THE THEATRE.
It is far from being my purpose to repeat the information which may be
obtained from a hundred authors on the rise and progress of scenic
representation in Greece. I shall, on the contrary, confine myself
chiefly to those parts of the subject which others have either
altogether neglected, or treated in a concise and unsatisfactory manner.
It would, nevertheless, be beside my purpose to attempt the clearing up
of all such difficulties as occur in the accounts transmitted to us of
the Hellenic drama; and, in fact, notwithstanding the laborious
investigations into which I have been compelled to enter, I feel that
there are many points upon which I can throw no new light, and which
appear likely for ever to baffle the ingenuity of architects and
scholars.
Dionysos, being a deity connected with agriculture, his worship
naturally took its rise, and for a long time prevailed chiefly, in the
country. His festivals were celebrated with merriment; and, the power of
mimicry being natural to man, the rustics, when congregated to set forth
the praise of their tutelar god, easily glided into the enactment of a
farcical show. And dramatic exhibitions at the outset were little
superior to the feats of Punch, though, so great was their suitableness
to the national character, that, in the course of time, every town of
note had its own theatre, as it had of old its own dithyrambic
bard;[864] and dramatic writers were multiplied incomparably beyond what
they have been in any other country.
-----
Footnote 864:
Schol. Aristoph. Av. 1404.
-----
Both tragedy and comedy,[865] properly so called, took their rise in
Attica, and there only, in the ancient world, flourished and grew up to
perfection. The theatre, in fact, formed at length a part of the
constitution, and, probably, the worst part, its tendency being to
foster personal enmities, to stir the sources of malice, and, while
pretending to purge off the dross of the passions by the channels of
sorrow and mirth, to induce habits of idleness and political apathy, by
affording in the brilliant recesses of a mock world a facile refuge from
the toils and duties of the real one. Nevertheless, it may be curious to
open up a view into that universe of shadows wherein the vast creations
of Æschylus, of Sophocles, of Euripides, of Aristophanes, and Menander
displayed themselves before the eyes of the Athenians, with a costly
grandeur and magnificence never equalled save in imperial Rome.
-----
Footnote 865:
See Bentley, Dissert. on Phal. i. 251.
-----
It has been already remarked, that to the Dionysiac theatre of Athens
the architectural speculations of Vitruvius on dramatic edifices apply,
this building having constituted the model on which similar structures
were afterwards erected.[866] By carefully studying its details,
therefore, we shall be enabled to form a tolerably just conception of
all the theatres once found in Greece, though each, perhaps, may have
been slightly modified in plan, general arrangement, and decorations, by
the peculiarities of the site, and the science or taste of its
architect.
-----
Footnote 866:
On the form and construction of ancient theatres, see Chandler,
Travels, &c., who describes the ruins of the theatre of Teos. i. 110;
of Ephesos, 138; of Miletos, (457 feet in length,) 168; of Myos, 191;
of Stratonica, 222; of Nysa, built with a blue-veined marble, 245; of
Laodicea, 262; of Ægina, ii. 16; of Athens, 113; of Eleusis, 215; on
the theatre of Syracuse, see Antiq. of Athens, &c. Supplementary to
Stuart, by Cockerel, Donaldson, &c. p. 38.—See a plan of the theatre
in the grove of Asclepios at Epidauros, pl. 1. p. 53, and another of
that of Dramysos, near Joannina, pl. 3.—(Compare on the Dionysiac
Theatre, Leake, Topog. of Athens, p. 53, sqq.)
-----
The great theatre of Bacchos, partly scooped out of the rock on the face
of the hill at the south-eastern angle of the Acropolis, stretched
forth, on solid piers of masonry, a considerable distance into the
plain, and was capable of containing upwards of thirty thousand people.
The diameter, accordingly, if it did not exceed, could have fallen
little short of five hundred feet.[867] For we are not to suppose that,
while Sparta,[868] and Argos, and Megalopolis, cities comparatively
insignificant, possessed theatres of such dimensions, Athens,
incomparably the largest and most beautiful of Hellenic capitals, would
have been content with one of inferior magnitude.[869]
-----
Footnote 867:
Even a provincial theatre is compared by the rustic in Dion Chrysostom
to a large hollow valley, i. 229; what then could the Abbé Dubos be
thinking of when he wrote, “Il étoit impossible que les altérations du
visage que le masque cache furent aperçûes distinctment des
spectateurs, dont plusieurs étoient éloignes _de plus de douze toises_
du comédien qui récitoit!”—Reflex. Crit. i. 609.
Footnote 868:
Scalig. Poet. i. 21.
Footnote 869:
Colonel Leake, Topog. of Ath. p. 59. Cf. Wordsworth’s Athens and
Attica, p. 29. The conjecture of Hemsterhuis on the passage of
Dicæarchos cannot be adopted. The words must apply to the theatre; for
he says the Parthenon charmed the spectators. But this could not apply
to the Odeion, which was roofed.
-----
To determine accurately the various parts of the theatre, and thus affix
a distinct meaning to every term connected with it, has exercised the
ingenuity of critics and architects for the last three hundred years,
still leaving many difficulties to be overcome. I can scarcely hope in
every case to succeed where they have failed. But the following
explanation may, perhaps, convey of its interior an idea sufficiently
exact for all practical purposes.
Supposing ourselves to be standing at the foot of the Katatomè,[870] a
smooth wall of rock, rising perpendicularly from the back of the theatre
to the superimpending fortifications of the Acropolis, we behold on
either hand, surmounted by porticoes, lofty piers of masonry projecting
like horns down the rocky slope into the plain and united at their
extremities by a wall of equal height, running in a straight line from
one point of the horseshoe to the other. The space thus enclosed is
divided into three principal parts,—the amphitheatre for the spectators,
the orchestra,[871] filling all the space occupied by the modern pit,
for the chorus, and the stage, properly so called, for the actors. Each
of these parts was again subdivided. Looking down still from the
Katatomè, we behold the benches of white marble, sweeping round the
whole semicircle of the theatre, descend like steps to the level of the
orchestra, and intersected at intervals by narrow straight passages
converging towards a point below.[872] A number of the upper seats, cut
off, by an open space extending round the whole semicircle, from the
rest, was set apart for the women. Other divisions were appropriated to
other classes of the population, as the tier of seats immediately
overlooking the orchestra to the senators, or dicasts, another portion
to the youth, another to foreigners and the guests of the state, while
the remainder was occupied by the dense mass of citizens of all
ages,[873] with crowns of flowers on their heads.
-----
Footnote 870:
Poll. iv. 123.
Footnote 871:
Tim. Lex. Platon. in v. ὀρχήστρα. p. 104. Poll. iv. 123.
