Page:The Journal of English and Germanic Philology Volume 18.djvu/434

 430 Rudwin But while the facts which have been presented furnish sufficient proof that the sword-dances were closely connected with the ritual, a connection between them and the Carnival plays by no means follows if we have succeeded in proving that the ritual drama and the Carnival play are not identical in origin. Creizenach and Chambers seem to think that having once shown a connection between the sword-dance and the ritual drama the origin of the Carnival play in the sword-dance naturally follows. What we are warranted in assuming is that the sword-dance is related to the rustic mummery with which, owing to their common origin, it shares a number of features and figures. But we fail to see any common elements in the sword-dances and the Carnival plays. The fact that sword- dances were sometimes executed at the close of these plays need not necessarily presuppose an inner connection between them. Dances were, for instance, inserted into Shakespearean plays even when they were not properly in keeping with the action. It is hard to imagine the process by which a literary drama could evolve out of a sword-dance. A sword-dance is not in itself, a drama, for drama is only reached when imitation or representation extends to action. We have, furthermore, no evidence that the sword-dance ever took on comic elements and attempted the protrayal of contemporary life, which is the very essence of the Carnival plays. Together with the ritual drama, for which it appears to have served as a kind of frame-work, the sword-dance, having lost its religious meaning, was perpetuated as a popular game or show, but has never influenced the literary drama. For the origin of the Carnival play as of the drama in general we must look not so much to any of the magical rites, but rather more to the actors who performed them. We know from early Greek vases that the dancers were masked. As a matter of fact, masks were worn at all the ceremonies intended to promote the growth of the crops. 232 The masks formed the most essential element of the fertility worship and have survived down to the present day in our Carnival amusements. But it need hardly be said that our ancestors did not put them on for the reason we now do at our mask balls in order to conceal our identity while 232 Cf. Frazer, op. /., ix. 236, 240, 242sqq., 247, 248, 251.