"He fays of a man of confummate prudence: "He reaps thofe "fage and generous refolutions "which fpring in the deep furrows "of his foul" and elfewhere; "The intelligence by which I am "animated has defcended from hea"ven to earth, and cries to me in"ceffantly: Beftow but a flight re"gard on what is mortal." He thus warns a free people early to watch over the conduct of a citizen dangerous from his abilities and his riches: "Beware how you nurfe up a young lion, how you carefs "him while he yet fears you, or "how you refift him when he is grown a ftranger to fear."

"Yet thefe fhining paffages are accompanied, in fome of his works, by an obfcurity which arifes not only from his extreme concifenefs and the boldness of his figures, but

alfo from new words, with which he affected to enrich his ftyle. fchylus conceived that his heroes ought not to exprefs their ideas like the crowd, and that their diction should be more elevated than vulgar language: it indeed frequently rifes above all known language. To give it vigour, words of exceffive length, harfhly conftructed from the fragments of feveral others, arise in the midft of a fentence, like those proud towers, to ufe the comparison of Ariftophanes, which overlook the ramparts of a city.

"The eloquence of Æfchylus was too nervous to fubmit to the refinements of elegance, harmony, and correctnefs; and his flights too daring not to expofe him to frequent extravagance and failures. His ftyle is in general noble and fublime, in certain parts grand to excefs, and pompous to inflation; but fometimes degraded and difgufting by ignoble comparifons, a puerile play on words, and other defects which are common to this author with all thofe who poffefs more genius than taste.

But notwithstanding his faults, he merits a diftinguished rank among the most celebrated poets of Greece.

"It was not fufficient that the noble and elevated ftyle of tragedy fhould leave in the minds of the auditors a strong impreffion of gran deur; to captivate the multitude, it was requifite that every part of the fpectacle fhould concur to produce the fame effect. It was then the general opinion that Nature, by beftowing on the ancient heroes a more lofty ftature, had impreffed on their perfons a majefty which procured them as much refpect from the people as the enfigns of dignity by which they were attended. A chylus therefore raised his actors on high ftilts or bufkins. He covered their features, which were fre

quently

quently disagreeable, with a mask that concealed their irregularity. He clothed them in flowing and magnificent robes, the form of which was fo decent, that the priests of Ceres have not blushed to adopt it. The inferior actors were alfo provided with masks and dresses fuit ed to their parts.

"Instead of those wretched fcaffolds which were formerly erected in hafte, he obtained a theatre furnished with machines, and embellifhed with decorations. Here the found of the trumpet was reverberated, incense was feen to burn on the altars, the fhades of the dead to arife from the tomb, and the Furies to rufh from the gulphs of Tartarus. In one of his pieces thefe infernal divinities appeared, for the first time, with masks of a horrid palenefs, torches in their hands, ferpents intertwined in their hairs, and followed by a numerous retinue of dreadful spectres. It is faid that, at the fight of them, and the found of their terrific howlings, terror feized on the whole affembly, women mifcarried, and children expired with fear; and that the magiftrates, to prevent fimilar accidents in future, commanded that the chorus fhould confift only of fifteen actors inftead of fifty.

of an able master of the choruses, named Teleftes, who had brought the art of gefture to perfection. In the reprefentation of the feven chiefs before Thebes, he performed with fuch truth and expreffion, that his action might have fupplied the place of the words.

"We have already faid that Æfchylus had transferred to tragedy the ftyle of the epopeia and the dithyrambic; he alfo applied to it the lofty modulations and impetuous rhythmus of certain airs, or nomi, calculated to excite courage; but he did not adopt those innovations which began to disfigure the ancient mufic. His choral chant is full of grandeur and decorum; and conftantly in the diatonic genus, which is the most simple and natural of all.

"Being falfely accused of having revealed in one of his dramas the Eleufinian myfteries, he with dif ficulty efcaped the fury of the fanatic multitude: yet he forgave the Athenians this injuftice, because his life only had been in danger. But when he faw the pieces of his rivals crowned in preference to his own

"I must leave to time," said he, "to reftore mine to the place they merit;" and abandoning his country, went to refide in Sicily, where king Hiero loaded him with benefactions and honours. He died there a fhort time after, aged about feventy years. The following epitaph, which he compofed himself, was engraven on his tomb:"Here lies Afchylus, the fon of "Euphorion, born in Attica. He "died in the fertile country of Ge

tures.

