CHAPTER I.. SECTION I.. HISTORY OF TRAGEDY FROM ITS RISE TO THE TIME OF ÆSCHYLUS. 1 THE Drama owes its origin to that principle of imitation which is inherent in human nature. Hence its invention, like that of painting, sculpture, and the other imitative arts, cannot properly be restricted to any one specific age or people. In fact scenical representations are found among nations so totally separated by situation and circumstance, as to make it impossible for any one to have borrowed the idea from another. In Greece and Hindostan the Drama was at the same period in high repute and perfection; whilst Arabia and Persia, the intervening countries, were utter strangers to this kind of entertainment. The 2 Chinese again have from time immemorial possessed a regular theatre. The 3 ancient Peruvians had their tragedies, comedies, and interludes; and even among the savage and solitary islanders of the South Sea a rude kind of play was observed by the navigators who discovered them. Each of these people must have invented the Drama for themselves. The only point of connexion was the sameness of the cause which led to these several independent inventions; the instinctive propensity to imitation, and the pleasure arising from it when successfully exerted.* 1. The Hindoos, according to Sir William Jones (Preface to Sacontala, p. x.), have a rich dramatic literature, which ascends back upwards of two thousand years. In the translations of Sacontala and Prabodd Chandrodaya two specimens of this drama have been given to the English reader. See Robertson's India, Appendix, pp. 235. 240. Edinb. 1819. 2. See the Introduction to a Translation of Laou-seng-urh, a Chinese comedy. London, 1817. 3. Garcilasso de la Vega, Royal Commentaries, Part I. Chap. vi. 4. Τό τε γὰρ μιμεῖσθαι σύμφυτον τοῖς ἀνθρώποις ἐκ παίδων ἐστί· καὶ τὸ Xaipei Tois μinμaoi Távтas. Aristot. Poet. iv.-Schlegel Ueber Dram. Kunst und Literat. Vol. 1. p. 35. A The elements of the Grecian Drama are to be sought in an age far antecedent to all regular historic record. In those remote times the several seasons of the year had amongst the Greeks their respective festivals. That religion, which peopled with divinities wood and hill and stream, and gave to every art and event of ordinary life its peculiar deity, entered largely into the feelings and customs of these annual festivities. Amongst an agricultural population, like that of early Greece, 2 Dionysos, at what time soever his name and worship had been introduced, as 3 the inventor of wine and god of the vineyard, possessed of necessity a distinguished sacrifice and feast. Music and poetry, wherever they exist, are almost invariably employed in the services of divine worship. In Greece, preeminently the land of the song and the lyre, this practice prevailed from the most ancient times. At the periodic festivals of their 1. The vintage is generally considered to have been the time of the Bacchic festivals, in accordance with an inference from Aristotle and the statement of Horace. But all the Athenian Dionysia, whether in the city or the country, were held in the spring. From the title of the first day in the Lenæa, тa Пidoiya, or the Tappings, the feast might possibly have then been fixed to celebrate the first usage of the last year's wine (See below, chapter iii. 1.).—At Rome too the Liberalia were held in March. 2. The history of Bacchus is one of much interest and deep mystery. He evidently did not accompany the first colonists into Greece. In Homer he is seldom mentioned, and takes no part in the action of his poems among the inhabitants of Olympus. Indeed his rencontre with Lycurgus, the Prince of Thrace, recorded in the Iliad (C. 130, &c.), in agreement with his persecution by Pentheus, King of Thebes (Eurip. Bacch.), bespeaks opposition, at no very remote period, to the claims and rites of a newly introduced deity. This suspicion is converted into certainty by Herodotus, if reliance may be placed on his accuracy. He assures us that Dionysos was one of the most modern divinities in the Grecian creed; and that his worship had been imported from Egypt; where, under the name of Osiris, he was most extensively venerated. Herodot. Euterpe, 42, 49, 144, 145. Melampus, the son of Amytheon, was, according to Herodotus, the person who brought the rites of Bacchus into Greece, not directly from Egypt, but through the intermediate instruction of Cadmus, the Tyrian colonizer of Boeotia. "Exλno yap dr Meλάμπους ἐστὶν ὁ ἐξηγησάμενος τοῦ Διονύσου τό τε οὔνομα, καὶ τὴν θυσίην, καὶ τὴν πομπὴν τοῦ φαλλοῦ. . πυθέσθαι δέ δοκέει μάλιστα Μελάμπους τὰ περὶ τὸν Διόνυσον παρὰ Κάδμου τε τοῦ Τυρίου, καὶ τῶν σὺν αὐτῷ ἐκ Φοινίκης ἀπικομένων ἐς τὴν νῦν Βοιωτίην καλεομένην χώρην Euterpe, 49. See also Diod. Sic. i. 97. 