Page:The Theatre of the Greeks, a Treatise on the History and Exhibition of the Greek Drama, with Various Supplements.djvu/119

 .ESCHYLUS. 101 the composition of au ^Escliylean Trilogy^: at present we shall merely suggest, that the invention of a irpokcr/o^ and a prjacf;, attributed to Thespis, points to two entrances only of the Thespian actor ; and that the Tpi(r/ia, in its old sense, may have been originally a TrpoXoyo^, and two yoi> or prjaeu^, instead of one ; consequently, an increase of business for the vwoKpLTr]^, Now, when ^schylus had added a second actor, each of these fc became a SLaXoyo^^, or Spa/ia : and it would be natural enough that jEschylus, if he had the intentions which we have attributed to him, should expand each of these hiokoyoL into a complete play, and break up the chorus into three parts, assigning one to each dialogue, and subordinating the whole choiTis to the action of the piece. There is something in favour of this view in the probable analogy between the first piece of a Trilogy and the prologue of Thespis, which we consider to have been certainly of less impor- tance than the prjac^. " It is credible," says an ingenious writer^, "that when the new Trilogy first came out, only the middle piece received an accurate dialogical and dramatic completion ; whereas, on the contrary, the introductory and concluding pieces were less removed from the old form, and besides remained confined to a more moderate compass." This is borne out by all that we know of the earlier Trilogies of ^schylus, in which the first play has generally a prophetic reference to the second ; and the third, though important in a moral and religious point of view, is little more than a finale^, whereas all the stirring interest is concentrated in the Middle Tragedy : Travrl p^eacp to Kpdro^ Geo? wTracrev, say the chorus in the Eumenides, and this principle is the key as well to the trilogy of ^schylus as to the morals of Aristotle. Besides, the leading distinction between the ^Eschylean Tragedy and the Homeric Epos is, that the latter contains an uninterrupted series of events, whereas the former exhibits the events in detached groups ''. In this also we are to seek for the relation subsisting between the drama of ^schylus and the plastic arts, of which he ^ Welcker has done a great deal towards settling this question aesthetically {Trilo- rjie, pp. 482 — 540). 2 Gruppe, Ariadne, p. 147; compare Welcker, Trilogie, p. 490. Henuann (Opii.sc. II. p. 313) admits this of the musical importance. 3 See Welcker, Tril. pp. 491, 492. ■* Hid. pp. 486 foil.