652 
PLAYHOUS E. 
Nam qusecunqne patent fub aperto libera ccelo ; 
Auteques aut nivei loca denfavere tribuni. 
Qualiterhaec pafnlum contendit vallis in orbem, 
Et finuata latus refupinis undique 111 vis 
Inter contimios curvatur concava montes, 
Sic tibi planitiem curvte finus ambit arenae ; 
Et geminis medium fe molibus alligat ovum.— 
—Balteus en gemmis, en illita porticos auro 
Certatim radiant; nec non ubi finis arenas 
Proxima marmoreo peragit fpe&acula muro, 
Sternitur adjunCtis ebur admirabile truncis, 
Et coit in rutulum, tereti qua lubricus axe 
Impofitos fubita vertigine falleret ungues, 
Excuteretque feras; auro quoqtte torta refulgent 
Retia, quae totis in arenam dentibus extant, 
Dentibus asquatis, et erat, tnihi crede Lycota, 
Si qua tides, noltro dens longior omnis aratro. Eclorja vii. 
We have fpoken of the early and primitive theatres of 
the Romans as being of fmaller dimenfions than thofe 
ct Greece. But the Coloffeum, or Amphitheatre of Vef¬ 
pafian, was the largelt theatre in the world. This ftupen- 
dous edifice, 
Which in its public (hows unpeopled Rome, 
And held uncrowded nations in its womb, 
was called the Amphitheatre of Vefpafian, or Coloffeum, 
from its magnitude; or, as fome authors, with lefs pro¬ 
bability, fuppofe, from a coloffal ftatue of Nero, which 
ltood in its neighbourhood. It is alfo called the Amphi¬ 
theatre, and fometimes the Flavian Amphitheatre, but is 
more generally known by the appellation of Coloffeum. 
Situated in a valley in the middle of the feven hills of 
Rome, it rears its lofty head fupreme among them all. It 
was built by the emperor Flavius Vefpafian, A. D. 72, 
alter his return from his victories over the Jews, on the 
fite of Nero’s gardens and fi(h-pc*ds. Thirty thoufand 
Ifraelitifh captives are faid to have been employed in its 
conitru&ion, which occupied them for five years, at an 
expenfe of ten millions of Roman crowns. Vefpafian did 
not live to witnefs its completion, which took place in 
the reign of Titus, who finifhed and dedicated it, with 
due folemnities and forms, to his father. The dedication 
of a theatre by the Romans was celebrated by dramas, or 
ftage-plays; of a circus, by horfe and chariot races; of a 
naumachia, by naval fltows and combats, hunting, and 
fights of wild beafts. The day on which Titus dedicated 
the Amphitheatrum Vefpafiana, five thoufand wild beafts, 
of various fpecies, were thus killed : the (hows and games 
lafted a hundred days; and he expended an immenfe film 
of money upon the favourite amufements of the people. 
The circuffes, theatres, and amphitheatres, were formed 
into three divifions, from the bottom to the top; namely, 
the orchejiru (among the Greeks appropriated to the 
chorus), for the emperor, the fenators,and other perfonages 
of the higheft rank; the equejlria, for thofe of the equef- 
trian order; and the popularia, w'hich were the higheft, 
and behind the others, for the people. It w'ould accom¬ 
modate ninety thoufand perfons fitting, and twenty thou¬ 
fand more ftanding in various places, who were called 
excuneati. The Coloffeum is conftruCled almoft entirely 
w ith huge blocks of Travertine marble, and is raifed on a 
lofty bafement ftory. Its exterior confifts of four orders, 
the intercolumniations of which are filled with arcades, 
piers, and archivetts. The lower order is Doric, the 
columns attached to the walls; the fecond Ionic, alfo of 
three-quarter columns; the third Corinthian, three- 
quarter columns; the fourth, or upper, alfo Corinthian, 
raifed on a lofty ftylobate, but of pilafters inftead of co¬ 
lumns. The form of this vaft edifice is elliptical, the ex¬ 
terior circumference of which is 1763 feet, the greater 
diameter 560 feet, and the fmaller 460, and its height 160. 
Ehnes’s Did. of the Fine A rts. 
