by Charles the Second. The court-dress in which Garrick often performed Macbeth, though not quite so picturesque in its appearance, was scarcely less correct than the uniform of the "gallant 42nd," now sported by Messrs. Kean and Macready; and the gentlemanly "suit of sables" worn by the Hamlets in our father's times, not a whit more exceptionable than the black velvet and glass buttons of our (in every sense of the word) modern princes of Denmark ! I will ask a plain question.-Will any manager of any theatre in London, major or minor, suffer a musical drama, or spectacle, founded upon one of the novels of the Great Unknown, to be produced with that utter inattention to costume, which attends the representation of nearly half the plays of Shakspeare ?—No.-The dress of each individual is carefully noted down from the description in the work, affixed to their first entrances by the dramatist, and sent into the wardrobe by the manager. Colnaghi's portfolios are rummaged to supply the slightest deficiency; the picture is finished with Flemish fidelity, and Richard the Lion-hearted, Queen Elizabeth, or King James I., walk on the stage with a truth as startling, as though their spirits had been raised in their habits as they lived, by the spell of the mighty northern enchanter.

The proud Templar dons his mail, the wealthy Isaac his yellow cap, and Dugald Dalgetty, his buff coat and steel head-piece. "Aye, but," says the manager, "every body

reads the Scotch novels, and knows how the characters should be dressed. The Shopman at Flint's, who obtains the loan of the last new one at three-pence per volume from the neighbouring circulating library,' (whose windows exhibit the double attractions of lollipops and literature, bulls* eyes and belles lettres,) is as well informed on the subject, as the periodical critic, who devours the proof-sheets purloined from the printer, or the lord who lounges over his

mail-coach copy, received three days and some odd hours before its publication in London." Granted. And one of the principal benefits arising from the universal circulation of the Scotch novels, is, that they have drawn the attention of every body to manners, and costumes, which would otherwise have remained generally unknown, and totally disregarded. The public are become expectant of a change in the wardrobes of our patent theatres. The daily illustrations of every period of history, put forth in the most fascinating shapes, by the first writers, hourly open the eyes of all classes. The reader of Ivanhoe cannot long be an unmurmuring spectator of the preposterous dressing of Shakspeare's "King John," in which we have Philip of France, "whose armour conscience buckled on," Louis the Dauphin, the English monarch, and the knights and nobles of both nations, fighting in the thirteenth century, in trunks and silk stockings (Oh those eternal trunks and silk-stockings!) and the two former in white kid shoes! Where is the steel harness, the helm and the hauberk, and "all quality, pride, pomp, and circumstance, of glorious war?" The money that purchased the splendid panoply exhibited as the spoils of the Peruvian giant, in the "Vision of the Sun," or that which sheathed in gilded mail Mr. Cooper, and his twelve attendants, in the "Chinese Sorcerer," would have been much better employed in arming the representatives of our heroic ancestors, and giving "the very age and body of the time," in which they flourished, "its form and pressure."

I have heard it affirmed that the appearance of four or five characters, (there would scarcely ever be more,) armed "in complete steel," would be too uniform for stage effect; but I contend that there is as much variety in armour, as in any other kind of habiliment. I will instance, for example, the beautiful historical pictures in Windsor Castle, painted by the late venerable president of the Royal Academy, an

artist celebrated for his attention to costume; let any one look at those battle pieces, and groupings of men in armour, and say whether or no their fac similes on the stage would be productive of powerful effect. And even allowing a little sameness, the scenes are not many which would require it, and changes of dress have lately been too rapidly, and too generally, practised, for an objection to be started on that account: The most plausible of all arguments against a stricter adherence to costume is that its extreme oddity during some periods, would raise a laugh against the wearer, however serious might be his character, and turn a tragedy into broad farce. I acknowledge the justice of this observation, as far as relates to particular cases; but I feel, likewise, convinced that a little ingenuity and taste could preserve the likeness while it avoided the caricature, as easily as a gentleman can dress in the height of fashion without rendering himself a subject for the pencil of Dighton, or Cruickshank. The French stage exhibits the most undeniable proof of the above position. I have seen the costume of the early part of the eighteenth century, (the age of flowing wigs, stiff skirts, and gold-laced waistcoats,) the most unfortunate, surely, for the hero or the lover, rendered perfectly elegant and becoming without losing an iota of its identity.

