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There
had been many tragic and comic poets before Thespis; but as they
had
made
no alterations in the original rude form of this poem, and as
Thespis
was
the first that made any improvement in it, he was generally
esteemed
its
inventor. Before him, tragedy was no more than a jumble of
buffoon
tales
in the comic style, intermixed with the singing of a chorus in
praise
of Bacchus; for it is to the feasts of that god, celebrated at
the
time
of the vintage, that tragedy owes its birth.
La
tragédie, informe et grossière en na’ssant,
N’étoit
qu’un simple chœur, où chacun en dansant,
Et
du dieu des raisins entonnant les louanges,
S’éfforçoit
d’attirer de fertiles vendanges.
Là,
le vin et la joie éveillant les esprits,
Du
plus habile chantre un bouc étoit le prix.
Formless
and gross did tragedy arise,
A
simple chorus, rather mad than wise;
For
fruitful vintages the dancing throng
Roar’d
to the god of grapes a drunken song:
Wild
mirth and wine sustain’d the frantic note,
And
the best singer had the prize, a goat.(175)
Thespis
made several alterations in it, which Horace describes after
Aristotle,
in his _Art of Poetry_. The first(176) was to carry his actors
about
in a cart, whereas before they used to sing in the streets,
wherever
chance
led them. Another was to have their faces smeared over with
wine-lees,
instead of acting without disguise, as at first. He also
introduced
a character among the chorus, who, to give the actors time to
rest
themselves and to take breath, repeated the adventures of some
illustrious
person; which recital, at length, gave place to the subjects
of
tragedy.
Thespis
fut le premier, qui barbouillé de lie,
Promena
par les bourgs cette heureuse folie,
Et
d’acteurs mal oinés chargeant un tombereau,
Amusa
les passans d’un spectacle nouveau.(177)
First
Thespis, smear’d with lees, and void of art,
The
grateful folly vented from a cart;
And
as his tawdry actors drove about,
The
sight was new, and charm’d the gaping rout.
(M1)
Thespis lived in the time of Solon.(178) That wise legislator,
upon
seeing
his pieces performed, expressed his dislike, by striking his
staff
against
the ground; apprehending that these poetical fictions and idle
stories,
from mere theatrical representations, would soon become matters
of
importance, and have too great a share in all public and private
affairs.
(M2)
It is not so easy to invent, as to improve the inventions of
others.
The
alterations Thespis made in tragedy, gave room for Æschylus to
make
new
and more considerable of his own. He was born at Athens, in the
first
year
of the sixtieth Olympiad. He took upon him the profession of arms,
at
a
time when the Athenians reckoned almost as many heroes as citizens.
He
was
at the battles of Marathon, Salamis, and Platæa, where he did his
duty.
(M3) But his disposition called him elsewhere, and put him upon
entering
into another course, where no less glory was to be acquired; and
where
he was soon without any competitors. As a superior genius, he
took
upon
him to reform, or rather to create tragedy anew; of which he has,
in
consequence,
been always acknowledged the inventor and father. Father
Brumoi,
in a dissertation which abounds with wit and good sense, explains
the
manner in which Æschylus conceived the true idea of tragedy from
Homer’s
epic poems. The poet himself used to say, that his works were the
remnants
of the feasts given by Homer in the _Iliad_ and _Odyssey_.
Tragedy
therefore took a new form under him. He gave masks(179) to his
actors,
adorned them with robes and trains, and made them wear buskins.
Instead
of a cart, he erected a theatre of a moderate elevation, and
entirely
changed their style; which from being merry and burlesque, as at
first,
became majestic and serious.
Eschyle
dans le chœur jetta les personages:
D’un
masque plus honnête habilla les visages:
Sur
les ais d’un théâtre en public exhaussé
Fit
paroître l’acteur d’un brodequin chaussé.(180)
From
Æschylus the chorus learnt new grace:
He
veil’d with decent masks the actor’s face,
Taught
him in buskins first to tread the stage,
And
rais’d a theatre to please the age.
