All who had been present at the games, did afterwards make every part of Greece refound with the name and glory of this illuftrious hiftorian. Lucian, who writes the fact I have repeated, adds, that after the example of Herodotus, many of the fophifts and rhetoricians went to Olympia, to read the harangues of their compofing; finding that the shortest and most certain method of acquiring a great reputation in a little time. d Plutarch obferves, that Lyfias the famous Athenian orator, contemporary with Herodotus, pronounced a fpeech in the Olympic games, wherein he congratulated the Greeks upon their reconciliation with each other, and their having united to reduce the power of Dionyfius the Tyrant, as upon the greatest action they had ever done. e We may judge of the paffion of the poets to fignalize themselves in thefe folemn games, from that of Dionyfius himself. That prince, who had the foolish vanity to believe himfelf the moft excellent poet of his time, appointed readers, called in the Greek pador, (Rhapfodifts) to read feveral pieces of his compofing at Olympia. When they began to pronounce the verfes of the royal poet, the ftrong and harmonious voices of the readers occafioned a profound filence, and they were heard at first with the greatest attention, which continually decreased as they went on, and turned at last into downright horse-laughs and hooting; fo miferable did the verfes appear. He comforted himfelf for this dif grace by a victory he gained some time after in the feast of Bacchus at Athens, in which he caused a tragedy of his compofition to be reprefented. The difputes of the poets in the Olympic games were nothing, in comparison with the ardour and emu lation expreffed by them at Athens; which is what remains to be faid upon this fubject, and therefore I fhall conclude with it; taking occafion to give my readers. e Diod. 1. xiv. p. 318. Plut. de vit. Orat. p. 836. f'Ibid. 1. xv. p. 364. at at the fame time, a fhort view of the fhows and reprefentations of the theatre of the ancients. Thofe, who would be more fully informed in this fubject, will find it treated at large in a work lately made public by the reverend father Brumoi, the fefuit; a work which abounds with profound knowledge and erudition, and with reflections entirely new, deduced from the naturė of the poems of which it treats. I fhall make confiderable ufe of that piece, and often without citing it; which is not uncommon with me. Extraordinary paffion of the Athenians for the entertain ments of the flage. Emulation of the poets in difputing the prizes in thofe reprefentations. A short idea of dramatic poetry. No people ever expreffed fo much ardour and paffion for the entertainments of the theatre as the Greeks, and efpecially the Athenians. The reafon of which is obvious: no people ever demonftrated such extent of genius, nor carried fo far the love of eloquence and poesy, tafte for the fciences, juftnefs of fentiments, elegance of ear, and delicacy in all the refinements of language. *A poor woman, who fold herbs at Athens, diftinguished Theophraftus to be a ftranger, by a fingle word which he made ufe of in expreffing himfelf. The common people got the tragedies of Euripides by heart. The genius of every nation expreffes itself in the people's manner of paffing their time, and in their pleafures. The great employment and delight of the Athenians were to amufe themselves with works of wit, and to judge of the dramatic pieces, that were acted by the public authority feveral times a year, efpecially at the feafts of Bacchus, when the tragic and comic poets difputed for the prize. The former ufed to prefent four of their pieces at a time; except Sophocles, who did not think fit to continue fo laborious an exercife, and confined himfelf to one performance, when he difputed the prize.. *Attica anus Theophraftum, hominem alioqui difertiffimum, annotata unius affellatione verbi, hofpitem dixit. QUINT. I. viii. c. 1. The The ftate appointed judges, to determine upon the merit of the tragic or comic pieces; before they were represented in the feftivals. They were, acted before them in the prefence of the people; but undoubtedly with no great preparation. The judges gave their fuf frages, and that performance, which had the most voices, was declared victorious, received the crown as fuch, and was received with all poffible pomp at the expence of the republic. This did not, however, exclude fuch pieces as were only in the fecond or third clafs. The best had not always the preference: for what times were exempt from party, caprice, ignorance, and prejudice? Elian is very angry with the judges, who, in one of thefe difputes, gave only the fecond place to Euripides. He accufes them of judg ing either without capacity, or of giving their voices for hire. It is easy to conceive the warmth and emulation, which thefe difputes and public rewards excited amongst the poets, and how much they contributed to the perfection, to which Greece carried dramatic. performances. The dramatic poem introduces the perfons themfelves, fpeaking and acting upon the ftage: In the epic, on the contrary, only the poet relates the different adventures of his characters. It is natural to be delighted with fine descriptions of events, in which illuftrious perfons and whole nations are interested; and hence the epic poem had its origin. But we are quite differently affected with hearing thofe perfons themselves, with being confidents of their most secret fentiments, and auditors and fpectators of their refolutions, enterprizes, and the happy or unhappy events, attending them. To read and fee an action are quite different things. We are infinitely more moved with, what is afted than with what we read. The fpectator, agreeably deceived by an imitation fo nearly approaching life, miftakes the picture for the original, and thinks Ælian. 1. ii. c. 8. the the object real. This gave birth to dramatic poetry, which includes tragedy and comedy. To thefe may be added the fatyric poem, which derives its name from the fatyrs, rural gods, who were the chief characters in it; and not from the fatire, a kind of abufive poetry, which has no resemblance to this, and is of a much later date. The fatyric poem was neither tragedy nor comedy, but fomething between both, participating of the character of each. The poets, who difputed the prize, generally added one of thefe pieces to their tragedies, to allay the grave and folemnity of the one, with the mirth and pleasantry of the other. There is but one example of this ancient poem come down to us, which is the Cyclops of Euripides. I fhall confine myfelf upon this head to tragedy and comedy; which had both their origin amongst the Greeks, who looked upon them as fruits of their own growth, of which they could never have enough. Athens was remarkable for an extraordinary appetite of this kind. These two poems, which were a long time comprized under the general name of tragedy, received there by degrees fuch improvements, as at length raised them to their last perfection. The origin and progrefs of tragedy. Poets who excelled in it at Athens; fchylus, Sophocles, and Euripides. There had been many tragic and comic poets before Thefpis; but as they had altered nothing in the original rude form of this poem, Thefpis was the firft that made any improvement in it, he was generally efteemed its inventor. Before him, tragedy was not more than a jumble of buffoon tales in the comic ftyle, intermixed with the finging 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 it birth. La tragedie, informe et groffiere en naissant, Formless and grofs did tragedy arife, Thefpis made feveral alterations in it, which Horace defcribes after Ariftotle, in his Art of Poetry. The * first was to carry his actors about in a cart, whereas before they used to fing in the streets, wherever chance led them. Another was to have their faces fmeered over with wine-lees instead of acting without disguise as at firft. He also introduced a character among the chorus, who, to give the actors time to reft themselves and to take breath, repeated the adventures of fome illuftrious perfon; which recital, at length, gave place to the fubjects of tragedy. i Thefpis fut le premier, qui barbouille de lie, Et d'acteurs mal ornés chargeant un tombereau, ABOLIEAU Art. Poet. Cant. iii. Ignotum tragica genus inveniffe camana HOR. de Art. Poet. When Thefpis firft expos'd the tragic muse, Roscom. Art of Poet. BOLIEAU Art. Poet. Cant. iii.. |