I would propose the establishment of a wardrobe upon the following plan. Eighteen or nineteen principal divisions, each appropriated to a particular nation, and again divided into the necessary number of compartments for containing the peculiar costume of each era, chronologically arranged, according to the best authorities. The completion of such a wardrobe would not be so difficult or expensive a business, as it may at first appear. The costumes of China, Persia, India, and Arabia, have known little, if any, variation, and with them the wardrobes of both theatres are

amply, and correctly, provided already. That of Rome, likewise, thanks to the "noblest Roman of them all," is sufficiently perfect to satisfy the most fastidious critic. It is in those very points where foreigners would naturally suppose us to be the strongest, that our weakness is most apparent. The English, Scotch, and French, are the nations which, in the radical phrase of the day, may complain of non-representation." "Something is rotten in the State of Denmark," also; and the emendation of these four divisions alone, would go far to remedy the deficiencies of which I complain, and to give a fashion not only to the plays so revised, but to the house which first attempted such revision *.

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I cannot conclude these hastily written remarks, without urging, also, attention to the universal demand for the restoration of the text of Shakspeare. The last act of King Lear was lately performed at Drury-Lane, as originally written, but the ridiculous loves of Edgar and Cordelia were still preserved. Half measures will do nothing,"Reform it altogether." If the plays of our immortal Bard be too long for representation, curtail them,-where anachronisms or indecencies of expression are most offensive, suppress them, but let what we hear be Shakspeare's, and what we see, if possible, be worthy of him!

P.

In proof of this assertion, I can instance the alteration of the costume of Richard the Third, by Mr. Elliston, a season or so back, which, imperfect as it was, had a most vivifying effect upon that tragedy. More attention was unfortunately paid to the coffin of King Henry VI., than to the king himself; but even the abolition of the customary suit of solemn black," till then worn by the representative of that ill fated monarch, was one blow stricken in the good cause, and the receipts improved proportionably.

305

ON THE EGYPTIAN RITES OF INITIATION,

(As illustrated by the Cavern Oracle of Apis, or the Serapeum, discovered by Belzoni.)

In the paper which I had the honour to lay before the public in the last number of the Album, I endeavoured to demonstrate, from a general view of the excavation, that the tomb of Psammis, as it has been rashly called, is, in reality, a Serapeum, or, Cavern Oracle, devoted to the peculiar, periodical, funereal, initiatory rites of Apis, or Osiris Inferus: it is my intention in the present, to shew the applicability of all we know of those rites to this sculptured cavern, by a detailed examination of its symbolical decorations. The consideration of Belzoni's exhibition being now closed, will be found to be of small moment, inasmuch as I merely employ it as the best model extant among many others, by way of illustration; and farther, inasmuch as a digested description of the shape, size, succession, and decorations of the various apartments will be more effective for the purpose of illustration, than a confused ocular survey (if such were possible,) of the tomb itself. If the reader, therefore, will permit me to act towards him the same part as the Hierophant did to the ancient Mysta, I will proceed with him, in the same manner, illustrating, as the Hierophant doubtless did, all the symbols worthy of notice in our passage; but describing rather than witnessing the endurance of those trials which awaited the aspirant in the successive corridors and chambers, till the consummated rite crowned his labours, by admitting him, at the alabaster shrine of the funereal deity, into the number of the chosen and the free.

In the first corridor, the royal initiate is received on entering by the Demiurgic or Creative Osiris, indicated by a hawk's head, surmounted by a globe, from whence a serpent is issuing. Behind this personage is a crocodile, to