dation of an order of regular clerks at Rome in the year 1524. Pope Clement VII. approved the institution, and permitted the brethren to make three religious vows, to elect a superior every three years, and to draw up statutes for the regulation of the order. They first endeavoured, by their example, to revive among the clergy the poverty of the apostles and first disciples of our Saviour, and were the first who as sumed the title of regular clerks. THEATRE, n. s. Fr. theatre; Latin THEATRICAL, adj. theatrum. A place in THEATRICALLY, adv. which shows are exhibited; a playhouse; a place built like a theatre with rising seats or steps: the adjective and adverb corresponding. This wise and universal theatre Presents more woful pageants than the scene Wherein we play. Shakspeare. As You Like It. When the boats came within sixty yards of the pillar, they found themselves all bound, yet so as they might go about, so as they all stood as in a theatre beholding this light. Bacon. Theatrical forms stickle hard for the prize of religion: a distorted countenance is made the mark of an upright heart. Decay of Piety. Shade above shade, a woody theatre In the midst of this fair valley stood Milton. Dryden Load some vain church with old theatrick state, Turn arcs of triumph to a garden gate. Pope. Dauntless her look, her gesture proud, Her voice theatrically loud. Id. No theatres of oaks around him rise, Whose roots earth's centre touch, whose heads the skies. Harte. This is sufficiently peevish in a man, who, when he mentions his exile from the college, relates, with great luxuriance, the compensation which the plea sures of the theatre afford him. Johnson. So if characters were brought upon the stage with their limbs disjointed by torturing instruments, and the floor covered with clotted blood and scattered brains, our theatric reverie would be destroyed by disgust, and we should leave the playhouse with deDarwin. testation. THEATRE. See DRAMA. THEATRE, in architecture, a building set apart for the purposes of dramatic representation. After their temples, the theatres were, by the Greeks and Romans, considered as the most considerable of their public edifices; and, in order to account for this, it must be borne in mind that their uses were not restricted to the mere exhibition of shows, but that they were applied to other and more important purposes; they served as places of assembly when the people gathered together on any interesting political occasion, and hence the walls of the theatre almost as frequently re-echoed with the deliberations of the citizens in matters of great public interest, as with the merriment of the masked comedian or the lamentations of his tragic coadjutor. The Greeks were in the habit of giving Bacchus the credit of having invented this species of edifice, and the theatres were accordingly very often dedicated to him, as was the case with that most magnificent one at Athens, of which the reader will find, as he proceeds, a succinct description. In the first instance they constructed, in order to preserve the performers and spectators from the heat of the sun, a sort of huge cabin made of branches of trees; but this was more easily done when the procession or exhibition occurred in the country. In the towns they erected a scaffold of wood, and Thespis is said to have given his recitations in chariot or cart. But in process of time, and according to the progression which we may observe in all the arts, the scaffolding became permanent instead of temporary, was surrounded by a wall, and at length shot up into the magnificent theatre, in the construction and decoration of which the extent of Grecian taste and skill was exhausted. In after ages, the Romans followed their example, if not with equal taste, with still greater splendor and luxury. Ancient authors have treated of the construction of theatres but obscurely and imperfectly. Vitruvius has given us no account either of their dimensions, or of the number of their principal and constituent parts; presuming, it may be supposed, that they had been well enough known, or could never have perished; for example, he does not determine the dimensions of the rows of benches. Among the more modern writers the learned Scaliger has omitted the most essential parts, and the citations of Bulingerus from Athenæus, Hesychius, Eustathius, Suidas, and others, throw but a weak and imperfect light on the real construction of ancient theatres. An exact description of the theatre of Bacchus, at Athens, whose circumference is still visible, and whose ruins are a monument of its ancient magnificence, will give us a true idea of these structures. The famous architect Philos built this theatre in the time of Pericles, above 2000 years ago: it consisted without of three rows of porticoes or galleries, one above the other, and was of a circular form. The diameter was 100 Athenian feet, nearly the same in English measure, for which reason it was called by the Athenians Hecatompedon. A part of the area, which comprehended fourteen feet of the diameter, did not belong precisely to the theatre, being behind the scene. The theatre itself was divided into two principal partitions, one for