Our first Greek play had been costumed by the professional
costumer, with unforgetable results of comicality and indecorum:
the second, the TRACHINIAE, of Sophocles, he took in hand himself,
and a delightful task he made of it. His study was then in
antiquarian books, where he found confusion, and on statues and
bas-reliefs, where he at last found clearness; after an hour or so
at the British Museum, he was able to master 'the chiton, sleeves
and all'; and before the time was ripe, he had a theory of Greek
tailoring at his fingers' ends, and had all the costumes made under
his eye as a Greek tailor would have made them. 'The Greeks made
the best plays and the best statues, and were the best architects:
of course, they were the best tailors, too,' said he; and was never
weary, when he could find a tolerant listener, of dwelling on the
simplicity, the economy, the elegance both of means and effect,
which made their system so delightful.
But there is another side to the stage-manager's employment. The
discipline of acting is detestable; the failures and triumphs of
that business appeal too directly to the vanity; and even in the
course of a careful amateur performance such as ours, much of the
smaller side of man will be displayed.
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