3. Diod. Sic. iii. 62, 63. μοι * Αἱ ἀρχαῖαι θυσίαι καὶ σύνοδοι φαίνονται γίνεσθαι μετὰ τὰς τῶν καρπῶν συγκομιδάς, οἷον Απαρχαί· μάλιστα γὰρ ἐν τούτοις ἐσχόλαζον τοῖς καιροῖς several deities, bands of choristers, accompanied by the pipe, the flute, or the harp, 'sang the general praises of the god, or episodic narrations of his various achievements. The feasts of Bacchus had of course their sacred choruses; and these choruses, from the circumstances of the festival, naturally fell into two classes of very different character. The hymns addressed immediately to the Divinity, round the hallowed altar during the solemnity of sacrifice, were grave, lofty, and restrained. The songs inspired by the carousals of the banquet and uttered amid the revelries of the Phallic procession were coarse, ludicrous, and satirical, interspersed with mutual jest and gibe. The hymn, which accompanied the opening sacrifice, was called dioúpaμßos, διθύραμβος, 2 1. In the hymns, which bear the names of Orpheus and Homer, we have extant specimens of one class of these productions, and those of very ancient date. 2. Various derivations have been devised for the word by those who conceive it to be composed of Grecian elements and to refer to Grecian mythology: some forced and fanciful enough. They are registered by Gerard Vossius in his Institutio Poetica, iii. 16. 2. The most common etymology is dilupaμßos for dilúpaμos, double-doored, i. e. he who has passed through two doors; in which term allusion is supposed to be made to the double birth of Bacchus from the womb of Semele and the thigh of Jove. To the objection, that the quantity of the first syllable in dilupaußos is always long, whereas all compounds with S, implying double, have the di invariably short, it has been answered by Welcker (Nachtrag zur Trilogie, p. 192), that the singularity arose from the requirement of the trochaic metre of the Dithyramb; since only by such a variation could this term of continual occurrence be introduced into a trochaic line; a licence frequently claimed by the writers of hexameters to bring names, inadmissible from the natural quantity of their syllables, into the dactyls and spondees of heroic verse. Judicent peritiores. The Dithyramb did not at all times preserve a simplicity of style consistent with its rural origin, or a decorum befitting its sacred character. *In later ages it too often exhibited a tissue of extravagant conceits, turgid metaphors, and bombastic expressions; and whilst the Pæan of Apollo,-whether before the altar, on the battle-field, or in the private In reference to the absurd productions of the Dithyrambists of his day, Aristophanes makes Trygæus narrate, on returning from his beetle-ascent through the air, that he saw no one in those upper regions εἰ μή γέ που ψυχὰς δύο ή τρεις διθυραμβοδιδασκάλων and, when asked their occupation, replies ξυνελέγοντ ̓ ἀναβολὰς ποτώμεναι, τὰς ἐνδιαεριανερινηχέτους τινάς.—Pax, 794797. Again, in the Aves, the Dithyrambist, Cinesias, requesting from Pisthetærus a supply of plumage to waft him into the expanse of æther, assures the astonished dispenser of feather and wing, that κρέμαται μὲν οὖν ἐντεῦθεν ἡμῶν ἡ τέχνη τῶν διθυράμβων γὰρ τὰ λαμπρά γίγνεται and then proceeds to give him a specimen of his dithyrambic skill. See the whole passage, a term of doubtful etymology and import. Perhaps, like the repulsive symbol of the Phallic rites, its origin must be referred to an eastern clime. 2 Besides the chanters of the Dithyramb and the singers of the Phallic, there was, probably from the first introduction of Bacchic worship, a third class of performers in these annual festivals. 