the spectators, the other for the representators. The parts designed for the spectators were the conistra, which the Romans called arena: the rows of benches, the little stairs, and the gallery called circys. The parts appropriated to the actors were the orchestra, the logeon, or thymele, the proscenium, and the scene. In that part of the edifice allotted to the spectators were twenty-four rows of seats or benches ascending gradually one above the other, and proceeding round the conistra or arena, in an arch of a circle, to the stage, which the Greeks called proscenion. These benches were distinguished eight and eight, by three corridors or passages, which were called diagoma. They were of the same figure with the rows of the seats, and were contrived for the passage of the spectators from one story to another, without incommoding those who were already placed. For the same convenience there were stairs that passed from one corridor to another across the several rows, and near those stairs there were doors by which the people entered from the galleries on the outside, and took their places according to their rank and distinction. The best places were in the middle division, containing eight rows of seats between the eighth and seventeenth: this division was called bouleuticon, and designed for the magistrates, the other rows were called ephebicon, and were for the citizens, after they were eighteen years of age. The height of each of these rows of benches was about thirteen inches, their breadth about twenty-two inches; the lowest bench was about four feet high from the level of the floor: the height and breadth of the corridors and passages was double the height and breadth of the benches. The sides of the stairs passing from the body to the edifice towards the stage were not parallel; for the space between them grew sharper as they came near the conistra or arena, and ended in the figure of a wedge (whence the Romans called them cunei), to prevent the falling down of the rain upon those steps that were called pent-houses sent up to carry off the water. Above the upper corridor there was a gallery called circys, for women, where those who were infamous, or irregular in their lives, were not permitted to enter. This theatre was not near so spacious as that built at Rome by Marcus Scaurus the ædile; for in that there was room for 79,000 persons, in this there was room for 6000; it could not contain less, for the suffrages of the people were taken in it, and by the Athenian laws 6000 suffrages were requisite to make a decree of the people authentic. Thus much for the places appointed for the spectators. As to those which were designed for the actors (which comprehended the orchestra, the logeon or thymele, the proscenium, and the scene), the orchestra was about four feet from the ground, its figure was an oblong square, thirty-six feet in length, extending from the stage to the rows of benches; its breadth is not mentioned in the memoirs we have of this theatre, which were taken upon the spot about 100 years since, by Mons. de la Guillatiere, an ingenious traveller. In certain places of it the music, the chorus, and the mimics were disposed. Among the Romans it was put to a more honorable use, for the emperor and senate had places upon it. Upon the flat of the orchestra, towards the place of the actors, was an elevation or platform called logeon or thymele, which among the Romans was called pulpitum; it was higher than the orchestra; its figure was square, being six feet every side, and in this place the principal part of the chorus made their recitations, and in comic interludes the mimics used to perform in it. The proscenion, or stage, was raised above the logeon. That great architect, Philos, contrived the edifice in such a manner as that the representations may be seen, and the voices of the actors may be heard with the greatest advantage. The proscenion was eighteen feet in breadth, and its length extended from one side of the edifice to the opposite side, but not diametrically, being eighteen feet distant from the centre. The scene, properly speaking, was the columns and ornaments of architecture raised from the foundation, and upon the sides of the proscenion, for its beauty and decoration. Agatharcus was the first architect who found out the way to adorn scenes by the rules of perspective, and Eschylus assisted him. Parascenion signified the entire space before and behind the scene, and the same name was given to all the avenues and passages from the music room to the place where the actors performed. The theatre of Regilla, not far from the temple of Theseus in Athens, was covered magnificently, having a fair roof of cedar. The Odeon, or theatre of music, was covered likewise; but no part of the theatre of Bacchus, which we have described, was covered except the proscenion and circys. The Athenians, being exposed to the weather, came usually with great cloaks, to secure them from the rain or cold; and, for defence against the sun, they had the sciadion, a kind of parasol, which the Romans used also in their theatres by the name of umbrella: but, when a sudden storm arose, the play was interrupted, and the spectators