Page:Plautus and Terence.djvu/24

12 most original characters in our modern drama was plainly impossible to an actor who wore a mask: one might as reasonably look for it from a company of Marionettes. The manufacturer of masks for the ancient comic drama worked according to fixed rules, which were perfectly well understood both by the performers and by the audience. There was a tolerably large repertory of these contrivances always at the disposal of the stage-manager: but each mask had its own specific character; its features were so moulded as to be typical of a class. We are told with great particularity that about the period during which these comedies were placed upon the stage, there were nine different characters of masks representing old men, ten for younger characters, and seven for slaves. For the women, three varieties were considered enough for the older personages, the matrons and nurses of the scene. The young ladies, as was their due, were better provided for; no less than fourteen varieties of face were kept in stock for them. And the mask, in their case—unlike some masks which are still worn on the stage of real life—was made not to conceal but to indicate the character of the wearer, and even her age. There was to be found, in the theatrical wardrobe, the face and head-dress, all in one, which denoted "the talkative young woman," and the "modest young woman;" the one who was still fairly on her promotion, and the one who was past her prime; there was a special mask for the young lady "with the hair," and one still more peculiar, the "lamp" head-dress, as it was called, for the young lady whose hair stood upright like a lamp. There was the head-dress "with