thirteen inches; their breadth about twenty-two inches: the lowest bench was near four feet high from the level of the floor; the height and breadth of the corridors and passages was double the height and breadth of the benches. The sides of the stairs passing from the body of the edifice towards the stage were not parallel; for the, space betwixt them grew sharper as they came near the conistra or arena, and ended in the figure of a wedge, whence the Romans called them cunei; to prevent the falling down of the rain upon those steps, there were penthouses set up to carry off the water. Above the upper corridor there was a gallery, called circys, for the women, where those who were infamous, or irregu lar in their lives, were not permitted to enter.

This theatre was not so capacious as that which was built in Rome by Marcus Scaurus, the Edilis; for in that there was room for seventy-nine thousand persons; in this there was room for six thousand; it could not contain less, for the suffrages of the people were taken in it, and by the Athenian. laws six thousand suffrages were requisite to make a decree of the people authentic.

Thus much for the place appointed for the spectators: as to that which was designed for the actors (which comprehended the orchestra, the logeon or thymele, the proscenion, and the scene) the orchestra was about four feet from the ground; its figure was an oblong square, thirty-six feet in length, extending from the stage to the rows of benches; its breadth is not mentioned in the memoirs I have of the dimensions of this theatre, which were taken on the spot about one hundred years since, by Mons. de la Guillatiere, an ingenious traveller. In certain places of it the music, the chorus, and the mimics were conveniently disposed. Among the Romans it was put to a more honourable use, for the emperor and senate had places upon it. Upon the flat of the orchestra, towards the place of the actors, was an elevation or platform, called logeon or thymele, which among the Romans was called pulpitum; it was higher than the orchestra; its figure was square, being six feet every side; and in this place the principal part of the chorus made their recitations, and in comical interludes the mimics used to perform in it.

The proscenion, or stage, was raised above the logeon. That great architect, Philos, contrived the edifice in such a manner as that the representations might be seen, and the voices of the actors and the music heard, with the greatest advantage. The proscenion was eighteen feet in breadth, and its length extended from one side of the edifice to the

opposite side, but not diametrically, being eighteen feet distant from the centre.

The scene, properly speaking, was the columns and ornaments in architecture, raised from the foundation, and upon the sides of the proscenion, for its beauty and decoration. Agatarchus was the first architect who found out the way of adorning scenes by the rules of perspective, and Eschylus assisted him.

Parascenion signified the entire space before and behind the scene; and the same name was given to all the avenues and passages from the music room to the place where the actors performed.

The theatre of Regilla, not far from the temple of Theseus in Athens, was covered magnificently, having a fair roof of cedar. The odeon, or theatre for music, was covered likewise; but no part of the theatre of Bacchus, which we have described, was covered, except the proscenion and circys. The Athenians, being exposed to the weather, came usually with great cloaks, to secure them from the rain or the cold; and for defence against the sun, they had the sciadion, a kind of parasol, which the Romans used also in their theatres by the name of umbrella; but when a sudden storm arose, the play was interrupted, and the spectators dispersed.

A sort of tent-work over the entire area of the edifice, might have been contrived as a shelter from the rain, and a shade from the sun. Such a covering would have obviated the inconveniences of roofed theatres, which obstruct the free communication of the air, and of unroofed theatres, which do not keep out the weather. At Athens the plays were always represented in the day-time, which made the unroofed theatres less inconvenient.

In that now described, Philos has preserved a just symmetry of architecture, and shewed great judgment in assisting the communication of sounds; for the voice being extenuated in an open and spacious place, where the distant walls, though of marble, could give little or no repercussion to make it audible; he contrived cells in the thickness of the corridors, in which he placed brass vessels, supported by wedges of iron, that they might not touch the wall. The voice proceeding from the stage to the corridors, and striking upon the concavity of those vessels, was reverberated with more clearness and force: their number in all were twentyeight, and were called echea, because they gave an augmentation, or an echo, to the sound.

Outwardly there was a portico, consisting of a double gallery, divided by rows of pillars, called the portico of

Eumenicus. The floor of this portico was raised a good distance from the ground, so that from the street they ascended to it by stairs: it was of an oblong square figure, embellished with green pallisadoes to please the eyes of those who walked in it. Here it was that their repetitions were made, and proposed for the theatre, as other music and symphony was in the odeon.

If ever the present generation, or posterity, would dignify the drama with such noble edifices as were constructed for it by the ancient Greeks and Romans, they should enter into articles with the dramatic poets and performers, that no immodest witticisms be repeated, and no lascivious passions expressed on the stage. If the passion of love is to be described, let it be described with decency, as that of Dido for Æneas, in the Æneid. A true dramatic genius can invent other fables on that and models of the like kind.