Footnote 872:
Poll. iv. 123.—The Cunei, for greater convenience, had particular
marks, numbers, or names to distinguish them: the podium of the
diazoma of the theatre at Syracuse has an inscription cut on the
fascia of the cornice to each cuneus.—Antiq. of Ath. &c. Supplem. to
Stuart, &c., by Cockerel, Kinnaird, Donaldson, &c., p. 38.
Footnote 873:
For the children, see Plat. de Rep. t. vi. p. 128. Athen. xi. 13. Cf.
Aristid. t. i. p. 505. Jebb.
-----
Above the level of the most elevated range of seats, and stretching
round the whole sweep of the edifice,[874] arose a spacious
portico,[875] designed to afford shelter to the spectators during the
continuance of a sudden shower. Another range of porticoes extended
along the small lawn or grove within the limits of the theatre, at the
back of the stage, so that there was little necessity for the Athenian
people to take refuge, as some have imagined, from the weather in the
public buildings, sacred or civil, in the vicinity.
-----
Footnote 874:
Vitruv. v. 9. Donaldson, Theatre of the Greeks, p. 139.
Footnote 875:
Among the Romans it was customary to carry along with them, as a
defence against rain, thick cloaks, rockets, or mandilions. Buleng. de
Theat. i. 15.—The theatre of Regilla, built by Herodes Atticus in
honour of his wife, was roofed with cedar.—Philost. Vit. Sophist. ii.
1. 5.—In later ages a velarium appears to have been extended over the
great Dionysiac theatre, as was the custom at Rome.—Wordsworth, Athens
and Attica, p. 90. Cf. Dion. Cass. xliii. p. 226. a. Hanov. 1606.
-----
It would appear from an expression in Pollux,[876] that the lower seats
of the theatre, appropriated to persons of distinction, were covered
with wood,[877] notwithstanding which, it was usual, in the later ages
of the commonwealth, for rich persons to have cushions brought for them
to the theatre by their domestics,[878] together with purple carpets for
their feet. Theophrastus, accordingly, whom few striking traits of
manners escaped, represents his flatterer snatching this theatrical
cushion from the slave, and adjusting and obsequiously smoothing it for
his patron.[879] To render their devotion to Dionysos still less
irksome, it was customary to hand round cakes and wine during the
representation, though, like Homer’s heroes, they were careful to
fortify themselves with a good meal before they ventured abroad. We are
informed, moreover, that when the actors were bad there was a greater
consumption of confectionary, the good people being determined to make
up in one kind of enjoyment what they lost in another. Full cups,
moreover, were habitually drained on the entrance and exit of the
chorus.[880]
-----
Footnote 876:
Onomast. iv. 122.—To kick the seats with the heel was called
πτερνοκοπεῖν, which they did when they wanted to drive away an actor,
id. ibid. Cf. Diog. Laert. ii. 8. 4.
Footnote 877:
On the old wooden theatre see Hesych. v. ἰκρία. Suid. v. ἰκρία, t. i.
p. 1234. d. Sch. Aristoph. Thesm. 395.—This theatre fell down whilst a
play of Pratinas was acting.—Suid. v. Πρατίνας, t. ii. 585. d.
Footnote 878:
Upon this practice Dr. Chandler has an ingenious conjecture. After
attentively viewing the seats of several ancient theatres, and
“considering their height, width, and manner of arrangement, I am
inclined to believe that the ancient Asiatics sate at their plays and
public spectacles, like the modern, with under them, and, it is
probable, upon carpets.”—Travels, &c. i. 269.
Footnote 879:
Charact. c. ii. p. 10. Casaub.
Footnote 880:
Philoch. Frag. Sieb. p. 85. Aristot. Ethic. Nic. 5. Athen. xi. 13.
-----
The orchestra, being considerably below the level of the stage, had in
the middle of it a small square platform, called the Thymele,[881]
sometimes regarded as a bema on which the leader of the chorus mounted
when engaged in dialogue with the actors; sometimes as an altar on
which sacrifice was offered up to Dionysos. That part of the orchestra
which lay between the Thymele and the stage was denominated the
Dromos, while the name of Parodoi was bestowed on those two spacious
side-passages,[882] the one from the east, the other from the west, at
the extremities of the tiers of seats which afforded the chorus ample
room for marching in and out in rank and file, in the quadrangular
form it usually affected.
-----
Footnote 881:
Etym. Mag. 653. 7. Cf. 458. 30. 743. 30. et Suid. v. σκηνὴ t. ii. p.
753, seq. Cf. Thom. Magist. in v. θυμέλη, p. 458, seq. Blancard.
Scalig. Poet. i. 21. Poll. iv. 123.
Footnote 882:
Sch. Aristoph. Acharn. 8. Cf. Vesp. 270.
-----
At the extremity of the orchestra a pier of masonry called the
Hyposcenion, adorned with columns and statues, rose to the level of the
stage, where a most intricate system of machinery and decoration
represented all that was tangible to sense in the creations of the poet.
The stage was divided into two parts; first, the Ocribas or
Logeion,[883] floored with boards, and hollow beneath, for the purpose
of reverberating the voice; second, the Proscenion,[884] a broader
parallelogram of solid stonework, necessary to support the vast
apparatus of machinery and decoration required by the character of the
Grecian drama. The descent from the stage[885] into the orchestra was by
two flights of steps situated at either extremity of the Logeion, at the
point where the Parodoi touched upon the Dromos. Beyond the Proscenion
arose the Scene,[886] properly so called, the aspect of which was
constantly varied, to suit the requirements of each successive piece. In
most cases, however, it represented the front of three different
edifices, of which the central one, communicating with the stage by a
broad and lofty portal, was generally a palace. Sometimes, as in the
Philoctetes, this portal was converted into the mouth of a cavern,[887]
opening upon the view, amid the rocks and solitudes of Lemnos, while in
other plays it formed the entrance to the mansion of some private person
of distinction, but was always appropriated to the principal actor. The
building on the right assumed in comedy the appearance of an inn,
through the door of which the second actor issued upon the stage, while
the portal on the left led into a ruined temple, or uninhabited house.
In tragedy the right hand entrance was appropriated to strangers, while
on the left was that of the female apartments, or of a prison.[888]
-----
Footnote 883:
Plat. Conviv. t. iv. 411. Tim. Lex. v. ὀκρίβας, p. 102. Etym. Mag.
620. 52. Poll. iv. 123.
Footnote 884:
Poll. iv. 123.
Footnote 885:
It is impossible to adopt Genelli’s idea on these flights of steps, by
the injudicious position of which in his plan, he entirely breaks up
and destroys the beauty of the Hyposcenion, especially as the
Scholiast on Aristophanes positively states, that they led from the
Parodoi to the Logeion.—Sch. Aristoph. Eq. 149.