"He inftructed them still more effectually by his example, as he performed with them in his pieces. Sometimes he called in the affiftance

"Marathon will for ever attest his "valour."-At the time when he wrote thefe lines he was doubtless difgufted with literary fame, and knew no glory more illuftrious than

that

that of arms. The Athenians decreed honours to his memory; and authors who defign to dedicate their genius to the theatre, have more than once been seen to go to make libations, and recite their works, at his tomb.

"I have spoken at fome length

on the merit of this poet, because almost all the novelties he introduced were discoveries; and becaufe it was more difficult, with the models which he had before his eyes, to raise tragedy to the elevation at which he left it, than, after him, to bring it to perfection."

TH

HE ancients have left us but little light on this fubject; and modern critics have been divided in their opinions, when they have undertaken to elucidate it. It has been afferted the scenes were fung; and it has been affirmed that they were only declaimed, or recited. Some have added, the declamation was noted. I fhall give in a few words the result of my enquiries.

"1. The actors declaimed in the fcenes. Ariftole, fpeaking of the means employed by certain kinds of poetry to produce imitation, fays, that the dithyrambics, the nomi, tragedy, and comedy, made ufe of rhythm, melody, and verfe; with this difference, that the dithyrambics and the nomi employed all the three together, and tragedy and comedy made ufe of them feparately: and afterwards he fays that, in the fame piece, tragedy fometimes employs metre alone, and fometimes metre accompanied with melody.

"It is well known that the scenes were ufually compofed in iambic verfe, because this kind of metre is moft proper for the dialogue. But Plutarch, fpeaking of the mufical

execution of the iambic verses, says that, in tragedy, fome were recited while the inftruments played, and that others were fung. Declamation was then admitted in the scenes.

"2. The actors frequently fang in the fcenes. To the proof afforded by the preceding paffage in Plutarch, I fhall add the following others. Ariftotle affures us that the hypodorian and hypophrygian modes or keys were used in the fcenes, though they were not in the choruses.

"When Hecuba and Andromache fing on the stage," fays Lucian, "we may pardon them; but for "Hercules fo far to forget himself as "to fing, is an intolerable abfurdity." The characters of a piece, therefore, fang on certain occafions.

66

4. Declamation was never used in the interludes, or intervals between the acts, but in these the whole chorus fang. This propofition is not contefted.

66

4. The chorus fometimes fang in the course of a fcene. This is proved from the paffage in Pollux: "When,

inftead of a fourth actor, fome one "of the chorus is made to fing," &c. And likewife by the precept in Horace: Let the chorus fing no

thing between the interludes which is not clofely connected with the action:" as alfo by a number of examples. It will be fufficient to refer to the Agamemnon of Æfchylus, from verfe 1099 to verfe 1186; the Hyppolytus of Euripides, from v. 58 to v. 72; the Oreftes of the fame poet, from v. 140 to v. 207, &c.

&c.

"5. The chorus, or rather its coryphæus, fometimes entered into dialogue with the actors, and this dialogue was only declaimed. This was especially done when the chorus was asked for any explanations, or when itself requefted them from one of the perfons of the drama; in a word, as often as it immediately participated in the action. See, in the Medea of Euripides, verfe 811; in the fupplicants of the fame poet, v. 634; in the Iphigenia in Aulis of the fame, v. 917, &c.

"The firft fcenes of the Ajax of Sophocles will fuffice, if I am not miftaken, to fhew the manner in which declamation and finging were employed fucceffively.

"Scene the first, Minerva and Ulyffes; fcene the fcecond, the fame and Ajax; fcene the third, Minerva and Ulyffes. These three fcenes form the expofition of the subject. Minerva relates to Ulyffes that Ajax, in a fit of frenzy, had killed the fhepherds and flaughtered the flocks, imagining that he had facrificed to his vengeance the chiefs of the army. This is a fact, and is narrated in iambic verfes; whence I conclude that the three fcenes were declaimed.