dispersed. At Athens their plays were always represented in the day time, which made the unroofed theatre much less inconvenient. In that now described, Philos has preserved a just symmetry of architecture, and showed great judgment in assisting the communication of the sounds; for the voice being extenuated in an open and spacious place, where the distant walls, though of marble, could give little or no repercussion to make it audible; he contrived cells in the thickness of the corridors, in which he placed brass vessels supported by wedges of iron, that they might not touch the wall. The voice proceeding from the stage to the corridors, and striking upon the concavity of these vessels, was reverberated with more clearness and force: their number in all was twenty-eight, and they were called echea, because they gave an augmentation or an echo to the sound. Outwardly there was a portico, consisting of a double gallery divided by rows of pillars, called the portico of Eumenicus. The floor of this portico was raised a good distance from the ground, so that from the street they ascended to it by stairs. It was of an oblong square figure, embellished with green pallisadoes, to please the eyes of those who walked into it. Here it was that their repetitions were made, and proposed for the theatre, while the music and symphony were in the Odeon. 'If ever,' says a sensible writer, the present generation, or posterity, would dignify the drama with such noble edifices as were constructed for it by the ancient Greeks and Romans, they should enter into articles with the dramatic poets and performers, that no immodest witticisms be repeated, and no lascivious passions expressed on the stage. If the passion of love is to be described, let it be described with decency, as that of Dido for Eneas, in the Eneid. Not only the modesty of the spectators is to be scrupulously respected, but likewise every other virtue: when vice is the subject of the drama, it ought to be represented in an odious light; the unfortunate Mr. Budgel threw himself into the Thames, to do what Cato had done, and Addison had approved. See the bad effects of vice represented as a virtue! That the rules of virtue and decorum be regarded in all respects, the theatres should be removed from the neighbourhood of brothels, or the brothels should be compelled to remove out of the neighbourhood of the theatres; then these amusements would become as innocent as they are diverting. In the situation of a theatre, not only the manners of the people are to be considered, but also their health, by having it in a free and open air. In Athens the scene looked upon the castle hill; Cynosarges, a suburb of Athens, was behind it; the Musæus was on the right hand; and the causeway leading to Pyræum, the neighbouring seaport, was on the other side.' The Olympic Theatre of Vicenza was designed and built in 1583 by Palladio, in imitation of the ancient theatres. Its form is semi-elliptical, it not being possible from the narrowness of the situation to use a semicircle. This semiellipsis is encompassed all round with a framework of stairs consisting of fourteen steps of wood for the spectators. Its greater diameter is ninety-seven feet and a half, and its lesser, as far as the stage, is about fifty-seven feet and a half. At the summit of this staircase, or receding galleries of stairs, is a corridor of the Corinthian order, which, from the narrowness of the ground, could not be detached from the outer wall all round. Palladio therefore filled up the nine central and the three external intercolumniations, where the columns touched the external wall, with niches and statues. The stage is constructed with two tiers of columns, both of the Corinthian order, and surmounted with a light and well proportioned attic. On the stylobate of the second story are placed statues, and the intercolumniations are enriched with niches and statues. The panels of the attic are ornamented with bassi and mezzi rilievi of the labors of Hercules, and the centre panel over the largest of three openings in the proscenium, which is arched, with a representation of an ancient hippodrome. Over this arch is the following inscription: VIRTVTI AC GENIO In the front of the stage are three openings, through which are seen three majestic avenues diverging right and left, on each side of which are magnificent palaces and private dwellings, finishing with triumphal arches, all planned and erected in alto rilievo, foreshortening and diminishing perspectively, by Vincenzo Scamozzi. The exterior of this theatre is by no means suitable to its internal beauty, but it was built, not at the expense of the senate or government of Rome, but by some private Vicentine gentlemen of the Olympic Academy.