FORTIa's TRAVELS IN SWEDEN.

401

whence you enjoy every thing, that is to fay, plenty of duft, and fcents ; thefe are notreforted to by good company. The King never miffed a mafked ball: although foondiftinguilhed, he was friendly to the licence afforded under a mafic, and was not difpleaf-ed when directed on himfelf.

The wardrobe of the opera is immenfe. In no theatre are the a&ors, dancers, See.better dreffed; nay many of the characters, habited in ferge at Paris, are dreffed infilk here. The orcheftra is compofed of more than forty muficians, who play tolerably'veil; without including thefe, there are nearly two hundred perfons attached to thetheatre as aCtors , chorus-fingers, dancers, &c. The corps de ballet alone, is compofedof ninety performers, who ail appear when neceffary. This play-houfe occupies, almolLcontinually, ninety tailors.

This was the ftate of the theatres in 1791. We cannot anfwer for changes whichmay fince then have happened, and have no doubt that many will have taken place fincethe death of Guftavus III. ; views of ceconomy (certainly very wifely conceived) will haveinduced the Regent to diminilh expences, regarded as futile and ill-placed by the parti-zans of the prefent government, willing, upon all occafions, to condemn what was in-stituted by the laft. They cannot imagine that the fums of money, employed in fup-porting feveral theatres, are as wifely expended as upon miftreffes ; yet muff it be al-lowed, that by the firft method of fquandering more people receive advantage than bythe latter.

The Abbe Vogler , m general, leads the band at the opera ; he poffeffes a great por-tion of talent; is an excellent mufician, but excentrically original, nay even to charla-tanifm. To give an idea: We were prefent at a concert, (abfolutely given by himfelf,)on the organ of the German chapel; among other things announced was, The people'shvefor a patriot King , which he pretended to exprefs on the organ.

The following are the exa£t dimenfions of the opera :

It was erected between 1776 and 1782. It is a fquare building, two hundred andten Swedifh feet in length, by one hundred and fifty in width, and fifty-feven high. Itsfront is with columns and pilaftres of the Corinthian order. The theatre is in the mid-dle of the building, and on each fide are apartments. It is in the fhape of a truncateddlipfis, the greateft diameter or length of which is fifty-fix feet, the fmaller diameter,"which makes the breadth, bang forty-eight; there are four rows of boxes, each rowconfifting of twenty-one; the ftage is eighty-two feet deep, and as many broad.

On each fide of the theatre is an apartment for the King, one for the director, onef°r the manager, two tiring rooms, and twenty-four clofets for the aftors ; a painter’sr °om, a carpenter’s, two coffee-rooms, and a tavern.

This theatre, with all its appendages, coft building 180,000 crowns banco *, (nearlya million French, ) the machinery, the furniture of the King’s apartments, and the fee-nery of the firft opera, included.

In 1792 the building of a new play-houfe was begun, to replace the French opera,l he deftruction of which has had a good effect for the profpeCt of the fquare before thecaftle. The new theatre is to be in the ancient arfenal, near St. James’s.

* 40j00ol. fterling.

VOL. VI.

3 ?

Chap.