But
that was only the external part or body of tragedy. Its soul,
which
was
the most important and essential addition of Æschylus, consisted
in
the
vivacity and spirit of the action, sustained by the dialogue of
the
persons
of the drama introduced by him; in the artful working up of the
stronger
passions, especially of terror and pity, which, by alternately
afflicting
and agitating the soul with mournful or terrible objects,
produce
a grateful pleasure and delight from that very trouble and
emotion;
in the choice of a subject, great, noble, interesting, and
contained
within due bounds by the unity of time, place, and action: in
short,
it is the conduct and disposition of the whole piece, which, by
the
order
and harmony of its parts, and the happy connection of its
incidents
and
intrigues, holds the mind of the spectator in suspense till the
catastrophe,
and then restores him his tranquillity, and dismisses him
with
satisfaction.
The
chorus had been established before Æschylus, as it composed alone,
or
next
to alone, what was then called tragedy. He did not therefore
exclude
it,
but, on the contrary, thought fit to incorporate it, to sing as
chorus
between
the acts. Thus it supplied the interval of resting, and was a
kind
of
person of the drama, employed either(181) in giving useful advice
and
salutary
instructions, in espousing the party of innocence and virtue, in
being
the depository of secrets, and the avenger of violated religion,
or
in
sustaining all those characters at the same time according to
Horace.
The
coryphæus, or principal person of the chorus, spoke for the rest.
In
one of Æschylus’s pieces, called the _Eumenides_, the poet
represents
Orestes
at the bottom of the stage, surrounded by the Furies, laid asleep
by
Apollo. Their figure must have been extremely horrible, as it is
related,
that upon their waking and appearing tumultuously on the theatre,
where
they were to act as a chorus, some women miscarried with the
surprise,
and several children died of the fright. The chorus at that time
consisted
of fifty actors. After this accident, it was reduced to fifteen
by
an express law, and at length to twelve.
I
have observed, that one of the alterations made by Æschylus in
tragedy,
was
the mask worn by his actors. These dramatic masks had no
resemblance
to
ours, which only cover the face, but were a kind of case for the
whole
head,
and which, besides the features, represented the beard, the hair,
the
ears, and even the ornaments used by women in their head-dresses.
These
masks varied according to the different pieces that were acted.
The
subject
is treated at large in a dissertation of M. Boindin’s, inserted
in
the
_Memoirs of the Academy of Belles Lettres_.(182)
I
could never comprehend, as I have observed elsewhere,(183) in
speaking
of
pronunciation, how masks came to continue so long upon the stage of
the
ancients;
for certainly they could not be used, without considerably
deadening
the spirit of the action, which is principally expressed in the
countenance,
the seat and mirror of what passes in the soul. Does it not
often
happen, that the blood, according as it is put in motion by
different
passions, sometimes covers the face with a sudden and modest
blush,
sometimes enflames it with the heat of rage and fury, sometimes
retires,
leaving it pale with fear, and at others diffuses a calm and
amiable
serenity over it? All these affections are strongly imaged and
distinguished
in the lineaments of the face. The mask deprives the
features
of this energetic language, and of that life and soul, by which
it
is the faithful interpreter of all the sentiments of the heart. I
do
not
wonder, therefore, at Cicero’s remark upon the action of
Roscius.(184)
“Our
ancestors,”’ says he, “were better judges than we are. They could
not
wholly
approve even Roscius himself, whilst he performed in a mask.”
(M4)
Æschylus was in the sole possession of the glory of the stage,
with
almost
every voice in his favour, when a young rival made his appearance
to
dispute the palm with him. This was Sophocles. He was born at
Colonos,
a
town in Attica, in the second year of the seventy-first Olympiad.
His
father
was a blacksmith, or one who kept people of that trade to work
for
him.
His first essay was a masterpiece. (M5) When, upon the occasion
of
Cimon’s
having found the bones of Theseus, and their being brought to
Athens,
a dispute between the tragic poets was appointed, Sophocles
entered
the lists with Æschylus, and carried the prize against him. The
ancient
victor, laden till then with the wreaths he had acquired,
believed
them
all lost by failing of the last, and withdrew in disgust into
Sicily
to
king Hiero, the protector and patron of all the learned in disgrace
at
Athens.
He died there soon after in a very singular manner, if we may
believe
Suidas. As he lay asleep in the fields, with his head bare, an
eagle,
taking his bald crown for a stone, let a tortoise fall upon it,
which
killed him. Of ninety, or at least seventy, tragedies, composed
by
him,
only seven are now extant.
Nor
have those of Sophocles escaped the injury of time better, though
one
hundred
and seventeen in number, and according to some one hundred and
thirty.
