Page:The Theatre of the Greeks, a Treatise on the History and Exhibition of the Greek Drama, with Various Supplements.djvu/84

66 forward dramas, bearing the titles in question — namely, "Pentheus;" "the Funeral Games of Pelias," or "Phorbas;" "the Priests;" "the Youths;" indeed it would not be difficult to show that these subjects were very well adapted for the narrative speeches which must have abounded while the actor was limited to the personation of one character at a time.

With regard to the violent and ludicrous dances, which were attributed to Thespis, and of which Aristophanes gives a somewhat ludicrous picture at the end of his "Wasps" we have only to remark that all antiquated postures, attitudes, and movements, appear ridiculous to those whose grandfathers practised them. Apollo himself is described as leading the Paean with high and springy steps ; and the gymnopædic dance, in which the Tragic Emmeleia took its rise, must have been originally distinguished by the agility which it prescribed. In the early days of the drama a great deal of energetic and expressive gesticulation was expected from the chorus, and even in the time of Æschylus it is recorded that Telestes, the ballet-leader of that poet, invented many new forms of or manual gesticulations, and that in the " Seven against Thebes" he represented the action of the piece by his mimic dancing.

The statement of Suidas, that Phrynichus was the first who introduced women on the stage, which Bentley, perhaps purposely, mistranslates, is no reason for concluding that Thespis never wrote a Tragedy called "Alcestis," were there any real evidence to show that this was the title of one of his plays ; for it would have been perfectly easy to handle that subject in the Thespian manner, that is, with more narrative than dialogue, without the introduction of Alcestis herself. Indeed we cannot conceive how she could be introduced as talking to the chorus, whom she does not once address in the play of Euripides, and there was no other actor for her to talk with.