Page:The Theatre of the Greeks, a Treatise on the History and Exhibition of the Greek Drama, with Various Supplements.djvu/29

 THE RELIGIOUS ORIGIN OF THE GREEK DRAMA. 11 plainly than Tragedy the original form and the genuine spirit of the religion of Bacchus, borrowed its theatrical attire from the com- pleted Tragedy of ^schylus, we must trace the development both of the tragic chorus and of the tragic dialogue before we can speak of Athenian Comedy and its varieties ; and we shall find that the latest form of ancient Comedy, while it approximates to the drama of modern Europe, in the machinery of its plot and incidents, derives its leading characteristics from the last of the great trage- dians, and not only discards all allusions to the Phallic origin of the Comus, but even evades a direct reference to the religious festi- vals with which it was formally connected. Accordingly, the order, in which we propose to treat the subject, will both exhaust the materials at our disposal, without incurring a risk of repetition, and will present the facts connected with the growth of the Greek drama in the legitimate order of cause and effect, and in accordance with the laws of their historical development.