Footnote 886:
On the stage and scenery, see Casalius.—De Trag. et Com. c. i. ap.
Gronov. Thesaur. t. viii. p. 1603.
Footnote 887:
Cf. Sch. Aristoph. Av. i.
Footnote 888:
Vid. Scalig. de Art. Poet. i. 21.
-----
Upon the stage, in front of the doors, stood an altar of Apollo Aguieus,
and a table covered with cakes and confectionary,[889] which appears
sometimes to have been regarded as the representative of that ancient
table, on which, in the simplicity of Prothespian times, the solitary
actor mounted when engaged in dialogue with the chorus.
-----
Footnote 889:
Poll. iv. 123. Vid. Spanh. ad Callim. t. ii. p. 228, seq.
-----
When the stage was fitted up for the performance of comedy, there stood
near the house a painted scene representing a large cattle-shed, with
capacious double gates, for the admission of waggons and sumpter oxen,
with herds and droves of asses, when returning from the field. In the
Akestriæ of Antiphanes,[890] this rustic building was converted into a
workshop. Beyond each of the side-doors on the right and left were two
machines,[891] one on either hand, upon which the extremity of the
periactoi abutted. The scene on the right represented rural landscapes,
that on the left prospects in the environs of the city, particularly
views of the harbour. On these periactoi,[892] were represented the
marine deities riding on the waves, and generally all such objects as
could not be introduced by machinery. By turning the periactoi on the
right, the situation was changed, but when both were turned a wholly new
landscape was placed before the eye. Of the parodoi, or side-passages,
that on the right led from the fields, from the harbour, or from the
city, as the necessities of the play required, while those arriving on
foot from any other part entered by the opposite passage, and,
traversing a portion of the orchestra, ascended the stage by the flights
of steps before mentioned.
-----
Footnote 890:
Scalig. reads Antipho. De Art. Poet. i. 21.
Footnote 891:
Μηχαναὶ for μία. Cf. Annot. Poll. iv. 126.
Footnote 892:
Poll. iv. 126, 130, seq.
-----
The machinery[893] by which the dumb economy of the play was developed
consisted of numerous parts, highly complicated and curious. To avoid
labour, and, perhaps, some tediousness, these might be passed over with
such a remark as the above, but this would be to escape from
difficulties not to diminish them. I shall descend to particulars.
-----
Footnote 893:
Vid. Buleng. De Theat. c. 21.
-----
First, and most remarkable, was that machine called an Eccyclema,[894]
much used by the ancients when scenes within-doors were to be brought to
view. It consisted of a wooden structure, moved on wheels, and
represented the interior of an apartment. In order to pass forth through
the doors, it was formed less deep than broad, and rolled forth
sideways, turning round afterwards, and concealing the front of the
building from which it had issued. The channels in the floor, which were
traversed by the wheels, doubtless concealed beneath the lofty basis,
received the name of Eiscyclema.[895] Sometimes, as in the Agamemnon, it
presented to view “the royal bathing apartment with the silver laver,
the corpse enveloped in the fatal garment, and Clytemnestra, besprinkled
with blood, and holding in her hand the reeking weapon, still standing
with haughty mien over her murdered victim.”[896] On other occasions a
throne, a corpse, the interior of a tent, the summit of a building, were
exhibited; and in the Clouds of Aristophanes the interior of Socrates’
house was laid open to the spectators, containing a number of masks,
gaunt and pale, the natural fruit of philosophy.[897] It should be
remarked that the Eccyclema issued through any of the doors, as the
piece required the cells of a prison, the halls of a palace, or the
chambers of an inn, to be placed before the eyes of the audience.
-----
Footnote 894:
Poll. iv. 127, seq.
Footnote 895:
Poll. iv. 128.
Footnote 896:
Müller, Dissert. on the Eumenid. p. 91.
Footnote 897:
Sch. Aristoph. Nub. 185.
-----
That peculiar machine in which the gods made their appearance,[898] or
such heroes as enjoyed the privilege of travelling through the
air,—Bellerophon, for example, and Perseus,—stood near the left
side-entrance, and, in height, exceeded the stone skreen at the back of
the stage. This, in tragedy, was denominated Mechanè, and Kradè in
comedy,[899]—in this case resembling a fig-tree, which the Athenians
called Kradè. The watch-tower, the battlements, and the turret, were
constructed for the use of those watchmen, such as the old man in the
Agamemnon, who looked out for signals, or indications of the coming foe.
The Phructorion[900] was a pharos, or beacon-tower. Another portion of
the stage was the Distegia, a building two stories high in palaces, from
the top of which, in the Phœnissœ of Euripides,[901] Antigone beholds
the army. It was roofed with tiles, (and thence called Keramos,) which
they sometimes cast down upon the enemy. In comedy, libertines and old
women, or ladies of equivocal character, were represented prying into
the street for prey from such buildings.
-----
Footnote 898:
Ξενοκλῆς ὁ Καρκίνου δοκεῖ μηχανὰς καὶ τερατείας εἰσάγειν ν τοῖς
δράμασι. Πλάτων Σοφισταῖς· Ξενοκλῆς ὁ δωδεκαμήχανος ὁ Καρκίνου παῖς
τοῦ θαλαττίου· μηχανοδίφας δὲ εἶπεν αὐτοὺς, ἐπειδὴ πολλάκις ὡς
τραγῳδοὶ μηχανὰς προσέφερον, ἡνίκα Θεοὺς ἐμιμοῦντο ἀνερχομένους ἢ
κατερχομένους ἐκ τοῦ οὐρανοῦ ἢ ἄλλοτι τοιοῦτον. Schol. Aristoph. Pac.
769.
Footnote 899:
Poll. iv. 129. Etym. Mag. 465. 56. 534. 39.
Footnote 900:
Aristoph. Av. 1161, et Schol. Cf. Herod. ap. Const. in v. φρυκτώριον.
Poll. iv. 127.
Footnote 901:
Phæn. 688, cum not. et Schol. Bekk. Poll. iv. 127, 129.
-----
The Keraunoskopeion[902] was a lofty triangular column, which appears to
have been hollow, and furnished with narrow fissures, extending in right
lines from top to bottom. Within seem to have been a number of lamps, on
stationary bases, from which, as the periactos whirled round, sheets of
mimic lightning flashed upon the stage from behind the scenes.
-----
Footnote 902:
Poll. iv. 127, 130.
-----
The construction of the Bronteion,[903] or thunder magazine, I imagine
to have been nearly as follows:—a number of brazen plates, arranged one
below another, like stairs, descended through a steep, vaulted passage
behind the scene, into the bottom of a tower, terminating in a vast
brazen caldron. From the edge of this, a series of metallic
apertures,[904] probably spiral, pierced the tower wall, and opened
without in funnels, like the mouths of trumpets.
