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1254 - T H E L E A B E R . [ No . 301 , Saturday ,
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these—a scene full oi life , motion , and splendour . The occasion is the celebration of the Pythian games : — " The procession began with an hecatomb of victims led by some of the inferior mudstereofthe templVrough-lookingmen , in white and girt-up garments ^ Their 35 tl ££ ds and breaste were naked , and they bore a two-edged axe . The oxen wire Wack , with moderately arched and brawny necks—then-horns equal and ^ nr little bent ; some were gilt , others adorned with flowers- ^ their legs bent towLds-and their deep dewlaps flowing down to their knees-their number , in acSance with the name , exactly an hundred A variety of other deferent victims came afterwards , each species separate and m order attended with pipes and flutes , sending forth a strain prelusive of the sacrifice : these were followed by a troop of fair and long-waisted Thessalian maidens , with dishevelled locks—they were distributed into two companies ; the first division bore baskets full of fruits and flowers : the second , vases of conserves and spices , which filled the air with fragrance : they carried these on their heads ; thus , their bands being at liberty , they joined them together , so that they could move along and lead the dance The key-note to the melody was sounded by the next division , who were to sing the whole of the hymn appointed for this festival , which contained the praises of Thetis , of Peleus , and their son , and of Neoptolemus . "At length a band of youths on horseback , with their splendidly dressed commander , opening upon them , afforded a spectacle far preferable to any sounds . Their number was exactly fifty ; they divided themselves into five-and-twenty on « ach side guarding their leader , chief of the sacred embassy , who rode in the midst : their buskins , laced with a purple thong , were tied above their ancles ; their white garments , bordered with blue , were fastened by a golden clasp over their breasts . Their horses were Thessalian , and by their spirit gave token of the open plains they came from ; they seemed to champ with disdain the foaming bit , yet obeyed the regulating hand of their riders , who appeared to vie with each other in the splendour of their frontlets and other trappings , which glittered with gold and silver But all these , Cnemon , splendid as they were , were utterly overlooked , and seemed to vanish , like other objects before a flash of lightning , at the appearance of their leader , my dear Theagenes , so gallant a show did he make . He too , was on horseback , and in armour , with an ashen spear m his hand ; his head was uncovered ; he wore a purple robe , on which was worked in gold the story of the Centaurs and the Lapithse ; the clasp of it was of electrum , and represented Pallas with the Gorgon ' s head on her shield . A light breath of wind added to the grace of his appearance ; it played upon his hair , dispersed it on his neck , and divided it from his forehead , throwing back the extremities of his cloak m easy folds on the back and sides of his horse . You would say , too , that the horse himself was conscious both of his own beauty and of the beauty of his rider ; so stately did he arch his neck and carry his head , with ears erect and fiery eyes , proudly bearing a master who was proud to be thus borne . He moved along under a loose rein , balancing himself equally on each side , and , touching the around with the extremity of his hoofs , tempered his pace into almost an 9 . IT i ' a . it * * * * * * * * insensible motion . * * * * . " Chariclea was borne in a chariot drawn by two white oxen—she was dressed in a purple robe embroidered with gold , which flowed down to her feet—she had a girdle round her waist , on which the artist had exerted all his skill : it ; represented two serpents , whose tails were interlaced behind her shoulders ; their necks ¦ knotted beneath , her bosom ; and their heads , disentangled from the knot , hung down on either side as an appendage : so well were they imitated , that you would say they really glided onward . Their aspect was not at all terrible ; their eyes awam in a kind of languid lustre , as if being lulled to sleep by the charms of the maiden ' s breast . They were wrought in darkened gold , tinged with blue , the better to represent , by this mixture of dark and yellow , the roughness and glancing colour of the scales . Such was the maiden ' s girdle . Her hair was not entirely tied up , nor quite dishevelled , but the greater part of it flowed down her neck , and wantoned on her shoulders—a crown of laurel confined the bright and ruddy locks which adorned her forehead , and prevented the wind from disturbing them too roughly—she bore a gilded bow in her left hand ; her quiver hung at her right shoulder—in her other hand she had a lighted torch ; yet the lustre of her eyes paled the brightness of the torch . " We have left ourselves no space to speak of Longus and Achilles Tatius . We must , therefore , he content simply to allude to the first as the moat celebrated exemplar of pastoral fiction , and to the second as a literary disciple of Heliodovus , Tor a more intimate acquaintance , the reader will no doubt refer to the authors for himself .
