///A' DRAMA. 



489 



Beyond the comedies of Pluutus and of Terence (Figs. 376 to 380) and i h- 

 tragedies of Seneca, which doubtless continued to be played in some of the 

 towns of the old Roman world where correct Latin was still spoken, we know of 

 nothing except a few feeble attempts at Christian drama, such as C/irixt 

 Suffering, attributed to Gregory Nazianzen ; Susan, now extinct, which is 

 said to have been written by John Damascenus; a Di/i/n///t/' /nfmni Ailnm 

 iinil En> in tin' i'nrtli/1/ /'/////<//," &c. ; and it is quite possible that these 

 dramas were not written for the stage. Christianity had condemned all kiiuU 



Gtt/v/ 



Fig. 376. The Slave and the Lawyer. Representative Characters of the Ancient Theatre, from 

 the Comedies of Terence. Manuscript of the Tenth Century. In the National Library, Time. 



of theatrical representations : tragedies, comedies, pantomimes, and circensian 

 games. The amphitheatres, which, with the pagan temples, constituted the 

 principal ornaments of the Roman cities, were, like the temples, abandoned 

 as the new faith spread. It is true that Chilpe"ric, King of the Franks, 

 constructed in 577 a circus at Paris, and another at Soissons ; but the dramatic 

 art being at that time unknown in Gaul, these buildings were merely arenas, 

 in which appeared buffoons, dancers, and performing dogs and horses, and in 

 which were still given the combats of wild animals. The theatre disappeared 

 in the shipwreck of ancient society. 



3 R 



