“When they come to the place of exhibition, the ecclesiastics seat themselves, according to their quality, which appears in good measure by their dress, upon three benches, built for them before the front of the temple. The two superiors take the uppermost bench, clad in black, with a particular head ornament, and a short staff, as a badge of their authority. Four others, next in rank, sit upon the second bench, dressed in white ecclesiastical gowns, with a black lackered cap, something different from that worn by their superiors. The main body takes possession of the third and lowermost bench, sitting promiscuously, and all clad in white gowns, with a black lackered cap, somewhat like those of the Jesuits. The servants and porters appointed to carry the holy utensils of the temple, and other people who have anything to do at this solemnity, stand next to the ecclesiastics, bareheaded.
“On the other side of the square, opposite to the ecclesiastics, sit the deputies of the governors, under a tent, upon a fine mat, somewhat raised from the ground. For magnificence’ sake, and out of respect for this holy act, they have twenty pikes of state planted before them in the ground.
“The public spectacles on these occasions are a sort of plays, acted by eight, twelve, or more persons. The subject is taken out of the history of their gods and heroes. Their remarkable adventures, heroic actions, and sometimes their love intrigues, put in verse, are sung by dancing actors, whilst others play upon musical instruments. If the subject be thought too grave and moving, there is now and then a comic actor jumps out unawares upon the stage, to divert the audience with his gestures and merry discourse in prose. Some of their other plays are composed only of ballets, or dances, like the performance of the mimic actors on the Roman stage. For the dancers do not speak, but endeavor to express the contents of the story they are about to represent, as naturally as possible, both by their dress and by their gestures and actions, regulated according to the sound of musical instruments. The chief subjects of the play, such as fountains, bridges, gates, houses, gardens, trees, mountains, animals, and the like, are also represented, some as big as the life, and all in general contrived so as to be removed at pleasure, like the scenes of our European plays[159].
“The actors are commonly girls, taken out of the courtesans’ houses, and boys from those streets at whose expense the solemnity is performed. They are all magnificently clad, in variously colored silken gowns, suitable to the characters they are to present; and it must be owned that, generally speaking, they act their part with an assurance and becoming dexterity, not to be exceeded, nay, scarce to be paralleled, by the best European actors.
“The streets which bear the expense make their appearance in the following order: First of all is carried a rich canopy, or else an umbrella, made of silk, being the palladium of the street. Over it, in the middle, is placed a shield, whereupon is writ, in large characters, the name of the street. Next to the canopy follow the musicians, masked, and in proper liveries. The music is both vocal and instrumental. The instruments are chiefly flutes of different sorts, and small drums; now and then a large drum, cymbals and bells, are brought in among the rest. The instrumental music is so poor and lamentable that it seems much easier to satisfy their gods than to please a musical ear. Nor is the vocal part much preferable to the instrumental, for although they keep time tolerably, and sing according to some notes, yet they do it in so very slow a manner that the music seems to be rather calculated to regulate their action, and the motions of their body in their ballets and dances, wherein they are very ingenious and dexterous, and little inferior to our European dancers, excepting only that they seem to want a little more action and swiftness in their feet.
“The musicians are followed by the necessary machines and the whole apparatus for the ensuing representations, the largest being carried by laboring people, the lesser—as benches, staffs, flowers, and the like—by the children of the inhabitants, neatly clad. Next follow the actors themselves, and after them all the inhabitants of the street in a body in their holiday clothes and garments of ceremony. To make the appearance so much the greater the procession is closed by a considerable number of people who carry stools and other things, walking two and two.
Two Styles of Drums
A Flute-player
Musical Instruments