P. 264

All those entertainments were exhibited to advantage on the lawn before
the Emperor’s great tent, and in the open air. They were preferred, on
this occasion, to the more refined pleasures of dramatic performances,
however relished by the Chinese; buy which many of the Tartars, and
other foreigners as well as the English, among the audience, could not
understand. A select party, including the Embassador and principal
gentlemen of his suite, was invited to the exhibition of a pantomime, in
the playhouse belonging to the ladies of the palace, which was situated
in the boundary between their private pleasure grounds, and the
Emperor’s great garden. It was a small but handsome building, several
stories high. There were three open theatres, or stages, one above
another. Opposite the lowest stage were deep boxes for the guests, and
over them were retired and latticed galleries for the ladies, who,
without

p. 265

being seen, could discern what was passing upon either stage. They had
not probably any view into the boxes; for the Emperor, being disposed to
indulge their desire of seeing some person of the Embassy, one of the
eunuchs conducted the youth already mentioned, out of the Embassador’s
box, upon a platform within the ladies’ view.

Instead of human figures upon the stage, the actors assumed the forms of
other animated beings, as well as of inanimated productions, of the land
and sea. They filled the three several stages, forming a kind of epitome
of the world, and performing parts, which, by some, were conjectured to
represent the marriage of ocean and the earth. This pantomime consisted
of several acts: and the motions and evolutions of the actors lasted a
great part of the afternoon.