-----
Footnote 903:
Idem, Ibid.
Footnote 904:
These were called ἠχεῖα. Schol. Aristoph. Nub. 292.
-----
When some deity was required to descend to earth in the midst of
lightning and sudden thunder, the Keraunoskopeion was instantaneously
put in motion, and showers of pebbles from the sea-shore were hurled
down the mouth of the Bronteion, and, rolling over the brazen
receptacles, produced a terrific crash, which, with innumerable
reverberations, was poured forth by the Echeia upon the theatre.[905]
-----
Footnote 905:
Schol. Aristoph. Nub. 292, 294.
-----
In a lofty gallery called the Theologeion, extending over the marble
skreen at the back of the stage, appeared the gods, when the drama
required their presence; and hence, I imagine, the Hebrew colony which
makes its appearance nightly near the roof of our own theatres have
obtained the name of gods. Here Zeus, and the other deities of Olympos,
were assembled in that very extraordinary drama of Æschylus, the
Psychostasia, or weighing in the balance the souls of Achilles and
Hector.
They employed in the theatre the machine called a Crane,[906] the point
of which being lowered, snatched up whatever it was designed to bear
aloft into the air. By means of this contrivance, Eos, goddess of the
dawn, descended and bore away the body of Memnon, slain by Achilles
before Troy. At other times strong cords, so disposed as to resemble
swings, were let down from the roof, to support the gods or heroes who
seemed to be borne through the air.
-----
Footnote 906:
Poll. iv. 130.
-----
Though by turning the Periactoi three changes of scene could be
produced, many more were sometimes required, and, when this was the
case, new landscapes were dropped, like hangings, or slided in frames in
front of those painted columns. These usually represented views of the
sea, or mountain scenery, or the course of some river winding along
through solitary vales, or other prospects of similar character,
according to the spirit of the drama.
The position of the Hemicycle is more difficult to comprehend. It
appears to have been a retreating semicircular scene, placed facing the
orchestra, and masking the marble buildings at the back of the stage,
when a view was to be opened up into some distant part of the city, or
shipwrecked mariners were to be exhibited buffeting with the waves. Not
very dissimilar was the Stropheion,[907] which brought to view heroes
translated to Olympos, or on the ocean, or in battle slain, where change
of position with respect to the spectator was produced by the rotatory
motion of the machine.
-----
Footnote 907:
Poll. iv. 131.
-----
The position of the Charonian staircase,[908] by which spectres and
apparitions ascended from the nether world, is exceedingly difficult to
be determined; but that it was somewhere on the stage appears to me
certain, notwithstanding the seeming testimony of Pollux to the
contrary. The hypothesis which makes the ghosts issue from a door
immediately beneath the seats of the spectators, and rush along the
whole depth of the orchestra, among the chorus and musicians, is, at any
rate, absurd. It must have been somewhere towards the back of the stage,
near the altar of Loxios, the table of shew-bread and those sacred and
antique images which in certain dramas were there exhibited. Here,
likewise, was the trap-door, through which river-gods issued from the
earth, while the other trap-door, appropriated to the Furies, seems to
have been situated in the boards of the Logeion, near one of the flights
of steps leading down into the orchestra.
-----
Footnote 908:
Id. iv. 132.
-----
The above synopsis of the machinery and decorations employed by the
Greeks in their theatrical shows may, possibly, from its imperfection,
suggest the idea of a rude and clumsy apparatus. But, as the arts of
poetry, sculpture, painting, and architecture reached in Greece the
highest perfection, and, as this perfection was coëtaneous with the
flourishing state of the drama, it is impossible to escape the
conviction, that the art of scene-painting and the manufacturing of
stage machinery, likewise, underwent all the improvements of which by
their nature they are susceptible. For, in the first place, it is not
easy to suppose, that a people, so fastidious as were the Athenians,
would have tolerated in the theatre displays of ignorance and want of
skill which everywhere else they are known to have overwhelmed with
contempt and derision; more especially as, in the first place, the
landscapes and objects represented were usually those with which they
were most familiar, though the fancy of the poet sometimes ventured to
transport them to the most elevated and inaccessible recesses of Mount
Caucasus, to the summit of the celestial Olympos, to the palaces and
harems of Persia, to the wilds of the Tauric Chersonese,[909] or even to
the dim and dreary regions of the dead. The names, nevertheless, of few
scene-painters, besides Agatharchos,[910] have come down to us, though
it is known, that, in their own day, they sometimes divided with the
poet the admiration of the audience, and, on other occasions, enabled
poets of inferior merit to bear away the prize from their betters.
-----
Footnote 909:
Cf. Æsch. Prom. 2.
Footnote 910:
Vitruv. Præfat. lib. vii. Plut. Alcib. § 16.
-----
The character, however, of stage-scenery differed very widely in
tragedy, comedy, and satyric pieces,[911] usually consisting, in the
first, of façades of palaces, with colonnades, architraves, cornices,
niches, statues, &c.; in comedy, of the fronts or courts of ordinary
houses, with windows, balconies, porticoes, &c.; while, in the satyric
drama, the fancy of the painter and decorator was allowed to develope
before the audience scenes of rural beauty remote from cities, as the
hollows of mountains shaded with forests, winding valleys, plains,
rivers, caverns, and sacred groves.
-----
Footnote 911:
Vitruv. v. 8. Etym. Mag. 763. 27.
-----
Of the Grecian actors,[912] whose business and profession next require
to be noticed, too little by far is known, considering the curious
interest of the subject. Their art, however, would appear to have sprung
from that of the rhapsodists, who chanted in temples, during religious
festivals, and afterwards in the theatres, the heroic lays of Greece. To
a certain extent, indeed, the rhapsodist was himself an actor. His art
required him to enter deeply into the spirit of the poetry he recited,
to suit to the passion brought into play the modulations and inflexions
of his voice, his tone, his looks, his gesture, so as vividly to paint
to the imagination the picture designed by the poet, and sway the whole
theatre by the powerful wand of sympathy through all the gradations of
sorrow, indignation, and joy.[913] By some writers, accordingly, the
rhapsodist is apparently confounded with the actor, that is, he is
considered an actor of epics,[914] though in reality his imitations of
character were partial and imperfect.
-----
Footnote 912:
Vid. Casal. c. 2.
Footnote 913:
Plat. Ion. t. ii. p. 183, seq. Wolf. Proleg. p. 95. Cf. S. F. Dresig.
Comment. Lips. 1734. Gillies, Hist. of Greece, vol. i. c. 6.
Footnote 914:
Diod. Sic. xiv. 109. xv. 7.
