MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 



4p3 



to represent is put into the hands 

 of the master of the feast, who 

 consults his guests as to the choice 

 to be made ; this done, the dra- 

 matis personae are read over ; and 

 if it should happen that a name 

 occurs therein, corresponding with 

 tlie name of any of the guests, 

 another piece is immediately cho- 

 sen, in order that no oflfeiisive act 

 or allusion in the play may be 

 coupled with the name of the au- 

 ditor. Perhaps, however, this 

 restrained delicacy is only on pa- 

 per, and not followed up in prac- 

 tice ; just as the statute which 

 prohibits musicians and stage- 

 players from representing, in any 

 of their performances, " emperors, 

 empresses, famous princes, minis- 

 ters, and generals of former ages," 

 is perpetually infringed, such re- 

 presentations being, in fact, the 

 favourite and most usual subjects 

 of theatric exhibition. Indeed 

 there is a saving clause, which says, 

 that " this law is not intended to 

 prohibit the exhibition upon the 

 stage of fictitious characters of just 

 and upright men, of chaste wives, 

 and pious and obedient children, 

 all which may tend to dispose the 

 minds of the spectators to the 

 practice of virtue."* 



When the common people wish 

 for a theatrical entertainment, 

 they subscribe among themselves 

 a sum sufficient to cover the ex- 

 jiense of erecting the temporary 

 theatre and paying the actois, 

 which is said to be very modeiate. 

 De Guignes says, that the temples 

 or p.'igodas are sometimes used for 

 theatres, t which is not impossible, 

 as they are the common places of 



• Ta-tsing-lfu-lee, p. 4 18. 



t Vojage a Pckiii, Tom. ii. p. 322. 



resort for gamblers, and the lodg- 

 ing-houses of foreign ambassadors, 

 and officers travelling in the j)ub- 

 lic service. But neither in this 

 respect would the Chinese be sin- 

 gular ; our old mysteries and vw- 

 ralities were frequently played in 

 churches. Taverns in China have 

 also a large room set apart for the 

 entertainment of guests with thea- 

 trical exhibitions ; just as in Eng- 

 land, companies of players had 

 occasionjd stages erected in the 

 yards of the principal inns, in 

 Queen Elizabetii's time. 



If the missionaries have com- 

 municated little information re- 

 specting the actual state of thea- 

 trical representations in China^ the 

 descriptions, which occasional vi- 

 sitors to that country have given 

 of the actual state of scenic exhi- 

 bitions, convey a tolerably correct 

 notion of what they are : and they 

 certainly are not of a nature to 

 give us any very exalted notion of 

 the state of the (hama, or of the re- 

 finement of the people. The most 

 singidar and inexplicable part of 

 the subject is, that those repre- 

 sentations would appear to descend 

 into lowness and vulgarity, in the 

 inverse ratio of the rank and situ- 

 ation in life of the parties for whose 

 amusement they are exliibited. 

 Thus, at the court of Pekin, and 

 in presence of His Imperial Ma- 

 jesty, Ysbrandt Ives, the Russian 

 ambassador in 169'i, was enter- 

 tained with jugglers, posture-ma- 

 kers, and harlecjuins, while on his 

 way thither; and not far fiom the 

 great wall, the governor of a city 

 entertained him with a regular 

 play. " First," says he, " entered 

 a very beautiful lady, magnificently 

 dressed in clotii of gold, adorned 

 with jewels, and a crown on her 



hcad^ 