The entrances were diftinguifiied by numbers cut on 
the ftone over each arch. Of thefe arches, eighty in 
number, thirty ftill remain on the north fide with the 
figures entire, excepting on one arch only where they 
are wanting. It has been luppofed that this entrance 
was re.erved for the emperor and his fuite, The price of 
admiffion, where any was paid, was no more tlun •*. of an 
Englifh penny. The amphitheatre was already verging 
to a ftate of decay in the time of Theodoric ; the ftones 
which had fallen being ufed as materials for repairing 
the walls of Rome. Antiquities of Ionia, by the Dilettanti 
Society, Part II. 1824, 
The fame pronenefs to fiftitious perfonification, which 
w'e have remarked as a propenfity common to all coun¬ 
tries, introduced, during the dark ages, a rude fpe¬ 
cies of drama into moil of the nations of Europe. Like 
the firlt efforts of the ancients in that art, it had its 
foundation in religion ; with this great difference, that as 
the rites of Bacchus, before and even after the improve¬ 
ments introduced by Thefpis, were well enough fuited to 
the worlhip of fuch a deity, the religious dramas, myfteries, 
or whatever other name they affumed, were often fo un¬ 
worthy of the Chriftian religion on which they were 
founded, that their being tolerated can be attributed only 
to the grofs ignorance of the laity, and the cunning of 
the Catholic priefthood, who ufed them, with other idle 
and fometimes indecorous folemnities, as one means of 
amufing the people’s minds, and detaining them in con¬ 
tented bondage to their fpiritual fuperiors. 
In the Empire of the Eaft, religious exhibitions of a 
theatrical character appear to have been inftituted about 
the year 990, by TheophylaCt, patriarch of Conffantinople, 
with the intention (Warton furmifes) of weaning the 
minds of the people from the Pagan revels, by lubftituting 
Chriftian fpedtacles, partaking of the fame fpirit of licence. 
His contemporaries give him little credit for his good 
intentions. “ Theophyiaci,” fays Cedrenus, as tranllated 
by Warton, “introduced the pradfice, which prevails to 
this day, of fcandalizing God and the memory of his 
faints, on the molt fplendid and popular feftivals, by inde¬ 
cent and ridiculous fongs, and enormous fhoutings, even 
in the midft of thofe facred hymns which we ought to 
offer to divine grace for the falvation of our fouls. But 
he, having colledted a company of bale fellows, and placing 
over them one Euthynicus furnamed Cafnes, whom he 
alfo appointed the fuperintendent of his church, admitted 
into the facred fervice diabolical dances, exclamations of 
ribaldry, and ballads borrowed from the ftreets and 
brothels.” The irregularities of the Greek clergy, w'ho, 
on certain holidays, perfonated feigned characters, and 
entered even the choir in mafquerade, are elfewere men¬ 
tioned. (Warton’s Hilt, of Englilh Poetry, vol. ii. p. 370.) 
Thefe paffages do not prove that adfual myfteries or facred 
dramas w'ere enaCted on fuch occafions; but probably 
the indecent revels alluded to bore the lame relation to 
fuch reprefentations as the original rites of Bacchus to 
the more refined exhibitions of Thelpis and Sufarion. 
It is generally imagined, that the Englifti ftage rofe 
later than the reft of its neighbours. Thofe who hold 
this opinion will, perhaps, wonder to hear of theatrical 
entertainments almoft as early as the Conqueft; and yet 
nothing is more certain, if we may believe an honelt monk, 
one Wiiliam Stephanides, or Fitz Stephen, in his De/crip- 
tio nobiliffima Civitatis Londunioz, who writes thus: “ Lon¬ 
don, inftead of common interludes belonging to the 
theatres, has plays of a more holy fubjedt: repreientations 
of thofe miracles which the holy confeffors wrought, or of 
the fufferings wherein the glorious conftancy of the 
martyrs did appear.” This author was a monk of Can¬ 
terbury, who wrote in the reign of Henry II. and died in 
that of Richard I. 1191 : and, as he does not mention 
thefe reprefentations as novelties to the people (for he is 
delcribing all the common diverfions in uie at that time), 
we can hardly fix them lower than the Conqueft; and 
this, we believe, is an earlier date than any other nation 
of Europe can produce for their theatrical reprefentations. 
The Miracles, Myfteries, and Moralities, have been 
fully treated of under Mystery, vol. xvi. d. 470. They > 
kept 
