The moon was formed by a circular aperture cut in a tin box containing
a powerful argand lamp, which was placed at the back of the scene, and
brought near or removed from the canvas as the luminary was supposed
to be shining brightly or to be obscured by clouds. These contrivances
of Mr. de Loutherbourg may now, perhaps, be deemed to be of rather a
commonplace description--they have figured so frequently, and in such
amplified and amended forms, upon the modern stage; but they were
calculated to impress the painter's patrons very considerably; they
were then distinctly innovations due to his curiously inventive
genius, and the result of much labour and heedful ingenuity. If the
theatrical entertainments of the present time manifest little progress
in histrionic art, there has been, at any rate, marked advance in the
matter of scenic illusions and mechanical effects. The thunder of our
modern stage storms may no more proceed from mustard-bowls, or from
"troughs of wood with stops in them," but it is, at any rate,
sufficiently formidable and uproarious, sometimes exciting, indeed,
the anxiety of the audience, lest it should crash through the roof of
the theatre, and visit them bodily in the pit; while for our magnesium
or lime-light flashes of lightning, they are beyond anything that
"spirit of right Nantz brandy" could effect in the way of lambent
flames, have a vividness that equals reality, and, moreover, leave
behind them a pungent and sulphurous odour that may be described as
even supernaturally noxious.
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