The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser. — Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1855-12-11 00:00:00

SUPPLEMENT TO THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD• 1 t'ECtIBER 11, 1855.] !? ..- --or a middle-aged one either—never looks 'er---so well—as when in prudence and meek tshe seeks to cheer with charity the hovels the poor. I k no w several such—and though t Play too often be cheated and imposed on -17.1% not their fault—and the discharge of a ri stian duty cannot fail of being accompanied great overbalance of • g ood —Wilson's Noctes 61 'osiance, vol. ii. THE GREEK STAGE. i T , E itY who assign to the drama no higher part recian life than it plays in ours are grievously f '' a tilt. Its effects were more deeply improved 1 Were more extensively diffused amongst the 'ses, the theatre being almost the ony place Which the people could obtain an audience of • intellectually great. The theatres . of the th eita were not kept open like ours , for several v gqeutive months ; nor were the representations en at night ti by gas-light and in heated houses. Performance was invariably by day , and th eir k e t a t tres having no roofs, the spectators sat be h the open sky. It was thought improper Women to appear on the stage, and female `racters were on that account per sonated b y k as they were in England in the time of our dramatists. A great concourse of people • 1 2 the natural consequence of the particular ' l od, and of the h of time din • Pl i i ch the theatres s were ortness th open ; so e th ur at it was `‘'essary to build them on a vast scale. Some : t e large enough to accommodate fifteen or six thousand people. Among the Greeks cer ~a peculiarities of costume prevailed which °l tld not be tolerated in an English theatre. The fors were raised above the ordinary hei g ht b y labs of buskins, and their faces were concealed Lcarved and painted masks. From the great 0;qof the building the spectators cou ld not read the actor's countenance tha t lan g ua g e of feeling ~ passion which speaks so powerfully even f 1 the tongue is silent. The masks were so qioned as to indicate with more or less distinct -4 id ealise the person represented , and so hel p ed to the actor and carry out the Greek notion 0 , ' tragedy. But the workings of emotion, the ' ) atrasting differences and transitions of expres ioll which all who are familiar wit h a theatre t understand an actor to convey by his o Nintenance, were denied to the Greek audiences 4 account of the use of masks. The y were at t he h same time so contrived that they increased the power of the voice, and they were em bellished to • high degree by the united efforts of the first sculptors and painters. A Greek thea tre was of n • semicircular shape. Tiers of seats for the audience were placed round that part of the interior which was curved, whilst th e sta g e was f ormed by a platform in front. Persons of dis tinction were placed on the lower tiers, the mid "de seats were appropriated to the common people ; 1 , 414 1 if females attended the theatre, which had doubted, they occupied the highest range. The seats were reached by staircases which f mounted from tier to tier at equal distances from each other. The part of the theatre called the pit was not assigned to the spectators, but was Occupied by the chorus, whose duty it was to recite the lyrical pieces which formed a large portion of every play. Dances formed a part of the entertainments, and the dancers displayed the greatest skill in adapting their gestures to the subject of the drama. The name of a per former has been given whose movements were 'apposed to express very distinctly th e even ts of Seven Chiefs of Thebes, by 2Eschylus. The ' ll Bic introduced during the performance was probably not more than sufficient to guide the dices and to assist the voices of the singers, ILLUSTRATION OYE S OF ENGLISH .R _RBS. " Life is a mingled yarn." YES, say .you ; this is indeed a true statement. I appeal to the history of all ages, yea to the days of one's own years from earliest youth downwards, and find the proverb to hold good in every respect. Re flect awhile there such a thing on earth as unalloyed and uninterrupted happiness ? From the mightiest down to the most humble of the children of men, who is not more or less affected by the manifold changes and chances of this mortal life ? And wisely, most wisely has it been thus ordained, that our con dition, even at the very best state, should be but vanity ; should be attended with presight, anxiety and solicitude. Hence arises the development of man's moral character ; since, where would be the test of integrity, were there no temptations to dis honesty ? where would be found illustrations of the noblest virtues, patience, fortitude, and resignation, did not crosses and disappointments obstruct the way ? Hence arises also a holy aspiration after the one only place of entire security and repose, where neither moth nor rust corrupteth, and where thieves do not break through and steal; where the wicked cease from troubling, and where the weary are at rest." The materials of which our daily life, therefore, are wo ven, are of a diverse an d opposite texture and cha racter. Now, you see the gourd, which seems spe cially provided for the shelter and comfort of the pro phet during the intense heat of the day, withering away just as it's protection is most needed. Now, tidings come, a child is born ; and tidings come again, that she who bore it is sick unto death. "So swift treads sorrow on the heels of joy."—" Now, mark the trnsition from what is so joyous on earth to all at is most lonely and desolate. Sad reverse of things ! Weeping, I saw it once," "'Wrinkled with time, And TAonttd e h ,rvi o on a rg r t y hayn with dm salnot slow, duste a,m e to of h syehaur, humble old roof, and on the threshhold stood. No foot, no voice was heard within ' • none came. To meet him ! for that day had seen The old man lay within the narrow house . The last of all his family ; and now He stood in solitude —in solitude Wide as the world! Since all that made to him Society had fled beyond its bounds, His lonely cot was silent, and he looked As if he could not enter. On his staff Bending he leaned, and from his weary eye. A single tear-drop wept : None followed, for the fount of tears was dry ; Alone and Igo - . 