Page:The Theatre of the Greeks, a Treatise on the History and Exhibition of the Greek Drama, with Various Supplements.djvu/249

 GREEK PLAYS IN GENERAL. 227 plays rendered suitable. In front of this scene was a narrow stage, called, therefore, the irpoaKrjVLov (c), which was indicated by the parallel side of a square inscribed in the orchestral circle, but ex- tended to the full length of the scene on both sides (i.e. to dd). Another parallel at a certain distance behind the scene gave the portico (f f), which formed the lower front of the whole building. We are not to suppose that a Greek theatre exhibited in its architecture any elaborate or superfluous ornamentation. It was constructed for a special purpose — the adequate representation of dramatic entertainments of a certain kind before a very considerable multitude of spectators, — and if it effected this purpose, the archi- tect and his employers were quite satisfied. He was not inspired with the unprofitable ambition of an eminent and successful mem- ber of the same profession in our own time, of whom it has been said at once pointedly and truly, that being employed to build a house of Parliament, which was to accommodate a certain number of members and to admit of the speakers being well heard, he contrived it so that the persons, for whom it was intended, could not all be present, while those Avho spoke were, except mider very favourable circumstances, inaudible to the rejDorters and their proper audiences; and who being also employed to build a picture-gallery for a nobleman, so contrived it that scarcely one of the paintings could be seen in a good light ; though in both cases ]ie erected stately l)uildings very pleasing to the eye when seen from without. Very different was the performance of the architect who constructed a Greek theatre. If the seats of tlie spectators did not run on the side of a hill they were surrounded by a wall without ornaments or windows, and resembling the tower of a fortress rather than a splendid edifice. And the front of the theatre was so devoid of all decorations that it would have suggested to a modern spectator the idea of a barrack or a manufactory, rather than of a place consecrated to the Muses 2. The KoTkov or cavea (a) was divided into two or more flights of steps by the Bta^w/jLara or proecinctiones {hhh), which were broad belts, concentric with the upper terrace and with the boundary line ^ The angles of this square, and of two others inscribed in the orchestral circle as indicated in the accompanying plan, point out the divisions of the cunei, the com- mencements of the iter (at hh), and the width of the eccyclema (at /). ^ Schoubom, Scene der HeUenen, p, 22, and compare the elevation of the theatre at Aspendus (Fig. 1). lb— 2