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Show 252 THE CODE OF TERPSICHORE. stranger are their passions; it is only, therefore, by a representation passions in all their power and energy that such can be moved or interested. At Paris, a tragedy, whose subject is love, is required only to draw tears of tenderness ; in London,' tragedy is expected to be infuriated with passion and filled with horror. A Frenchman is delighted with the pathos of Zayrc; an Englishman, with the terrible frenzy of Orosmane. The haughty Achilte, raging and menacing to preserve the object of his affection, opposed by the anger of Agamemnon and of all Greece, would draw more attention at the theatres of Loudon than the dark and deep dissimulation of the jealous Friphile. Thus it appears, that a study of the theatrical taste of different nations is an excellent means of attaining a knowledge of both individual and national character ; indeed it is almost impossible to be perfectly informed upon such a subject without the aid of the drama."-/.' Observateur Francais a Londres. With respect to English comedy, the same species of remark still holds good. The connoisseurs of Englaud generally require representations and characters to be finished in such a style of extravagance as almost to approach carricature; such productions as those of Moliere, Regnard, Des-touches, and Goldoni are not conceived with sufficient vigour for the generality of an English public ; they prefer a species of nondescript pieces, in which appear characters of the strangest and drollest description, incidents of a most extraordinary nature, and situations conceived with all the grotesque of Scarron. The Harliquinades, or Pantomimes, as they are improperly termed, may be cited as a good example of national comic taste in England ; "they are truly national, whatever may be said to the contrary, for old and young, rich and poor, the nobility of the boxes, the learned of the pit, and the whole of the middling and lowest classes to be found in the galleries, all universally join in broad laughter at a Christmas Pantomime. Of these farcical extravaganzas the principal characters are, Harlequin, Columbine, Pantaloon, and Clown ,• with respect to the latter personage, so great is his influence, it seems doubtful whether he or Harlequin ought to be considered the hero of the piece. Nothing is left untried to excite both • laughter and astonishment; metamorphoses, called tricks, are, by the assistance of the most powerful and excellent machinery, carried to a point of perfection unknown both in France and Italy. 3S. Among the moderns, Shakspeare, Racine, Metastasio, Moliere, andBoc-cacio must be considered as the great organs of nature. These writers should be ever present with you ; nature speaks in their persons. The Decameron is more useful to the composers of Ballets than is generally supposed. It furnishes ail infinity of interesting subjects, in which are |