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Show T H E COMPOSITION OF BALLETS. 213 there are tragedies in which it would be necessary only to change the names, with a little alteration in style and action, to render them complete comedies. But care should be taken to avoid this latter error, as well as that of choosing subjects too elevated and serious for comedy ; neither should Melpomene be divested of that interest which moves and melts the passions, and gives rise to situations of pathos and terror. In tragedy the characters should be sustained as heroes ; in comedy they should move and act like ordinary men. The dramatic style may be adapted to the Ballet, but it is not necessary to make use of it as those authors do who would raise it upon a level with tragedy, when making choice of subjects. The greater part of those who manufacture Drames Bourgeois, Drames Sombres and Drames Honnetes attain no other object but that of making the spectator tremble with horror, while presenting him with pictures which dishonour humanity, and shock the feeling, by the exhibition of that wretchedness to which nature and fate have subjected us ; and nothing is left untried to arrive at this very amusing object. Dramas include at once the pathos of tragedy, and the gaiety of comedy; and they should convey the same moral as tragedy or comedy separately considered. W h e n this mixture is made with talent, its effects are novel, agreeable and interesting. Without bestowing on this class of theatrical performance all that panegyric with which a sort of fanaticism inspired Diderot, Beaumarchais, and some others, to load it, I shall only remark that it is more suited to the intention of a Ballet than might be supposed, for it affords a great variety of scenery, together with very striking and contrasted situations, in which dancing and Pantomime triumph by turns. A piece of this descrip- 14 |