On this page
- Departments (1)
- Pictures (1)
-
Text (5)
-
it is of the theatrical sky which was to...
-
dDpeit CntrariL
-
[IN THIS DltfARTMENT, AS ALL OPINIONS, H...
-
There is no learned, man but will confes...
-
CITIZEN SOLDIERS. 10, Great Wlnchoster-f...
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
-
-
Transcript
-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
The Ancient Cornish Drama. Suppose, As T...
^ lif ^ iS ine aeuuw > &* Y ... . « ., / - DUt Very calmly ) ; at length , S ? ^ £ dosed , by Lucifer ' s cor & mnation to Mi ^/ J ^ i ««*»» provide , ' shall gape 2 w 5 named . ' The faithful angels are then told Jo fhave ^ S ^ nd staves ready for Lucifer / who to arelnformed , voidethand goeth down to Be 1 apparelled foul , with fire about him , turning to HeU , with every degree of devils and lost spirits on cords Running into the plain / With this stirring scene the act ends . ¦
... «« The second act comprises the creation and fall of man . Here , again , we will consult the stage directions , as giving the best narrative of the incidents and scenes . We find that Adam and Eve are to be apparelled in white leather in a place appointed by the conveyor' ( probably the person we term . stagemanager now ); ' and are not to be seen until they be called ; and then each rises . ' After ^ this , we read : — ? 'Let Paradise be finely made , with fair trees in it , and apples upon a tree , and other fruit on the others . A fountain , too , in Paradise , and fine flowers painted . Put Adam into Paradise—let flowers appear in Paradise—let Adam lie down and sleep where Eve is , and she , by the conveyor , must be taken from Adam s side—let fishes of all sorts , birds and beasts , as oxen , kyne , sheep , and such like , appear . '
•« Then , we have the preparations for the temptation ordered thus : — ' A fine serpent to be made with a virgin ' s face , and yellow hair on her head . Let the serpelit appear , and also geese and hens . ' Lucifer enters immediately afterwards , and goes into the serpent , which is then directed to be ' seen singing in a tree' ( the actor who personated Lucifer must have had some gymnastic difficulties to contend with in his part!)— Eve looketh strange on . the serpent ;' then , ' talketh familiarly and cometh near him ;' then , * doubteth and looketh angrily ; ' and then eats part of the apple , shows it to Adam , and insists on his eating part of it too , in the followinglines , in which the connubial style of argument is certainly represented by the old dramatist to the . life : —• « " Sir , in a few words , Taste thou part of the apple , - Or my love thou shalt lose ! See , take this fair apple , Or surely between thee and thy ^ wife The love shall utterly fail . If thou wilt not eat of it ! ' " The stage direction now proceeds : —' Adam receiveth the apple and tasteth it , and sorepenteth and casteth it away . Eve looketh on Adam very strangely , and speaketh not anything . ' During this pause , the conveyor' ia told to * get the fig-leaves ready . ' Then Lucifer is ordered to ' come out of the serpent and creep on his belly to hell ; ' Adam and Eve receive the curse , and depart out of Paradise , shewing a spindle and distaff , ' no badly conceived emblem of the labour to which they are henceforth doomed . And thus , the second act terminates .
' The third act treats of Cain and Abel ; and is properly opened by an impersonation of Death . After which , Cain and Abel appear to sacrifice . " Cain makes his offering of the first substance that comes to hand— ' dry coW-dung ' (!) ; and tells Abel that he is ? dolthead' and a ? frotBy fool' for using anything better . Then , ' Abel is stricken with a ifiwbone and dieth—Cain casteth him into a ditch . '
The effect of the first murder on the minds of our first parents is delineated in some speeches exhibiting a certain antique simplicity of thought , which sometimes almost rises to the poetical by its homely adherence to nature , and its perfect innocence of effort , artifice , or display . * The banishment of Cain , still glorying in his crime , follows the lamentations of Adam and Eve for the death of Abel ; and the act is closed by Adam's announcement of the birth of Soth .
"The fourth act relates the deaths of Cam and Adam , and contains some of the most eccentric , and also , pome of the most elevated writing in the play . Lamech opens the scene , candidly and methodically exposing his own character in these lines : — - " ' Sure I am the first That ever yet hud two wires ! And maidens in sufficient plenty They are to me . 1 am not dninty , ¦ , I can find them -where ! will ; Nor do I spare of them ,. f Jn anywise one that is hnndBome . But I am wondrous troubled , Scarce do I neo one glimpse What thu devil shall be done !'
