} dramas. The authors of thefe sketches have been diftinguished by no difcovery; they only form in the history of the art a fucceffion of names which it would be useless to recal to light. The neceffity and power of theatrical intereft was already known. The hymns in honour of Bacchus, while they defcribed his rapid progress and fplendid conquefts, became imitative1; and in the contests of the Pythian games, the players on the flute who entered into competition were enjoined by an exprefs law to reprefent fucceffively the circumftances that had preceded, accompanied, and followed the victory of Apollo over Python". Some years after this regulation, Sufarion and Thefpis, both born in a small borough of Attica, named Icaria, appeared each at the head of a company of actors, the one on a kind of stage, the other in a cart. The former attacked the vices and abfurdities of his time; and the latter treated more noble fubjects, which he took from history. Schol. Ariftoph. in Proleg. p. xii. Mem. de l'Acad. deš Bell. Lettr. t. xv. p. 260. Prid. in Marm. Oxon. p. 420. Suid. in OST. Ariftot. Probl. cap. 19, probl. 15, t. ii. p. 764. Strab. lib. 9, p. 421. Paufan. lib. 10, cap. 7, p. 813. Poll. lib. 4, cap. 10, § 84. Prid. in Marm. Oxon. p. 419. Marm. Oxon. Epoch. 40 et 44 Suid. in Oig. Horat. de Art. Poet. v. 275. Athen. lib. 2, cap. 3, P. 40. *Sufarion reprefented his firft pieces towards the year 580 before Chrift. Some years after, Thefpis made his firft attempts in tragedy, and acted his Alceftis in 536. The comedies of Sufarion were in the fame taste with thofe indecent and fatirical farces which are ftill performed in fome of the cities of Greece. They were long the favourite entertainment of the country people. Athens did not adopt this fpecies of exhibition until after it was brought to perfection in Sicily". Thefpis had more than once feen in the festivals, in which as yet hymns only were fung, one of the fingers, mounted on a table, form a kind of dialogue with the chorus. From this hint he conceived the idea of introducing into his tragedies an actor who by fimple recitals, introduced at intervals, fhould give relief to the chorus, divide the action, and render it more interefting. This happy innovation, together with fome other liberties in which he had allowed himself, gave alarm to the legiflator of Athens, who was more able than any other perfon to difcern the value or danger of the novelty. Solon condemned a fpecies of compofition in which the ancient traditions were disguised by fictions. "If we applaud falsehood in our public exhibitions," said he to Thefpis, "we fhall foon find that it will infinuate itself into our most facred engagements"." t Ariftot. de Poet. cap. 4, t. ii. p. 655. • Id. ibid. cap. 3, p. 654. Id. ibid. cap. 5, p. 656. Poll. lib. 4, cap. 19, § 123. Diog. Laert. lib. 3, § 56. Plut. in Sol, t. i. p. 95. Diog. Laert. lib. 1, § 59. The exceffive approbation and delight with which both the city and country received the pieces of Thefpis and Sufarion, at once justified and rendered useless the suspicious forefight of Solon. The poets, who till then had only exercifed their genius in dithyrambics and licentious fatire, ftruck with the elegant forms which these fpecies of compofition began to affume, dedicated their talents to tragedy and comedy. Soon after a greater variety was introduced in the fubjects of the former of these poems. Those who judge of their pleasures only from habit exclaimed, that these subjects were foreign to the worship of Bacchusy; but the greater number thronged with ftill more eagerness after the new pieces. Phrynichus, the difciple of Thefpis, made choice of that kind of verfe which is moft fuitable to the drama, was the author of fome other changes, and left tragedy in its infancy. Æfchylus received it from his hands enveloped in a rude vestment, its vifage covered with falfe colours, or a mask inexpreffive of character, without either grace or dignity in its motions, inspiring the defire of an intereft which it with difficulty excited, still attached to the buffooneries which had amufed its infant years, and expreffing its conceptions fometimes with elegance and dignity, but frequently in a feeble and low style, polluted with grofs obfcenities. The father of tragedy, for fo this great man may be called, had received from nature a ftrong and ardent mind. His filence and gravity announced the aufterity of his character. He had fignalized his courage in the battles of Marathon, Salamis, and Platea, in which fo many Athenians diftinguished themselves by their valour, From his earliest years he had been attentive to the leffons of those poets who, living near to the heroic times, conceived ideas as fublime as the illuftrious deeds which were then achieved f. The history of those remote ages prefented to his lively imagination fignal fucceffes and reverfes of fortune, thrones drenched with blood, impetuous and devouring paffions, fublime virtues, atrocious crimes, and dreadful acts of vengeance; every where he beheld the impress of grandeur, and frequently that of ferocity. The better to enfure the effect of thefe fcenes, it was neceffary to detach them from the whole in which they were included by the ancient poets; Ariftot. de Poet. cap. 4, t. ii. p. 655. • Philoftr. Vit. Apollon. lib. 6, cap. 11, p. 245, • Vit. Æfchyl. f Ariftoph. in Ran. v. 1062. and this had been already done by the authors of the dithyrambics and the earlieft tragedies; but they had neglected to bring them near to us. As we are infinitely more affected by those woes to which we are witneffes, than by thofe of which we only hear the recitals; fchylus employed all the refources of theatrical reprefentation to bring the time and place of the fcene before the eyes of the fpectator. The illufion then became a reality. In his firft tragedies he introduced a fecond actor; and afterward, copying the example of Sophocles, who had juft entered on his theatrical career, he admitted a third, and fometimes even a fourth. By this multiplicity of perfonages, one of his actors became the hero of the piece, and attracted to himself the principal intereft; and as the chorus now held only a fubaltern ftation, Æfchylus took care to fhorten its part, and perhaps even carried this precaution too far1. He is cenfured for having admitted mute characters into his drama. Achilles, after the death of his friend, and Niobê, after the deftruction of her children, appear on the ftage and remain during feveral fcenes, motionlefs, with their heads Ariftot. de Rhet. lib. 2, cap. 8. t. ii. p. 559. Id. de Poet. cap. 4, t. ii. p. 655. Diog. Laert. lib. 3, § 56. Efchyl. in Choeph. v. 655, &c. v. 900, &c. Id. in Eumenid. Dacier, Rem. fur la Poet. d'Ariftote, p. 5c. Poll. lib. 4, cap. 15, § 110.` ! Ariftoph. in Ran. v. 945. Ariftot. de Poet. cap. 4.. |