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Show T H E COMPOSITION OF BALLETS. 169 taste to banish from the stage revolting spectacles, can we mention without blame those composers who would mix up dancing with the subjects of an ill-judged selection of pieces from Shakspeare, Otway, Crebillon, Schiller, and Nathaniel Lee ? Every style should be allowed its own peculiar characteristics ; and it must be remembered, that nothing extraneous and foreign should be admitted. It is the province of history to relate every thing-she is the slave of truth. Tragedy portrays exalted nature: while deeply affecting us, she imparts the sublimest lessons. Let the Ballet-master seek and seize these and other beauties; and let him employ all his powers to turn them to the best advantage. If a composer of Ballets, in his admiration of certain passages in some poets, who have otherwise exceeded the rules of Aristotle and Horace, by giving horrible descriptions, falls into the same error, his transgression will be greater than the others; for the peculiar object of his art is to excite gentle and sometimes pathetic sensations, but never terrifying and dreadful feelings. |
