OS7 



DRAMA ; DRAMATIC LITERATURE. 



DRAMA; DRAMATIC LITERATURE. 



633 



one by far the most general, the iambic trimeter, denoted the regular 

 progress of the action, and the other, the trochaic tetrameter, was 

 expressive of sudden passion. Indeed, the simplicity of the Greek 

 tragedy, of which so much has been said, attaches only to the plan ; 

 for the richest variety of poetical ornament is observable in the 

 execution. It must be remembered, too, that the utmost accuracy in 

 the delivery of the different modes of versification was expected 

 from the player, as the delicacy of the Grecian ear would not excuse, 

 even in an orator, the fake quantity of a single syllable. 



But the epic form, under which their greater and more national 

 compositions present themselves to us in their earlier times, had, for a 

 long period before the rise of the dramatic art among them, been 

 rivalled by the lyric ; and many old subjects of high heroic song had 

 been embodied under a new shape in grand choral compositions, which, 

 observes Mr. Thirlwall ('Hist, of Greece,' chap, xii.) "uniting the 

 attractions of music and action with those of a lofty poetry, formed 

 the favourite entertainment of the Dorian cities. This appears to have 

 been the germ out of which, by the introduction of a new element, the 

 recitation of a performer who assumed a character, and perhaps from 

 the first shifted his mask so as to exhibit the outlines of a simple story 

 in a feV scenes parted by the intervening song of the chorus, Thespis 

 and his successors gradually unfolded the Attic tragedy." 



Such being the firmly established practical circumstances of Greece, 

 a transition all at once from the combined epic and lyric forms to the 

 purely dramatic was, we conceive, neither practicable even to a genius 

 of the first order, as we admit ^Eschylus to have been, nor very likely 

 even to enter into his imagination. ./Esehylus by no means introduced 

 the chorus into the drama : he may be much rather said to have intro- 

 duced the drama into the chorus ; and that of itself was no slight 

 achievement. We have already remarked, that the idea of any great 

 public exhibition unaccompanied by choral gongs was one into which 

 the Greek taste and imagination of that day could by no means enter. 

 So strong, however, was the bent of ^Eschylus towards the dramatic, 

 that he not only retains the chorus as a lyrical accompaniment, but 

 gives it also a participation in the action itself. This, in stamping the 

 dramatic character upon the whole performance, was as far as he could 

 venture to go, and, as we have already said, was most likely as far as 

 he desired to go. 



We must now, in order to complete the idea which we desire to pre- 

 sent of the material forms of the Grecian drama, give a short account 

 of the architectural structure and arrangement of the edifice itself in 

 which the pieces were exhibited, when once, under the hand of ^Eschy- 

 lus, their dramatic element was distinctly developed. Brief as we shall 

 endeavour to make this description, some detail is indispensable, owing 

 to the very different plan from the modern upon which the~whole con- 

 ception and design of the ancient drama required that its theatres 

 should be constructed. 



The theatres of the Greeks were open to the sky, and their dramas 

 were always acted during the day, a mode of construction and of 

 exhibition which was highly favoured by the beauty of their climate. 

 As regards the inconvenience which many modern critics have supposed 

 the poets to have felt, from the necessity of always laying the scene of 

 their pieces befora houses, and thus often violating probability, it should 

 be observed that the Greeks lived much more in the open air than we 

 do, and transacted many things in public places which with us usually 

 take place in houses ; and the stage did not represent a street, but a 

 space before the house and belonging to it, wherein stood an altar on 

 which the sacrifices to the household gods were offered up. Here the 

 women (who among the Greeks lived in so retired a manner) might 

 appear without impropriety, even the unmarried ones. Neither was it 

 impracticable to give a view of the interior of the houses : this was 

 done by means of the encyclema, which we shall presently describe. 



