Page:The Theatre of the Greeks, a Treatise on the History and Exhibition of the Greek Drama, with Various Supplements.djvu/296

 270 ON THE REPRESENTATION OF mask too precluded all attempts at varied expression, and it is pro- bable that nothing more was expected from the performer than was looked for from his predecessor the rhapsode, — namely, good reci- tation The rhythmical systems of the tragic choruses were very simple, and we may conclude that the music to which they were set was equally so. The dochmiac metre, which is regularly found in the KOfjLfjLol and ra airo <T/€i]vrj<i, would admit of the most inartificial of plaintive melodies. The comic choral songs very frequently introduce the easy asynartete combinations^, which were so much used by Archilochus ; and we find in Aristophanes a very curious form of the antispastic metre, the invention of which is attributed to Eupolisl We shall conclude with a few observations on the audience, and on the social position of the actors. For the first few years after the commencement of theatrical performances no money was paid for admission to them; but after a time (probably about the year 501 B.C.) it was found convenient to fix a price for admission, in order to pre- vent the crowds and distm-bances occasioned by the gratuitous ad- mission of every one who chose to come"^. The charge was two obols^ ; but lest the poorer classes should be excluded, the entrance money was given to any person who might choose to apply for it, providecl his name was registered in the book of the citizens {r)^iapj(^LKbv ypa/jbfiarelov). The lowest and best seats were set apart for the magistrate, and for such persons as had acquired or 1 Professox" Blackie, after quoting these words {The Lyrical Dramas of jEschylus translated from the GreeTc, Lond. 1850, Vol. i. p. xlvi), adds: "These observations, flowing from a realization of the known circumstances of the case, will suflBciently explain to the modern reader the extreme stiffness and formality which distinguishes the tragic dialogue of the Greeks from that dexterous and various pla}^ of verbal inter- change which delights us so much in Shakspere and the other masters of English tragedy. Every view, in short, that we can take, tends to fix our attention on the musical and the religious elements, as on the life-blood and vital soul of the Hellenic rpayi^bia; forces us to the conclusion, that, with a due regard to organic principle, its proper designation is sacred opera, and not tragedy, in the modern sense of the word, at all; and leads us to look on the dramatic art altogether in the hands of -^schylus, not as an infant Hercules stranghng serpents, but as a Titan, like his own Prome- theus chained to a rock, whom only after many ages a strong Saxon Shakspere could unbind." ^ Donaldson's Gr. Gr. 666, p. 628. ^ Id. ibid. 677, p. 633, ■* It is probable that at Athens, as well as Rome, each person entitled to admission was furnished with a ticket indicating his place in the theatre. A ticket of admission to the Casina of Plautus has been found at Pompeii. ^ This account of the Theoricon is taken from Bockh's Pull. Econ. 1. pp. 289 foil. Engl. Tr.