“Cricket is first and foremost a dramatic spectacle. It belongs with theatre, ballet, opera and the dance.”

L'on voit bien que l'Opéra est l'ébauche d'un grand spectacle; il en donne l'idée.
Aphorism 47
Les Caractères (1688), Des Ouvrages de l'Esprit

Was sollen aber die buntschäckigten Balletten in den Opern? Balletten, die auf die Oper nicht die geringste Beziehungen haben. Verderben sie nicht alle mögliche Wirkung, die sie in ihrem Gange gewaltsam unterbrechen?
32
Etwas von und über Musik fürs Jahr 1777

Quoted in Stuart Dodgson Collingwood, The Life and Letters of Lewis Carroll (1898), p. 74

Source: The Faith of Leap (2011), p. 38

(zh-CN) 猴戏不姓章，属于中国，也属于世界。

Source: [六小龄童回故乡讲座 诠释对“章氏猴戏”情感, http://ent.people.com.cn/GB/n1/2018/0928/c81372-30319084.html, People's Daily Online, 11 January 2019, 28 September 2018]

The Mill on the Floss (1860)
Context: It is doubtful whether our soldiers would be maintained if there were not pacific people at home who like to fancy themselves soldiers. War, like other dramatic spectacles, might possibly cease for want of a "public."

Source: Notebook of a Return to the Native Land

Source: Blood Memory

As quoted in the "Translator's Introduction" to The Deer and the Cauldron: A Martial Arts Novel, Book 1, trans. John Minford (Hong Kong: Oxford University Press, 1997), p. xi