Page:The Theatre of the Greeks, a Treatise on the History and Exhibition of the Greek Drama, with Various Supplements.djvu/295

 GEEEK PLAYS IN GENERAL. 269 others it is tolerably easy to see how all the parts might have been sustained without inconvenience by three actors. The protagonist regularly undertook the character in which the interest of the piece was thought to center ; and it was so arranged that he could also give those narratives of what was supposed to have taken place off the stage, which constituted to the last the most epic portion of the Tragedy, and which probably, in the days of Thespis and Phrynichus, comprised all the chief efforts of the original rhap- sode or exarchus^ By a great stroke of comic humour Aristo- phanes makes Agoracritus, the hero of The Knights, appear as the narrator of his own adventures 2, an office which a tragedian would have assigned to some messenger from the scene of action. The deuteragonist and tritagonist seem to have divided the other cha- racters between them, less according to any fixed rule than in obe- dience to the directions of the poet, who was guided by the exigen- cies of his play^. The actors took rank according to their merits, and the tritagonist was always considered as inferior to the other two. The narrowness and distance of the stage rendered any elabo- rate grouping unadvisable. The arrangement of the actors was that of a processional bas-relief*. Their movements were slow, their gesticulations abrupt and angular, and their delivery a sort of loud and deep-drawn sing-song, which resounded throughout the im- mense theatre^. They probably neglected every thing like hy-play, and making points, which are so effective on the English stage. The distance at which the spectators were placed would prevent them from seeing those little movements, and hearing those low tones which have made the fortune of many a modern actor. The ^ Introduction to the Antig. p. xx. 2 vv. 624 sqq. 3 Introd. to the Antig. pp. xx sqq. above all things in the long lines of figures which we see in the pediments and friezes, and as even the painting of antiquity placed single figures in perfect outhne near each other, but clear and distinct, and rarely so closely grouped as that one intercepted the view of another; so also the persons on the stage, the heroes and their attendants (who were often numerous) stood in long rows on the long and narrow stage." It is to be remarked, however, that numerous retinues, especiaUy if they appeared with horses or chariots, were often introduced into the orchestra. ^ This is pretty evident from the epithets, which, as Pollux tells us, might be applied to the actor, iv. 114: elVots 5' hv ^apvarovos VTroKpiTi^s, ^o[x^Qiv, wepi^ofx^Qu, XrjKvdi^iav, Xapvyyi^cov, (papvyyi^cjp, k. t. X.
 * "As ancient sculpture," says Miiller {Hist, of Gr. Lit. I. p. 398), "delighted