berty three legs on hinges, which supported the panel when
let down, and which placed themselves straight on the ground like the
legs of a table, and supported it above the earth like a platform. This
exposed the stage, which was thus enlarged by the platform in front.

This opening looked for all the world like a "mouth of hell," in the
words of the itinerant Puritan preachers, who turned away from it with
horror. It was, perhaps, for some such pious invention that Solon kicked
out Thespis.

For all that Thespis has lasted much longer than is generally believed.
The travelling theatre is still in existence. It was on those stages on
wheels that, in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, they performed
in England the ballets and dances of Amner and Pilkington; in France,
the pastorals of Gilbert Colin; in Flanders, at the annual fairs, the
double choruses of Clement, called Non Papa; in Germany, the "Adam and
Eve" of Theiles; and, in Italy, the Venetian exhibitions of Animuccia
and of Cafossis, the "Silvae" of Gesualdo, the "Prince of Venosa," the
"Satyr" of Laura Guidiccioni, the "Despair of Philene," the "Death of
Ugolina," by Vincent Galileo, father of the astronomer, which Vincent
Galileo sang his own music, and accompanied himself on his _viol de
gamba_; as well as all the first attempts of the Italian opera which,
from 1580, substituted free inspiration for the madrigal style.

The chariot, of the colour of hope, which carried Ursus, Gwynplaine, and
their fortunes, and in front of which Fibi and Vinos trumpeted like
figures of Fame, played its part of this grand Bohemian and literary
brotherhood. Thespis would no more have disowned Ursus than Congrio
would have disowned Gwynplaine.

Arrived at open spaces in towns or villages, Ursus, in the intervals
between the too-tooing of Fibi and Vinos, gave instructive revelations
as to the trumpetings.

"This symphony is Gregorian," he would exclaim. "Citizens and townsmen,
the Gregorian form of worship, this great progress, is opposed in Italy
to the Ambrosial ritual, and in Spain to the Mozarabic ceremonial, and
has achieved its triumph over them with difficulty."

After which the Green Box drew up in some place chosen by Ursus, and
evening having fallen, and the panel stage having been let down, the
theatre opened, and the performance began.

The scene of the Green Box represented a landscape painted by Ursus; and
as he did not know how to paint, it represented