New-York daily tribune., 1853-12-15
SKETCHES or LECTURES.


BOURCICAULTs WINTER EVENINGS.
HISTORY STAGE, OR The LIFE ASD ADVENTURES or
TWO MUSES.
Tie second Of these entertainments given on Tuesday
evening Hope Chapel to large audience who received
it with marks Of favor Mr Bourccault said;
LADIES AND GESTLENEN; Some years ago, being in
ved by friend to his country house, only hap
by 10 escape from London. | enjoying his flowers
when the gardener upon me and gave me along hard
name for what admiring a. marlg0id he Dfougat
me his hot house where saw plants breaking into ades
peraon blossom showing they would not have done H.
y thew were roncED and there half boiled had 10 listen
TO an hour md half lecture NhO has not met such gar
denerl II is not my intention to botanic with you but
10 stroll through meadows and enjoy their flowers Ny
story begins at harvest home in Arcade where shepherds
assembled TO sing and dance and play spon the ppe the e
ders their Judges The praises Of God their theme ani meas
ure of wine their prize We next see simple Attic peas
ant roaming from village village, recing his verses a1i
hrsr the rustic coroosue Eroe Bacc in honor Of Bic
cLus bis is the origin of Comedy the words whence
It Is derived the village painting was here
singing and dancing in honor of BacchGs In The cites
TO this spo Of worship temples assigned similar
slaughtered and an ode sung. Tragedy s derived from
two words, - the goat song Tragedy eXPressed a
painful emotion hero was its theme and death
accompanied it, At such ceremonies the chorus
wcre dressed in goat skins 70 represent satyrs ;
they used lungent language-hence the Word sgfre.
Thus YOU Perceive the cradle Of Melpomene and Ihas
the two MUSES. Of whom treat Arcadian in their origin
and never more Arcadan than olae when prejudice and
ierorauce have made them Arcadc amb0, ie yagabond
both Their lfehas been varied sometimes happy as
good man. sometimes wretched a. agay life. he daugh
ter Of an Ely pan King found child in the Me, reared
lin, and he was called Myss Egyptian for Bachus
When the King drove him away, many went with nun and
made him ihes King he took for bis scepera thyrsus
ie vine clad rod the Orones aud Hydaspes divided
to give him passage. This story manesiiy corrgp
ancient chronological table shows the date OF Thes-
ps 10 whom the invention OF the tragic art is
attributed : lie exhibited about $50 {. The fret
exhibitions consisted merely in singing dthvram5e then
terv introduced: scenic display and
added in time. Whoever has read Moore Epicurean Will
remember the mysteries Of the Egyptian Isis, in which
gigantic hand seized the candidate for initiation and car
riod him gulf Of fire this was done by powerful
machinery The rites Introduced into Greece
in honor of Ceres but their horror was softened they
celebrated al Eeueis The rites III these were con
nocfed with dramatic performances. The first heaters
were in the open the true reward was not in the goat
wreath of laurel awarded but in the praise o the c
zels: TO what competition do citizens hrong To
prize fight The LenaiOn place of public wine presses out
side ofAthens the site of the first theaer was much
larger than Castle Garden followed in the concaye OF bill
The first representation Of Promethcus Bound was in the
Temple of Baccbus ordinarily called the DOnysac Tenn
pie At Athens Only few years susieed to bring The
drama to the perfection in which il presented there.
gave grandeur to the conceptions of the old
Greek poets and their subjects generally referred to re-
ligous belief of their audiences The theaers were so
large thai Ve actors masks with enlarged features
and acoustic process TO make the voice more audible
The buskin raised the figure to gigantic proportions
Originally there was no charge afterward about two
cents which returned in refreshments. There were
four dramas during the day; the audience went home
TO their meals and returned. Pieces were gener
ally performed only once, but to $4,000 specta-
toss Tragedans were ambassadors and representa-
tives O celebrated actor received $500 day; more
than any now, except Forrest. They were called
htp0critcs, l. e. answerers because they replied t.
the Chorus the word atterwad applied not TO those
who feened the stage but in real life The three great
tragodians Hschyus SOphOces and Eudpides; the
r exceled in rugged GRANDEUR the second less dar
ing the third elegant but less lofty, exceled in pa
thos There division into acts but these three ira
gedians wrote continuous series pursuing the same story
The three poets took the plot and characters but IN
those days that not considered plagiarism. They all
met unheroc ends Eurpides torn to pieces by some
dogs into whose kennel he srayed they criticised him
severely Greek comedy divided into old middle and
ons- Aris,ophanes the father of all three-Menan
der was the only other Greek comic author, but his
his works are all lost. st. Paul quotes from
them Evil communications corrupt good NOR
Gals From 1hespis to Menander there were just
yeGrsthe time from Shakspere to the present After
him the drama declined, first by the loss OF It's religious
then of its moral character The cause the falling of
Of the public intellect the public who blame the drama
should know that the wrong, as the remedy in them
selves From Greece my heroines were carried TO Rome
and there degraded with everything else Greek which the
Romans imported for these were brutal and unntelecua
race There theater at Rome but no Roman drama
they borrowed all from Greece gave the farce which was
an invention of the Eruscans There born person
who has given much enlightenment Of late-Punch,
whose is true Roman He was probably -Esop, and
HARLEQUIN Zano, our Zany. Now a thousand years pass
away during which my muses. are in rags; at length We
find them eudal castle in Calabra at fair among
Punch and donkey From this germ is born the Drama
of our days pantOmime and buoonery among its ell
ements and cannot get rid of them The first form Of
our modern drama religious presenting passages in
our Savors life, very unpoetcGly handled The Roman
Catholic Church used it TO strengthen its hold the
mind bet when Poetry took the Drama from the Church.
tie Church excommumceted In its second stage il pre-
sened moral lessons then came the romantic Drama Of
shakspere. In this detect the pantomim.c and
farcic clements. The MUSES. then strayed from
town TO town Of England and exhibited in inn
yards Cromwell not hostile to the drama there
is extant authorization in his own hand and over
his own signature for theater and Italian opera
The great names of the stage are Kschylus Sophoces
Eurmdes ard Shakspere Queen Victoria patr Snzes the
drama and allows her children to be instructed by IT, In
the Rubens Room at Windsor where Elizabeth one
Of ShGksperes plays performed Victoria ordered the rep
reontaOn of one of minewhch was presented with far
better appliances
Several Of the described by Mr. Bourcicauh
exhibited in paintings which the audience frequently ap
plauded
ENGLISH SACRED LITERATURE AND TRAGIC
POETRY