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sight allusion, which a foreigner does not perceive; added to which the style is peculiarly concise, and sual words are introduced."* The opening or prologue of a Chinese drama, in which the prinespal personages come forward to declare the characters of the piece, and to let the audience into the argument or story on which the action is to turn, bears a strong resemblance to the prologues of the Greek drama, and particularly to those of Euripides.

In comedy the dialogue is carred on in the common colloquial language, but in the higher order of historical and tragical plays, the tone of voice is elevated conserably above its natural pitch, and continued throughout in a kad of whining monotony, havag some resemblance to, but wanting the modulations and cadences of, the recitative in the Italian opera; as in this too, the sentiments of grief, joy, love, hatred, revenge, &c. are in the Chinese dramas, usually thrown into lyric poetry, and sung in soft or boisterous airs, according to

Morrison's Chinese Grammar, p. 275.

the sentiment expressed, and the situation of the actor; they are also accompanied with loud music, the performers being placed on the back part of the stage.

Whatever may be the merits and the defects of the Chinese drama, it is unquestionably their own invention. The only nation from whence they could have borrowed any thing, is that of Hindostan, from whence they imported the religion of Budh; but as we know nothing of the Hindoo drama, except from the single specimen of Sacontala, translated by Sir William Jones, in a manner, it is said, sufficiently free; and as that drama differs more from the Chinese than the latter from the Greek, Roman, English, or Italian, there is not the slightest grounds for supposing that the one was borrowed from the other. There is, indeed, a characteristic difference between them; the one adhering strictly to nature, and describing human manners and human feelings; the other soaring beyond nature, into the labyrinth of an intricate and inexplicable mythology.

NATURAL

NATURAL HISTORY.

Narrative of a Journey from the village of Chamouni to the sum mit of Mount Blanc, undertaken on Aug. 8, 1787. By Colonel Beaufoy.

[From the Annals of Philosophy.]

HE desire of ascending to the

for that, five days before my arrival at the foot of the mountain, M. de Saussure, a professor in the university of Geneva, had gained the top of the ascent. But while I was informed of the success which had attended the efforts of M. de Saussure, I was told of the

bly dangers

elevated land is so natural to every man, and the hope of repeating various experiments in the upper regions of the air is so inviting to those who wish well to the interests of science, that, being lately in Switzerland, I could not resist the inclination I felt to reach the summit of Mount Blanc. One of the motives, however, which prompted the attempt was much weakened by the consideration that I did not possess, and in that country could not obtain, the instruments that were requisite for many of the experiments which I was anxious to make; and the ardour of common curiosity was diminished when I learned that Dr. Paccard and his guide, who in the year 1786 had reached the supposed inaccessible summit of the hill, were not the only persons who had succeeded in the attempt;

companied the undertaking; and was often assured, with much laborious dissuasion, that, to all the usual obstacles, the lateness of the season would add the perils of those stupendous masses of snow which are often dislodged from the steeps of the mountain, together with the hazard of those frightful chasms which present immeasur able gulfs to the steps of the traveller, and the width of which was hourly increasing. M. Bourrit, whose name has often been announced to the world by a variety of tracts, and by many excellent drawings, confirmed the account, and assured me that he himself had made the attempt on the next day to hat on which M. de Saussure descended, but was obliged, as on many former occasions, to abandon the enterprise. Having formed my resolution, I

sent

sent to the different cottagers of the vale of Chamouni, from the *arts of which the mountain takes rise, to inquire if any of them -re willing to go with me as my assistants and my guides, and had n the satisfaction to find that en were ready to accept the proal. I engaged them all. Havannounced to them my intentin of setting out the next morng. I divided among them prosons for three days, together with a kettle, a chafling-dish, a tity of charcoal, a pair of Slows, a couple of blankets, a grope, a hatchet, and a ladder, wich formed the stores that were requisite for the journey. After a Light of much solicitude, lest the summit of Mount Blanc should be covered with clouds, in which case the guides would have refed the undertaking as impractable, I rose at five in the morning, and saw, with great satisfacta, that the mountain was free tron vapour, and that the sky was every where serene. My dress was a white flannel jacket without asy shirt beneath, and white linen trowsers without drawers. The dress was white that the sunbeams might be thrown off; and it was 1 se, that the limbs might be uncumhurd. Besides a pole for walking, I carried with me cramp-irons for the heels of my shoes, by means of which the hold of the frozen show is firm, and in steep ascents the pose of the body is preserved. My guides being at length assemb.ed, each with his allotted burten, and one of them, a fellow of great bodily strength, and great vour of mind, Michael Cachet by name, who had accompanied M de Saussure, having desired to

take the lead, we ranged ourselves in a line, and at seven o'clock, in the midst of the wives, and children, and friends, of my companions, and indeed of the whole village of Chamouni, we began our march. The end of the first hour brought us to the Glaciere des Boissons, at which place the rapid ascent of the mountain first begins, and from which, pursuing our course along the edge of the rocks that form the eastern side of this frozen lake, we arrived in four hours more at the second glaciere, called the Glaciere de la Coté. Here, by the side of a stream of water which the melting of the snow had formed, we sat down to a short repast. To this place the journey is neither remarkably laborious, nor exposed to danger, except that name should be given to the trifling hazard that arises from the stones and loose pieces of the broken rock which the goats, in leaping from one projection to another, occasionally throw down. Our dinner being finished, we fixed our cramp-irons to our shoes, and began to cross the glaciere; but we had not proceeded far when we discovered that the frozen snow which lay in the ridges between the waves of ice, often concealed, with a covering of uncertain strength, the fathomless chasms which traverse this solid sea; yet the danger was soon in a great degree removed by the expedient of tying ourselves together with our long rope, which being fastened at proper distances to our waists, secured from the principal hazard such as might fall within the opening of the gulf. Trusting to the same precaution, we also crossed upon

