This Will Give
Idea Enough Of The Fog; The Difficulty Is To Describe The Scene
Afterwards, Which Was In Truth
The great fairy scene, than which it
is impossible to conceive anything more brilliant and magnificent.
I can't go to
Any more romantic place than Drury Lane to draw my
similes from - Drury Lane, such as we used to see it in our youth,
when to our sight the grand last pictures of the melodrama or
pantomime were as magnificent as any objects of nature we have seen
with maturer eyes. Well, the view of Constantinople is as fine as
any of Stanfield's best theatrical pictures, seen at the best
period of youth, when fancy had all the bloom on her - when all the
heroines who danced before the scene appeared as ravishing
beauties, when there shone an unearthly splendour about Baker and
Diddear - and the sound of the bugles and fiddles, and the cheerful
clang of the cymbals, as the scene unrolled, and the gorgeous
procession meandered triumphantly through it - caused a thrill of
pleasure, and awakened an innocent fulness of sensual enjoyment
that is only given to boys.
The above sentence contains the following propositions:- The
enjoyments of boyish fancy are the most intense and delicious in
the world. Stanfield's panorama used to be the realisation of the
most intense youthful fancy. I puzzle my brains and find no better
likeness for the place. The view of Constantinople resembles the
ne plus ultra of a Stanfield diorama, with a glorious accompaniment
of music, spangled houris, warriors, and winding processions,
feasting the eyes and the soul with light, splendour, and harmony.
If you were never in this way during your youth ravished at the
play-house, of course the whole comparison is useless:
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 81 of 240
Words from 22038 to 22331
of 65663
