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CHINESE THEATRE AND DANCES. 183
The characters in a Chinese play are comparatively unimportant, appearing once, and then vanishing forever; ia fact at the end of some of the Chinese dramas, one is considerably mystified as to the fate of many of the characters, as the author, unlike the European and American dramatists, who make everybody (except the villain) happy in the last act, only deems it necessary to follow out closely the career of his nero and heroine, and they being once dead, the other characters are allowed to wind up in a very sudden and, to us, very unsatisfactory manner. The musical part of these dramas is often quite long, and whenever the actor desires to express much feeling, he falls into music. Sometimes it is introduced in a most unnatural manner; in one tragedy, a wife having murdered her husband is sentenced to be flayed alive; after the execution of the sentence, sh«* returns to the stage wholly bereft of her skL., (this is depicted with true Chinese realistic effect, the body of the performer being painted in exact imitation of nature in such a hideous plight) and the then and there sings a song to excite the pity &f the infernal spirits. The song is full of screeches and howls, and lasts half an hour.* Let us not be too hasty in smiling at such absurd »tage effects; there is an opera still performed on >ur own stage, where an innocent Jewess is boiled in oil, as finale, and as to the inappropriateness of i long song, under such circumstances, there is a
•It would however, be as unjust to judge average Chinese plays bJ jis one instance as to judge of the Shakesperian drama by " Tito* tidroi icus." |
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