THE MOON ON THE STAGE 83 



compared with the moon overhead. It would be interest- 

 ing to see an attempt on the part of a competent painter 

 to produce in this way (which is, I believe, Nature's way) 

 the illusion of increased size in a low-lying moon without 

 really increasing the visual size of his painted moon as 

 compared with one in another picture (to be painted by 

 him) representing the moon bright, clear and small, 

 overhead. 



The theatrical scene-painter has another kind of diffi- 

 culty with the low moon and the setting sun. He can 

 never be right for more than one row of seats — one dis- 

 tance — in the theatre. Here there is no peep-hole, no 

 frame or picture-plane. The observer is in the picture. 

 If the moon is represented by an illuminated disc one foot 

 in diameter, it will, when looked at at a distance of 1 1 5 feet, 

 have the same visual size as the moon itself, but if your 

 seat is nearer the scene it will look too large, if further off 

 it will look too small. There is no getting over this diffi- 

 culty, as the standard of actual Nature is set up on the 

 stage by the men and women appearing on it at a known 

 distance. It used to be asked in classical times by 

 ingenious puzzle-makers — " What is the size of the moon?" 

 A true answer to that question would be " that of a plate 

 a foot in diameter seen at a distance of a hundred and 

 fifteen feet." 



Plate VI. — Drawing of three figures — Lord Lansdowne, Mr. Lloyd George, 

 and Mr. Asquith — showing how an illusion of size may be produced in a 

 picture. The figure of Mr. Asquith is of the same actual vertical 

 measurement as that of Lord Lansdowne, viz. two inches and one 

 eighth. Yet owing to the position in which the three figures are placed 

 and the converging lines — suggesting perspective — the drawing of Mr. 

 Asquith does not merely represent a much taller man than does that of 

 Lord Lansdowne, but actually gives the impression, at first sight, that 

 the little black figure representing Mr. Asquith is longer and bigger 

 altogether than that representing Lord Lansdowne. Yet the figures 

 are of the same dimensions. It is owing to illusion of the same nature 

 that the disc of the low moon appears larger than that of the high moon. 



