184 MEMOIR OF FLEEMING JENKIN 



whom he introduced to his public. In putting 

 these upon the stage, he found a thousand exer- 

 cises for his ingenuity and taste, a thousand 

 problems arising which he delighted to study, a 

 thousand opportunities to make those infinitesimal 

 improvements which are so much in art and for 

 the artist. Our first Greek play had been costumed 

 by the professional costumier, with unforgettable 

 results of comicality and indecorum : the second, 

 the TrachinicB of Sophocles, he took in hand 

 himself, and a delightful task he made of it. His 

 study was then in antiquarian books, where he 

 found confusion, and on statues and bas-reliefs, 

 where he at last found clearness ; after an hour 

 or so at the British Museum, he was able to master 

 * the chit6n, sleeves and all ' ; and before the time 

 was ripe, he had a theory of Greek tailoring at his 

 fingers' ends, and had all the costumes made under 

 his eye as a Greek tailor would have made them. 

 ' The Greeks made the best plays and the best 

 statues, and were the best architects ; of course, 

 they were the best tailors, too,' said he ; and 

 was never weary, when he could find a tolerant 

 listener, of dwelling on the simplicity, the economy, 

 the elegance both of means and effect, which 

 made their system so delightful. 



But there is another side to the stage-manager's 

 employment. The discipline of acting is detest- 

 able ; the failures and triumphs of that business 



