Page:EB1911 - Volume 26.djvu/765

Rh oil-wells exist, but neither coal nor oil has yet been extracted in any quantity. There arc 403 sq.'m. of reserved forest. Three oil-wells were sunk in 1883 at Pedaukpin, but tbey were found unprofitable and abandoned.

On the annexation of Pegu by the British in 1852-53, Thayetmyo was formed into a subdivision of Prome district; and in 1870 it was erected into a separate jurisdiction and placed under a deputy-commissioner. It was formerly in the Irrawaddy division of Lower Burma, but was transferred to Upper Burma for administrative purposes in 1896.

THEATRE (, "a place for seeing," from ), a building specially devised for dramatic representations. The drama arose from the choric dances in honour of Dionysus, which were held in a circular dancing-place (, Lat. orchestra) in his precinct at the foot of the Acropolis at Athens. When the leader of the chorus held a dialogue with the remaining choreutae he mounted the table which stood beside the altar of Dionysus in the centre of the orchestra; but as the number of actors and the importance of the dialogue increased, it became necessary to erect a platform at the side of the dancing-place and a booth in which the performers could change their dresses and masks. At the same time temporary wooden stands were set up for the spectators, who no longer ranged themselves around the whole ring, but only on the slope of the Acropolis, facing southward. We are told that the collapse of the, in 499 led to the erection of a permanent theatre; this was not, however, a stone building. Embankments were made for the support of the spectators' benches: the stage buildings were of wood, and, although some traces of a stone theatre belonging to the end of the 5th century have been pointed out, the "theatre of Dionysus," whose remains may still be seen (Pl. I. and II.), is in the main a work of the 4th century. It was completed soon after 340 under the administration of the statesman and financier Lycurgus. Alterations were made in the stage-buildings in the Hellenistic period, under Nero, and again in the 3rd century Although the prototype of Greek theatres, it is not the most perfectly preserved. Amongst those of purely Greek design the most typical is that of Epidaurus (Pl. I.), which was built in the latter part of the 4th century by Polyclitus the Younger. The largest known to Pausanias was that of Megalopolis, excavated by the British School at Athens in 1889–91, in which the stage buildings were replaced by the Thersilion, a large council-chamber. Others of importance for the study of the ancient theatre have been excavated at Delos, Eretria, Sicyon and Oropus. None of these, of course, is contemporary with the classical period of the Greek drama, and their stone stage-fronts belong to the Hellenistic period.



In Asia Minor we find a type of theatre (belonging to a somewhat later date) with a broader, lower and deeper stage; and the Roman theatre (see below) carries these changes still further. Before discussing their significance it will be best to describe the parts of the ancient theatre, the fullest account of which is to be found in the fifth book of Vitruvius (written in the Augustan period).

Its three main divisions were the auditorium (Lat. cavea; it had no technical name in Greek), the orchestra, and the stage buildings (, literally "tent" or "booth" Lat. scena). As the orchestra was the germ of the theatre, so it determined its shape, and in the Greek theatre preserved its circular form in many instances (as at Epidaurus). In the scheme of proportions given by Vitruvius, however (see fig. 1, which carries its own explanation), a segment (ihgf) was cut off by the stage-front (, proscenium). The auditorium was divided by flights of seats into wedge-shaped blocks (, cunei) and also longitudinally by a gangway (, praecinctio). In Greece the slope of a hill was always chosen for the auditorium and furnished with stone seats in tiers like steps. The slope of the Acropolis faces south, which (as Vitruvius points out) was the worst aspect for the spectators; but this was unavoidable for religious reasons, since the performances had to be held in the precinct of Dionysus. At Athens the inner boundary was a semicircle with the ends prolonged in parallel straight lines, which gave the spectators in the wings a better view of the stage than that obtainable in those theatres where (according to the Vrtruvian rule) the boundary was segmental. At Epidaurus a compromise was effected by prolonging the ends of the semicircle as segments of a curve with a longer radius. The best seats were in the lowest row; at Athens this was formed by a series of marble thrones assigned to various priests or officials whose titles may be read on those (60 out of 67) which are now preserved. The priest of Dionysus occupied the central throne. In some theatres benches with backs took the place of separate thrones. The right of sitting in reserved places was called.



The orchestra, which was separated from the auditorium by a gutter and kerb and generally paved with slabs, contained an altar of Dionysus called the, whence the choral or musical contests which took place in it were called. At Athens this altar stood in the middle of a lozenge-shaped marble pavement. In a few theatres subterranean passages have been found, leading from the stage-buildings to the middle of the 