Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 3.djvu/52

Rh but since several Kyōgen composed in the Ashikaga era are still extant, it may fairly be concluded that the laughter-loving element of Japanese character did not long consent to the abolition of the comic Saru-gaku.

The similarity between the Nô performances and the ancient Greek drama has often attracted attention. The chorus, the masked actors, the religious tone pervading the piece, the stage in the open air,—all these features were common to the two dramas. But a closer analogy can be found without going so far afield. The embryo of the Indian drama was a combination of song and dance at sacred festivals, just as the Kagura was the foundation of the Japanese Nô, and the development of the art in India was by narrative recitation and subsequently by dialogue, first sung, then spoken, just as the stages of progress in Japan were the recitative of the "tonsured lutist" and the "white measure-marker," followed by the sung and spoken dialogue of the Nô. A further point of resemblance is seen in the fact that, while the Japanese Kagura was founded on a mythical dance performed by the divinities before the cave of the Sun Goddess, so the Indian nâtya is supposed to have been a dance accompanied by gesticulation and speech, which was performed by the spirits and nymphs of Indra's heaven before the gods. Again, in the Indian drama the connection of the narrative was often preserved by interpreters, whose function closely resembled that