cribe the actions and emotions of the puppets than to give their speech, the singing during their movements is far in excess of the dialogue. These traditions of the puppet shows have been transferred to the stage; and as the gidayu-singer explains the actions and inmost thoughts of the characters, there is no need on the Japanese stage for “asides.” The great fault of the gidayu-singer at the theatre is, however, that his excessive explicitness in describing the least emotion deprives the actor of the means of directly communicating his feeling to the audience, and that explanation which was necessary to arouse their sympathy in the case of puppets becomes
THE “BLACKAMOORS” ON THE STAGE.
tedious when the actor on the stage has to exaggerate and prolong his emotions to fit in with the music and song of the gidayu-singer. His originality is smothered by time-honoured conventionalities.
The prompter appears in a strange form in the Japanese theatre. There are to be seen flitting about on the stage men clothed in black and with black veils over their faces. These “blackamoors,” as they are called, are supposed by