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CHRISTMAS WEEK AT THE THEATRES . Druky Lane on Wednesday evening entertained its holiday visitors with a pantomime bearing the rather uninviting title of Hey Diddle Diddle ; or Harlequin King Nonsense and the Seven Ages of Man . Nonsense is an excellent thing ; but " Hey Diddle Diddle" conveys a very shadowry suggestion of the humorous , and "the Seven Ages of Man " is , upon the whole , rather a solemn than a jocose topic . Pantomime writers , however , have a glorious knack of melting all individuality of scheme into one brilliant , floating atmosphere of stage enchantment ; and , if the young ones have pretty sceneiy , pretty fairies , surprising changes , and noise without stint , they are satisfied . The scenery of the Drurv Lane pantomime , as of the Covent Garden , is by Beverly , and is extremely beautiful , like all the productions of that first of stage-painters . One scene , indeed—that representing the village of Prettywell , with a distant view of the church —elicited enthusiastic demands for the artist . There was plenty of rough fun to please the juveniles ; and the elders were delighted by some hits at the spirits " Redtape " and " Routine , " who were banished to the regions of Noodledom . Tom Matthews , the eternal , performs one of the clowns j and a georgeous scene in fairyland concludes the entertainment . Covent Garden . —Amid the general flourish of trumpets which the approach of Christmas calls forth from managers , the note of Mr . Anderson , Wizard of the North and lessee of Covent Garden Theatre , proves , this year , to be the longest , loudest , and most intensely brazen in tone , of all the theatrical orchestra . He amazes the general mob of sightseers by puffing in the Times , at greater length even than Mr . Smith , of Drury Lane ( who does not stick at a trifle when he issues his manifestos , as the public well know by this time ) . He appeals to the " learned few" by calling his theatre an " auditorium . " He flashes into the very souls of the street-passengers by a burst of electric light from the top of his Enchanted Palace . He exhibits himself ( in an advertising point of view ) before the multiform mercantile interests of this commercial country , in the remarkable and unparalleled character of a gentleman who has made so much money by his vocation in life that he does not know what to do with it , and is reduced to the dire necessity of taking a theatre and producing a pantomine , as a last desperate means of casting superfluous cash to the winds . A man with too much money ! A man with an electric light at the top of his theatre ! v A man whose advertisements are as long as leading-articles ( and five times as interesting )! A man who can call pit , boxes , and gallery an " auditorium , " and actually not appear to be proud of it ! Is it necessary to report that this man is successful—that on the first nig ht when he opens his theatre an acute and discriminating public pour into it , cast their superfluous gold and silver at the feet of the Monte Christo of conjuring , and drive him to despair by madly adding to the wealth which his weary soul is yearning to get rid of and can ' t on any terms whatever ? No , no ; the condition of the " auditorium" on Wednesday evening last our readers can realise for themselves . It will be more to the purpose if we tell them that the pantomime of the Field of the Cloth of Gold has been magnificently and prodigally got lip in all its parts . The costumes and the scenery are superb . The size of the stage , and the inexhaustible resources of the Wizard ' s purse , have enabled Mr . Beveuley to do himself the fullest justice on the most " gorgeous" scale . There is a scene in this pantomime , called the " Golden Groves of Good Humour , " which is the very perfection of painting , lighting , and decoration—one of those happy unions of magnificence and good taste which it is a genuine enjoyment to look at . Equally good , in another way , is a scene on the deck of the " Great Harry , " in which the stage-business is very noticeable for its good management . The introduction to the pantomime is written by Mr . Sala j the tricks and transformations arc by the Brothers BROUGii ; ° the Pantaloon is a new stage-humourist from America ; and the Clown is the never-resting , never-flagging Mr . Flexmouis . These are some of the