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Show THE COMPOSITION OF BALLETS. 197 was more excusable for having dressed a Grecian lady in Chinese costume than Voltaire was for having endued a Chinese with virtues of so sublime a description. This actress frequently confounds the garments of Greece with those of Rome. She has also the weakness and affectation of displaying her diamonds on every occasion, and in every species of character. She decks herself with them even when personating Antigone, who accompanies her father in circumstances of misfortune and wretchedness. There are those who can remember Lafond performing Pygmalion in the same magnificient attire he had worn as Nero. Niomedes, who should be plainly habited, as he appears incognito, at his father's court, was played by this actor in the splendid dress of Ninias. W h e n the Ballet-master issues out his orders for costume, let him pay attention that there be some sort of unison between the character of the dresses and that of the scenery; the colours of which may be different to the scene, but not more splendid. In dressing the costume peculiar to a country, the period in which the scene is laid should be carefully examined and imitated. The selection and disposition of colours and shades must be intrusted to taste. Costume, in short, may be defined to be a kind of epitome of history, geography, and chronology ; for it not only determines the country, but, if exactly adhered to, declares even the epoch of time to which the piece relates; a man of sense and general information will require nothing but costume, strictly true, to direct him to the country and period of a drama, though he had never read or seen it before. Perhaps it is impossible to give more cogent reasons than these, to show the importance of paying rigorous attention to costume. 13 |
