G46 ■ PLAY H 
dalized at youth for being lively, and at childhood for 
being playful. AddiJ'an's Sped. 
PLAY'GAME, f. Play of children.—That liberty 
alone gives the true relifh to their ordinary play games. 
Locke. 
PLAYTIOUSE, f. Houfe where dramatic performances 
are reprefented.—Thefe are the youths that thunder at a 
playhoufe, and fight for bitten apples. Shake [peace's Hen. 
VIII.—He hurries me from th e playhoufe. and feenes there 
to the bear-garden. Stillingjleet. 
Shakefpeare, whom you and ev’ry playhoufe bill 
Style the divine, the matchlefs, what you will, 
For gain, not glory, wing’d his roving flight, 
And grew immortal in his own defpighr. Pope. 
Dramatic arrtufements were primarily confidered as ce¬ 
remonies of a religious nature. Tragedy, now matured 
by the experience of ages, owed its origin to the pious 
with of barbarians to appeafe an offended deity. The 
account which we haveof the origin of Grecian theatrical 
reprefentations, deferibes them as the fantaftic orgies of 
fliepherds and peafants, who folemnized the rites of 
Bacchus by the facrifice of a goat, by tumultuous dances, 
and by a fort of mafquerade, in which the aCtors were 
difguifed like the ancient morrice-dancers of England, or 
th eguifards of Scotland, who have not as yet totally dif- 
isfed fimilar revels. Inftead of malks, their faces were 
ftained with the lees of wine, and the fongs and jells cor- 
refponded in coarfenefs to the character of fatyrs and 
fawns, which they were fuppofed to aflame in honour of 
their patron Bacchus. Mufic, however, always formed 
a part of this rude fellivity; and to this was fometimes 
added the recitations of an individual performer, who, 
poffeffed of more voice or talent than his companions, 
was able to entertain an audience for a few minutes by 
his own individual exertions. 
Out of fuch rude materials, Thefpis is fuppofed to have 
been the firft who framed fomething like an approach to 
a more regular entertainment. The aCtors under this, 
the .firft: of theatrical managers, inftead of running about 
wild among the audience, were exalted upon a cart, or 
upon a fcaffold formed of boards laid upon treffels, like 
our ftreet-tumblers of the prefent da}'. In thefe im¬ 
provements Thefpis is fuppofed to have had the aid of 
one Sufarion, whofe efforts were more particularly di¬ 
rected to tiie comic drama. But their fortunes have been 
unequal; for, while the name of Thefpis is (till united 
with every thing dramatic, that of Sufarion has fallen 
into oblivion, and is only known to antiquaries. 
The drama in Greece, as afterwards in Britain, had 
fcarce begun to develope itfelf from barbarifm, ere, with 
the moll rapid ftrides, it advanced towards perfection. 
Thefpis and Sufarion flourifhed about 550 years before 
the Chriftian sera. The battle of Marathon was fought 
in the year 490 before Chrift ; and it was upon Efchylus, 
one of the Athenian generals on that memorable oc- 
cafion, that Greece conferred the honourable title of the 
Father of Tragedy. We mu ft neceffarily judge of 
his efforts, by that which he did, not by that which he left 
undone; and, if forne of his regulations may found 
ftrangein modern ears, it is but juft to edmpare the ftate 
in which he found the drama with that in which he 
left it. 
Efchylus was the firft, who, availing himfelf of the in¬ 
vention of a llage by Thefpis, introduced upon the boards 
a plurality of aCtors at the fame time, and converted into 
aCfion and dialogue, accompanied or relieved at intervals 
by the mufical performance of the chorus, the dull mono¬ 
logue of the Thefpian orator. It was Efchylus, alfo, who 
introduced the deceptions of feenery, ftationary, indeed, 
and therefore very different from the decorations of our 
ftage, but Hill giving a reality to the whole performance, 
which could not fail to afford pleafure to thofe, who 
beheld for the firft time an effort to furround the player, 
OUSE. 
while invefted with his theatrical character, with feenery 
which might add to the illufion of the reprefentation, 
This was not all : a theatre at firft of wood, but after¬ 
wards of (tone, circumfcribed, while it accommodated, 
the fpeCIators, and reduced a cafual and diforderly mob 
to the quality and civilization of a regular and attentive 
audience. 
