MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 



501 



slight allusion, which a foreigner 

 does not perceive. ; added to which 

 the style is peculiarly concise, and 

 unusual words are introduced."* 



The opening or prodogue of a 

 Chinese drama^ in which the prin- 

 cipal 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 car- 

 ried on in the common colloquial 

 language, but in the higher order 

 of historical and tragical plays, 

 the tone of voice is elevated con- 

 -siderably above its .natural pitch,, 

 and continued ithroughout in a 

 kind of whuiing monotony, hav- 

 ing some resemblance to, but 

 wanting the modulations and ca- 

 dences of, the recitative in the 

 Jtalian opera ; as in this too, the 

 sentiments of grief, joy, love, 

 hatred, revenge, &c. aie in the 

 Chinese dramas, usually thrown 

 into lyric poetry, and sung in soft 

 or boisterous au's, according to 



* Morrison's Chiaese Grammar, p. 275. 



the sentiment expressed, and the 

 situation of the actor j they are 

 also accompanied with loud music, 

 the performers being placed on the 

 back part of the atage. 



Whatever may be the merits and 

 the defects of the Chinese drama, 

 it is imquestionably their own in- 

 vention. 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 /ree ; and as that 

 drama differs more from the Chi- 

 nese than the latter from the 

 Greek, Roman, English, or Ita- 

 lian, there is Jiot the slightest 

 grounds for supposing that the 

 one was borrowed from tthe other. 

 Theie is, indeed, a chai'acteristic 

 difference between them j the one 

 adhering strictly to nature, and 

 describing human manners and 

 human feelings ; the other soai'- 

 ing beyond nature, into the laby- 

 rinth of an intricate and inexpli- 

 cable mythology. 



NATURAL 



