102 
THE DRAMA. AUDIENCES AND PERFORMANCES. 
[Nature and Art, April 1, 18G?. 
remove the colouring matter from the upper surface 
of the paper. If properly washed, scai’cely any of 
the colour will come off : nor should it, the object 
being simply to produce a more perfect blending, 
and to adapt the paper better to receive every 
subsequent wash. I find the safer plan to do this 
successfully is to place the drawing a short time 
before the fire, so that the colour may become 
hardened, and have some hold upon the paper, and 
then the washing may generally be depended upon. 
Different papers, however, have much to do in this 
respect, as well as the granulation of surface. A 
very fine texture, much sized, does not absorb the 
colour so well as a more open grain with less size : 
therefore too smooth a .surface should be avoided. 
On the other hand, too rough a grain will not admit 
of the brush giving that clear and decided handling 
so much to be desired — at all events, by the tyro- 
in water-colour painting. 
The washing having been accomplished, other 
tones have to be passed over the mountains (and 
sky if too light), with precisely the same colours, 
giving to each part the tint of which it partakes. 
The trees in the middle distance are of a variety of 
tones, produced from cobalt, yellow ochre, and 
crimson lake (not rose madder). For the middle 
distance and grass in the foreground use gamboge, 
raw sienna, and sepia. The stones are also con- 
tinued in their darker touches and shadows with 
cobalt, yellow ochre, and lake, which colours 
are also to be employed for the stems of the trees. 
In the foliage of the nearer trees there is much 
diversity, and it is requisite to observe the exact 
character of the green tints, giving them precisely 
according to the copy, as their position is of much 
value to the effect of the whole drawing. Gamboge, 
burnt sienna, and indigo, with the addition of 
lake for one of them, are to be the colours for 
these several gradations or varieties of hues. The 
brush should be tolerably well filled for putting in 
these washes. The road is to have a slight wash of 
cobalt and rose madder over the front part, in 
order to send the light upon it to that part by the' 
trees. 
Beyond the foregoing instructions I say nothing, 
thinking it as well that, in the more immediate 
details, the pupil had better exercise the knowledge 
already attained. In a future number I purpose 
giving the same drawing in its finished state, when 
I shall speak of its composition at some length. 
THE DRAMA. AUDIENCES AND PERFORMANCES. 
S OME of the reflective people who go to the 
theatres more to oblige others than them- 
selves, are beginning to make philosophical in- 
quiries as to the kind of entertainments they find 
there. The majority are not so inquisitive, and 
take the goods the managers provide for them 
without much inquiry or criticism. Of course 
when a London man goes to a theatre and pays, he 
goes because he has some liking for the class of 
entertainment announced ; and therefore, if he 
does exercise any judgment upon it, it is not upon 
the species, but the individual specimen of it 
which he witnesses. Having selected a theatre 
which announces a burlesque or a pantomime, he 
confines his comparisons to the performance he sees. 
There are, however, large numbers of persons — and 
they consist generally of those from the country — 
who, having to “ do ” the theatres in a few days, go 
haphazard into them, taking the performances as 
they may chance to turn up. It is this class of 
playgoers, though they have little critical capacity 
and no experience, that is most dissatisfied with 
the theatres ; and if they happen to be of the 
educated order, such as country magistrates, local 
professional people, or clergymen, it is from them 
that the deepest cry issues of the decline of the 
British drama. In their youth, when they were 
more capable of enjoying and less inclined to 
criticise, they recollect seeing some peerless actor, 
some extraordinary genius ; and to this standard they 
rack every performer, expecting from a walking 
gentleman the intensity of an Edmund Kean, 
or the grandeur of a Kemble. They have also 
read, as a part of the literature of the country, the 
dramatic collections ; and thus unprepared for the 
modern drama, it seems to them a mass of either 
vicious intrigue, outrageous exaggeration, or in- 
comprehensible nonsense. It may be said, if this is 
the impression produced on our country cousins, 
how is it that they throng the theatres and contribute 
so very largely to their support 'l There are two 
replies to this assertion. First, provincial persons 
are very chary of giving absolute judgments ; and, 
secondly, there are such influxes every hour of 
them into London that it is the succession of visitors, 
and not the repetition of visits, that constitutes 
our great London audiences. There are also many 
metropolitans who are in the same condition as the 
country visitors, as living in the suburbs, and only 
occasionally going to the theatre ; though they are 
somewhat more influenced by the actual per- 
formance, and proportionally drawn by the par- 
ticular entertainment announced. Still, both classes 
of these kinds of visitors are in the main actuated 
rather by the idea of “ going to the play,” than 
by any other motive, j 
Although, then, country and suburban visitors 
form a very large proportion of theatre supporters, 
yet there are still a large class of jiersons who are 
regular habitues and frequenters of them. The 
million who dwell within a two-mile radius of St. 
Paul’s still furnish a large proportion of theatre 