Not only the modesty of the spectators is to be scrupulously respected; but likewise every other virtue: when vice is the subject of the drama, it ought to be represented in an odious light; the unfortunate Mr. Budgel threw himself into the Thames, to do, what Cato had done, and Addison approved. See the bad effects of vice, represented as a virtue! That the rules of virtue and decorum be regarded in all respects, the theatres should be removed from the neighbourhood of brothels, or the brothels should be compelled to remove out of the neighbourhood of the theatres; then these amusements may become as innocent as they are diverting. In the situation of a theatre, not only the manners of the people are to be considered, but also their health, by having it in a free and open air.

In Athens the scene looked upon the castle-bill; the Cynosarges, a suburb of Athens, was behind it; the Museon, a hill so called from the poet Musæus, was on the right-hand; and the caussey leading to Pyræum, the neighbouring seaport, was on the other side.

1760, April.

Addison's representation of Cato's suicide does not amount to a full approbation of the practice, even upon Cato's principles; but if it had, it could not encourage the same practice in a Christian; this stricture, therefore, of nr ingenious correspondent, does not seem to be quite just. E

XLVI. Description of the Amphitheatre at Nismes.

MR. URBAN,

SEND you a genuine extract of a letter, containing a description of the Amphitheatre at Nismes: if you think it can be acceptable to your readers, it is at your service; from,

"We had determined to make Nismes our winter-quarters, where, safe from the storms and tempests of the north, and under the influence of a mild and genial day, we might have sufficient leisure to examine those noble remains of Roman magnificence by which this city is distinguished from all others in France. Animated with this idea, and enamoured of the simple grandeur that distinguishes ancient from modern buildings, we left Paris in the dead of winter, and turned our backs on all the splendid exhibitions with which that fascinating city abounds. Here, while our friends in the north are freezing by the fire, we either sit with the windows open to catch the influence of the enlivening sun, or sally out to visit the Amphitheatre, the temple of Diana, or some other curiosity with which our Roman residence abounds.

The city of Nismes was chosen by the Romans in preference to every other city of Transalpine Gaul. Having had the whole world as the objects of their choice, they shewed in their preference of Nismes, that they well knew how to chuse a situation. This city stands on a gradual descent; below, a rich valley, covered with corn in its due season, extends till it is lost to the sight; behind, the hill ascends like a theatre, covered with vines, and olive-trees, almost to the summit, which is crowned with wood. Corn, wine, and oil, are decisive marks of a fertile country. If any thing is wanting to complete the idea, silk might be added; abundance of mulberry-trees are cultivated in the plains, to furnish the large manufactories of silk stockings, for which Nismes, has been long famous. But these, it may be said, are present appearances and modern improvements. It is confessed. The state of agriculture and the arts, at the time when this city was cherished and favoured by the Romans, has not been handed down to us with sufficient accuracy. But, a monument of their skill in architecture, one of the noblest and most useful of the arts, has subsisted upwards of 1600 years, and still bids fair to survive modern

buildings. Imagine me, my dear friend, as writing this upon one of the seats of the glorious Amphitheatre where the once masters of the world were seated. Form to yourself the idea of a perfect ellipse, whose longest axis from east to west is upwards of 400 feet; its shortest more than 300. To an eye placed in the arena, and looking up around the 32 rows of seats rising over each other, which held the spectators, computed at about 20,000, the various party-coloured dresses, different attitudes, &c. which such a numerous and mixed assembly must have produced, create a tout-ensemble that beggars all description, and exceeds all the idea that the imagination of a modern can conceive; as no spectacle from which to form an analogy now exists on the face of the globe. One of the largest, if not the largest, theatres in Europe, is the opera-house at Paris, which yet does not contain 3000 persons. This Amphitheatre was built by the Romans, in the time of Antoninus Pius, to decorate a provincial city, far from their capital, and at an expence which a nation now could scarcely bear. The external is formed in two rows of columns, of the Tuscan order, opened with two rows of arcades, sixty in a row, which gives such an air of lightness to a building of such amazing extent as is almost inconceivable. Four great arcades give access to the arena and internal part of the building: these arcades are exactly opposed to the four cardinal points, of which the north appears to have been the principal, having a grand pediment over it. These lead to the stair-cases, which end in three ranges of vomitoria, that conducted the spectators to their seats: the lower range is totally destroyed; of the second, little remains; but of the third, almost the whole. On entering the theatre from the upper range of vomitories, the coup d'oeil is most astonishing. The entire wall of more than three fourths of the building is complete: the rows of seats are differently broken in different places; in one they are complete, as far as to 17: there were originally 32. An author of character, who has written a book purposely on the curiosities of Nismes, has calculated the number of possible spectators at something more than 17,000; by allowing 20 inches of seat to each person, he seats that number very commodiously. I measured out 20 inches upon one of the seats, and found I did not nearly occupy it; seventeen were sufficient for me, sitting at my ease: and I incline to believe, that in crowded assemblies fourteen inches are as much space as each person, on an average, can separately occupy. I have therefore little difficulty in supposing that 20,000,