The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1875-08-15
PYGMALION AND GALATEA.

Great interest has been excited to see the
production in New Orleans of g Pygmaliou
and Galatea" upon the occasion of the bene Fl,
OF Miss Isabel Freeman, on Wednesday even.
ing next
The Grecian fable Of Pygmalion is perhaps
indebted to the remoter L ist for its origin
cyprus to which it is accredited, is Medi-
terranean island which was ruled by several
petty kings until Persian Cyrus subdued
mem; The Greeks secured it's possession
AZ b. u, and We suspect that the Persian
germ OF the fiction then took, under the new
meneal condition imported by the Greek, its
present form.
IL must not be forgotten that the won en- of
cyprus were for a time SO dissolute that the
name OF Cyprian still attaches to one who
emulates their sorry example, and the fact of
tneir debauchery explains not only Pygma.
mons hatred of women, but his sentiment of
honor and final love for virgin whose
white, firm virtue, practically typified in ivory
tinguished her from her sisters ia Cyprus.
The horid oriental tale relates, like the Greek
myth, the devotion of man to purpose,
ana the reward OF its constancy in even richer
measure than he had dared forecast and
involves like tender reverence for chastity
Believing it to be the parent myth we shall
now relate it.
Asyn, prince, was in quest of a ninth
Statue OF Diamond to perfect the number in
bequest from his SIRE travelled long on
horseback, finally gained and in silence cross |
cd lake IN magic boat, reached an island
OF the King of the Jinns (genii) wherein |
$1,000 marvellous palace; and having coniured |
forth the King, implored the ninth statue |
The King consented on condition that the |
Pnnce should bring him comedy and chaste |
damse, and do her no wrong either in deed |
or thought. Zeyn VOWS the service, but in |
performing it falls 80 far in love with his |
beautiful charge that he longs to forfeit his |
oath and carry her to his own home; but he
resists the impulse and SO gratifes the King OF |
OF the Jinns with his selt-mastery that the |
latter bids him return home, where the statue
will greet his eyes.
He hastens, and there upon the one long
vacant pedestal stood and smiled the maiden
he loved. "You expected better reward ?"
she asks. "No," he replies; " I came near
breaking my oath-whatever may be the
value OF diamond-Statue, / love YOU above
all the diamonds and wealth in the world"
The Greek plagiarism of the motive and
conveyed in the oriental story is
manifest. Cyprus is Balsora Pygmalion Ia
neyn; ne gropes laboriously through block,
in which turks his statue instead Of travelling
through manifold perils to the Jnns' Palace
Tor it, and he discovers at length that his hal
lowed yearning is answered in a marvel OF
ruddy life. 1t is marble that kindles with
pulses and mellows to flesh rather than the
diamond image which Zcyn sought; and ,,
while the sculptor falls with joy at her feet,
Prince Zeyn declares her worth to be above |
ali diamonds
Each is thereupon blest in noble and vir- {
uous wife, and what keener rebuke could be s
administered to a lax society than such ,,
tory wrought over by the Greek moralist, 4
md doubtless to that sage end The ethereal !
i'm of parallels inhered in all old classical fc-
ions, and none more exquisitely exalts the :
,urity of the household than the story of the :
Iirgin who, under the guidance of the Jinns, =
Vanders down the years from Balsora to the Z
tudio in Cyprus; and earlier, Godiva las it s
Vere) clothed with chastity to win the q
oventry Of Cyprus from the seryitude Of its q
omes to vice. 9
The play of "Pygmalion and Galatea,"
eeks less to illustrate this central idea than s.
. present the sculptor in love with his art, !,
nd sorely disquieted by the quickening of his o
mage to life II
She has not been carried as a lofty ideal Of ie
pure woman by an embittered man living II
mong q city of wantons, as in the Greek Il
bile, but as the mere counterfeit presentment 81
his beloved wife. The virgin comes to life a
len-too late in the play she commands the 9,
STACY OF the artist, not the love OF bus "
and; and the embarrassment of man Z"
ready welded, yet beloved as well and
,yly coaxed by live fac sinle of his wife, is a
feature in the play which, by lis very gro a 4
squeness, atones for the authors departure D.
ON the classical tradition. d
In his license, he even borrows nymph's Di
lme for the fac smile. Galatea-but as she
uld not we'll figure in play without q ID
lme, there is no serious objection to the one
it'll which he labels her. XII
AS Pygmalion's wife, Cynisca, won't die, it 1
necessary, of course, to dispose of Galatea, tn
her by adoption as a foster child, or by th
lat would doubtless better satisfy the wife, pi
ngellation back to a statue; and to this fo
m plexion does she come at last. ag
The play concludes. as it opens, with an in. wi
innate image upon its pedestal. ho
Sc
THE SWORD AND THE RING. m.