, that "ex tal rience hay -ltewn that theory, independent of experimental facts only lead to wild and Yeitlie conjecture; and t;tnt a blind z ea l for tat discovery of new farts, without any rcgart.l I n the", displays little rise than a cttildi , h coujosit...vt hid burden the memory without giviug auy emptoytotlit to the cottet.!•tanui!g„,'. a THE NATIONAL REGISTER.