The Grecian theatres, destined, not like those of the moderns, for a 

 long succession of daily exhibitions, but for the celebration of a few 

 annual festivals, were of that colossal magnitude which was indis- 

 pensable to contain, as it were, the whole body of the people, together 

 with the concourse of strangers who flocked to these solemnities. The 

 distance to which the eyes of the spectators were thus necessarily 

 n from the acted scene presents another obvious reason for and 

 justification of the artificial expansion, as we may term it, of the whole 

 figure of the' actor. The groups on the stage, not to appear absolutely 

 insignificant, needed, if possible, to be represented larger than life ; and 

 besides the fundamental reason which we have already stated for the 

 constant use of the mask, that play of the actor's features which it con- 

 cealed could not have been perceived with any distinctness across the 

 vast space which separated him from the audience. Analogous to the 

 use of the mask, the buskin, &c., were certain contrivances for increasing 

 the loudneM of the voice. Vitruvius tells us also of vehicles of sound 

 distributed throughout the building; and though of these we have no 

 very clear account, we may safely assume that the theatres of the 

 ancients were constructed on very perfect acoustical principles. We 

 know from existing remains that all who were present at the dramatic 

 exhibition could be, in the literal sense of the word, spectators. The 

 neat* for them consisted of steps rising backwards round the semicircle 

 of the orchestra, the name given to the whole internal area called iu a 

 mod rn theatre the pit. The lowest step of this amphitheatre was 

 raised considerably above the orchestra, and opposite to it was the 

 stage, placed at an equal elevation. The sunk semicircle of the orchestra 



contained no spectators, but served another purpose, which we shall 

 shortly have to mention. The stage consisted of a strip, which, form- 

 ing the chord of the semicircle, extended from one end of the building 

 to the other, but the depth of which bore little proportion to this 

 length. This was called the logeum, or, in Latin, pulpitum, and the 

 usual place for the dramatic action was in the middle of it. Behind 

 this middle part the soene receded quadrangularly ; still, however, with 

 less depth than breadth : the space thus comprised was called the pro- 

 scenium. The remaining part of the logeum, to the right and left of 

 the scene, had, both in front on the verge of the orchestra and at the 

 back, a wall entirely plain, or at most architecturally ornamented, 

 which rose to the level of the uppermost seat for the spectators. 



The decoration was so contrived that the principal object in front 

 covered the back-ground, and the prospects of distance were given at 

 each side, which is just the reverse of the mode adopted on the modern 

 stage. This was done according to certain rules : on the left appeared 

 the town to which the palace, temple, or whatever occupied the centre 

 belonged; on the right was the opeu country, landscape, mountains, sea- 

 shore, &c. The lateral decorations were three-sided constructions turn- 

 ing on a pivot fixed underneath, by which means the changes of scene 

 were partly effected. In the back decoration it is probable that many 

 things were exhibited substantially which with us are only painted. 

 When a palace or temple was represented, there appeared in the pro- 

 scenium an altar, which answered a number of purposes in the course 

 of the performance. The central decoration was most frequently 

 architectural, though sometimes it was a painted landscape ; and from 

 a passage of Plato it seems clear that the Greeks must have carried 

 theatrical perspective to very considerable perfection. 



In the back wall of the scene were a large main entrance and two 

 side ones ; and as the hinder decoration was generally a palace in 

 which the principal characters of royal descent resided, they naturally 

 came through the great door, and the servants made their entrance 

 from the wings. There were two other entrances ; one at the end of 

 the logeum, whence the inhabitants of the town came ; the other iu 

 the orchestra below, for characters who were supposed to come from a 

 distance ; they ascended the logeum by a staircase from the orchestra, 

 which was applicable to a variety of purposes, as circumstances 

 required. The situation of these several entrances explains many 

 passages in the ancient dramas, where the persoua standing in the 

 middle see some one advancing long before he comes near them. 

 Beneath the seats of the spectators a stair was somewhere constructed 

 through which the spectres of the departed, unperceived by the 

 audience, ascended into the orchestra, and thence, by the staircase 

 above mentioned, made their appearance on the stage. The nearest 

 verge of the logeum sometimes represented the sea-shore. The Greeks 

 were well skilled also in availing themselves, for scenic effect, even of 

 what lay beyond the decorations. The frequent addresses to heaven 

 were doubtless directed to the actual skies ; and it was a general prin- 

 ciple with them, that everything imitated on the stage should, if 

 possible, consist of actual representation, and only where this could 

 not be done were they content with a symbolical exhibition. The 

 machinery for the descent of gods to the earth or the withdrawing of 

 men from it, was placed aloft behind the wall at each side of the scene, 

 and so removed from the sight of the audience. There were hollow 

 places beneath the stage, and contrivances for thunder and lightning, 

 for the apparent fall or burning of a house, &o. Au upper story could 

 be added to the farthermost wall of the soene, when it was necessary 

 to represent a tower having an extensive prospect, &o. The encyclema 

 was a machine semicircular within, and covered above, which repre- 

 sented the objects contained in it as in a house ; this could be thrust 

 behind the great middle entrance, and we find it to have been so used 

 for the production of a grand theatrical effect, the central entrance 

 being then left open to exhibit the interior to the audience. A stage 

 curtain is mentioned both by Greek and Roman writers ; indeed its 

 Latin appellation, aulaum, is borrowed from the Greeks. It seems, 

 however, not to have been in use in the earlier period of the Attic 

 theatre ; and when brought into use it covered, not the whole length 

 of the logeum, but only the comparatively small front of the pro- 

 scenium. 



The entrances for the chorus were beneath, in the orchestra, in which 

 it generally remained, and in which it performed its solemn dance, 

 moving round first in one direction, then in the other, during the 

 choral songs. In front of the orchestra, opposite to the middle of the 

 scene, was an elevation with steps, resembling an altar, raised to the 

 level of the stage, and called the thymele. This was the station of 

 the chorus when it did not chant, but was taking an interest in the 

 action. The leader of the chorus then took his or her station on 

 the top of the thymele, to see what was passing on the stage, and to 

 communicate with the characters. For though the choral song was 

 common to the whole, yet when it entered into the dialogue, one of its 

 number spoke for the rest, which accounts for the changing from the 

 plural number to the singular, and v ice vertd, in addressing them from 

 the stage. The thymele was situated precisely in the centre of the 

 building, and all the measurements were calculated from that point. 



It is plain that the Grecian theatre, both in its architectural and its 

 scenic arrangements, must have attained much higher perfection in the 

 course of that illustrious period of Grecian art which we are accus- 

 tomed to denominate, from its most characteristic and influential name, 



