Page:The Theatre of the Greeks, a Treatise on the History and Exhibition of the Greek Drama, with Various Supplements.djvu/87

 ORIGIN OF COMEDY. 69 Satyrical Drama ^ye^e one and the same. When, however, the Tra- gedy of Thespis had lirmlj establishtd itself, and Comedy was not yet introduced, the common people became discontented with tlie serious character of the new dramatic exhibitions, and missed the merriment of the country satyrs; at the same time they thought that their own tutelary deity was not sufficiently honoured in per- formances which were principally taken up with adventures of other personages : in the end they gave vent to their dissatisfaction, and on more than one occasion the audience vociferously com- plained that the play to which they were admitted had nothing to do with Bacchus The prevalence of this feeling at length induced Pratinas of Phlius, who was a contemporary of ^schy- lus, to restore the tragic chorus to the satyrs, and to write dramas which were indeed the same in form and materials with the Tragedy, but the choruses of which were composed of satyrs, and the dances pyrrhic instead of gymnop^edic^. This is the drama which has been considered by some as s])ecifically different both from Tragedy and Comedy, but which was in fact only a subdivision of Tragedy^, written always by Tragedians, and, we believe, seldom* acted but along with Tragedies^. We have already referred to the statement that the Comedy of the Greeks arose from the Phallic processions, just as their Tragedy ^ In his opening Syraposiacal disquisition, Plutarch thus speaks : "Clairep oZv, ^pvvixov Koi AtVxuXoy Trjv rpaycpdiav els fxvdovs Kal irddrj irpoayovTcov, eXexdv' '^^ ravra irpbs rov ^idwaov ; — ovtw% ^ixoiye TroWaKis direlv irapeaTT) irpos roi)j 'iXKOvras ets tA cvp.iro(na rbv Kvpievovra — -^1] dvOpojire, t'l ravra irpbs rbv ^Lovvaov ; — Sympos. I. I. Zenobius gives this explanation of the phrase Ov5kv irpbs rbv ^ibvvaov.'—llQiv xo/owi/ f| d/)x?7S €idL<jp.evu}u bidvpap^ov ^deiv els rbv Alovvctov, ol iroirjral varepov eK^dvres rrjs avvrjdeias ravrrjs Atavras Kal Kevravpovs ypdcpecv eirex^povv. "Odev ol 6eup.evoi (XKui- TTTovres iXeyov, Ovbev irpbs rbv Aidvvcrov. Aid. yovv rovro rovs "Earvpovs varepov ^do^ev avrois Trpoeicrdyetv, 'iva /jlt] doKuxriv eirCkavddveadai rov deov. p. 40. Suidas, in his explanation of the same saying, after mentioning the opinion by which it was referred to the alterations of Epigenes the Sicyonian, adds : hiXriov bk ovrcjj' To irpbadev els rbv Alovvctov ypdcpovres, rovrois rjywvi^ovro, dvep Kal HarvpiKa iXeyero' varepov 51 p-era^dvres els to rpaycpdias ypd(pei.v, Kara piKpbv els pvdovs Kal iaropias erpdnr^aav, p.7]K&i rov Aiovvaov pLv-qpovevovres' — odev rovro Kal iTre(pu}V7]aav. Kal XapaiXeuJv ev r(p irepl Qta-mSos rd TrapaTrXrjcrca laropei. So also Photius, above, p. 65, note 5. 2 Above, p. 35. ' Demetrius says (de Elocut. § 169, Vol. ix. p. 76, Walz) : 6 5^ yiKcos ex^ph. rpaycpSias' ov5k yap eTrivorjaeLev dv ris rpayuidiav iral^ovaav, itrel cdrvpov ypd'^ei dvrl rpayuibias. the latter must have been acted alone. See Welcker, Trilogie, pp. 497 — 8. ' It has been plausibly conjectured that the satyrical drama was originally acted before the Tragedy. Welk. Nachtr. p. 279.
 * K Pratinas wrote only eighteen tragedies to thirty-two satyrical dramas, some of