" In this vngnbond frame of mind Lnmcch goes out hunting , with bow and nrrow , and shoots Cain , accidentally , in a bush . When Cain fnllti , Lamech appeals to his servunt , to know what it is that he has ahot;—the servant declares that it is * hairy , rough , ugly , and a buck-goat of the night . ' Cain , however , discovers himself before ho dies . There is something rude ] y dreary and graphic about his
description of his loneliness , bare as it is of any recom * mendation of metaphors or epithets :- — «•« Deformed I am very much , And overgrown with hair ; .... I do live continually in heat or cold frost , Surely night and day ; . _ ¦ Nor do I desire to see the son of mar } , With my will , at any time ; But accompany most time with all the beaets . " Lamech , discovering the fatal error that he has committed , killshis servantinhis anger ; and the scene ends with ' the devils carrying them away with great . ____ _ . ____ - .
noise to hell . - ¦ _ -,. " The second scene is between Adam and his son Seth ; and here , the old dramatist often rises to an elevation of poetical feeling , which , judging from the preceding portions of the play , we should not have imagined he could reach . Barbarous as his execution may be , the simple beauty ' of his conception often shines through it faintly , but yet palpabty , xn this part of the drama . " Adam is weary of life and weary of the world ; he sends Seth to the gates of Paradise to ask mercv and release for him , telling his son that he will find the way thither by his father ' s footprints , burnt into the surface of the earth that was cursed for Adam s transgression . Seth finds and follows the superthe at the
natural marks , is welcomed by angel gate of Paradise , and is permitted to look in , He beholds there an Apocalypse of the . redemption of the world . On the tree of life sit the Virgin and Child ; on the tree from which Eve plucked the apple , the woman is seen , having power over the serpent . The vision changes , and Cain is shown in hell , ' sorrowing and weeping . Then the angel plucks three kernels from the tree of life , and gives them to Seth for his father s use , saying that they shall grow to another tree . of life , when more than five thousand years are ended ; and that Adam shall be redeemed from his pains , when that period is fulfilled . After this Seth is dismissed by the angel , and returns to communicate to his father the message of consolation which he has
received . . - . ' Adam hears the result of his son s mission with thankfulness ; blesses Seth ; and speaks these last words , while he is confronted by Death : — » " ' Old and weak , I am gone ! ~ To live longer is not for me : Death is come , Nor will here leave me , To live one breath ! I see him now with his spear , _ Beady to pierce me on every side , There is no escaping from him ! The time is welcome with me—I have served long the world !'
So , the patriarch dies , trusting in the promise conveyed through his son ; and is buried by Seth ' in a fair tomb , with some Church sonnet . ' " After this impressive close to the fourth actimpressive in its intention , however clumsy the appliances by which that intention was worked out—it would be doing the old author no kindness to examine his fifth act in detail . Here he sinks , again , in many places , to puerility of conception and coarseness of dialogue . Suffice it to say , that the history of the Flood closes the drama , and that the spectators are dismissed with an epilogue , directing them to ' come to-morrow , betimes , and see very great matters 'the minstrels being charged , at the conclusion , to ' P'P t' so that & U may dance together , as the proper manner of ending the day ' s amusements .
" And now , let us close the book , look forth over this lonesome country and lonesome amphitheatre , and imagine what a scene both must have presented , when a play was to be acted on a fine summer ' s morning in the year 1611 . " Fancy , at the outset , the arrival of the audience —people dressed in the picturesque holiday costume of the time , which varied with every varying rank , hurrying to their daylight play from miles off ; all visible in every direction on the surface of the open moor , and all converging from every point of the compass to the one common centre of Piran Round . Then , figure to youreelf the assembling in the amphitheatre ; the bustle , the buyvling , the laughter ; the running round the outer circle of the embankment to get at the entrances ; the tumbling and rushing up the steps inside ; the racing of hotheaded youngsters
to get to the top places ; the sly deliberation of the elders in selecting the lower and safer positions' ; the quarrelling when a tall man chanced to stand before a short one ; the giggling and blushing of buxom peasant wenches when the gullant young bachelors of the district' happened to be pluced behind them ; the universal speculations on the weather ; the universal shouting for pots of ale—and then , as the time of the performance drew ; near , and the minstrels appeared with their pipes , the gradual hush and stillness among the multitude ; the combined stare of the whole circular mass of spectators on the one point in ' the plain of the amphitheatre , whoro everybody know that the actors lay hidden in a pit , properly covered in from observation—the mysterious ' green-room' of the etrolling players of old Cornwall ! " And the play!—to see the play must have been n , sight indeed { Imagine the . commencement of it :
