ETTER XX.

I have formerly censured the French for their extreme attachment to
theatrical exhibitions, because I thought that they tended to render them
vain and unnatural characters; but I must acknowledge, especially as
women of the town never appear in the Parisian as at our theatres, that
the little saving of the week is more usefully expended there every
Sunday than in porter or brandy, to intoxicate or stupify the mind. The
common people of France have a great superiority over that class in every
other country on this very score. It is merely the sobriety of the
Parisians which renders their fetes more interesting, their gaiety never
becoming disgusting or dangerous, as is always the case when liquor
circulates. Intoxication is the pleasure of savages, and of all those
whose employments rather exhaust their animal spirits than exercise their
faculties. Is not this, in fact, the vice, both in England and the
northern states of Europe, which appears to be the greatest impediment to
general improvement? Drinking is here the principal relaxation of the
men, including smoking, but the women are very abstemious, though they
have no public amusements as a substitute. I ought to except one
theatre, which appears more than is necessary; for when I was there it
was not half full, and neither the ladies nor actresses displayed much
fancy in their dress.

The play was founded on the story of the "Mock Doctor;" and, from the
gestures of the servants, who were the best actors, I should imagine
contained some humour. The farce, termed ballet, was a kind of
pantomime, the childish incidents of which were sufficient to show the
state of the dramatic art in Denmark, and the gross taste of the
audience. A magician, in the disguise of a tinker, enters a cottage
where the women are all busy ironing, and rubs a dirty frying-pan against
the linen. The women raise a hue-and-cry, and dance after him, rousing
their husbands, who join in the dance, but get the start of them in the
pursuit. The tinker, with the frying-pan for a shield, renders them
immovable, and blacks their cheeks. Each laughs at the other,
unconscious of his own appearance; meanwhile the women enter to enjoy the
sport, "the rare fun," with other incidents of the same species.

The singing was much on a par with the dancing, the one as destitute of
grace as the other of expression; but the orchestra was well filled, the
instrumental being far superior to the