Page:History of Greece Vol II.djvu/153

 SINGERS AXD RHAPSODES. 137 plicated strophes of Pindar and the tragic writers, still left the general effect of the poetry greatly dependent upon voice and accompaniments, and pointedly distinguished from mere solitary reading of the words. And in the dramatic poetry, the last in order of time, the declamation and gesture of the speaking actor alternated with the song and dance of the chorus, and with the instruments of musicians, the whole being set off by imposing visible decorations. Now both dramatic effect and song are familiar in modern times, so that every man knows the difference between reading the words and hearing them under the appro- priate circumstances : but poetry, as such, is, and has now long been, so exclusively enjoyed by reading, that it requires an espe- cial memento to bring us back to the time when the Iliad and Odyssey were addressed only to the ear and feelings of a pro- miscuous and sympathizing multitude. Readers there were none, at least until the century preceding Solon and Peisistratus : from that time forward, they gradually increased both in number and influence; though doubtless small, even in the most literary period of Greece, as compared with modern European society. So far as the production of beautiful epic poetry was concerned, however, the select body of instructed readers, furnished a less potent stimulus than the unlettered and listening crowd of the earlier periods. The poems of Chcerilus and Antimachus, towards the close of the Peloponnesian war, though admired b} erudite men, never acquired popularity ; and the emperor Ha- drian failed in his attempt to bring the latter poet into fashion at the expense of Homer. 1
 * Spartian. Vit. Hadrian, p. 8 : Dio Cass. Ixix. 4 : Plut. Tim. c. 36.

There are some good observations on this point in Nake's comments on Choerilus, ch. viii. p. 59 : " Habet hoc epica poesis, vera ilia, cujus perfectissimam normam agnosci- mus Homericam habet hoc proprium, ut non in possessione virorum eruditorum, sed quasi viva sit et corara populo recitanda : nt cum populo crescat, ct si populus Deorum et antiquorum heroum facinora, quod prae- cipium est epicae poeseos argumentum, audire et secum repetere dedidicerit, obmutescat. Id vero turn i'actum est in Grajcia, quum populus ea astate, quam pueritiam dicere possis, peracta, partim ad res serias tristesque, politi- cas inaxime easque multo, quam antea, impeditiores abstrahebatur : partim epicte poeseos pertaesus, ex aliis poeseos generibus, quae turn nasce- bantur, novum et diversum oblectamenti genus primo pnesagirc, sibi, deind haurire, ccepit."