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"
This symphony is Gregorian," he would exclaim. "Citizens and townsmen,
the Gregorian form of worship, this great progress, is opposed in Italy
to the Ambrosial ritual, and in Spain to the Mozarabic ceremonial, and
has achieved its triumph over them with difficulty."
After which the Green Box drew up in some place chosen by Ursus, and
evening having fallen, and the panel stage having been let down, the
theatre opened, and the performance began.
The scene of the Green Box represented a landscape painted by Ursus; and
as he did not know how to paint, it represented a cavern just as well as
a landscape. The curtain, which we call drop nowadays, was a checked
silk, with squares of contrasted colours.
The public stood without, in the street, in the fair, forming a
semicircle round the stage, exposed to the sun and the showers; an
arrangement which made rain less desirable for theatres in those days
than now. When they could, they acted in an inn yard, on which occasions
the windows of the different stories made rows of boxes for the
spectators. The theatre was thus more enclosed, and the audience a more
paying one. Ursus was in everything--in the piece, in the company, in
the kitchen, in the orchestra. Vinos beat the drum, and handled the
sticks with great dexterity. Fibi played on the morache, a kind of
guitar. The wolf had been promoted to be a utility gentleman, and
played, as occasion required, his little parts. Often when they appeared
side by side on the stage--Ursus in his tightly-laced bear's skin, Homo
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