The new theatre and ftage of Athens having been thus 
reared, Efchylus next introduced drefles in character for 
his principal aCtors, to which were added embellilhments 
of a kind which mark the wide diftinCtion betwixt the 
ancient and modern ftage. The perfonal difguife which 
had formerly been attained by ftaining the aCtor’s face, 
was now, by what doubtlefs was confidered as an high ex¬ 
ertion of ingenuity, accomplifhed by the ufe of a mafk, fo 
painted as to reprefent the perfonage whom he performed. 
To augment the apparent awkwardnefs of this contri¬ 
vance, the mouths of thefe malks were frequently fashion¬ 
ed like the extremity of a trumpet, which, if it aided the 
aCtor’s voice to reach the extremity of the huge circuit to 
wdiich he addreffed himfelf, mult Hill have made a ridi¬ 
culous appearance upon the ftage, had not the habits and 
expectations of the fpeCIators been in a different tone 
from thofe of a modern audience. The ufe of the 
cothurnus, or bulkin, which was contrived fo as to give to 
the performer additional and unnatural ftature, would 
have fallen under the fame cenfure. But theancient and 
modern theatres may be faid to refemble eacli other only 
in name, as will appear from the following account of 
the Grecian ftage, abridged from the belt antiquaries. 
The theatres of the Greeks were immenfely large in 
comparifon to ours; and the audience fat upon rows of 
benches, rifing above each other in due gradation. In 
form they refembled a horfe-lhoe. The ftage occupied a 
platform, which clofed in the flat end of the building, 
and was raifed fo high as to be on a level with the ioweft 
row of benches. The central part of the theatre, or 
what we call pit, inftead of being filled with fpeCIators, 
according to the modern cuftom, was left for the ocea- 
fional occupation of the chorus, during thofe parts of 
their duty which did not require them to be nearer to 
the ftage. This fpace was called the orcheftra, and cor- 
refponded in fome meafure with the open fpace which, in 
the modern equeftrian amphitheatres, is interpofed be¬ 
twixt the audience and the ftage, for the dilplay of feats 
of horfemanfhip. The delufion of the feene being thus 
removed to a confiderable diftance from the eye of the 
fpeCIator,was heightened, and manyoftheobjeftions offered 
to the ufe of the malk and the bulkin were leffened, or 
totally removed. When the chorus did not occupy the 
orcheftra, they ranged themfelves befide the tkyiiiele, a 
fort of altar, furrounded with fteps, placed in front of 
their ftage orcheftra. From this, as a poll of obfervation, 
they watched the progrefs of the drama, and to this point 
the aCtors turned themfelves when addreffing them. The 
folemn hymns and myftic dances of the chorus, performed 
during their retreat into the orcheftra, formed a fort of 
interludes, or interruptions of the aftion fimilar in effeCl 
to the modern divifion intoaCIs. But, properly fpeaking, 
there was no interruption of the reprelentation from 
beginning to end. The piece was not, indeed, conftantly 
progreftive, but the illufion of the feene was always 
before the audience, either by means of the aCiors them¬ 
felves, or of the chorus. And the mufical recitation 
and character of the dances traced by the chorus in their 
interludes, were always in correfpondence with the cha¬ 
racter of the piece, grave, majeflic, and melancholy; in 
tragedy, gay, and lively; in comedy, and during the re¬ 
prelentation of fatirical pieces, wild,extravagant, and bor¬ 
dering on buffoonery. The number of thete interludes, 
or interruptions of the aftion, feems to have varied from 
three to fix or even more, at the pleafure of the author. 
The mufic was Ample and inartificial, although it feems 
to have produced powerful effeCts upon the audience. 
Two 
