DRAMA DRAMATIC LITERATURE. 



DRAMA ; DRAMATIC LITERATURE. 



10 



UM af* of Pericles, than it had reached at th termination of the dra- 

 auUo career of ^Eschylua. The rgnr building iUelf, which in the 

 Mnenl UM) splendid restoration of Athene after the termination of the 

 Fenian war, was reconstructed of masair* itone, wu originally of 

 timber only. Of the work, of the three groat masters of the Greek 

 tragedy, .Cscanci, SonocLts, and Emirrow, a particular account 

 fa g|Tn under their respective namea in the Bioo. Drv. 



We ahall, perhapa, form the beat idea of the old Grecian comedy by 

 coneidering it aa a complete eontnat to the ideal tragedy. Although 

 UM old comic writer* gave the namea of rxi-ting peraona to their cha- 

 racter*, they did not exhibit them on the stage with all the circum- 

 stances peculiar to certain indiriduala ; for such hiatorical character! 

 hare alwaya with them an allegorical signification ; they represent a 

 claw ; and aa their features were exaggerated in the masks, so their 

 characters were overcharged in the composition. Still thin constant 

 allusion to the nearest reality, which not only allowed the poet, in the 

 character of the chorua, to converse with the public in a general way, 

 but also to point at certain individual spectators, is of essential import 

 in any vicn- of this species of composition. As the spirit of the elder 

 tragedy delighted in harmonious unity, the old comedy, on the con- 

 trary, flourished in a chaotic exuberance, seeking out the moot glaring 

 and diversified objects, the most strongly marked oppositions, working 

 up the most singular, unheard of, and even impossible adventures, with 

 the local peculiarities nearest at hand. The comic poet, indeed, aa 

 well as the tragic, transported his characters to an ideal element : not. 

 however, to a world subjected to Necessity, but to one where the 

 caprice of an inventive wit prevails without restraint, and all the laws 

 of reality are suspended. 



Comedy, in the hands of its Doric founder Epicharmus [EPICIIAR- 

 Mfs, in BIOG. Uiv.], borrowed its materials chiefly from the mythical 

 world. Nor in its maturity did it altogether relinquish that field, as 

 appears from the titles of many of the lost pieces of Aristophanes and 

 his contemporaries. But as a violent contrast between the materials 

 and the form is here quite appropriate, the subjects of the old comedy 

 were naturally drawn from the most serious concerns of public life 

 and the state : the private and family life was only introduced occa- 

 sionally, and indirectly, with a reference to the public. The chorus, 

 besides that it was essential to the complete parody of the tragic form, 

 also contributed to the expression of that festal gladness of which 

 comedy was the most unrestrained effusion ; for, as already observed, 

 in all the popular and religious festivals of the Greeks choral songs 

 were chanted, accompanied by dancing. On some of these occasions 

 we find in the comic chorus such a display of sublime lyrical poetry 

 that the passages might be transferred to tragedy without alteration. 

 It is, however, one deviation from the tragic model, that often there 

 are several choruses in the same comedy, who at one time all sing 

 together and in opposite positions, and at other times change with and 

 succeed each other without any general reference. But the most 

 remarkable peculiarity of the comic chorus is the paralxuu, an address 

 by the chorus to the spectators, in the name and under the authority 

 of the poet, which has no immediate concern with the subject of the 

 piece. Herein he sometimes enlarges on his own merits, and ridicules 

 the pretensions of his rivals ; at other times he avails himself of his 

 privileges as an Athenian citizen, to deliver proposals of a serious or a 

 ludicrous nature for the public good. The parabasis may have owed 

 its invention partly to the circumstance of the comic poets not having 

 such ample materials as the tragic to fill up the intervals of the action, 

 when the stage was empty, with affecting and inspired poetry. But 

 this very departure from the strictness of dramatic form is consistent 

 with the essence of the old comedy ; just as an individual, while wear- 

 big a droll disguise may, in the same spirit of drollery, venture occa- 

 sionally to put aside the mask. 



Of the Grecian comic writers of the old kind there is but one of 

 whom any work has descended to us, so that in judging of his merits 

 we can have no aid from comparison with other masters. Aristophanes 

 bad many predecessors, Magnes, Crotinus, Crates, and others ; he was 

 indeed one of the latest comic authors of that school, as he survived 

 even the old comedy itself. This writer, the very singularity of 

 whose escape from the general wreck of the elder comic productions 

 render* him so interesting and valuable to the history of dramatic art, 

 has bean rery erroneously judged of in latter times, owing to two 

 capital defects in the mode in which modern criticism has been 

 applied to him, namely, the want of sufficiently understanding the 

 apirit of Athenian society of that day in general, and yet more, the 

 want of a just riew of what constituted the essential character of the 

 old comedy itself. [ARISTOPHANES, in Bioo. Dnr.] 



Towarda the end of the 1'eloponnexian war, when a few individuals, 

 violating the constitution, had assumed supreme authority in .\ 

 law was enacted empowering any person attacked by comic poets to 

 bring them to justice ; and a prohibition was issued against introducing 

 real peraona on the stage, or using maaka which bore a resemblance to 

 their features, Ac. This meaaure put a violent and final termination 

 to the genuine old comedy. For a short time after, the endeavour was 

 mad* to continue th* existence of this ideal species under the political 

 restrictions thus imposed ; but these ahacklea were soon found to be 

 fatal to its spirit and popular attractiveness ; and this transitional kind, 

 which has since beta commonly designated as the middle comedy, soon 

 gave way to the introduction of the new comedy, which, like the later 



Greek tragedy already mentioned, aimed at presenting a poetic mirror 

 of actual life. 



