Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 7.djvu/423

403 EGYPTIAN.] DRAMA 403 &amp;gt;sence af No traces of a drama exist in any of the other civilized ima in peoples of Asia for that in Siam may probably be regarded as a branch of the Indian. Among the Hebrews and other Semitic peoples, as well as in at leant one originally Aryan people of Asia which has cultivated letters with assiduity and success the Persians the dramatic art is either wanting, or only appears as an occasional and exotic growth. It is unnecessary to dwell on the dramatic element apparent in two of the books of the Hebrew Scripture the Book of Ruth and the Book of Job. Of the dramatic element in the religious rites of the Egyptians a word will be said immediately ; meanwhile it may be convenient at once to state that traces of dramatic entertainments have &amp;gt;lated been found in various parts of the New World, which it ces of it cannot be part of the present sketch to pursue. Among f f these are the performances, accompanied by dancing and
 * New intermixed with recitation and singing, of the South-Sea

orld. Islanders, first described by Captain Cook, and lately re- introduced to the notice of students of comparative mythology by Mr W. Wyatt Gill. Of the so-called Inca drama of the Peruvians, the unique relic, A})u Ollantay, said to have been written down in the Quichua tongue from native dictation by Spanish priests shortly after the conquest of Peru, has been partly translated by Mr Clements Markham, and recently twice rendered into German verse. It appears to be an historic play of the heroic type, combin ing stirring incidents with a pathos finding expression in at least one lyric of some sweetness the lament for the lost Collyar. With it may be contrasted the ferocious Aztek dramatic ballet, Rabinal-Achi (translated by the Abb4 de Bourbourg), of which the text seems rather a succession of warlike harangues than an attempt at dramatic treat ment of character. But these are mere isolated curiosities. amatic The civilization and religious ideas of the EGYPTIANS so merits in vitally influenced the people of whose drama we are about jrptian ^ Q gpg^ fc] ia t a reference to them cannot be altogether [fT[QUS fpopu- om itted. The influence of Egyptian upon Greek civiliza- life. tion has probably been over-estimated by Herodotus ; but while it will never be clearly known how much the Greeks owed to the Egyptians in divers branches of knowledge, it is certain that the former confessed themselves the scholars of Egypt in the cardinal doctrine of its natural theology. The doctrine of the immortality of the soul there found its most solemn expression in mysterious recitations connected with the rites of sepulture, and treating of the migration of the soul from its earthly to its eternal abode. These solemnities, whose transition into the Hellenic mysteries has usually been attributed to the agency of the Thracian worship of Dionysus, undoubtedly contained a dramatic element, upon the extent of which it is, however, useless to speculate. The ideas to which they sought to give utterance centred in that of Osiris, the vivifying power or universal soul of nature, whom Herodotus simply identifies with the Dionysus of the Greeks. The same deity was likewise honoured by processions among the rural Egyptian population, which, according to the same authority, in nearly all respects except the absence of choruses resembled the Greek phallic processions in honour of the wine-god. That the Egyptians looked upon music as an important science seems fully established ; it was diligently studied by their priests, though not, as among the Greeks, forming a part of general education, and in the. sacred rites of their gods they as a rule permitted the use of flute and harp, as well as of vocal music. Dancing was as an art confined to professional persons ; but though the higher orders abstained from its practice, the lower indulged in it on festive occasions, when a tendency to pantomime naturally asserted itself, and licence and wanton buffoonery prevailed, as in the early rustic festivals of the Greek and Italian peoples. Of a dance of armed men, on the other hand, there seems no satisfactory trace in the representations of the Egyptian monuments. But whatever elements the GJIEEK drama may. in the f i i. i i a. vi I- sources from which it sprang, have owed to Egyptian, or Phrygian, or other Asiatic influences, its development was independent and self-sustained. Not only in its begin nings, but so long as the stage existed in Greece, the drama was in intimate connection with the national religion. This is the most signal feature of its history, and one which cannot in the same degree and to the same extent be ascribed to the drama of any other people, ancient or modern. Not only did both the great branches of the Greek drama alike originate in the usages of religious worship, but they never lost their formal union with it, though one of them (comedy) in its later growth abandoned all direct reference to its origin. Hellenic polytheism was at once so active and so fluid or flexible in its anthropo morphic formations, that no other religious system has ever so victoriously assimilated to itself foreign elements, or so vivaciously and variously developed its own. Thus, the worship of Dionysus, introduced into Greece by the Phoenicians as that of the tauriform sun-god whom his worshippers adored with loud cries (whence Bacchus or lacchus), and the god of generation (whence his phallic emblem) and production, was brought into connection with the Dorian religion of the sun-god Apollo. Apollo and his sister, again, corresponded to the Pelasgian and Achaean divinities of sun and moon, whom the Phoenician Dionysus and Demeter superseded, or with whose worship theirs was blended. Dionysus, whose rites were specifically conducted with reference to his attributes as the wine-god, was attended by deified representations of his original worshippers, who wore the skin of the goat sacrificed to him. These were the satyrs. Out of the connected worships of Dionysus, Bacchus, Apollo, and Demeter sprang the beginnings of the Greek drama. &quot; Both tragedy and comedy,&quot; says Aristotle, &quot; originated in a rude and unpremeditated manner, the first from the leaders of the dithyramb, and the second from those who led off the phallic songs.&quot; This diversity of origin, and the distinction jealously maintained down to the latest times between the two branches of the dramatic art, even where they might seem to come into actual contact with one another, necessitate a separate statement as to the origin and history of either. The custom of offering thanks to the gods by hymns and dances in the places of public resort was first practised by the Greeks in the Dorian states, whose whole system of life was organized on a military basis. Hence the dances of the Dorians originally taught or imitated the movements of soldiers, arid their hymns were warlike chants. Such were the beginnings of the chorus, and of its songs (called pecans, from an epithet of Apollo), accompanied first by the phorminx and then by the flute. A step in advance was taken when the poet with his trained singers and dancers, like the Indian sutra-dhdra, performed these religious functions as the representative of the population. From the Doric pecan at a very early period several styles of choral dancing formed themselves, to which the three styles of dance in scenic productions the tragic, the comic, and the satyric are stated afterwards to have corresponded. But none of these could have led to a literary growth. This was due to the introduction among the Dorians of the dithyramb, originally a song of revellers, probably led by a flute-player and accompanied by the music of other Eastern instruments, in which it was customary in Crete to celebrate the birth of Bacchus (the doubly-born) and possibly also his later adventures. The leader of the band &amp;lt; &quot; REEK j t8 rel j ous orig Origin i