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 in it. Here it was that their repetitions were made, and proposed for the theatre, as other music and symphony was in the odeon.

If ever 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 Æneas, in the Æneid. A true dramatic genius can invent other fables on that and models of the like kind.

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 him-self into the Thames, to do, what Cato had done, and Addison 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 may 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; the Cynosarges, a suburb of Athens, was behind it; the Museon, a hill so called from the poet Musæus, was on the right-hand; and the caussey leading to Pyræum, the neighbouring seaport, was on the other side.

1760, April.

Addison's representation of Cato's suicide does not amount to a full approbation of the practice, even upon Cato's principles; but if it had, it could not encourage the same practice in a Christian; this stricture, therefore, of our ingenious correspondent, does not seem to be quite just. E.

XLVI. Description of the Amphitheatre at Nismes.

MR. URBAN,

I SEND you a genuine extract of a letter, containing a description of the Amphitheatre at Nismes: if you think it can be acceptable to your readers, it is at your service; from,

"We had determined to make Nismes our winter-quarters, where, safe from the storms and tempests of the north, and under the influence of a mild and genial day, we might have sufficient leisure to examine those noble remains of Roman magnificence by which this city is distinguished from all others in France. Animated with this idea, and enamoured of the simple grandeur that distinguishes ancient from modern buildings, we left Paris in the dead of winter, and turned our backs on all the splendid exhibitions with which that fascinating city abounds. Here, while our friends in the north are freezing by the fire, we either sit with the windows open to catch the influence of the enlivening sun, or sally out to visit the Amphitheatre, the temple of Diana, or some other curiosity with which our Roman residence abounds.

The city of Nismes was chosen by the Romans in preference to every other city of Transalpine Gaul. Having had the whole world as the objects of their choice, they shewed in their preference of Nismes, that they well knew how to chuse a situation. This city stands on a gradual descent; below, a rich valley, covered with corn in its due season, extends till it is lost to the sight; behind, the hill ascends like a theatre, covered with vines, and olive-trees, almost to the summit, which is crowned with wood. Corn, wine, and oil, are decisive marks of a fertile country. If any thing is wanting to complete the idea, silk might be added; abundance of mulberry-trees are cultivated in the plains, to furnish the large manufactories of silk stockings, for which Nismes, has been long famous. But these, it may be said, are present appearances and modern improvements. It is confessed. The state of agriculture and the arts, at the time when this city was cherished and favoured by the Romans, has not been handed down to us with sufficient accuracy. But, a monument of their skill in architecture, one of the noblest and most useful of the arts, has subsisted upwards of 1600 years, and still bids fair to survive modern

buildings. Imagine me, my dear friend, as writing this upon one of the seats of the glorious Amphitheatre where the once masters of the world were seated. Form to yourself the idea of a perfect ellipse, whose longest axis from east to west is upwards of 400 feet; its shortest more than 300. To an eye placed in the arena, and looking up around the 32 rows of seats rising over each other, which held the spectators, computed at about 20,000, the various party-coloured dresses, different attitudes, &c. which such a numerous and mixed assembly must have produced, create a tout-ensemble that beggars all description, and exceeds all the idea that the imagination of a modern can conceive; as no spectacle from which to form an analogy now exists on the face of the globe. One of the largest, if not the largest, theatres in Europe, is the opera-house at Paris, which yet does not contain 3000 persons. This Amphitheatre was built by the Romans, in the time of Antoninus Pius, to decorate a provincial city, far from their capital, and at an expence which a nation now could scarcely bear. The external is formed in two rows of columns, of the Tuscan order, opened with two rows of arcades, sixty in a row, which gives such an air of lightness to a building of such amazing extent as is almost inconceivable. Four great arcades give access to the arena and internal part of the building: these arcades are exactly opposed to the four cardinal points, of which the north appears to have been the principal, having a grand pediment over it. These lead to the stair-cases, which end in three ranges of vomitoria, that conducted the spectators to their seats: the lower range is totally destroyed; of the second, little remains; but of the third, almost the whole. On entering the theatre from the upper range of vomitories, the coup d'oeil is most astonishing. The entire wall of more than three fourths of the building is complete: the rows of seats are differently broken in different places; in one they are complete, as far as to 17: there were originally 32. An author of character, who has written a book purposely on the curiosities of Nismes, has calculated the number of possible spectators at something more than 17,000; by allowing 20 inches of seat to each person, he seats that number very commodiously. I measured out 20 inches upon one of the seats, and found I did not nearly occupy it; seventeen were sufficient for me, sitting at my ease: and I incline to believe, that in crowded assemblies fourteen inches are as much space as each person, on an average, can separately occupy. have therefore little difficulty in supposing that 20,000,