our

head, singing her speech, with a charming voice, and agreeable motion of the body, playing with her hands, in one of which she -held a fan. The prologue thus performed, the play followed, the story of which turned upon a Chinese emperor, long since dead, who had behaved himself well to-wards his country, and in honour of whose memory the play was written. Sometimes he appeared in royal robes, with a flat ivory sceptre in his hand, and sometimes his officers shewed themselves with ensigns, arms, and drums, &c. and by intervals a sort of farce was acted by their lacqueys, whose antick dress and painted faces were as well as any have seen in Europe; and, as far as was interpreted to me, their farce was very diverting, especially part of it which represented a person who had in his marriage been cheated by a debauched wife, and fancying her constant to him, had the mortification to see another make love to her before his face." *

Mr. Bell, who accompanied the Russian ambassador to Pekin in 1719, describes the court amusements to consist of wrestling, sham-fights, tumbling, posturemaking, and fire-works. At an entertainment given to the gentle men of the enb.ssy, by one of the emperor's sons, the amusements where somewhat better. Speaking of the comedians, he says, "There entered on the stage seven warriors, all in armour, with different weapons in their hands, and terrible vizards on their faces. After they had taken a few turns about the stage, and survey

• Harris's Voyages, vol. ii. p. 939.

ed each other's armour, they at last fell a quarrelling; and, in the encounter, one of the heroes was slain. Then an angel descended from the clouds, in a flash of lightning, with a monstrous sword in his hand, and soon parted the combatants, by driving them all off the stage; which done, he ascended in the same manner he came down, in a cloud of fire and smoke. This scene was succeeded by several comical farces, which, to me, seemed very diverting, though in a language I did not understand ̈*• But the comedy performed at a tavern in Pekin, by a company of players maintained by the house," at an entertainment given to them by "a young Chinese gentleman," afforded to all great pleasure; "and the performers consisted of both men and women, well-dressed, and of decent behaviour."†

Lord Macartney, in his own journal, describes the wrestling, tumbling, wire-dancing, conjuring, and fire-works, that were exhibited at his introduction to the late Emperor Kien-lung, and seems to speak of them with great contempt, except the ingenuity with which the Chinese had displayed their art in clothing fire with all manner of colours and shapes.

Their "wretched dramas," as he calls them, are thus described. "The theatrical entertainments consisted of great variety, both tragical and comical; several distinct pieces were acted in succession, though without any apparent connexion with one another. Some of them were his. • Bell's Travels from St. Petersburgh, page 288.

Abed. p. 310.

torical,

forical, and others of pure fancy, partly in recitativo, partly in sing ing, and partly in plain speaking, without any accompaniment of instrumental music, but abounding in battles, murders, and most of the usual incidents of the drama. Last of all, was the grand pantomie, which, from the approbation it met with, is, I presume, considered a first-rate effort of intention and ingonuity. It seem ed to me, as far as I could comprehend it, to represent the marrage of the Ocean and the Earth. The latter exhibited her various rabes and productions, dragons and elephants and tigers and eagles and ostriches, oaks and pes, and other trees of different kunds. The ocean was not behind band, but poured forth on the stage the wealth of his dominions, under the figures of whales and dolphins, porpoises and leviathans, and other sea-monsters, besides aupt, rocks, shells, sponges, and corals, all performed by concealed actors, who were quite perfect in their parts, and performed their characters to admiration. These two maring and land regiments, after separately parading in a circular procession for a considerable timme, at lust joined together, and formung one body, came to the front of the stage, when, after a fc a evolutions, they opened to the # 2ht and left, to give room for the amaie, who seemed to be the coinmanding officer, to wade for ward; and who, taking his station exactly opposite to the emperor's tox, spouted out of his mouth into the pat several tuns of water, which quickly disappeared through the perf-rations of the flour. This ejarukation was reecived with the

highest applause, and two or three of the great men at my elbow desired me to take particular notice of it; repeating, at the same time, hao! hung, hav!'-charming, delightful!*

And

Mr. Barrow, in describing the amusements given to the Dutch ambassadors in 1795, from the journal of a gentleman in their suite, speaks of posture-making, rope-dancing," and a sort of pantomimic performance, the principal characters of which were men dressed in skins, and going on all fours, intended to represent wild beasts; and a parcel of boys, habited in the dresses of mandarins, who were to hunt them." again, after the whole court had been terribly frightened by an eclipse of the moon, an entertainment was given to the ambassadors, during which "a pantomime, intended to be an exhibition of the battle of the dragon and the moon, was represented before the full court. In this engagement, two or three hundred priests, bearing lanterns suspended at the ends of long sticks, performed a variety of evolutions, dancing and capering about, sometimes over the plain, aud then over chairs and tables, affording to his imperial majesty, and to his courtiers, the greatest pleasure and satisfaction." De Guignes also, who accompanied these ambassadors, describes this scene as a very puerile and ludicrous representation, "A number of Chinese,' he says, "placed at the distance of six feet from one another, now entered, bearing two

• Life of the Earl of Macartney, vol. ii. ← Barrow's Travels in China, p. 216.

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