Although the new comedy developed itself only in the brief interval 

 between toe end of the Peloponneaian war and the first successors of 

 Alexander the Great, yet the stock of pieces in this kind amounted to 

 some thouaanda : time, however, baa made such ravage among them 

 that nothing remains to us but a number of detached fragments in the 

 original language, often so disfigured as to be unintelligible, besides 

 about twenty translations or copies of Greek originals in Plautus and 

 six in Terence. 



The Greek theatre, aa we have seen, was originally constructed for 

 the exhibition of the higher walks of the tragic drama ; iU stage was 

 open to the sky, and exhibited but little of tin Louses. 



Comedy was therefore under the necessity of laying the scene out of 

 doors ; and had often to make people come out of their houses to con- 

 fide their secrets to each other in the streets. It U true that the poets 

 were thus spared the necessity of changing the scene, as it was taken 

 for granted that the families concerned in the action lived in the same 

 neighbourhood ; besides that the Greek*, like all other K.. 

 nations, lived much more in the open air than we do. The chief dis- 

 advantage in this i of the stage U, the circumscription of 

 the female parts. If the actual manners were to be observed, as the 

 essence of the new comedy required, the secluded life of the fair sex in 

 Greece rendered the exclusion of unmarried women, and of young 

 women in general, inevitable. No females could appear but aged 

 mothers, maid -servants, or courtesans. Hence, besides the necessary 

 sacrifice of so many agreeable situations, this other inconvenience is 

 produced, that the whole piece frequently turns on a marriage with or 

 a passion for a young woman whom the audience never once see from 

 the beginning to the end of it. 



The Romans, whose drama immediately follows that of the ( 

 were not led to the invention of theatrical amusements from ti. 

 of representations to fill up the leisure of their festivals, ami enliven 

 the mind by withdrawing it from the concerns of life; but, in the 

 despondency of a desolating pestilence, against which all remedies 

 seemed insufficient (year of Rome, 391), they hod, according to the 

 story, recourse to the theatre as a means of appeasing the anger of the 

 gods, having previously been acquainted only with gymnastic exercises 

 and circus races. The hittrionct, for whom they sent to Etruria, were 

 however merely dancers, who probably did not attempt pantomimic 

 movements, but strove to delight their audience by a display of bodily 

 activity. The oldest spoken plays, the ' Kabultp Atellanae,' were bor- 

 rowed by the Romans from the Osci, the indigenous inhabitants of 

 Italy. [ATEI.LAN.K.] They were satisfied with these amusements till 

 Living Andronicus, somewhat more than 500 years after the foundation 

 of Home, began the imitation of the Greeks ; and the regular compo- 

 sitions of tragedy and the new comedy (the old it was impossible to 

 transplant) were then, for the first time, known in Rome. Tin 

 Romans owed the first idea of a play to the Etrurians, the effusions of 

 a sjmrtive humour to the Oscans, and the higher class of dramatic pro- 

 ductions to the Greeks. They displayed, however, more originality in 

 the comic than in the tragic department. 



The Romans had, besides, their peculiar mimi. Thejr foreign name 

 for these small pieces might lead us to conclude that they bore : 

 affinity to the Greek mimi; however, they differed consider.. 1 

 form : we know also that the manners portrayed in them had a local 

 truth, and that the subject was not derived from Grecian compo.- 

 The later Greek mimi were dialogues in prose, yet written with a kind 

 of rhythm, not designed for the stage ; the Roman were in 

 represented, and often delivered extempore. Their most celebrated 

 authors in this way were contemporary with Julius Ceesar. These 

 were, Laberius, a Roman knight, and P. Syrus, his freedman and 

 scholar in the mimetic art. Not one of their compositions has de- 

 scended to us entire. We have, however, a number of sentence:- 

 the mimi of Syrus, which, from their internal worth and elegant r m 

 ciaeness of expression, deserve to rank with those of Mi nundi T. One 

 entire mimus, which unfortunately time has not spared for us, would 

 have thrown more light upon the question than all the confused 

 accounts of the grammarians, and all the conjectures of modern 

 scholars. 



The regular comedy of the Romans was for the most part J>H : 

 that is, it appeared in a Grecian dress, and represented ' unera. 



This is the case with the whole of tha comedies of Plautus and T< 

 i i-s and TKHKSCE, in Bioo. Drv.] But they had also a an. 

 '/if. i. so called from the Roman dress which was worn in it. Afranius 



rated as the priiiuipal writer in this department. \\ 

 remains whatever of him ; and the accounts of the nature of his 

 are so very scanty, that we cannot even determine, will. 

 whether the togattc were original comedies of an entirely new invent inn, 

 or merely Greek comedies adapted to Roman manners. The latter 

 supposition is the more probable, as Afranius lived in a period when 

 the Roman genius had not yet attempted to soar on the wings of 

 original invention ; and yet we cannot well conceive the possibility of 

 adapting Attic comedies, without the most violent constraint, to local 

 circumstances of o very different a nature. The Roman way of living 

 was in general serious and grave, though in private society they showed 

 a great turn for wit and joviality. The diversity of ranks among them 

 was politically marked in a very decided manner, and the wealth of 



