instruments, conveyed by boats through the rivers
and canals, or borne on the shoulders of coolies,
swung on bamboo poles, and the performances,
once begun, are scarcely interrupted for many
days and many nights. The Buddhist and
Taouist priests are often the principal movers
in the invitations given to the strollers. They
collect, by their dependents, moneys to pay for
the recreations, and inscribe the names of the
contributors on bright vermilion papers, which
are posted at the entrances of the temples in
their neighbourhood, and for whose benefit the
performances are to take place.

The number and the reputation of the
performers, and the duration of the performances,
depend on the amounts collected. The fame of
a favourite idol, especially where he is believed
to have worked recent miracles, will sometimes
bring considerable money - offerings for the
theatre to be erected in the vicinity of his shrine.
Funds being raised, in four-and-twenty hours a
building capable of conveniently accommodating
two thousand persons is completed, and while
the performances are going on business is
neglected, shops are deserted, sedan-bearers
abandon their posts, and everything is sacrificed
throughout the neighbourhood to the theatrical
display, which generally lasts from three to
four days. There are only short periods of
rest between the representations, to allow time
for repasts and for repose. The theatre is
scarcely cleared of the spectators that have
witnessed one exhibition, before shoals of
candidates present themselves to occupy the vacant
places. The clearings out and the fillings in
are repeated several times a day. The
amusments are not confined to dramatic pieces.
Interludes of prestidigitation tricks, tumblings
and gymnastic exploits, often vary the
diversions. All around the theatre are temporary
gambling-stands, cookery-shops, fruit-stalls, and
frequently houses of reception of the worst
character. Worship within the temple is held
to be quite compatible with profligacy without,
and there is nothing in the example of the
bonzes to encourage what is good, or to deter
from what is evil. They levy a rental from all
who sell these wares to the visitors.

In these dramas national grievances get a
shadowy redress, which is some comfort to those
who find no real shelter from oppression. Punishment
is seen to overtake extortion and corruption
in a way seldom verified in the reality of life.
The stage is made the reprover of offences too
often placed in daily experience beyond or above
the reach of official cognisance. A thousand
faces brighten when some rapacious hard-hearted
mandarin is brought on the stage, carrying on
his iniquities and cruelties, and is " hoist with
his own petard," tumbled into the pit he has
dug for some poor man's destruction, overtaken
by the all-penetrating eye of the emperor (O
that the Son of Heaven could but know how
many such wicked ones we know!), humiliated,
deposed, decapitated.

Female characters have often to perform an
important part in the Chinese drama; but the
old English usage is still preserved : no woman
ever appears on the stage, and the fair sex are
represented by boys, or men with treble voices.

There is nothing more amusing in these
exhibitions than the attempts of vulgar coarse-
handed big-footed boys to exhibit the simpering
graces of Chinese ladies of rank, who are
hardly able to totter along on the crushed pegs
upon which they stand, if indeed they can be said
to stand, who are often blown over by a blast of
wind, or seen to save themselves from falling by
catching hold of a chair or a table, or by the use
of a stick, or by resting on attendant slave or
slaves. But as a lady of refinement has the
happy art of exhibiting her golden-lilied feet just
peeping out from beneath her silken garments, it
may be fancied how grotesque are the imitations
of a vulgar youth, and with what delight and self-
gratulation the real blue blood — the ladies
belonging to the buttoned aristocracy—look upon
the abortive efforts of the common players; then,
again, the ladies, whose delicate fingers show
that they do not work,—because the nails—
which are allowed to grow many inches long
—prove that they cannot work, — feel no small
pride in contemplating the long metallic claws
which are stuck on as substitutes for the
transparent henna-coloured nail (chi-kiah), the
possession of which, next to a small foot, is the
glory and the ambition of a fashionable woman.
All the plays, all the novels, and it may be said
all the literature of China, bear the impress of
that peculiar educational system which
permeates the national mind. Quotations from
the writings of the sages, fragments of poetry,
scraps of ancient history, constantly interrupt,
as they are supposed to decorate, the development
of the story. This influence of the past on
the present is everywhere visible, and explains
many of the seeming mysteries of Chinese life.
A revolt has been often subdued by a felicitous
reference to some aphorism of an ancient book,
and a well-timed quotation will suddenly terminate
the most excited controversy.

The very highest orders seldom frequent the
public theatres, but hire and invite to their
houses, for the entertainment of themselves and
their guests, strolling players, popular conjurors,
tumblers, and buffoons, and other such artists
and actors. The more distinguished dramatis
personæ form themselves into corporations, and
adopt some attractive and high-sounding name
by which they are commonly known, such as
The Brotherhood of Reason and Courtesy; The
Company of Splendid Visitations; The Society
of Fragrant Flowers; The Mirrors of what Was
and Is. When the play opens, the audience are
not left in ignorance of what is to happen, as
each actor, on his appearance, tells the company
who he is, and what he is to say and to do.
Bottom's instructions are admirably carried out,
"the bill of properties such as the play wants"
being all laid before the spectators.

The actors are generally clad in the strange
costumes worn under the Ming dynasty, of
which much ancient Chinese porcelain gives a
very accurate representation, and this period of