PRIVATE THEATRICALS. CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTORY. THE stage has always been considered “the mirror of the age," in which the peculiar excellences of society are pourtrayed and its foibles and vices exposed, ridiculed and condemned. Properly conducted, it affords a valuable means of education-placing instruction before an audience in a highly palatable form, and at the same time intelligible even to the dullest apprehension. It was formerly esteemed by many as a school of elocution, and in this respect was looked upon as a very successful rival to the pulpit; not a few going so far as to affirm that the pulpit and the stage were the only platforms whence emanated all that was pure and refined in the method of speech. There cannot be any doubt that the stage, at a former period, did exercise a very considerable influence upon forms of speech, pronunciation, and emphasis; and "new readings," as they are called (but which are in many cases merely novelties of emphasis), were far more frequently the subjects of discussion in society then, than they are at the present day. Luther is not often cited as an authority on such matters, but the temptation to quote his opinion upon comedies is irresistible. "In comedies, particularly in those of the Roman writers, the duties of the various situations of life are held out to view, and, as it were, reflected from a mirror." While admitting the intellectual advantages to be derived from theatrical representations, it has been asserted that they are more than counterbalanced by an unenviable notoriety for offending against morality. It has, of course, been pointed out frequently enough that where the stage has been coarse almost to indecency, the language has been such as was acceptable, at the time it was written, even in the first circles. In the vexed question of theatrical morality, it must be confessed that the stage has had rather |