Page:History of the Literature of Ancient Greece (Müller) 2ed.djvu/320

298 298 HISTORY OF THE indispensable accompaniment to tragedy. They not only concealed the individual features of well-known actors, and enabled the spectators entirely to forget the performer in his part, but gave to his whole aspect that ideal character which the tragedy of antiquity demanded. The tragic mask was not, indeed, intentionally ugly and caricatured, like the comic ; but the half-open mouth, the large eye-sockets, the sharply-defined fea- tures, in which every characteristic was presented in its utmost strength, the bright and hard colouring, were calculated to make the impression of a being agitated by the emotions and the passions of human nature in a degree far above the standard of common life. The loss of the usual gesticulation was not felt in ancient tragedy; since it would not have been forcible enough to suit the conception of an ancient hero, nor would it have been visible to the majority of the spectators in the vast theatres of antiquity. The unnatural effect which a set and uniform cast of features would produce in tragedy of varied passion and action, like ours, was much less striking in ancient tragedy ; wherein the prin- cipal persons, once forcibly possessed by certain objects and emotions, appeared through the whole remaining piece in a state of mind which was become the habitual and fundamental character of their existence. It is possible to imagine the Orestes of iEschylus, the Ajax of Sopho- cles, the Medea of Euripides, throughout the whole tragedy with the same countenance, though this would be difficult in the case of Hamlet or Tasso. The masks could, however, be changed between the acts, so as to represent the necessary changes in the state or emotions of the persons. Thus in the tragedy of Sophocles, after King CEdipus knows the extent of his calamity and has executed the bloody punishment on himself, he appeared in a different mask from that which he wore in the confidence of virtue and of happiness. We shall not enter into the question whether the masks of the ancients were also framed with a view to increase the power of the voice. It is, at least, certain that the voices of the tragic actors had a strength and a metallic resonance, which must have been the result of practice, no less than of natural organization. Various technical expressions of the ancients denote this sort of tone, drawn from the depth of the chest,* which filled the vast area of the theatre with a monotonous sort of chant. This, even in the ordinary dialogue, had more resemblance to singing than to the speech of common life; and in its unwearied uni- formity and distinctly measured rhythmical cadence, must have seemed like the voice of some more powerful and exalted being than earth could then produce, resounding through the ample space. § 3. But before we examine further into the impressions which the ear received from the tragedy of antiquity, we must endeavour to complete the outline of those made upon the eye; and to give such an
 * 'BoftfSuv, Xafivyyi'^uv, especially XrixvPifyiv, trigiahiv ra loc^iiu. in Lucian.