-Vide l'Origine dell' Academia Olympica di Vicenza, con una breve Descrizione del suo Teatro Opera di Ottavio Bertotti Scamozzi, Architetto, published at Vicenza, 1690, by Giovanni Rossi. The theatre of Parma is commonly supposed to have been the work of Palladio, and finished by Bernini; but neither of them had the smallest share in it. Gio. Battista Magnani, an architect and engineer, and Leonello Spada, a painter, were employed by the duke Ranuccio Farnese to construct and embellish that famous theatre. Its form is semicircular, to which are added two straight sides. Its length from the wall to the front of the stage is about 125 feet; and its breadth, reckoning from the wall behind the boxes, about ninety-three feet. Around the pit, which is about forty-eight feet broad, is erected on a basement, with balusters between the piers, a gradation of fourteen rows of seats, with two entrances at the sides, and a large ducal balcony in the middle. Each entrance is furnished with a large winding staircase. Over these gradual seats are raised two stately boxes, one Doric, and the other Ionic; each with a gradation of four rows of seats. The upper decoration of the boxes is sustained by enchased pillars, between which are arches supported by other pillars, smaller and insulated, which causes a confusion of appearance in the architecture, and a great impediment to the view of the spectators who are in the boxes. A worse effect is produced by the two great lateral entrances which are between the seats and the stage, as the two orders with which they are ornamented, instead of uniting in the best manner, divide, and rudely clash both with the theatre and with the stage. In the middle of the upper arch of these entrances, on a very high pedestal, is an equestrian statue, which seems determined to rush headlong, to destroy all rules of propriety. Great projections and unmeaning arches hurt the stage and the orchestra. But the greatest inconvenience is in the front of the stage being excessively narrow, and distant from the seats, whilst with the greatest ease it might have been constructed wider, and much nearer the spectators. From the aforesaid inconvenience, and the above-mentioned medley figure of the theatre, results this very great evil, that the spectators who are at the sides can see but a very small part of the stage; in compensation for which they hear surprisingly well, as the structure, whether by design or accident, is such that, a person whispering in one part, another situated at the opposite side distinctly hears him. This great theatre has no external decoration; and, by being such a length of time out of use, is in such a ruinous state as scarcely to be visited without danger.-Vide Capi d'Opera del Teatro antico moderno Italiano e straniero, &c. Presso Giacomo Curti, 1789, Venezia. The theatre of Milan begins from its foundation with a curve of a diameter of seventy-two feet, which gradually widens into two straight sides; whence in the stage the breadth is seventyseven feet, the front of the stage is sixty-nine feet, and the length of the pit 140 feet which is almost double its breadth. Hence it appears excessively long. The form of this theatre is directly opposite to that of the greatest number of other modern theatres, which all run narrow towards the stage; whilst this is widest at that part. Such a contrivance is very favorable for seeing as much as is possible in so uncouth a form. This theatre is constructed with all common boxes; nor has it any thing remarkable except that each box has opposite to it a small wardrobe, and between the one and the other is a wide corridor. The celebrated theatre of Fane was designed about the year 1670, by James Torelli, and erected at the expense of himself and five other Fanesian gentlemen. Its form is what the French call the toilette form, being in the shape of a dressing-glass, eighty-four feet long, and little more than half broad. It has a convenient double staircase, which leads to the fifth tier of boxes, the last of which forms a lobby with a private gallery at each extremity of the straight sides. There are two columns on each side of the stage, with a niche between each column, where are the statues of Pallas and Minerva, and in the centre is the inscription, THEATRUM FORTUNE.. The theatre at Verona was built by Francesco Galli Bibiena, under the direction of the marquis Maffei, and is situated within the Philharmonic Academy. Its figure is a curve, which gradually enlarges in proportion as it approaches the stage, and the boxes (which are in five tiers) project out more and more as they are distant from the stage; which, although it may have a good effect in looking towards the stage, must have a bad one in viewing the theatre from the stage; the front of which is rather narrow and ill designed. The orchestra is divided from the auditory, that none of the audience may be disturbed with the excessive noise of the instruments: and the stage is reckoned by the Italians to be placed in a just situation, because they think the actors ought never to be seen sideways. Between the auditory and the stage are doors leading to the pit, according to the custom of the ancients, which is an excellent contrivance; for the door ought never to be opposite to the stage, because it not only occupies the best place in the auditory, but weakens the voice of the actor. Besides the exterior roof, this theatre has an internal one of boards, with holes in certain places; which, like the body of a musical instrument, renders the theatre very sonorous. There are commodious staircases at the four angles; the