which is generally given as the round number, might be very commodiously seated within this Amphitheatre. The seats are of a very convenient height, from 18 to 23 inches: they are solid, square, or rather parallelogramic blocks of stone of immense size, and were probably covered for the accommodation of the higher ranks of people. I measured four of the stones in the second row of arcades, and found several upwards of 17 feet in length; breadth and thickness proportional. They are laid without the smallest quantity of cement, and the whole construction is simple to a degree that is almost inconceivable; yet in some places the junction is scarcely perceptible, but the whole wall appears, as it were, one solid block, with the fissures almost obliterated. The arches are turned of solid wedge-shaped blocks, placed side by side, and thus the incumbent weight enormous as it was, only pressed the wedges closer together. Instead of cement, they fastened the stones with large cramps of iron, four or five inches broad, and two inches deep; but though they rejected the use of mortar from those parts of the building which were exposed to the open air, yet in the internal parts a great quantity is found, but not of that friable kind in use at this day, and which crumbles to dust between the fingers. The Roman mortar of this building is as hard as the stone itself, and seems to be composed of pieces of marble, pulverised stones, all connected by a gluten, and now scarcely to be broken with a hammer. Large broad, flat surfaces, accurately fitted to each other, and touching exactly in all points, supported enormous weights in ancient building; and in a late addition to an ancient work at the Pont du Garde, (another glorious remain of ancient grandeur) I remarked, that, to occupy the same surface in similar buildings, where the ancients made use of two stones, the moderns employ nine, and sometimes twelve. Nothing but the extreme difficulty, perhaps, of taking such a pile to pieces, has preserved it to the present time, considering the number of rude shocks it has undergone from savage hands. Marks of fire appear in several parts of the building. The ornaments of this building are various; among these one of the most conspicuous is the Roman eagle; and on several of the pillars of the Amphitheatre are sculptured those species, which howsoever indelicate in modern times, one would almost be led to conjecture, were intended, at least in many instances, rather as symbols of population and the strength of a state. All the ornaments are greatly mutilated, and the Roman eagles are all decapitated. The savage conquerors that

triumphed over the Roman power, insulted the vanquished by disgracing and destroying their arms.-I now take my leave, shortly to quit the shores of the Mediterranean, and depart for Italy.

Mar. 22, 1778. 1778, May.

Yours, &c.

XLVII. On the date of a book said to have been printed in 1454. IT has been affirmed by contemporary writers, and is now generally agreed to (except by some Dutchmen too much prejudiced in favour of their country) that the art of printing in Europe was first attempted by certain persons at Mentz, between the years 1440 and 1450, and some few years after, during which time many fruitless trials were made, and perfected in that city, by John Fust and Peter Schoeffer de Gernsheim. The first book we meet with printed by them, with separate metal types, that has a date to it, is the Psalmorum Codex, which came from their press in 1457: but one, with a supposed earlier date, having lately been taken notice of by the learned, I beg leave on that account to make a few remarks on it.

This book, which was in the possession of the late Rev.

* John Gensfleisch, surnamed Guttemberg, John Fust, and John Meydenbach. It was long a controverted question, whether Guttemberg or Fust was the inventor of that art, the first ideas of which, it is supposed, were conceived about the year 1440, till happily the original instrument was found, whereby it appears, that the former only associated the others with him for the sake of their purses, he not being able to succeed without, on account of the great expences attending the cutting of the blocks of wood, which, after they were once printed from, became entirely useless for any other work. This instrument, which is dated Nov. 6, 1455, is decisive in favour of Guttemberg. But the honour of the discovery of single types, made of metal, is ascribed to Fust, wherein he received great assistance from his servant Peter Schoeffer, who devised the puncheons, matrices, and moulds, for casting them, on which account he was taken into partnership by his master, after his (Fust's) quarrel with Guttemberg, and their separation in 1455. Those who have asserted that Fust was the first inventor of printing, have given for a reason, that they have never seen any book with Guttemberg's name to it; without considering, that their first essays in printing both by blocks and moveable types, being sold for manuscripts, were anonymous, the invention being by them intended to be kept secret, nor was it divulged till their disagreement, by which time Fust had made himself master of that art, and Guttemberg was not able to proceed.in it alone, for the reason abovementioned.