"Minerva and Ulyffes go off, and the chorus enters: it is compofed of Salaminians, who deplore the miffortune of their fovereign, of whofe frantic actions they have been in formed. The chorus entertains doubts, which it seeks to fatisfy. It 1791.

does not employ the iambic verfe; its ftyle is figurative. It is alone; it expreffes itself in a strophe and an antiftrophe, both containing the fame number of verfes of the fame metre. This, therefore, is what Ariftotle calls the firft fpeech of the whole chorus; and, by confequence, the first interlude, which was always fung by all the voices of the chorus.

"After the interlude, fcene the first, Tecmela and the chorus. This fcene, which continues from verfe 200 to verfe 307, is, as it were, divided into two parts. In the first, which contains 62 verfes, Tecmeffa confirms the accounts of the frenzy of Ajax; her lamentations and thofe of the chorus follow. The verfes are anapafts. In the part of the chorus is a ftrophe, with its correfponding antiftrophe, perfectly refembling it in the number and meafure of the verses. I suppose all this to have been fung. The fecond part of the scene, was no doubt, declaimed; it only confifts of iambic verses. The chorus interrogates Tecmeffa, who enters into a circumstantial account of the action of Ajax. The exclamations of Ajax are heard, the door of his tent is opened, and he appears.

"Scene the second, Ajax, Tecmef fa, and the chorus. This fcene, like the preceding, was partly fung and partly declaimed. Ajax (v. 348) fings four ftrophes, with their correfponding antiftrophes. Tecmessa and the chorus reply by two or three iambic verfes, which must have been fung, as I fhall prefently fhew. After the laft antiftrophe and the anfwer of the chorus, begin, at verfe 430, the iambics, which continue to verfe 60, or rather 95. In thefe the prince, recovered from his delirium, fignifies to Tecmella and the chorus his refolution to put an end to his life: they entreat him

to abandon fuch a defign. He afks to see his son, takes him in his arms, and addreffes to him an affecting fpeech. All this is declaimed. Tecmeffa goes out with her child; Ajax remains on the ftage; but he obferves a profound filence, while the chorus executes the fecond interlude.

"From this examination, which I might carry farther, it is manifeft that the chorus was confidered under two different points of view, according as it was employed in either of the two diftinct functions allotted to it. In the interludes, or intervals between the acts, the whole chorus fang together; in the fcenes in which it participated in the action, it was reprefented by its coryphæus; which explains the expreffion of Ariftotle and Horace, that the chorus fometimes performed the part of an

actor.

6. By what marks may the parts of a drama which were fung be diftinguished from those which were only recited? I am not able to lay down rules for this distinction which will apply in every cafe; I can only fay that it appears to me, that declamation had place as often as the interlocutors, following the thread of the action, without the intervention of the chorus, expreffed themfelves in a long feries of iambics, at the head of which the fcholiafts have written the word Iamboi. I incline to believe, but I will not poffitively affert, that all the other verfes were fung. We may, how ever, in general, affirm that the earlier authors applied themselves more to the meloparia than their

fucceffors; the reafon of which is evident. The dramatic poems deriving their origin from thofe companies of buffoons who traverfed Attica, it was natural for the chant, or finging, to be regarded as the principal part of tragedy in its infancy; and hence, no doubt, it is that it prevails more in the pieces of Afchylus, and Phrynichus his contemporary, than in thofe of Euripides and Sophocles.

"I have faid above, on the authority of Plutarch, the iambic verfes were fometimes fung when the chorus performed the part of an actor. We in fact find this kind of verse in irregular ftanzas adapted to be fung. Efchylus has often ufed it in modulated fcenes; as, for example, that of the king of Argos and the chorus in the fupplicants, verfe 352: the chorus fings ftrophes and their correfponding antiftrophes; the king replies five times, and each time by five iambic verfes; a proof, unless I am miftaken, that all these refponfes were to the fame air. See fimilar examples in the pieces of the fame author; in the feven chiefs, v. 209 and 692; in the Perfians, v. 256; in Agammenon, v. 1099; and in the fupplicants, v. 747 and 883.

66 7. Was the declamarion noted ? The Abbé Du Bos pretends that it was. He has been refuted in the memoirs of the academy of Belles Lettres; in which it is proved that the inftrument by which the voice of the actor was accompanied, was only employed to fupport the voice from time to time, and prevent it from rifing too high or Ginking too low."