Page:The Theatre of the Greeks, a Treatise on the History and Exhibition of the Greek Drama, with Various Supplements.djvu/28

 10 THE RELIGIOUS ORIGIN OF THE GREEK DRAMA. before such a phenomenon as the full-grown Tragedy of ^schylus could become possible. We see these ingredients standing side by side, like oil and vinegar, and not perfectly fused in the first Attic tragedy which we open. It is the business of the following- pages to point out how they came together. In order to do this in a satisfactory manner, we must constantly bear in mind the important statement of Aristotle^, that "both Tragedy and Comedy originated in a rude and unpremeditated manner; the first from the leaders of the Dithyrambs, and the second from those who led off the Phallic songs." To reconcile all our scattered information on the subject with this distinct and categorical account of the beginning of the Greek drama, we must in the first place confine ourselves to Tragedy. We must see how the solemn choral poetry of the Dorians admitted of a union with the boisterous Dithyramb, which belonged to the orgiastic worship of an exotic divinity. And, we must inquire how the leaders of this lyrical and Dorized Dithyramb became the vehicles of the dramatic dialogues in which the Tragedy of Athens carried on the development of its epic plots. We shall then be able without much difficulty to consider the case of Comedy, which exhibited in its older form the unmitigated ingredients of the noisy Phallic Comus. The following, therefore, will be the natural succession of the topics, to which we are invited by an inquiry into the origin of the Greek drama. As its first beginnings are to be sought in a form of religious worship, we must endeavour to ascertain at starting what was the nature of the system which gave rise to a ceremonial capable of dramatic representation. It has been mentioned gene- rally that the religion, which produced the drama, is essentially connected with the worship of the elements, and that the Greek drama in particular manifests itself in the cognate w^orship of Apollo, Demeter, and Dionysus. It will therefore be our first busi- ness to show that the Greek worship of these deities was implicitly capable of producing, and in fact did produce, both the solemn chorus of Tragedy, and the Phallic extravagances of the old Comedy of Athens. As however this comic drama, though expressing more ^ ^schyl. Agam. 322: "O^os T &€(.(f>d T iyx^as TavT(^ k6t€i, AixoaraToOvT &v, ov 0iXw, TpoaeuviwoiS, ' Poet. c. IV. ; below, Part ir.