Page:History of Greece Vol II.djvu/156

 140 HISTORY OF GREECE. in his hand nothing but a branch of laurel and depending for effect upon voice and manner, a species of musical and rhythmical declamation, 1 which gradually increased in vehement 1 Aristotel. Poetic, c. 47 ; Welcker, Der Episch. Kyklos ; Ueber den Vor- trag cler Homerischen Gedichte, pp. 340-406, which collects all the facts respecting the acwli and the rhapsodes. Unfortunately, the ascertained points are very few. The laurel branch in the hand of the singer or reciter (for the two expres- sions are often confounded) seems to 1m vc been peculiar to the recitation of Homer and Hesiod (Hesiod, Thcog. 30 : Schol. ad Aristophan. Nub. 1367. Puusan. x. 7, 2). "Poemata omnc genus (says Apuleius, Florid, p. 122, Bipont.) apta virgce, lyrse, socco, cothurno." Not only Homer and Hesiod, but also Archilochus, were recited by rhap sodcs ("Athenai. xii. 620; also Plato, Legg. ii. p. 658). Consult, besides, Nitzsch. De HistorvA Homeri, Fascic. 2, p. 114, s&], respecting the rhapsodes ; and 0. MUller, History of the Literature of Ancient Greece, ch. iv. s. 3. The ideas of singing and speech are, however, often confounded, in refer ence to any verse solemnly and emphatically delivered (Thucydid. ii. 53) QuGKOvref ol irpeafivTepoi TTU/MI p <J e a & a i, "Hj EL Acjpta/cof TroAe^of nal %oi/j.o ufi 1 avrif). And the rhapsodes are said to sing Homer (Plato, Eryxias, c. 13; Hesych. v. Bpavpuvioif) ; Strabo (i. p. 18) has a good passage upon song and speech. William Grimm (Deutsche Heldensage, p. 373) supposes the ancient Ger- man heroic romances to have been recited or declaimed in a similar manner with a simple accompaniment of the harp, as the Servian heroic lays arc even at this time delivered. Fauriel also tells us, respecting the French Carlovingian Epic (Romans de Chevalerie, Revue des Deux Mondes, xiii. p. 559) : " The romances of the 12th and 13th centuries were really sung : the jongleur invited his audi encc to hear a belle chanson (fhistoire, 'lemot chanter ne manque jamais dans la formule initiale,' and it is to be understood literally: the music was simple and intermittent, more like a recitative ; the jongleur carried a rebek, or violin with three strings, an Arabic instrument ; when he wished to rest his voice, he played an air or ritournelle upon this ; he went thus about from place to place, and the romances had no existence among the people, except through the aid and recitation of these jongleurs." It appears that there had once been rhapsodic exhibitions at the festivals of Dionysus, but they were discontinued (Klearchus ap. Athenae. vii. p. 275) probabiy superseded by the dithyramb and the tragedy. The etymology of pa-fyydbs is a disputed point : Welcker traces it to pufidoi , most critics derive it from panreiv /wtdf/v, which O. Miiller explains " to denote the coupling together of verses without any considerable divisions ot pauses, the even, unbroken, continuous flow of the epic poem," as con- trasted with the Btrophic or choric periods (I c,).