-----
Actors formed at Athens part of a guild, or company, called the
Dionysiac artificers,[915] among whom were also comprehended
rhapsodists, citharœdi, citharistæ, musicians, jugglers, and other
individuals[916] connected with the theatre. These persons, though for
the most part held in little estimation, were yet somewhat more
respectable than at Rome, where to appear on the stage was
infamous.[917] Like the rhapsodists, they generally led a wandering
life, sometimes appearing at Athens,[918] sometimes at Corinth, or
Sicyon, or Epidauros, or Thebes, after the fashion approved among the
strollers of our own day. In the course of these wanderings they now and
then fell in with rare adventures, as in the case of that company of
comedians which, on returning from Messenia towards the Isthmus, was met
by king Cleomenes and the Spartan army near Megalopolis.[919] To exhibit
the superiority of his power and his contempt for the enemy, Cleomenes
threw up, probably with turf and boards, a temporary theatre, where he
and his army sat all day enjoying the jokes and wild merriment of the
stage, after which, he bestowed, as a prize, upon the principal
performers, the sum of forty minæ, or about one hundred and sixty pounds
sterling.
-----
Footnote 915:
Philost. Vit. Soph. ii. 16. Vit. Apoll. Tyan. v. 7. Vandale, Dissert.
380, seq.
Footnote 916:
Casaub. ad Theoph. Char. p. 121. Athen. v. 49. Animadv. t. viii. p.
196.
Footnote 917:
Vandale. Dissert, v. p. 383.
Footnote 918:
Plat. de Rep. viii. t. ii. p. 229, seq. Athen. xiii. 44. In Roman
times we find an actor travelling from the capital to Seville in
Spain, where with his lofty cothurni, strange dress, and gaping mask,
he frightened the natives out of the theatre.—Philost. Vit. Apoll.
Tyan. v. 9. Cf. Luc. de Saltat. § 27. A taste for the amusements of
the Grecian stage was diffused far and wide through the ancient world,
so that we find the princes of Persia and Armenia not only enjoying
the representation of Greek tragedies, but themselves, likewise, in
some instances, aspiring to rival the dramatic poets of Hellas. Thus
Artavasdes, the Armenian prince, is said to have written tragedies, as
well as histories and orations, some of which still existed in the age
of Plutarch. The Parthian court was engaged in beholding the Bacchæ of
Euripides, in which Jason of Tralles was the principal performer, when
Sillaces brought in the head of Marcus Crassus, upon which both king
and nobles delivered themselves up to immoderate joy, and the actor,
seizing upon the Roman’s head, exchanged the part of Pentheus for that
of his mother, who appears upon the stage bearing a bleeding head upon
her thyrsus; for this he received a present of a talent from the
king.—Plut. Crass. § 33. Polyæan. vii. 41. 1.
Footnote 919:
Plut. Cleom. § 12.
-----
About this period, however, it was usual for the armies of Greece,
republican as well as royal, to be followed by companies of strollers,
jugglers, dancing girls, and musicians.[920] Even in the army of
Alexander, when proceeding on the Persian expedition, the “flatterers of
Dionysos”[921] were not forgotten; in fact, the son of Philip set a high
value upon the performances of these gentlemen, and with truly royal
munificence allowed them to enjoy their full share of the plunder of the
East. Thus, when Nicocreon, king of Salamis, and Pasicrates, king of
Soli,[922] played the part of Choregi in Cyprus, in getting up certain
tragedies there performed for the amusement of Alexander, and the
actors, Thessalos, and Athenodoros the Athenian, contended for the
prize; he was piqued at the victory of the Athenian, and, though he
commended the judges for bestowing the prize on him whom they regarded
as the best performer, said, he would have given a part of his kingdom
rather than have beheld Thessalos overcome by a rival.
-----
Footnote 920:
Plut. ubi supra.
Footnote 921:
Διονυσοκόλακες. Athen. vi. 56.
Footnote 922:
Plut. Alex. § 29.
-----
Afterwards, when Athenodoros was fined by his countrymen for absenting
himself from Athens during the Dionysiac festival, evidently contrary to
the statutes in that case made and provided, Alexander paid the fine for
his humble friend, though he refused to make application to the people
for its remission.
An anecdote related of Lycon of Scarphe, also shows the high value set
by the Macedonian prince upon the amusements of the stage, and the
influence exercised over his mind by the Dionysiac artificers, though,
according to Antiphanes, he wanted the taste to discriminate between a
good play and a bad one. The Scarpheote being one day in want of money,
as actors sometimes are, introduced into the piece he was performing a
line of his own making, beseeching the conqueror to bestow on him ten
talents; Alexander, amused by his extravagance, or captivated perhaps,
by the flattery which accompanied it, at once granted his request, and
thus upwards of two thousand four hundred pounds of the public money
were expended for the momentary gratification of a prince.[923]
-----
Footnote 923:
Plut. Alex. § 29.
-----
The philosophers, almost of necessity, thought and spoke of these
wandering performers with extreme contempt. Plato observes, that they
went about from city to city collecting together thoughtless crowds,
and, by their beautiful, sonorous, and persuasive voices, converting
republics into tyrannies and aristocracies. Aristotle endeavoured to
account for their evil character and agency.[924] They were worthless,
he says, because of all men they profited least by the lessons of reason
and philosophy, their whole lives being consumed by the study of their
professional arts, or passed in intemperance and difficulties.
-----
Footnote 924:
Prob. xxx. 10. They were likewise corrupted by their profession,
since, in female parts, they frequently indulged in immodest gestures,
as is particularly related of Callipedes. Id. Poet. v. 2. Cf. Macrob.
Saturnal. l. ii. c. 10.
-----
Nevertheless, even among them there were different grades, some aiming
at the higher walks of tragedy and comedy; while others were content to
declaim rude, low songs, seated on waggons like mountebanks during the
Lenæan festival.[925] Nor must this fashion be at all regarded as
Prothespian, since it prevailed down to a very late period. And as in
every thing the Greeks aimed at excellence and distinction, so even here
we find that there was a contest between the poets who wrote the comic
songs sung by these humble performers from their waggons.[926]
-----
Footnote 925:
Occasionally, as among ourselves, jugglers were introduced upon the
stage, swallowing swords and performing other fantastic tricks.—Plut.
Lycurg. § 19.
Footnote 926:
Schol. Aristoph. Eq. 545.
-----
The various classes of actors known to the ancients were numerous. Among
the lower grades were the Magodos, and the Lysiodos,[927] who though
confounded by some, appear clearly to have been distinct; the former
personating both male and female characters; the latter female
characters only, though disguised in male costume. But the songs, and
every other characteristic of their performances, were the same. The
spirit of the coarse satirical farces they acted forbids my explaining
their nature fully.
