230 PROFESSIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 



by scenic games, and, that the Romans might be able to celebrate these 

 games, they sent them at the same time actors, who executed religious 

 dances to the sound of the flute . . . the pestilence then ended.&quot; 



And he goes on to say that 



Young Romans learned the dances introduced from Etruria, and 

 marked the rhythm of them by songs, often improvised, which ended 

 by being accompanied with action. Roman comedy was discovered. 1 



In Rome, as in Greece, an idea of sacredness long attached 

 to the drama. &quot; Yarro says St. Augustine, ranks the 

 atrical things with things divine. This conception of 

 sacredness, however, was congruous with their conceptions 

 of the gods, and widely different from sacredness as under 

 stood by us. 



11 The subjects of the pantomime were taken from the myths of gods 

 and heroes, the actor having to represent male and female characters 

 by turns, while a choir, accompanied by flute-players, sang the corre 

 sponding canticum.&quot; 



&quot; Sometimes mythological scenes were performed in the arena with 

 cruel accuracy. Condemned criminals had to mount the pyre like 

 Hercules, or to give their hand to the flames like Mucius Scaevola, or 

 to be crucified like Laureolus the robber ; others were torn by bears, 

 in imitation of the fate of Orpheus.&quot; 



Having usually been an alien and possessing no odour of 

 sanctity derived from his traditional religious function, 

 the actor &quot;was ranked with slaves and barbarians ... he generally 

 was a slave or freedman, or a native of some country where his pro 

 fession was more esteemed, such as the Greek colonies and the East 

 generally.&quot; 



680a. Little as one might have expected it, we find that 

 the pagan genesis of the drama was paralleled by the Chris 

 tian re-genesis of it in mediaeval Europe. It commenced, as 

 in India, Greece, and Rome, with representations of sacred 

 subjects by priestly actors. Incidents in sacred history were 

 dramatically repeated in edifices devoted to divine worship. 

 11 The circumstance that the ritual was carried on in Latin naturally led 

 to its being supplemented on particular occasions with sacred scenes 

 or lessons acted to the ignorant. Thus the ration d etre of the Mys- 