corridors, lobbies, and stairs are convenient, but the principal entrance is on one side. In the Philharmonic Academy they still preserve a model for a theatre in the ancient Greek and Roman manner, which they intended at first to have executed, as it was made expressly for that purpose; but in the act of execution their courage failed them; and, despite the exertions of Maffei, and many other celebrated literary and scientific men, with which Verona abounded, fashion prevailed, and the present theatre was executed by Bibiena. Thus Verona was deprived of an ornament, which would have increased its splendor, and exhibited with advantage those admirable antiquities which it preserved with so much laudable care. Rome has at least a dozen theatres; which one would suppose were excellently designed after so many monuments of the golden age of Augustus, and especially after the theatre of Marcellus. However it ought to have been, the fact is otherwise. The worst theatres in Italy are those of Rome; all irregular, ill shaped, defective in construction, and dirty to excess; yet the modern Romans think they have the most elegant theatres in the world. Its largest theatre is that of the Aliberti, designed and executed by Ferdinand Bibieni, of an irregular and incommodious curve, with six tiers of arched boxes. The length of the pit is about fifty-five feet, and its greatest breadth fifty-one feet and a half. It has miserable entrances, wretched staircases, impassable corridors, and the very worst situation in the city. The theatre of Tordinona was built in the seventeenth century by Carlo Fontana, and rebuilt in the last under Clement XII. It is of a figure more approaching a circle than any other. Its greatest diameter is fifty-two feet, and its smallest forty-eight feet. It has six tiers of boxes, the upper tier of which is compressed in the side. Of the internal accommodations and external ornaments there is no occasion to make the least mention, it so much resembles all the rest. The most modern theatre of Rome is that of Argentina, built by the marquis Girolamo Teodoli. It has six tiers of boxes. Its figure is neither circular nor elliptical, but of that irregular shape called the horse-shoe or lyre. Its greater diameter is fifty-one feet, and its lesser forty-six feet. The situation, stairs, passages, and entrances, are all wretched. Neither of these three large Roman theatres has any theatrical front, and they are all built of wood. The rest are in a similar style of inelegance and incommodiousness, but smaller. The theatre royal of Naples, constructed according to a design of the engineer Brigadier Giorgio Metrano in 1737, is also of the lyre or horse-shoe form, that is, a semicircle, the extremities of which elongate in almost straight lines, but draw nearer to each other in proportion as they advance towards the stage. The greatest diameter of the pit is about seventy-three feet, and the smallest sixty-seven feet. There are six tiers of boxes, with a superb royal box in the middle of the second tier. The building is all of stone; the stairs are magnificent; the avenues, vestibules, corridors, and lobbies, spacious. The entrance, separated into three divisions, has some decorations which are neither sufficiently majestic nor appropriate. The theatre royal of Turin was erected in 1740 by count Benedetto Alfieri, a gentleman of the chamber, and principal architect to the king of Sardinia. It is of an oval figure. The pit as far as the stage is fifty-seven feet in length, and about fifty in breadth. There are six tiers of boxes, divided by partitions, but perhaps too much arched. The royal box in the second tier includes five boxes, ornamented with balustrades, and covered with a superb canopy over the centre, and projects out in a convex form, under which is the principal entrance into the pit. The last tier, or, as they call it, the dovecote (piccionara) has a parapet all balustraded, in the front of which is a circular row of seats for servants out of livery; the left side is for the public; and the right is separated for the servants of the court, and those of the ambassadors. At the two extremities, contiguous to the stage, are two boxes for persons in the service of the the atre, and, excepting these two partitions, the boxes of this last tier are not in the least separated from the grand corridor which winds around. Under the orchestra is a concavity with two tubes at the ends, which extends to the height of the stage, in order to improve the sound. The ceiling is arched, and above, is a room for the scene painters; but the convexity of the ceiling is covered with strong cemented bitumen, to prevent the water from penetrating through, which would damage the paintings underneath. At the extremities are boxes continued round within the cornice, well caulked and covered with bitumen, and filled with the finest sand, in order to absorb any small quantity of water which by accident may fall in, a very necessary precaution to preserve the painting of the ceiling unhurt. In most of the theatres on the continent the lamp or chandelier is usually suspended from the middle of the ceiling over the pit, within a large aperture, to the