prominent attractions of the pantomime—the rest ivc may safely leave our play-going readers to find out for themselves . For tho poetry of pantomime , we must go to the Havmauket . Grassy dells , oak-shadowed solitudes , woods of mountain-ash , glens of dark growths pf nightshade and bella-donna , country lanea and moonlight meadows , fairy-haunted valleys and nooks like those in old romance ; sudden transformations of summer verdure into snowy , lifeless landscapes ; radiant beings glittering in costumes representative of moth and butterfly and trumpeter , hornet and bee > and wasp and beetle , with fairies of more human sort ; — sncli are the pastoral , delicate , and super-dainty elites which Mr . Buck stone yields us this Christmas season . The last scone is peculiarly magnificent \ andthe harlequinade was received with the utmost satisfaction . The Butterfly s Ball and the Grass hopper ' s Feast is sure of a long run . Tho Olympic presents us with another burlesque from the sparkling ana well-tried pen of Mr . Planoixe , beyond all comparison the most wjt £ )' ' original , refined , and classical writer of this species of entertainment . Tho subject of his extravaganza this Christmas—The Discreet Princess ; or the Three Glass Distaffs—does not present so mnny opportunities cither tov effective acting , or for brillinnt and romantic scenery , as the story sclcctc < last year , the Yellow Dwarf , 'J . nnd wo therefore do not expect to seo a repe-
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Poems of Ten Years . By Mrs . Ogilvy . Bosworth , London , Metrical Pieces , Translated and Original . By N . L . Frothingham . Triibner , London . Echoes of the War and other Poems . By Henry Sewell Stokes . Longman , London . These are three volumes of verse , all rather above the average jingles of publishing amateurs , but neither very promising of choicer fruit . We place them in the order of merit , according to our judgment . Mrs . Ogilvy , to be sure , is the merest rhymer of the ' three ; but then she makes the best rhymes . She is good onl y at this kind of work , and at what the lawyers call a " statement . " Were it a custom to put " cases " in smooth , fair metre , she would lie the Miss Brass of the Realms of Rhyme . The best jingle in her book , taken as a whole , and the one containing most , originality of thought , is ** Walter von de Vogelweid . " Longfellow ' s pretty and fanciful song on this subject will be remembered , perhaps , by the majority of our readers . He carries out the legend , from the testamentary act of the Minnesinger , in favour of his friends and supposed admirers , the birds , to the shabby behaviour of the monks , in withholding the daily gifts of bread thus bequeathed by the poet . Mrs . Ogilvy ' s version stops at the fact of the bequest , from which she draws the conclusion , that Walter was wise in his generation , and ensured for his name an immortality which his verses would not have gained it . In her poems of imagination , Mrs . Ogilvy ' s tendency to prosaic descriptions of natural pheriomena , interferes a little with the poetical effect . More than one verse , on this account , reminds us of Dr . Darwin . For instance : — Dow » among tho waters dbnso , Fatal to our hveathing scjisc , Tiny minnows , whales immense Live in genial homes , nor onro to journey thonco , Tho " Metrical Pieces" of Mr . Frothinghnm include a considerable number of translations from the German , made at a time , the author tolla us , " * when it was far leas common to present tho poets of Germany in an
^^—^^^^ m ^^ h English dress than it has since become . " To say that Mr . Frothingham has done any public service by these translations would certainly not be true . But they are creditable to his industry and taste , and show that he has a good acquaintance with the poetical literature of Germany-Mr . Stokes ' s " Echoes" will not roll from soul to . soul , And grow for ever and for ever . It may be questioned whether all echoes of this war , raised by our poets , h ave not already stopped growing . All we can say of Mr . Stokes has been said . He is above the average class of jinglers who try to wake the " Echoes" with their jingles .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 29, 1855, page 1254, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2121/page/18/
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