[F.: see prec.]
1. = SPECTACLE sb.1 1.
1749. Chesterf., Lett., ccviii. (1792), 294. Go to whatever assemblies or spectacles people of fashion go to.
1768. Earl Carlisle, in Jesse, Selwyn & Contemp. (1843), II. 336. I shall go to Fontainbleau on Saturday next. It is to be extremely dull; no spectacle at court.
1792. A. Young, Trav. France, 217. If cheapness of living, spectacles, and pretty women, are a man’s objects in fixing his residence, let him live at Venice.
1801. Helen M. Williams, Sk. Fr. Rep., I. xi. 110. The love of a spectacle is, you know, the ruling passion of the Parisians.
1837. Lockhart, Scott, III. xi. 370. So mounted,… he witnessed the great closing spectacle on the Champ de Mars.
2. spec. A piece of stage-display or pageantry, as contrasted with real drama.
1752. T. Scrope, in Jesse, Selwyn & Contemp. (1843), I. 149. Their spectacles were very grand, and their stage far surpasses ours; but their plays, in my opinion, fall as far short.
1835. T. Mitchell, Acharn. of Aristoph., 1059, note. The progress of the piece evidently requires here some little pageant or spectacle.
1860. Once a Week, 14 July, 70/1. The young Thespians … had to appear as Peace and Plenty, amidst a great display of red-light, at the end of a grand spectacle, which was drawing uncommonly well.
