Page:The Theatre of the Greeks, a Treatise on the History and Exhibition of the Greek Drama, with Various Supplements.djvu/228

 BOOK III. EXHIBITION OF THE GREEK DRAMA, CHAPTER I. ON THE REPRESENTATION OF GREEK PLAYS IN GENERAL. Dass man auf das ganze Verhdltniss der Orchestra zur BuJine Tceine vom heutigen Theater entnommenen Vorstellungen ubertragen, und die alte Tragodie nicht MODEENisiBEN diirfc, ist ja wohl eine der ersten Regeln, die man hei der Beurtheilung dieser Dinge zu heohachten hat. — K. 0. Mueller. IF the Greek plays tliemselves differed essentially from those of our own times, they were even more dissimilar in respect of the mode and circumstances of their representation. We have theatrical exhibitions of some kind every evening throughout the greater part of the year, and in capital cities many are going on at the same time in different theatres. In Greece the dramatic performances were carried on for a few days in the Spring ; the theatre was large enough to contain the whole population, and every citizen was there, as a matter of course, from daybreak to sunsets With us a successful play is repeated night after night, for months together : in Greece the most admired dramas were seldom repeated, and never in the same year. The theatre with us is merely a place of public entertainment; in Greece it was the temple of the god, whose altar was the central point of the semicircle of seats or steps, 1 JEsch. Kara Ktijct. p. 488, Bekker: /cat a^a rrj v/jt-ipg. y^yetro rots irpid^eaiv els rh Oiarpov. The torch-races in the last plays of a trilogia (above, p. 102) seem to show that the exhibitions were not over till dark.