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Show 56 THE CODE OF TERPSICHORE. comic ballet ? And, on the other side, can any thing be more ludicrous than to see a thick-set dancer, of a diminutive stature, come forward, robed in a heroic garment, and gravely figure off in a slow and mournful adagio ? The ancients have, by the purity of their taste in this respect, set us an example of severity towards performers of. this stamp, and of which the following anecdote is an illustration :-" A certain mimic, very short in person, was representing Hector, in a play performed at Antioch. The people, beholding the hero thus transformed into a dwarf, simultaneously exclaimed,-Astyanatem videmus, ubi Hector est ? W e see Astyanatus before us; but where is Hector?" Both the dancer and actor should consider their form and physical powers, before they adopt any particular style of dancing or performance, that they may only assume the character which they are framed by nature to represent. The union of several branches in one person is blame-able only in certain dancers of the middle order, who, by their endeavours to ape the highest favourites of Terpsichore, seem bent on bringing her enchanting art to degradation. But those who are neither very tall nor very short, and are endowed with the requisite abilities, may exert themselves in every kind: by diligent study and practice they may even shine in whatever part they take. Not so with a dancer of high stature: let him exclusively adopt the serious and heroic kind. Nor with one below the middle size ; let his be the pastoral and demi-caractere. Y o u must always vary your style of dancing with your dress; it would be a vicious taste to make it the same in an ancient Greek or R o m a n costume, as in a modern villager's spencer. M e n of the most illustrious genius, whether poets, painters, or musicians, have ever carefully avoided confounding the character and expres- |