The evening amusements in Germany are very various, and sometimes almost fall under the denomination of puerile. Not content with requesting young ladies to recite verses, they will sometimes invert the natural order of things and compel children to act plays, while grown people will play cross-questions and crooked answers; or standing in a circle, and holding a cord in their hands, pass a ring from one to the other, while some one of the party is required to discover in whose possession it is to be found.
Acting riddles is a favourite game, and one which is well calculated to amuse those who are wisely resolved to be amused when they can. A certain portion of the company retire into an adjoining room, where they concert together how best to represent by action the different syllables which compose a word, and the meaning of the whole word. They presently return, and carrying on their preconcerted action, require the company to resolve the riddle. Thus, for instance, on one occasion the word determined upon was Jumeaux. Some of the actors, coming from their retirement, began to squeeze a lemon into a glass, calling the attention of the company very particularly to it by their action, thus representing Ju. Others came forward imitating the various maladies and misfortunes of life, thus acting the syllable of meaux. Then finally tottered into the circle an Italian duke and a Prussian general, neither less than six feet in height, dressed in sheets and leading-strings, a fine bouncing emblem of Jumeaux.
Dinner-parties, though not the regular every day amusements of life in Vienna, are not uncommon. There is much similarity in the style of dinners throughout Germany, and it has some points of peculiar excellence. The table is generally round or oval; so that each guest has means of intercourse with the whole party, even when it is large. It is covered for the greater part with a tasteful display of sweets or fruits; two places only being left near the middle for the substantial dishes. Each person is provided with a black bottle of light wine, and every cover, even at a table d’hote, is furnished with a napkin and silver forks. The first dishes which occupy the vacant spaces are always soups; they are quickly removed to the side-tables and distributed by the servants. In the mean time, the next dish is placed upon the table, taken off, carved, and carried round to the guests in precisely the same manner; and so on till every thing has been served. The plates are carefully changed, but the knives and forks very generally remain throughout the greater part of the dinner, or, at best, are only wiped and returned. The dishes are so numerous and the variety so great, that, as every body eats a little of every thing, they seldom take twice of the same.
The succession of luxuries is not exactly as with us. An Englishman is somewhat surprised to see a joint of meat followed by a fish, or a savoury dish usurp the place of one that was sweet. To conclude the ceremony, each servant takes one of the sweetmeat ornaments off the table, and carries it, as he has done with the other dishes, to all the guests.
During all this time the conversation is general and lively, and beyond a doubt much more interesting than that which is heard on similar occasions and in similar society in England, where its current is perpetually interrupted by the attention which every one is bound to pay to the wants and wishes of persons at the most distant part of the table. While the sweetmeats are served, a few glasses of some superior kinds of wine, which have likewise been distributed at intervals during the dinner, are carried round; and then the company, both ladies and gentlemen, rise at the same time by a kind of mutual consent, which, as the rooms are seldom carpeted, occasions no inconsiderable noise. To this succeeds a general bowing and compliment from every one to each of the company individually, each hoping that the other has eaten a good dinner. This peculiar phrase is precisely the counterpart of another always employed on the parting of friends about mid-day, each expressing a sincere hope that the other will eat a hearty dinner. This is the most usual form of civility in Vienna.
The party then adjourns to another apartment, where coffee is served and where it is frequently joined by other visitors, chiefly men, who come without particular invitation, to pay their respects or to converse on business, in the manner of a morning call, and who prolong their stay as the movements of the first party indicate: for an invitation to dinner by no means necessarily implies that you are to spend the evening or any part of it at the house or that the family has no other engagement as soon as dinner is concluded and the guests have taken their coffee and liquors.
As the dinner is early, being always between twelve and five, the remainder of the evening is employed in various pursuits. A drive in the Prater or to some place of public resort, a visit to the theatre, or a succession of the calls just described, employ the evening; or, if the dinner has been very early, the party resumes the occupations and business of the day.
The time and duration of the performances at the theatres are very convenient. They begin about six and conclude a little after nine. The greatest decorum prevails during the representation, the police-military, that is police-officers, in a particular kind of livery and wearing swords, being stationed in all the avenues. Thus a person going with a wish to hear the play is not disappointed by those brawls which scarcely ever fail to interrupt the performance in our English theatres; nor is there any part of the house to which a party of the most delicate females might not resort with the greatest propriety.
The theatrical performances are continued throughout the whole year, with the exception of the days prohibited by the Catholic calendar, on many of which, however, concerts, public rehearsals, and a species of exhibition called a Tableau are permitted. The latter amusement, being scarcely known in this country, requires some notice.
The object of these exhibitions is, to represent by groups of living figures the compositions of celebrated sculptors or painters. With this view that part of the apartment or theatre, beyond which the Tableau is to be placed, is darkened, and on raising a curtain, the figures are discovered dressed in the costume which the painter has given them, and firmly fixed in the attitude prescribed by his pencil. The light is skilfully introduced and other objects arranged so as to give as nearly as possible the effect of the original painting. After some time the curtain drops to give the performers time to rest, and to relieve themselves from the painful attitudes which they are frequently obliged to preserve; and the curtain again drawn up discovers them still in their characteristic postures. When the spectators are supposed to be satisfied with one picture another is introduced, and thus several are exhibited in succession. This generally forms only part of the evening’s amusement, and is either accompanied by a theatrical performance, or if in private by dancing or music.