He retained to extreme old age all the force and vigour of his
genius,
as appears from a circumstance in his history. His children,
unworthy
of so great a father, upon pretence that he had lost his senses,
summoned
him before the judges, in order to obtain a decree, that his
estate
might be taken from him, and put into their hands. He made no
other
defence,
than to read a tragedy he was at that time composing, called
_Œdipus
at Colonos_, with which the judges were so charmed, that he
carried
his cause unanimously; and his children, detested by the whole
assembly,
got nothing by their suit, but the shame and infamy due to so
flagrant
ingratitude. He was twenty times crowned victor. Some say he
expired
in repeating his _Antigone_, for want of power to recover his
breath,
after a violent endeavour to pronounce a long period to the end;
others,
that he died of joy upon his being declared victor, contrary to
his
expectation. The figure of a hive was placed upon his tomb, to
perpetuate
the name of Bee, which had been given him, from the sweetness
of
his verses: whence, it is probable, the notion was derived, of the
bees
having
settled upon his lips when in his cradle. (M6) He died in his
ninetieth
year, the fourth of the ninety-third Olympiad, after having
survived
Euripides six years, who was not so old as himself.
(M7)
The latter was born in the first year of the seventy-fifth
Olympiad,
at
Salamis, whither his father Mnesarchus and mother Clito had
retired
when
Xerxes was preparing for his great expedition against Greece. He
applied
himself at first to philosophy, and, amongst others, had the
celebrated
Anaxagoras for his master. But the danger incurred by that
great
man, who was very near being made the victim of his philosophical
tenets,
inclined him to the study of poetry. He discovered in himself a
genius
for the drama, unknown to him at first; and employed it with such
success,
that he entered the lists with the great masters of whom we have
been
speaking. His works(185) sufficiently denote his profound
application
to
philosophy. They abound with excellent maxims of morality; and it is
in
that
view that Socrates in his time, and Cicero long after him,(186)
set
so
high a value upon Euripides.
One
cannot sufficiently admire the extreme delicacy expressed by the
Athenian
audience on certain occasions, and their solicitude to preserve
the
reverence due to morality, virtue, decency, and justice. It is
surprising
to observe the warmth with which they unanimously reproved
whatever
seemed inconsistent with them, and called the poet to an account
for
it, notwithstanding his having a well-founded excuse, as he had
given
such
sentiments only to persons notoriously vicious, and actuated by
the
most
unjust passions.
Euripides
had put into the mouth of Bellerophon a pompous panegyric upon
riches,
which concluded with this thought: “Riches are the supreme good
of
the
human race, and with reason excite the admiration of the gods and
men.”
The whole theatre cried out against these expressions; and he
would
have
been banished directly, if he had not desired the sentence to be
respited
till the conclusion of the piece, in which the advocate for
riches
perished miserably.
He
was in danger of incurring serious inconveniences from an answer
he
puts
into the mouth of Hippolytus. Phædra’s nurse represented to him,
that
he
had engaged himself under an inviolable oath to keep her secret.
“My
tongue,
it is true, pronounced that oath,” replied he, “but my heart gave
no
consent to it.” This frivolous distinction appeared to the whole
people,
as an express contempt of the religion and sanctity of an oath,
that
tended to banish all sincerity and good faith from society and
the
intercourse
of life.
Another
maxim(187) advanced by Eteocles in the tragedy called the
_Phœnicians_,
and which Cæsar had always in his mouth, is no less
pernicious:
“If justice may be violated at all, it is when a throne is in
question;
in other respects, let it be duly revered.” It is highly
criminal
in Eteocles, or rather in Euripides, says Cicero, to make an
exception
in that very point, wherein such violation is the highest crime
that
can be committed. Eteocles is a tyrant, and speaks like a tyrant,
who
vindicates
his unjust conduct by a false maxim; and it is not strange that
Cæsar,
who was a tyrant by nature, and equally unjust, should lay great
stress
upon the sentiments of a prince whom he so much resembled. But
what
is
remarkable in Cicero, is his falling upon the poet himself, and
imputing
to him as a crime the having advanced so pernicious a principle
upon
the stage.
Lycurgus,
the orator,(188) who lived in the time of Philip and Alexander
the
Great, to reanimate the spirit of the tragic poets, caused three
statues
of brass to be erected, in the name of the people, to Æschylus,
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