Page:The Theatre of the Greeks, a Treatise on the History and Exhibition of the Greek Drama, with Various Supplements.djvu/284

258 garment he is said to throw off his clasped robe It is with the tongues of the buckles from his wife's dress that CEdipus puts out his own eyes^ and with the same instrument Hecuba and her attendants blind Polymestor^.

The dress of the chorus was in accordance with the personages represented ; and although it was diflferent in kind from that of the actors, the choragus took care that it was equally splendid. But as the actors represented heroic characters, whereas the chorus was merely a deputation from the people at large, and in fact stood much nearer to the audience, the mask was omitted, and while the actors wore the cothurnus, the chorus appeared either bare-footed, as in the Cyrenaic picture, or in their usual sandals.

The comic actors for the same reason were content with the soccus or thin-soled buskin (Figs. 19, 20), and their mask had no

Fig, 19. Fig. 2o. Fig. 21. Fig. 22.

07/C09 (Figs. 21, 22) ; but the TrpoacoiroTroto^; made up for the lack of this exaggeration by an extravagant ugliness in the features of most of the characters, which set nature completely at defiance.

^ Eurip. Here. F. 959 : yvfivov aQ/xa 9ds tropvafj.dTwv. Elcctr. 820 : pi'i/'as d.7r' ojyuaji' evrpeirrj TropTrd/xara. 2 Sophocles, CEd. T. 1269. ■^ Eurip. Hec, 1 1 70 : i/xdv yap 6/ji/j.dTcov TTopiras Xa^ovcraL rds raXaiirdopovs Kopas KCPTOvatv, aifidaaovcTLv. ^ The most accessible specimen of the old comic costume is furnished by the puppet "Punch," It has not been noticed that his name, as well as his form, may- be traced to a classical origin. "Punch" and "Punchinello" are corruptions of the Italian Pulcino and Pnlcinello, which are representatives of the contemptuous diminu- tive pxdchellus. This epithet may be applied to little figures (Cic. Fam. vii. 23), and our own phrase "pretty Poll," addressed to the parrot, may show how easily such a viroKopiaixa may be suggested by the pleasure which results from petty imitations. In the same way, the Greeks called the ape /caXos, or KaWias (Bockh ad Find. P. ii. V. 72), and it is not improbable that the same or a similar epithet was given to the masked and padded actors in the pantomimic shows of ancient Greece and Italy,