493 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1817. 



long dragons of silk or paper, 

 painted blue, with white scales, 

 aiid stuffed with lighted lamps. 

 These two dragons, after saluting 

 the emperor with due respect, 

 moved up and down with great 

 composure ; when the moon sud- 

 denly made her ap[)earance, upon 

 which they began to run after her. 

 The moon, however, fearlessly 

 placed herself between them, and 

 the two dragons, after surveying 

 her for some time, and concluding 

 apparently, that she was too large 

 a morsel for them to swallow, 

 judged it prudent to retire ; which 

 they did with the same ceremony 

 as they entered. The moon, elated 

 with her triumph, then withdrew 

 with prodigious gravity : a little 

 flushed, however, with the chase 

 which she had sustained."* 



It would seem, however, that 

 meanness and vulgarity are not 

 the most objectionable charges to 

 which the exhibitions of the Clii- 

 nese stage are obnoxious ; some 

 of them being grossly indecent and 

 obscene. An instance is mention- 

 ed by Mr. Barrow, of a woman 

 being condemned to be flayed 

 alive, for the muider of her hus- 

 band ; she appears on the si age 

 not only naked, but completely 

 excoriated : and he adds, tiiat the 

 European gentlemen at Canton, 

 are sometimes so disgusted with 

 the filthy and obscene exhibitions, 

 as to leave the theatre, f "The 

 history of husbands deceived by 

 their mistresses," says Mons. de 

 Guignes, " being frequently the 

 subject of their comedies, there oc- 

 cur therein sometimes situation* so 

 free, and in which the actor cx- 



• Vovage a Pekin, vol. i. p. 421. 

 •}■ Twvels in China, p. 2«2. 



hibits so nmch truth, that the scene 

 becomes extremely indecent : 

 and he mentions an instance of 

 which he was an eye-witness, 

 where the heroine of the piece 

 " devint grosse et accoucha sur le 

 theatre d'un enfant." The piece 

 was called the See-hou Pagoda, 

 being the history of the destruction 

 of the pagoda in ruins on that fa- 

 mous lake described by Mr. Bar- 

 row under the name of Lui-fung- 

 ta, the temple of the thundering 

 winds. " Several genii mounted 

 upon serpents, and marching along 

 the margin of the lake, opened 

 the scene ; a neighbouring bonze 

 shortly after made love to one of 

 these goddesses, who, in spite of 

 the remonstrances of her sister, 

 listened to the young man, mar- 

 ried him, became pregnant, and 

 was delivered of a child upon the 

 stage, who very soon found itself 

 in a condition to walk ai>out. En- 

 raged at this scandalous adventure, 

 the eenii drove away the bonze, 

 and finished by striking the pa- 

 goda with lightning, and reducing 

 it to the ruined condition in which 

 it now appears." * 



A3 scenes like the.?e are stated 

 to have thrown the audience into 

 raptures, M. de Guignes very na- 

 turally concludes the real character 

 of the Chinese to be Ticious. We 

 must not, however, judge too 

 harshly on performances, which, 

 for " licentious pleasantries," we 

 could fairly match them several 

 hundred years after those of the 

 Chinese were written. Warton 

 has observed, that "gross and open 

 obscenities" enter into our old 

 mysteries or religious represen- 

 tations ; that in a play of the "Old 



• Voyage a Pekin, vol.ii. p. 324. 



and 