't fell from wrinkle down td e 205 without putting forward any claim to at tention To wrinkle, till it lost itself , drunk b y The withered cheek, on which again no smile on its own account. The lyre, the flute, and the Should come, or drop of tenderne ss be seen." pipe swelled with their blended sweetness, with- Even thus our interests and affections are so in volved by ties of out overwhelmin g the vocal harmonies of the blood, alliance, or friendship,,that all chorus, and formed an exquisite combination of whom we love must, as it were, be present with us, voice and instrument. Situations of great beauty and completely happy, before we ourselves can ex were usually selected as the sites of the Grecian perience unmixed pleasure. In this respect, truly, theatres. The theatre at Taurominium in Sicily ; the heart is like a parasitic plant, which can never was so constructed as to afford the audience a view grow and thrive unless it has something constantly to of Mount Etna. That of A thens commanded cling to, and round which it ma y freel y unfold itself. Another source of interruption to the full tide of Mount Hymettus, the Saronic Gulf, and the three parts of the Piraeus. Immediate l y above it stood the human bliss is occasione d b y the fact that man is ever grasping ; his mind resembles a whirlpool, which sucks Parthenon on its Acropolis. The machinery of down everything within its influence, and is never the stage was very simple, and concealed as much satisfied. Yes, good reader, are not your every day's as possible from the view of t he audience, the desires in advance of p resent attainments ? Let the Greeks being desirous that their representations summit of y p l eas ures, new possessions , or new fiel ds our present ambition be reache d, and y ou si h for new should rely as little as need be u p on sta g e arti- g fi for action, renewed p o wers for enjoyment. Every ces. There were various en trances for the per- light must have its shadow. No rose without its formers. The scene, through which there were Great thorn. Alexander the conquered the then three points of ingress in the back wall, the main known world, but wept that there was not another one for the great characters, the side ones for world to conquer. Xerxes, so full of good fortune, subordinate persons, was generally adorned with proposed a reward to any one who would invent a new columns and statues in rich variety ; and it is pleasure. Dionysius, of Sicily, having been pronounced said that vases and hollow vesse ls were distributed the happi es t man living, by the flatterer Damocles in several parts of the theatre for the p ur p ose of " Exchange places," replies the king ; " undertake for awhile the charge of royalty, then form an e stimate of aiding the diffusion of sounds. , The disposition the happiness which appertains to a s overei g n." of the actors on the stage in exquisite groups was Damocles accepts the challenge, ascends the throne, so arranged as to delight the eye with the beauty an d, as he gazes upon the wealth and splendour that of symmetry and proportion, whilst the ear was surrounded him, perceives a sword suspended over his feasted with the sound of the most musical of head, and by a single hair. He is forthwith seized languages. with a horrible d r e ad ; all his imagined felicity has vanished at once, and he begs to be removed from a which expose d life to so much fear and situation whit -pot danger. Well may we exclaim— " What would this man ? Now upward will he soar, And, little less than angel, would be more Now looking downwards, just as grieved appears, To want the strength of bulls, the fur of beasts." Under these circumstances, then, who can be com pletely happy ? " Man never is, but always to be, blest." To alter, to change such an order of things, is im possible. " Yon may as well go stand upon the beach, And bid the main flood bate his usual height ; You may as well use question with the wolf, Why he hath made the ewe bleat for the lamb ; You may as well forbid the mountain pines To wag their high tops, and to make a noise, When they are fretted with the gusts of heaven." From all that has been adduced, then, we can safely affirm, that " Life is a mingled yarn." Liverpool, Dec., 1855. G. D. LITERARY EXTRACTS. THE Bosrliontrs.—Had the Czar of Russia suc ceeded in overthrowing the Turkish empire in 1854, and fortified the entrance. to the Bosphorus with the skill and costliness exhibited at Sebastopol, Cronstadt, and other important points, Western Europe would have been cut off effectually from the last participation in the Euxine traffic. This calamity has possibly been averted, and posterity, no doubt, will yet be called on to admire the wisdom of the two great Western Powers of Europe, who, having saved Turkey from Siberian bondage, took possession, in return, of the shores of the Bosphorus, fortified them after the best examples of Russian military engineering, and secured the most extensive market in the world for their re spective productions and manufactures amongst the intelligent but fastidious inhabitants of 'Western Asia. —From Letter XVI. of " Britanniens on the Turks and Turkey." EATING I BULL.—There are examples enough of ambassadors having been roughly handled. A Papal legate, who brought a bull which the Pope had fulmi-, nated against Visconti, tyrant of Milan, was made to eat that document. Visconti marched the legate gravely to the Naviglio Bridge, and then said to him. abruptly, " Choose whether you will - rather have some thing to eat or som ethinc , to drink, in memory o f y our mission ; for one of the two you shall surely have be fore you depart." The holy man turned a miserable and imploring look on his persecutor, and then an anxious glance on the deep stream which roared below. The latter determined him; and fearing that if he