DRAMA. 



Uuoduc- 

 00 of 



Rcheia or 



harmonic 



audible at a great distance, or in n wide spare. This 

 want of natunil power of voice sufficient to be heard in 

 the open air, (for the ancient theatre had no permanent 

 covering,)* gave rise not only to singing upon the stage, 

 but perhaps to chanting in the church. 



The necessity of augmenting the performers voice by 

 every possible means, likewise first suggested die ulc;i of 

 metallic masks, which were used by the actors upon the 

 pnnciplc of speaking trumpets, and that of the echeia, 

 er harmonic vases ; two expedients so peculiar to the an- 

 cient drama, that it seems necessary to give some ac- 

 count of them. The mask was called by the Honians 

 persona, &om personare, " to sound through ;" and de- 

 lineations of such masks as were used in each piece 

 were generally prefixed to it, as appears from the Va- 

 tican Terence. Hence dramatis pcrsomr, " masks of 

 the drama," which words after masks ceased to be 

 used, were understood to mean persons of the drama. 

 Quiiitili;in, lib. ii. gives, n list of invariable masks ap- 

 propriated to different characters, to which the public 

 had for many ages been accustomed ; and Julius Pollux 

 "N still more ample in his account of theatrical masks, 

 used in tragedy, satire,t and comedy, Niobc weeping, 

 Medea furious, Ajax astonished, and Hercules enraged. 

 In comedy, the slave, the parasite, the clown, the cap- 

 'tain, the old woman, the harlot, the austere old man, the 

 debauched young man, the prudent young woman, the 

 matron, and the father of a family, were all constantly 

 characterised by particular masks. This custom is, in 

 some measure, still preserved in the Italian comedy, and 

 in our pantomime entertainments, which originated from 

 it. " The spectators," says De Bos, speaking of the an- 

 cient theatre, " lost little on the side of face-playing by 

 the introduction of masks ; for not one-third of the audi- 

 ence were near enough the actor to discern the play of 

 muscles, or workings of the passions in the features of 

 the face, at least to have received pleasure from them ; 

 for an expression must have been accompanied with a 

 frightful grimace and distortion of visage, to be percep- 

 tible at so great a distance from the stage." With re- 

 spect to the ec/ieia or vases, the historian of music al- 

 ready quoted observes, that they were used in theatres 

 for the augmentation of sound. Vitruvius, b. v. ch. v. 

 tells us, that they were placed in cells or niches between 

 the rows or seats occupied by the spectators, to which the 

 voice of the actor had free passage ; that they were made 

 f brass or earthen ware, and proportioned in magnitude 



to the size of the building; and lastly, that, in the small 

 theatres, they were tuned in the proportions of fourths 

 fifths, and eighths, with their implicates; and in tin 

 nf^iiMt magnitude, there was n vnsc to correspond with 

 fvci v MHiml in the disdiapason, or p> :il system, 



in all the genera. From the existence of thi 

 Dr Burney concludes, that the voices of the 

 proached them in fixed ami IIIUMC.I! tones, modulated in 

 unison with the tones ol' the vases. Plutarch tells us, 

 that the dithyrambio uml tragic poets adopted for tlicir 

 pieces that kind of musical execution, of v.hiih Archilo- 

 chus |)erliirmed the music to his iambic verses in twr> 

 different ways, reciting some of them with an accom- 

 paniment, and singing others, while inMiiiniM.ts -civilc- 

 ly performed the same notes as the voice; and th: 

 the method which the tragic poets afterwards adopted. 

 Wo learn from the same work of Plutarch, that even the 

 declamatory iambics were accompanied by the cithurn, 

 and other instruments ; but as the employment of the ci- 

 thara upon these occasions was not constant, it seems, 

 says Dr Burney, as if only the general tone of declama- 

 tion was given to the actor by the musician, as the chord 

 is given to the singer in modem recitative; whereas in 

 the chorus, and other poetry that was sung, the instru- 

 ment constantly accompanied the voice note for note. 

 Dr Burney's conclusion is, therefore, that the ancient 

 dramatic writers used a different kind of fttxjfor the de- 

 clamation of the actors, and for the songs of the chorus : 

 the one may perhaps be compared to modern recitative, 

 and the other to chaunting in the Romish church. That 

 tliis music was simple, and intended to render speech 

 more articulate, as well as to fortify passion, both reason 

 and the authority of ancient writers enable us to believe. 

 Plutarch says, that " the chromatic genius was never 

 used in tragedy." Now if the ancient drama was de- 

 claimed in a species of recitative, it will bring it still 

 nearer the recitative of modern musical dramas, in which 

 no chromatic is ever admitted. Plutarch likewise informs 

 us, that a strict rythm or measure was not observed in 

 tragedy ; another circumstance resembling modern reci- 

 tative, in which no time is kept but that of the accent 

 and cadence of the verse. And this assertion of Plutarch 

 seems to agree with what Aristotle says in his Poetics, 

 chap. 1. that the dithyrambics, nomes, tragedies, and co- 

 medies, use a like number, verse, and harmony, with this 

 difference, that in some all three are employed at once, 

 in others they are used separately. By number or 



In the ancient theatres, plays were represented in broad-day. Over the theatre, which was open above, in case or rain or intense 

 hrat or the sun, a vast veil could be spread by means of easy machinery. This vale was sometimes of the finest silk. The Romans 

 borrowed the plan of their theatre from the Greeks. In both the Greek and Roman theatre, the s|>ace appointed for the playing of 

 the actors, and the machines, was a long square, of which the great side was the diameter of a semicircle that dcscrilwd the plan of 

 the amphitheatre. This amphitheatre contained a great number of spectators, seated upon steps, and distributed by stages. The 

 form of this amphitheatre was more than th half of a cone vertically cut, and of which the latter section should be reversed. The 

 orchestra, was the place occupied by our pit. The space nearest the stage was the podium of the Romans ; the kypoikcnion of the 

 Greeks. It seemed, like our orchestra, to be originally destined for musicians; but the Roman knights, however, occupied the po- 

 dium, adorned, as Vitruvius tells us, with elegant columns. Behind the scene was sometimes a walk, surrounded with porticoes. 

 The middle of this walk was shaded with quincunxes. 



The Greek theatre differed from that of the Romans in this respect, that the semicircle which traced the plan of 'he theatre did not 

 commence so near the front line of^thc stage ; but in front of the great scene, they had a smaller one, railed the tkyneU, to which 

 ihcrc- was a descent by several sleps from the larger one. It was on this thymele that the mimics and the dancers performed, in the 

 same manner as our modern rope-dancers come forward into the interior of the house. The scene, properly so called, was the inner 

 urtain of the moderns. It was almost always constructed in relief, and was sometimes ornumcnu-d with statues of gold and ivory. 

 The scene generally represented a palace with three practicable gate*. The middle one was called the royal gale ; that which was to 

 the right of the actors, the strangers gate; that to their left, the prisoners gate. The |x>stsceniuin was the place for the actors, and 

 for placing the decorations. Between the postscenium or spice In front of the scene, and the scene itself, was placed vertically, and 

 upon the sides, three triangular prisms which turned upon pivots, and on the faces of these prisms were moveablc decorations adapted 

 to the scene of action, whether tragedy, comedy, or (satyricon) farce. 



t The Satire, as a rude ancient form of comedy, it must be remembered, wu wholly different from the grave invectives (so called) 

 gainst vice, written by the Honians, and imitated by the moderns. 