great injury of the principal paintings, the voice of the actors, the view of the boxes, and, above all, whoever is underneath is thus exposed to the dust, dirt, and even to no small danger. To avoid these inconveniencies, they have contrived what is not much less awkward, the lights to descend from the middle of the ceiling of the proscenium, which is decorated with two Corinthian columns raised on a plain pedestal. Between the columns are two boxes, one above the other, for the actors; over the columns are pediments, and over the stage a larger one, all three inelegant, inappropriate, and ill conceived. The entrances, stairs, apartments of various kinds, galleries, lobbies, and corridors, are of a royal magnificence. There is also sufficient space for the machines of decoration, and every convenience for introducing quadrupeds on the stage, as well as for fire-works. Wells, drains, magazines, and ovens, are not omitted in this well furnished theatre; they have even contrived stoves with tubes communicating to the pit, to warm it when necessary. This considerable theatre has no front belonging to it but what is common with the royal palace to which it is annexed. frontispieces of the lateral entrances terminate in a line with the supporters of the first story, exactly cutting the columns and the parapet. The other frontispiece of the entrance in the middle is fastened under the principal box, and even with the impost, but with an internal decoration, which is an almost unexampled barbarisın in the art. It is pretended by the Bolognese that many disputes, oppositions, and satires, occasioned by the choice of this design of Bibiena, have caused alterations very prejudicial to the theatre. The exterior principal front is ornamented with two orders well divided; the first of Doric columns insulated, over the capitals of which are arches in a barbarous style, perhaps to render the porticoes which are on the same floor lighter. The second order is of a mixed Ionic, with windows between, and with their pediments, which are also in the windows, within' the aforesaid porticoes. Monsieur Soufflot constructed at Lyons, in 1756, a theatre of an oval figure, the pit of which up to the stage is fifty-four feet in length and forty feet broad, with seats in the circumference and front. There are three tiers of boxes, each continued without partitions, and equally furnished with seats. The second tier is more recluse and private than the first, and the third more so than the second. This edifice is well provided with convenient appurtenances, and has a straight front with three tiers of windows, a large balcony in the middle, and a balustrade on the top surmounted with statues. Theatre of Montpelier.-Montpelier has a theatre in the shape of a bell internally, about forty-four feet long, and thirty feet broad. The pit is surrounded with a portico, on the pillars of which are raised several tiers of boxes with spacious corridors round them, and at the bottom furnished with various steps to ascend and enter the apartments, offices, and vestibules; and the various staircases that are around this theatre form a regular edifice of a good appearance on the outside, but nothing to denote its internal use. The theatre of the opera at Paris, built in 1769 from the designs of Moreau, is a long oval, with four tiers of boxes, without partitions, and there are likewise some boxes between the columns of the stage. The pit is about thirtynine feet broad, and thirty-two feet long, and has a range of seats in front. The outside is simply decorated, and has a very convenient portico. Theatre of Versailles.-In the palace of Versailles M. Gabriel the king's architect erected in 1770 a theatre after the ancient manner, that is, of a semicircular figure, with seats all round, encompassed with a gallery. The court occupies the pit, in the middle of which the king sits. The theatre at Bologna, finished in 1763, was designed and built by Antonio Galli Bibiena, the son of Ferdinando. In the inside it has the unhappy shape of the section of a bell cut lengthways. Its length in the pit is sixty-two feet, and its breadth in the stage is about fifty. There are five tiers of boxes, each consisting of twenty-five, besides a circular place round the pit four steps high, fenced with a balustrade. The boxes of the first and second tier are central, the two above are in flat sides, and those of Theatre of Petersburgh.-At Petersburgh, the fifth are drawn into half moons, and are under the empress Elizabeth, was erected within without balusters. Over the door are four tiers, the imperial palace a superb theatre by count but very small. The imposts and pilasters Rastelli, a Venetian. The stage is about seventywhich divide the boxes are overloaded with car- two feet long, and the rest of the theatre, which touches, scrolls, brackets, and other wretched is elliptical, is in length 103 feet. There are bizarreries of the Roman school of architecture. five tiers of boxes, each divided into eighteen. The parapets have wretched il proportioned The first tier has a balustrade; the second boxes balustrades and worse projections. The two have arched fronts; the third, drapery à la toi |