3 Fauns and Satyrs were, in popular belief, the regular attendants of the deity; and the received character of these singular beings 4 private feast, always preserved its calm and elevated character, the Dithyramb was frequently the noisy accompaniment of a drunken symposium.* 1. The procession of the Phallus Herodotus derives from Egypt (see p. 2, note 2), and considers it to be a ceremony in itself so opposite to Grecian manners and ideas, as at once to evince a foreign origin, (Eut. 49.).—The religion of Egypt, again, was but a reflexion of that which had been generated in the east; and in those countries, fruitful in strange rite and mysterious symbol, we still find a trace of this ancient type in the Lingam of Hindoo worship. That some hidden meaning was indicated by so disgusting an image is most certain. Herodotus, after describing an Egyptian ceremony similar to the Greek phallic procession, adds, ἔστι λόγος περὶ αὐτοῦ ἱρὸς λεγόμενος (Eut. 48.). It has been supposed that Bacchus in the ancient creed of the remote regions, from whence his worship spread over into Greece, was regarded as the first generating principle and author of all increase, and that accordingly the Phallus was exhibited in these festivals as his most conspicuous emblem. Sed hac hactenus. 2. The walls of the ruined temples in Egypt are in several instances still covered with paintings, representing sacrifices to Osiris, with processions of priests and devotees in masquerade attire. 3. Diodorus Siculus, in mentioning the Ethiopic expedition of Osiris, called by him and Herodotus the Egyptian Bacchus, adds, Φασὶν . . . εἶναι τὸν Όσιριν φιλογέλωτα τε καὶ χαίροντα μουσικῇ καὶ χοροῖς· τούς τε Σατύρους πρὸς ὄρχησιν καὶ μελῳδίαν καὶ πᾶσαν ἄνεσιν καὶ παιδίαν ὄντας εὐθέτους παραληφθῆναι πρὸς τὴν στρατείαν. 1. 18. ... The same attendants Diodorus also gives to the Greek Dionysos: Καὶ Σατύρους φασὶν αὐτὸν [Διόνυσον] περιάγεσθαι, καὶ τούτους ἐν ταῖς ὀρχήσεσι καὶ ταῖς τραγωδίαις τέρψιν καὶ πολλὴν ἡδονὴν παρέχεσθαι τῷ θεῷ.ν. 4. Verum ita risores, ita commendare dicaces * Φιλόχορος δέ φησιν, ὡς οἱ παλαιοὶ σπένδοντες οὐκ ἀεὶ διθυραμβοῦσιν, ἀλλ ̓ ὅταν σπένδωσι, τὸν μὲν Διόνυσον ἐν οἴνῳ καὶ μέθῃ, τὸν δ ̓ ̓Απόλλωνα μεθ ̓ ἡσυχίας καὶ τάξεως μέλποντες. ̓Αρχίλοχος γοῦν φησιν ὡς Διωνύσοι ἄνακτος καλὸν ἐξάρξαι μέλος Καὶ Ἐπίχαρμος δ ̓ ἐν Φιλοκτήτῃ ἔφη οὐκ ἔστι διθύραμβος, ὅκχ ̓ ὕδωρ πίης.-Athen. xiv. p. 628. 1 The goat, was in admirable harmony with the merry Dionysia. as an animal especially injurious to the vines and therefore peculiarly obnoxious to the god of the vineyard, was the appropriate offering in the Bacchic sacrifices. In the horns and hide of the victim all that was requisite to furnish a satyric guise was at hand; and thus a band of mummers was easily formed, whose wit, waggery, and grimace would prove no insignificant addition to the amusements of the village carnival. 2 In these rude festivities the splendid Drama of the Greeks found its origin. The lofty poetry of the Dithyramb, combined with the lively exhibition of the Satyric chorus, was at length wrought out into the majestic Tragedy of Sophocles. The Phallic song was expanded and improved into the wonderful Comedy of Aristophanes. 1. Frigora nec tantùm canâ concreta pruinâ, Aut gravis incumbens scopulis arentibus æstas, Quædam enim pecudes culturæ sunt inimicæ ac veneno, ut istæ, quas dixi, capræ; eæ enim omnia novella sata carpendo corrumpunt, non minimum vites atque oleas. Sic factum, ut Libero patri, repertori vitis, hirci immolarentur, proinde, ut capiti darent pœnas.-Varro de Re Rust. 2. 18, 19. Prima Ceres avidæ gavisa est sanguine porcæ, Nam sata vere novo teneris lactentia sulcis Sus dederat pœnas: exemplo territus hujus Quem spectans aliquis dentes in vite prementem, Talia non tacito dicta dolore dedit: Rode caper, vitem: tamen hinc, cum stabis ad aram, In tua quod spargi cornua possit, erit. Verba fides sequitur: noxæ tibi deditus hostis Spargitur effuso cornua, Bacche, mero.-Ov. Fast. i. 349-360. To this goat-sacrifice reference is made in a chorus of the Baccha, where Bacchus is represented ἀγρεύων αἷμα τραγοκτόνον, ὠμόφαγον χάριν.-Eurip. Βacch. 138. 2. Γενομένη οὖν ἀπ' ἀρχῆς αὐτοσχεδιαστικὴ καὶ αὕτη [ἡ τραγῳδία] καὶ ἡ κωμωδία, ἡ μὲν ἀπὸ τῶν ἐξαρχόντων τὸν διθύραμβον, ἡ δὲ ἀπὸ τῶν τὰ φαλλικά, ἅ ἔτι καὶ νῦν ἐν πολλαῖς τῶν πολέων διαμένει νομιζόμενα, κατὰ μkρov včИon.—Arist. Poet. iv. 14. |