Page:The Theatre of the Greeks, a Treatise on the History and Exhibition of the Greek Drama, with Various Supplements.djvu/108

 90 A. w. schlegel's geneeal survey of the deama. the foreign colouring of its native climate, in its general structure bears such striking resemblance to our romantic drama, that we might suspect the translator, Sir William Jones, of having laboured to produce the resemblance, out of his partiality for Shakspeare, were not the fidelity of his translation attested by other scholars. In the golden times of India the exhibition of these Nataks delighted the splendid imperial court at Delhi ; but under the misery of their many oppressions, dramatic art in that country seems at present to lie extinct. The Chinese, on the contrary, have their standing national theatre : standing indeed, it may be conjectured, in every sense : I make no question but in the establishment of arbitrary rules and nice observance of unimportant conventionalities they leave the most correct of the Europeans far behind them. With all this extensive diffusion of theatrical entertainments, it is surprising to find what a difference there exists in point of dramatic talent between nations equally favoured in other respects. The talent for the Drama would seem to be a peculiar quality, essentially distinct from the gift of poetry in general. The contrast between the Greeks and Romans in this respect is not to be wondered at ; for the Greeks were quite a nation of artists, the Romans a practical people. Among the latter, the fine arts were introduced only as a corrupting article of luxury, both betokening and accelerating the degeneracy of the times. This luxury they carried out on so large a scale, in respect of the theatre, that perfection in essentials must have been neglected in the rage for meretricious accessories. Even among the Greeks dramatic talent was any thing but universal : in Athens the Theatre was invented, in Athens it was ex- clusively brought to perfection. The Doric dramas of Epicharmus form but an inconsiderable exception to this remark. All the great dramatic geniuses of Greece were born in Attica, and formed their style at Athens. Widely as the Grecian race diffused itself, felicitously as it cultivated the fine arts almost wherever it came, yet beyond the bounds of Attica it was fain to admire, without being able to compete with, the productions of the Attic stage.