the theatrical sky which was to open awfull y ¦ Wnen ever Heaven was named ; the mock clouds coolly set up by the ' property man' on an open air gfaee where the genuine clouds appeared above them tn expose the counterfeit ; the hard fighting of the angels with swords and staves ; the descent of thn lost spirits along cords running into the plain th ! thump with-which they must have come down ? the rollingoff of the whole troop overthe * grass to the infernal regions , amid shouts of applause from the audience as they rolled ! Then the appearance of Adam and Eve , packed in white leather , like our modern dolls—the serpent with the virgin ' s face and the yellow hair , climbing into a tree , and singing ia the branches—Gain falling out of the bush when he « t «< v 4 ti /\< i ^ i > i /> nl olrtr wniVn wns tn r \ r \ an »^» r .. ii _^ . " *
was struck by the arrow of Lamech , and his blood appearing , according to the stage directions , when he fell—the making of the Ark , the filling it with live stock , the scenery of the Deluge , in the 'fifth' act ! —what a combination of theatrical prodigies the whole performance must have presented ! How the actors must have ranted to make themselves heard in the open air—how often the machinery must have gone wrong , and the rude scenery toppled and tumbled down ? Could we revive at will , for mere amusement , any of the bygone performances of the theatre , since the first days of barbaric acting in a cart , assuredly the perform ances at Piran Round would be those which , without hesitation , we should select from all others to call back
to life * " The , end of the play , tod— -how picturesque , how striking all the circumstances attending it must have been ! Oh that we could hear again the merry old English tune piped by the minstrels , and see tha merry old English dancing of the audience torihe music ! Then , think of the separation and the return home of the populace , at sunset—the fishing people strolling off towards the sea shore ; the miners walk , ing away farther inland ; the agricultural labourers spreadihgin all directions , wherever cottages and
farmhouses were visible in ^ the far distance over the moorthe darkness coming on , and the inoon rising over the * amphitheatre , so silent and empty , save at one corner where the poor worn-out actors are bivouacking , gipsy-like in their tents , cooking supper over the fire that flames up red in the moonlight , and talking Iangu . idly over the fatiguesand the triumphs of the play . What a moral and what a beauty in the quiet night view of the old amphitheatre , after the sight that it must have presented during the noise , the bustle , and the magnificence of the day ! "
There , is not that more instructive and amusing than if I had amiably lacerated the feelings of various respectable fathers of families , who think themselves actors , and ought to be grocers ? Vivian .
It Is Of The Theatrical Sky Which Was To...
1 138 m ^ $ JLtAtftt * Pwprda ^ . i i nHiir- ~~ - 'i ' i ' —^——^——~ ¦ '
Ddpeit Cntraril
dDpeit CntrariL
Pc02205
[In This Dltfartment, As All Opinions, H...
[ IN THIS DltfARTMENT , AS ALL OPINIONS , HOWBVBll BX ™* " y ARE ALLOWED AN EXPRESSION , TUB EW 1 TOK NEOESHAIW " HOLDS HIMSELF BBSl'ONSIDLB FOR NONK . ]
There Is No Learned, Man But Will Confes...
There is no learned , man but will confess he hath muc profited by reading controversiaa , hia senses ftw * £ ?" f J and his judgment sharpened . It , then , if be foti tabie » him to read , why should it not , at least , be tolerable ™ his adversary to write . —Milton .
Citizen Soldiers. 10, Great Wlnchoster-F...
CITIZEN SOLDIERS . 10 , Great Wlnchoster-fltrcet , City , January 18 , 1853 - Sir , —I have read with great interest the " Note on War , " by a soldier , in the loader , and agree » j . the main with what is advanced by him ; stui . doubt whether the " . musket and bayonet , » s 4 rio rn « ^ clumsy , awkward tool , that ever was pl " ° _ * it , man ' s hands , and every soldier knows it . £ ller y nesaed a passage , of Anna ut the Finsbury a ^ " ' g
broadsword , a large , tall man , was pitched n 8 " ^ et , sergeant , a small man with musket and , Dayo The bayonet had a decided advantage in tma counter . It is true a pike would hay < i been ft yr ftV 0 tivo , probably muoh more so , in this instance , x ^ tried the experiment myself , and find t ™ * , " pike seyen feet long the swordsman has Uttie u chance . , flfl If anything is to be done to words placing ourfloiy ,
-
-
Citation
-
Leader (1850-1860), Feb. 7, 1852, page 22, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_07021852/page/22/
-