Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 19.djvu/232

* THEATRE. 188 THEBAIS. and 'comic operas" liave been held to be theatrical performances within a law governing theatres. Laws regulating theatres are a constitutional exercise of the police power. Because of the necessity for such regulation, in some States theatres are considered as enterprises of such a public character that they come within the State laws prohibiting the discrimination against per- sons because of race or color, tlius making their obligations in this particular similar to that of hotels and common carriers. However, by the weight of autliority a theatre ticket is always a revocable license as to any person, and prob- ably even in the States prohibiting such dis- crimination, theatrical managers could refuse to sell a ticket, or refuse to admit a person with a ticket without assigning any reason, and thus evade the statutes. Where proper notice is given to purchasers of tickets, the management may make it a condition that tickets shall not be transferable. This may be done by printing such conditions on the back of the tickets them- selves and by notices posted at the theatre, or by giving actual notice to purhasers. Under such circumstances theatrical managers may refuse to honor tickets bought from speculators. The spectators may applaud or hiss the players in moderation, but must do so to express their spon- taneous emotions, and not come with the inten- tion of stopping or interfering with the per- formance, as in the latter case they may be ordered to leave the theatre and be forcibly re- moved if they refuse. BiBLiOGSAPHT. Anciest Theatke. The best general account in English, except on the stage question, is Haigh, The Attic Theatre (2d ed., Oxford, 1898) ; a good brief statement is Bar- nett, The Greek Drama (London, 1900). The standard work on the construction of the theatre is Dorpfeld and Reisch, Das griechische Theater (Athens, 1896). Otlier good works are: A. Miiller, "Die griechischen Buhnenaltertiimer," in Hermann's Bandhuch der griechischen AntiqiH- tdten (Freiburg, 1886) ; Bethe, Prolegomena zur Geschichte der Theaters im Altertum (Leipzig, 1896) ; Puchstein, Die griechische Biihne (Ber- lin, 1901). See also Frazer's Pausanias, vols, ii. and v. (London, 1898), against Dorpfeld; and in the voluminous periodical literature, Capps, The Greek Stage According to the Extant Dramas, Transactions of American Philological Association, vol. xxii. (Boston, 1891); Pickard, The Relative Position of the Actors and Chorus in the Greek Theatre of the Fifth Century B.C., in American. Journal of Philology, xiv. (Balti- more, 1893). Medi.evai, and JIodern. Dunlap, History of the American Theatre and Anecdotes of the Prin- cipal Actors (New York, 1832). the best account of the early American theatres ; Malone, History of the Stage (London. 1821). an exhaustive ac- count of the English stage to the beginning of the nineteenth century; Pougin, Dictionnaire historifjue et pittorcsque du theatre (Paris, 188.5), a full history of French theatres; Gamier, he nouvel opera de Paris (ib., 1876), an elabo- rate treatise on opera linuses. by the architect of the Paris Opera: and Ordish, a series of excel- lent articles on early London theatres published in The Antiquary (1885-86). For the theatre in its legal aspects, consult: Wandell, Law of the TAeafr*;" (Rochester, 1892). THEATRE DES ITALIENS, tSa'tr' da ze'ta'lyii.N' (Fr., tlicalrc ut' the Italians). A for- mer theatre of Paris from which the Boulevard des Italions derives its name. THEATRE FRANQAIS, friiN'sa'. The FrcMcli national tlicatrc. See ComISdie Fran- CAISE. THEATRE LIBRE, le'br' (Fr., free theatre). Tlie name of a ilramatic enterprise founded in 1887 by Andre Antoiue, then a young Parisian clerk. With some fellow amateurs of the Gaulois Club he arranged the production (March 30, 1887) of four new one-act plays at the Elysee des Beaux-Arts at Montmartre, and in the course of the year formed the association of the Theatre Libre, to be conducted upon the following prin- ciples: the season to consist of eight different representations, one each month from October to June; no tickets to be sold to the public; the enterprise to be supported 1)V subscribers who with invited guests should form the only audi- ence. The design was to give young authors a chance to try tlieir strength ; and also, for art's sake, to produce plays which for any reason, po- litical or moral, might be forbidden by the cen- sorship if undertaken at a public theatre. In an jrtistic way the The;"itre Libre won success, though it excited much debate from the first. Its founder aimed to do away with all conventional- ity and to attain a degree of realism often thought out of the question upon the stage. In its first eight years, about 150 writers contributed works for its performances, and a considerable proportion of these previously unknown pieces were afterwards accepted and brought out by other theatres. At the same time such famous writers as Zola, the Goncourts, MendSs, Bergerat, llisen, and Tolstoy also found presentation here. Financially, however, JI. Antoine found his dif- liculties accumulating, and in 1894 he accepted a (Kisition as an actor at the Gymnase Theatre. For a short time he was a director of the Odfion (1896); then he resumed the direction of the Theatre Libre, for several years located in the Salle des Menus-Plaisirs and known since 1897 as the Theatre Antoine. To this the general pub- Jie is admitted in the usual way. though suli- scribers still retain their special privilege at eight representations a year. The idea of the Theatre Libre has been copied in the Freie Biihne of Berlin, and in similar more or less ephemeral in.stitutions in London and other cities. THEATRXJM EUROP-ffiTTM (Lat., survey of Europe). A clironiclc of events which appeared in volumes at Frankfort-onthe-lMain between 1616 and 1718. During one portion of its ex- istence it was illustrated with copper-plate en- gravings. In all 21 volumes were issued. The work was in part the forerunner of political jour- nals. THEBAIS, the'ba-Is or the-ba'is (Lat., from Gk. ev/Sais). (1) The territory of Thebes, in Eg.vpt. In later times the name was applied by the ancients to Upper Egypt. (2) An ancient Greek epic giving in 7000 verses the story of the house of Labdacus, and the attack of the seven chieftains on Thebes. (3) A dull and long- ilrawn work by P. Papinius Statins, dedicated to Domitian. It contains in 12 books the story of the contests of Eteocles and Polynices.