Page:A new and general biographical dictionary; containing an historical and critical account of the lives and writings of the most eminent persons in every nation v1.djvu/133

 AESCHYLUS. 97 this resolution, when he found his pieces k-fs pica fin g to thc p; ' Athenians than thofe of Sophocles, though a miah. writer. Simonules had likewilc won : fi from him in an elcev upon the battle of Marathon, iiui-lai rnviim faidtt r that /fchylus retired into Sicily, bccaiifc the L.its 1 down during the reprefenution of one of his tragedies, fomo have taken this literally, without confident!*.' that in this fenfe fuch an accident did great honour to ./Efchylus ; but, ac- cording to Jofeph Scaliger, it was a phrafe amongft the co- medians; and he was faid to break damn the feats, vvhofe piece could not ftand, but fell to the ground [A]. Some affirm, that ^Efchylus never fat down to conipole but when he had drank liberally. This perhaps was in allufion to his ftyl Athenam, and manner of writing, wherein he was fo hurried away by r>1 *' the excedive tranfports of his imagination, that his difcourfe might fecm to proceed rather from the fumes of wine than folid reafon. He wrote a oreat number of tragedies, of which there are but feven remaining [c] : and notwithstanding the (harp cenfures of fume critics, he muft be allowed to have been the father of the tragic art. In the time of Thefpis there was no public theatre to acl upon ; the ftrollers drove about from place to place in a cart. /Efchylus furnifhed his actors with mafques, and drelled them fuitable to their cha- racters. He iikewifc introduced the bufkin, to make them appear more like heroes. Ignotum tragicse genus invenifle camenae Dicitur, et plauflris vexifTe poemata Thefpis, CKii canerent agerentque, perundli fecibus ora. Pod hunc perfonae pallceque refertor honeflre ^fchylus, et modicis inftravit pulpita tignis, t docuit magnumque loqui nitique cothurno. Hor. Art. Poet. ver. 75, Thefpis, inventor of the tragic art, Carried his vagrant players in a cart ; High o'er the crowd the mimic tribe appear'd, And play'd and fung, with lees of wine befmear'd. [A] Su!)fe ! .!ia frangere diccbatur ; qu'i, 2. E-1a iwi Qc?aK> Seven gs:nft yt coaiici loquuntur. non ftctit, fed ex- Thebes. cidit : hoc eft, non placuit, ficut a viro 3. niprai, The PerC.ms. doftiflifno Jofcpho Scaligero jamdiu mo- 4 Aya.uEu-.it, Agamemnon, ni'um efi. Stanleius in /tfchylum, p. 5. X-n'p'.poi, '1'he Infernal R-gioni. 707. 6. Eu,uinJ(,-, The Furies. [u] They are as follow i 7. IxsW.;, The Suppliants. I. nfCfAr^ivf Sj#- ( ua;rr/r, Piometheu? hound. VOL, I. H Then