gradually down. Here is the theatre.[1] The part occupied by the audience is semicircular, and consists of seats rising like steps one above the other, and cut in the solid rock. This vast semicircle is filled already with the mass of citizens, men and women, except in the lower ranges of seats, which are reserved for the magistrates and senators. In the centre a small area is left, on which is a raised platform with the altar of Bacchus upon it; across the front, from end to end of the semicircle, runs a high wall which closes the theatre, and in front of this wall is the stage. The stage is long and narrow;—it runs, that is, across nearly the whole front, but is only deep enough for four or five men to walk abreast—and steps lead down from it into the central area or orchestra; while, parallel to the stage, but on the lower level, run long passages to right and left, by which the chorus may enter or leave the theatre. As, then, we take our seat among the noisy crowd, we see before us, down on the floor of the house, as we should call it, the altar on its raised platform in the orchestra, and beyond it, fronting us, a high columned wall, fashioned perhaps like a temple, with great folding doors in the middle, opening upon the stage. We are going to stay here all day and see piece after piece, and join in approving the verdict of the judges when,
- ↑ Some readers may remember the representation of the "Antigone" of Sophocles in London some years ago. The Greek stage and its accessories were all carefully reproduced, and the result is described in the 'Times' of January 3, 1845. The same performance, as afterwards repeated in Edinburgh, forms the subject of one of De Quincey's most instructive papers.
