The Mirror Of Literature, Amusement, And Instruction | Page 9

to detect the rottenness of the dramatic state; still, as the question
involves controversy at every point, we had rather keep out of the fight,
and leave our Reviewer without further note or comment.
NOTES ON THE DRAMA.
(_FROM THE EDINBURGH REVIEW, NO. 98._)
_ORIGIN OF ADMISSION MONEY._
There were at Athens various funds, applicable to public purposes; one
of which, and among the most considerable, was appropriated for the
expensed of sacrifices, processions, festivals, spectacles, and of the
theatres. The citizens were admitted to the theatres for some time gratis;
but in consequence of the disturbances caused by multitudes crowding
to get seats, to introduce order, and as the phrase is, to keep out
improper persons, a small sum of money was afterwards demanded for
admission. That the poorer classes, however, might not be deprived of
their favourite gratification, they received from the treasury, out of this
fund, the price of a seat--and thus peace and regularity were secured,
and the fund still applied to its original purpose. The money that was
taken at the doors, having served as a ticket, was expended, together
with that which had not been used in this manner, to maintain the
edifice itself, and to pay the manifold charges of the representation.
"_DRAMATIC REPRESENTATIONS NATURAL TO MAN._"
Travellers inform us, that savages, even in a very rude state, are found

to divert themselves by imitating some common event in life: but it is
not necessary to leave our own quiet homes to satisfy ourselves, that
dramatic representations are natural to man. All children delight in
mimicking action; many of their amusements consist in such
performances, and are in every sense plays. It is curious, indeed, to
observe at how early an age the young of the most imitative animal,
man, begin to copy the actions of others; how soon the infant displays
its intimate conviction of the great truth, that "all the world's a Stage."
The baby does not imitate those acts only, that are useful and necessary
to be learned; but it instinctively mocks useless and unimportant
actions and unmeaning sounds, for its amusement, and for the mere
pleasure of imitation, and is evidently much delighted when it is
successful. The diversions of children are very commonly dramatic.
When they are not occupied with their hoops, tops, and balls, or
engaged in some artificial game, they amuse themselves in playing at
soldiers, in being at school, or at church, in going to market, in
receiving company; and they imitate the various employments of life
with so much fidelity, that the theatrical critic, who delights in chaste
acting, will often find less to censure in his own little servants in the
nursery, than in his majesty's servants in a theatre-royal. When they are
somewhat older they dramatize the stories they read; most boys have
represented Robin Hood, or one of his merry-men, and every one has
enacted the part of Robinson Crusoe, and his man Friday. We have
heard of many extraordinary tastes and antipathies; but we never knew
an instance of a young person, who was not delighted the first time he
visited a theatre. The true enjoyment of life consists in action; and
happiness, according to the peripatetic definition, is to be found in
energy; it accords, therefore, with the nature and etymology of the
drama, which is, in truth, not less natural than agreeable. Its grand
divisions correspond, moreover, with those of time; the contemplation
of the present is Comedy--mirth for the most part being connected with
the present only--and the past and the future are the dominions of the
Tragic muse.
_GRECIAN THEATRES._
The climate of Athens being one of the finest and most agreeable in the

world, the Athenians passed the greatest part of their time in the open
air; and their theatres, like those in the rest of Greece and in ancient
Rome, had no other covering than the sky. Their structure accordingly
differed greatly from that of a modern playhouse, and the
representation in many respects was executed in a different manner.
But we will mention those peculiarities only which are necessary to
render our observations intelligible.
The ancient theatres, in the first place, were on a much larger scale than
any that have been constructed in later days. It would have been
impossible, by reason of the magnitude of the edifice, and consequently
of the stage, to have changed the scenes in the same manner as in our
smaller buildings. The scene, as it was called, was a permanent
structure, and resembled the front of Somerset House, of the Horse
Guards, or the Tuileries, and was in the same style of architecture as the
rest of the spacious edifice. There were three large gateways, through
each of which a view of streets, or of woods, or of