-----
Footnote 927:
Athen. iv. 80. v. 47. vi. 61. Cf. Eustath. ad Odyss. ψ. p. 106, sub
fin.
-----
There were even several authors who attained a “bad eminence” in this
department of literature, which especially affected the Ionic dialect,
as Alexander, the Ætolian,[928] Pyretos of Miletos, a city noted for its
dissolute characters, and Alexos, who obtained on this account an
opprobrious sobriquet. The most remarkable, however, of this vicious
brood would appear to have been Sotades[929] the Maronite, and his son
Apollonios who wrote a work on his father’s poems. Sotades was probably
the original imitated by Pietro Aretino, who obtained in modern times a
like reputation, though timely penitence may have snatched him from a
similar end. The ancient libeller, enacting the part of Thersites,
fastened with peculiar delight on the vices of princes, not from
aversion to their manners, but because such scandal paved the way to
notoriety. Thus at Alexandria, he covered Lysimachos with obloquy,
which, when at the court of Lysimachos, he heaped upon Ptolemy
Philadelphos. His punishment, however, exceeded the measure of his
offences. Being overtaken in the island of Caunos by Patrocles, one of
Ptolemy’s generals, the obsequious mercenary caused him to be enclosed
in a leaden box and cast into the sea.[930]
-----
Footnote 928:
Suid. v. φλύακες, t. ii. p. 1073. b.
Footnote 929:
Cf. Fabric. Bib. Græc. ii. p. 495, seq.
Footnote 930:
Athen. xiv. 13.
-----
The Magodos, then, was a wandering farce actor, not unlike the tumbling
mountebanks one sometimes sees in France and southern Europe. He
travelled about with an apparatus of drums, cymbals, and female
disguises, sometimes impersonating women, sometimes adulterers or the
mean servants of vice; and the style of his dancing and performances
corresponded with the low walk he selected, being wholly destitute of
beauty or decorum. It seems necessary, therefore, to adopt the opinion
of Aristoxenos, who considered the art of the Hilarodos as a serious
imitation of tragedy; that of the Magodos as a comic parody, brought
down to the level of the grossly vulgar. The latter art would appear to
have derived its name from the charms, spells, or magical songs chanted
by the mountebanks who likewise pretended to develope the secrets of
pharmaceutics.
Superior in every way to the Magodos and Lysiodos was the
Hilarodos,[931] who, though a wandering singer like the Italians and
Savoyards of modern Europe, affected no little state, and was evidently
treated with some respect. His costume, in conformity with the popular
taste, displayed considerable magnificence, consisting of a golden
crown, white stole and costly sandals, though in earlier ages he
appeared in shoes. He was usually accompanied by a youth or maiden who
touched the lyre as he sung. The style of his performances was decorous
and manly. When a crown was given him in token of approbation by the
audience, it was bestowed on the Hilarodos himself, not on the musician.
-----
Footnote 931:
Cf. Athen. iv. 57. Salm. Exercit. Plin. p. 76. Voss. Institut. Poet.
ii. 21. Rhinthon was the inventor of the Hilaro-tragœdi. i. e.
Tragi-comedy. Suid. v. Ῥίνθων, t. ii. p. 685. b.
-----
A class of actors existed, also from very remote times, among the
Spartans. They were called Deikelistæ,[932] and their style of
performing showed the little value set upon the drama at Sparta. The
poetry of the piece, if poetry it could be called, was extempore and of
the rudest description, and the characters were altogether conformable.
Sometimes the interest of the play turned upon a man robbing an orchard,
or on the broken Greek of an outlandish physician, whom people respected
for his gibberish. This weakness, prevalent of course at Athens also, is
wittily satirised by Alexis in his Female Opium Eater.
“Now if a native
Doctor prescribe, ‘Give him a porringer
Of ptisan in the morning,’ we despise him.
But in some _brogue_ disguised ’tis admirable.
Thus he who speaks of _Beet_ is slighted, while
We prick our ears if he but mention _Bate_,
As if _Bate_ knew some virtue not in _Beet_.”[933]
-----
Footnote 932:
Schol. Apoll. Rhod. i. 746. Plut. Ages. 21. Athen. xiv. 15. Etym. Mag.
260. 42.
Footnote 933:
I have substituted this joke, à la Smollett, “for the miserable joke
in the original.” Beet, Atticé σευτλίον, became τεύτλιον in the Doric
brogue. Athen. xiv. 15.
-----
The Deikelistæ, however, were not confined to Laconia, but, under
various names were known in most other parts of Greece. Thus, at Sicyon,
they obtained the appellation of Phallophori, elsewhere they were called
Autocabdali, or Improvisator; while in Italy, (that is, among the Greek
colonists,[934]) they were known by the name of Phlyakes.[935] By the
common people they were called the wise men (σοφίσται), upon the same
principle that actors in France are known by the name of _artistes_. The
Thebans, renowned for the havoc they made in the language of Greece,
denominated them the Voluntaries, alluding proleptically perhaps to the
“voluntary principle.” Semos, the Delian, draws an amusing picture of
these Improvisatori. Those performers, he says, who are called
Autocabdali made their appearance on the stage, crowned with ivy, and
poured forth their verse extempore. The name of Iambi was afterwards
bestowed, both on them and their poems. Another class who were called
Ithyphalli,[936] wore those masks, which on the stage were appropriated
to drunkards, with crowns of ivy and flowered gloves upon their hands.
Their chitons were striped with white, and over these, bound by a girdle
at the loins, they wore a Tarentine pelisse descending to the ankle.
They entered upon the stage by the great door appropriated to royal
personages, and, advancing in silence across the stage, turned towards
the audience and exclaimed,—
“Make way there, a wide space
Yield to the god;
For Dionysos has a mind to walk
Bolt upright through your midst.”
-----
Footnote 934:
Among the mimics of this part of Italy, the most celebrated was Cleon,
surnamed the Mimaulos, who dispensed with the use of a mask.—Athen. x.
78.
Footnote 935:
Athen. xiv. 15. Cf. Suid. in φλύακες, t. ii. p. 1073. b.
Footnote 936:
Vid. Harpocrat. in v. ἰθύφαλλοι. Mauss. p. 152.
-----
The Phallophori made their appearance unmasked, shading their face with
a drooping garland of wild thyme, intermingled with acanthus-leaves, and
surmounted by an ample crown of ivy, with violets appearing between its
glossy dark foliage. Their costume was the caunacè. Of these actors,
some entered through the side-passages, others through the central door,
advancing with measured tread, and saying,—
“Bacchos, to thee our muse belongs,
Of simple chant, and varied lays;
Nor fit for virgin ears our songs,
Nor handed down from ancient days:
Fresh flows the strain we pour to thee,
Patron of joy and minstrelsy!”
