Page:The Tragic Drama of the Greeks (1896).djvu/13



tracing the origin and growth of the primitive drama, the point which impresses itself most forcibly upon the attention is the gradual and tentative character of its early progress. The invention of the dramatic art, like many other human discoveries, so far from being achieved by sudden inspiration, was the result of a protracted series of innovations and experiments, of which the eventual tendency was for a long time far from manifest. The hesitating manner in which the ancient poets proceeded with the work of development, and the slowness with which they gradually came to realise the varied capacities of the new form, may at first sight cause surprise. Theatrical performances have now become so familiar to the mind, that we are apt to regard them as an obvious and natural contrivance, and to underrate the merit of those by whom they were originally discovered. But the evidence of history throws a different light upon the question. It shows us that the notion of a dramatic representation, or, in other words, the notion of