Journal entry, 28 April 1821

urn:iso:std:iso:639:ed-3:eng

222–223

text excerpt

[S]wallowed my dinner, and flew to the theatre. Here they play French and Dutch alternately; and, luckily for me, French to-night, so that I could judge better of the acting. Here was a comedy of which I forget the name, and have not time to look for the bill; but, in a word, their comic acting is better than ours, though inferior to that of Paris; and, on the other hand, in serious strains they are superior to the French and inferior to the English. Theatre small, tolerably neat; two good pillars on each side of the stage; house badly lit up with eight pairs of poor oil lamps, suspended in a circle from a plain white ceiling. Three tiers of seats; pit very respectable, and when the act scene dropped, the whole of the people from thence adjourned to walk the streets and groves of trees, having each received a card to return, with merely the word ‘sortie’ printed on it. Orchestra pretty good and strong. People very well-behaved during the performance, no whistling or blackguard cries from the gallery like England, but all quiet and attentive like Paris.

excerpt from 'Journal entry, 28 April 1821' pp. 222–223 (193 words)

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