After which, skipping forward, they made a halt and showered their
sarcasms indiscriminately on whomsoever they pleased, while the leader
of the troop moved slowly about, his face bedaubed with soot.[937]
-----
Footnote 937:
Athen. xiv. 16.
-----
The superior classes of performers, whether actors or musicians, seem to
have been held in much estimation, and to have been still more
extravagantly paid than in our own day. Thus Amœbæos, the Citharœdos,
who lived near the Odeion at Athens, received, but at what period of the
republic is not known, an Attic talent a day, as often as he played in
public.[938] Music, however, was always in high estimation in Greece,
where the greatest men, though they did not seek to rival regular
professors in skill, yet learned to amuse their leisure with it. Thus
the Homeric Achilles plays on the lyre, the sounds of which could not
only cure diseases of the mind but of the body. A similar belief existed
among the Israelites, as we learn from the example of Saul.
-----
Footnote 938:
Athen. xiv. 17.
-----
Though talent must have been always respected in an actor, it appears to
me that anciently they made comparatively little figure, while there
were great poets to excite admiration. But, afterwards, when dramatic
literature had sunk very low, the actor usurped the consideration due to
the poet, as has long been the case in this country. They then contended
for the prize in the tragic contests,[939] and began to entertain a high
opinion of their own merits. In fact, the ignorant being better
calculated to feel than to judge, the actors often obtained the first
prizes in the games, and were held in higher estimation than the poets
themselves.[940]
-----
Footnote 939:
Aristot. Ethic. Nicom. iii. 4.
Footnote 940:
Aristot. Rhet. iii. 1.
-----
Thus persuaded of their own importance, they gradually exercised over
the poor devils who composed plays for them, much the same tyranny as
that in our own age complained of by the poetical servants of the
theatre. That is, they despotically interfered with the framing of the
plot, with the succession of the scenes, and procured episodes to be
introduced, in order that they might show off their peculiar abilities.
This is evident from a passage in Aristotle’s Politics,[941] where he
observes that the celebrated actor Theodoros would allow no inferior
performer to appear before him on the stage, knowing the force of first
impressions; from which it is evident that the author was compelled to
yield to his caprice.
-----
Footnote 941:
Polit. vii. 17.
-----
Antiquity has preserved the names of many celebrated actors, of whom
several played a conspicuous though sometimes a dishonourable part in
the great theatre of the world. Thus Aristodemos, who performed the
first character alternately with Theodoros, became afterwards a traitor
and betrayed the state to Philip. Such too was the case with Philocrates
and Æschines, both actors,[942] and both rogues. Satyros, a comedian of
the same period, appears to have been a man of high character and
honour, who in consequence obtained the friendship of Demosthenes. But
the Garrick of that age seems to have been Theocrines,[943] who by many,
however, is supposed to have afterwards degenerated into a sycophant.
Callipedes is chiefly known to us from the anecdote which describes the
check his vanity received from Agesilaos. Having acquired great
reputation as a tragic actor, he appears to have considered himself as
equal at least to any king, and therefore, meeting one day with
Agesilaos, he ostentatiously put himself forward, mingled with the
courtiers and took much pains to attract his notice. Finding all these
efforts useless, his pride was wounded, and going up directly to the
Spartan, he said,
“Dost thou not know me, king?”
“Why,” replied Agesilaos, “art thou not Callipedes, the
stage-buffoon?”[944]
-----
Footnote 942:
Dem. de Fal. Leg. § 58.
Footnote 943:
Dem. de Coron. § 97.
Footnote 944:
Δεικηλίκτας. Plut. Ages. § 21. Apothegm. Lac. Ages. 57.
-----
The account transmitted to us of Æsopos is somewhat puzzling; he is
described as one of the actors[945] who performed in the tragedies of
Æschylus, but is said to have been at the same time a fellow of infinite
merriment who turned everything into a jest, a sort I suppose of comic
Macbeth. Œagros obtained celebrity in the part of Niobe,[946] in the
tragedy of Æschylus or Sophocles; and Aristophanes enumerates among the
pleasures of Dicasts the power, should such an actor appear before them
in a court of justice, of requiring him by way of pleading his own
cause, to give them a few choice speeches of his favourite tragic queen.
-----
Footnote 945:
Sch. Aristoph. Vesp. 566. Flor. Christ. ad loc. In Plato’s time there
were few or no actors who excelled at the same time in tragedy and
comedy. Plat. de Rep. t. vi. p. 123.
Footnote 946:
Sch. Aristoph. Vesp. 579.
-----
Among the most celebrated actors of antiquity was Polos, a native of
Ægina, who studied the art of stage-declamation under Archias, known in
his own age by the infamous surname of Phugadotheras, or the “Exile
Hunter.”[947] This miscreant it was, who, under the orders of Antipater,
pursued Demosthenes to the temple of Poseidon in Calauria, where, to
escape the cruelty of the Macedonians, the orator put a period to his
own life.
-----
Footnote 947:
Plut. Dem. § 28. Vit. x. Orat. 8. Another actor obtained the name of
the Partridge. Athen. iii. 82.
-----
Polos appears to have risen speedily to that eminence which he
maintained to the last. A striking anecdote is related of the means by
which he worked upon his own feelings, in order the more vehemently to
stir those of his audience. On one occasion,[948] having to perform the
part of Electra, he took along with him to the theatre an urn containing
the ashes of a beloved son, whom he had recently lost, and thus, instead
of shedding, under the mask of the heroic princess, feigned tears over
the supposed remains of Orestes, he sprinkled the urn which he bore upon
the stage with the dews of genuine and deep sorrow. He eclipsed in
reputation all the actors of his time, and was in tragedy what
Theocrines, in the preceding age, had been in comedy. His salary,
accordingly, was very great, amounting at one time to half a talent per
day, out of which, to be sure, he was required to pay the third actor.
-----
Footnote 948:
Aulus Gellius, vii. 5.
-----
He must have led, moreover, a life of much temperance, otherwise he
would scarcely have been able to accomplish what is related of him by
Philochoros, who says, that, at seventy years of age, a little before
his death, he performed the principal parts of eight tragedies in four
days. His devotion to his art did not, however, carry him so far as that
of the comic poets, Philemon and Alexis, who breathed their last upon
the stage at the moment that the crown of victory was placed upon their
heads, and so were literally dismissed for the last time from the scene
amidst the shouts and acclamations of the admiring multitude.[949] But
the passion of the Greeks for the arts of imitation did not confine
itself to the enacting of human character and human feelings. Every
species of mimicry found its patrons among them. There were, for
example, persons who, by whistling, could imitate the notes of the
nightingale; and Agesilaos, being once invited to witness the
performances of one of these artists, replied somewhat contemptuously,
“I have heard the nightingale herself.”[950] Others, as Parmenion, could
counterfeit to perfection the grunt of a pig,[951] though it is
probable, that actors of smaller dimensions were called upon to perform
in the comedy of Aristophanes, where the Megarean[952] brings on the
stage his daughters in a sack, and disposes of them as porkers, having
first carefully instructed them in the proper style of squeaking. Other
actors obtained celebrity[953] through their power of imitating by their
voice the grating or rumbling of wheels, the creaking of axletrees, the
whistling of winds, the blasts of trumpets, the modulations of flutes,
or pipes, or the sounds of other instruments. It was customary, too,
among this class of performers, to mimic, doubtless, in pastoral scenes,
the bleating of sheep, and the bark of the shepherd’s dog, the neighing
of horses, and the deep bellowing of bulls. They could imitate,
moreover, but by what means is uncertain, the pattering of hail-storms,
the dash and breaking of water in rivers or seas, with other natural
phenomena. It was customary, likewise, as in modern times, to introduce
boats and galleys rowed along the mimic waters of the stage, an example
of which occurs on an Etruscan Chalcidone, where we behold a little
vessel of extraordinary form, with a mariner at bow and stern, paddled
along a bank adorned with flowers, while on a platform, occupying the
boat’s waist, two naked dancers are exhibiting their saltatorial
powers.[954]
-----
Footnote 949:
Plut. An. Seni. § 3.
Footnote 950:
Plut. Ages. § 21.
Footnote 951:
Etym. Mag. 607. 25.
Footnote 952:
Acharn. 834.
Footnote 953:
Plut. de Aud. Poet. § 3. Plat. de Rep. t. vi. pp. 125–127. This
philosopher, it is clear, entertained a less elevated idea of art than
some modern writers, who define it as follows: “Art is a
representation (μίμησις), i. e. an energy by means of which a subject
becomes an object,”—(Müller, cited by Mr. Donaldson, Theatre of the
Greeks, p. 4,)—in other words, by which a nominative becomes an
accusative.
Footnote 954:
Mus. Cortonens. tab. 60.
-----
Very singular figures were also introduced upon the stage, as wasps,
frogs, and birds, of sufficiently large dimensions to be enacted by men;
and still stranger personages occasionally made their appearance, as
where, in a kind of practical parody of the story of Andromeda,[955] a
whale emerges on the sea beach to snap off an old woman. In another
drama the transformation of Argos was represented, after which this
luckless male duenna strutted like a peacock before the audience. Io,
moreover, was changed into a cow, and Euippe, in Euripides, into a mare.
What there was peculiar in the appearance of Amymone it is not easy to
conjecture; but she was, possibly, represented in the act of withdrawing
the trident of Poseidon from the rock, from which gushed forth three
fountains. The rivers, and mountains, and cities introduced[956] were,
doubtless, personifications, such as we still find in many works of art.
The giants were simply, in all probability, huge figures of men, made to
stalk about the stage, like elephants, with an actor in each leg; and
the Indians, Tritons, Gorgons, Centaurs, with other personages of
terrible or fantastic aspect, owed their existence, perhaps, to masks,
if we may so speak, representing the whole figures.
-----
Footnote 955:
Schol. Aristoph. Nub. 548.
Footnote 956:
See the figure of Alexandria in the Gemme Antiche Figurate of
Agostini.
-----
In what form the Seasons, the Pleiades,[957] or the nymphs of Mithakos,
made their appearance on the stage, we are, I believe, nowhere told,
though we possess some information respecting the costume and figure of
those other strange persons of the drama, the Clouds,[958] which came
floating in through the Parodoi, enveloped, some in masses of white
fleecy gauze, like vapour, others in azure, or many-tinted robes, or in
drapery like piled-up flocks of wool, to represent the various aspects
of the skies; while a hazy atmosphere was probably diffused around them,
as around the other gods, by the smoke of styrax or frankincense, burnt
in profusion on the altars of the theatre. Here and there, through these
piles of drapery, a mask with ruddy pendant nose, like the tail of a
lobster, peered forth, and a human voice was heard chanting in richest
cadence and modulation the lively anapæsts of the chorus.
-----
Footnote 957:
Poll. iv. 142.
Footnote 958:
Vid. Schol. Aristoph. Nub. 289. 343. 442.
-----
In the tragedy of Alcestis, the grim, spectral figure of Death was
beheld gliding to and fro through the darkness, in front of the palace
of Admetos, while personifications still, if possible, more strange and
wild, made their appearance in other dramas,—as Justice, Madness,
Frenzy, Strength, Violence, Deceit, Drunkenness, Laziness, Envy.[959]
-----
Footnote 959:
Poll. iv. 141, seq.
-----
Plato, who entertained peculiar notions[960] respecting the dignity of
human nature, banished the theatre from his Republic, because he thought
it unbecoming a brave man, who had political rights to watch over and
defend, to demean himself by low stage impersonations; and, from his
account of what he would not have his citizens do, we learn what by
others was done. Sometimes, he observes, the actor was required to
imitate a woman, (though this task often devolved upon eunuchs,) whether
young or old, reviling her husband, railing at and expressing contempt
for the gods, either puffed up by the supposed stableness of her
felicity, or stung to desperation by the severity of her misfortunes and
sorrows. Other female characters were to be represented, toiling, or in
love, or in the pangs of labour; which shows that there was scarcely an
act or passage in human life not occasionally imitated on the stage.
-----
Footnote 960:
De Rep. t. vi. p. 125.
-----
Slaves of course performed an important part in the mimic world of the
theatre; and with these, Plato, by some unaccountable association of
ideas, classes smiths, and madmen, and vagabonds, and low artificers of
every kind, and the rowers of galleys, and rogues, and cowards, below
which his imagination could discover nothing in human nature.
But it was these very characters, with their low wit, buffoonery, and
appropriate actions, that constituted the most effective materials of
the comic poet, whose creed was, that
Les fous sont ici-bas pour nos menus plaisirs.
They accordingly hesitated at no degree of grotesque buffoonery and
extravagance, introducing not only low sausage-sellers with their trays
of black-puddings and chitterlings suspended on their paunches,[961] and
drunkards lisping, hiccuping, and reeling about the stage,[962] but even
libertines and profligates carrying on their intrigues in the view of
the spectators. An example of this kind of scene occurs on an Etruscan
bronze seal dug up near Cortona, which represents an adulterer in
conference with his mistress, together with the Leno who brought them
together.[963]
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Footnote 961:
Sch. Aristoph. Eq. 150.
Footnote 962:
Athen. x. 33.
Footnote 963:
Mus. Cortonens. tabb. 18, 19. Cf. p. 26, seq. 1750. Rom.
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