Constantine, Cod. xi. 43. but not entirely suppressed till the time of Honorius, Prudent. contra Symmach. ii. 11. 21.

DR

III. DRAMATIC ENTERTAINMENTS.

RAMATIC entertainments, or stage-plays (ludi scenici), were first introduced at Rome, on account of a pestilence, to appease the divine wrath, A. U. 391. Liv. vii. 2. Before that time there had only been the games of the Circus. They were called LUDI SCENICI, because they were first acted in a shade, (oxia, umbra), formed by the branches and leaves of trees, Ovid. de Art. Am. i. 105. Serv. in Virg. En. i. 164. or in a tent, (exnn, tabernaculum): Hence afterwards the front of the theatre, where the actors stood, was called SCENA, and the actors SCENICI, Suet. Tib. 34. Cic. Planc. 11. Verr. iii. 79. or, SCENICI ARTIFICES, Suet. Cæs. 84.

Stage-plays were borrowed from Etruria; whence players (ludiones) were called HISTRIONES, from a Tuscan word, hister, i. e. ludio; for players also were sent for from that country, Liv. vii. 2.

These Tuscans did nothing at first but dance to a flute, (ad tibi\cinis modos), without any verse or corresponding action. They did not speak, because the Romans did not understand their language, ibid.

The Roman youth began to imitate them at solemn festivals, especially at harvest-home, throwing out raillery against one another in unpolished verse, with gestures adapted to the sense. These verses were called VERSUS FESCENNINI, from Fescennia, or -ium, a city of Etruria, Horat. Epist. II. i. 145.

mitian, is no matter of wonder; but that it should have been pursued both in the East and West, even after the prohibition of the Christian Emperors, discovers such depth of depravity, as would appear incredible, were not the truth of it supported by indisputable facts. Though Honorius, as mentioned in the text, had prohibited these shows on the occasion of the death of Telemachus, who, on his return from the East to Rome, at the time of one of these spectacles, had gone down into the Arena, and used all his endeavours to prevent the gladiators from continuing their combats and who was stoned to death by the enraged spectators, for his humane interference: yet the detestable practice was not entirely abolished in the West before Theodoric, king of the Ostrogoths.

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The gladiators, about the year of the city 680, under the conduct of Spartacus, Crinus, and Oenomaus, maintained for a short time a war against the Roman people. These men having escaped, with other gladiators to the number of 74, out of the place where they had been kept at Capua, gathered together a body of slaves, put themselves at their head, rendered themselves masters of all Campania, and gained several victories over the Roman Prætors. They were at length defeated in the year 582, at the extremity of Italy; having in vain endeavoured to pass over into Sicily. E.

Afterwards, by frequent use, the entertainment was improved, (sæpius usurpando res excitata est), and a new kind of dramatic composition was contrived, called SATYRE or SATURE, Satires, because they were filled with various matter, and written in various kinds of verse, in allusion to what was called LANX SATURA, a platter or charger filled with various kinds of fruits, which they yearly offered to the gods at their festivals, as the Primitia or first gatherings of the season. Some derive the name from the petulence of the Satyrs.

These satires were set to music, and repeated with suitable gestures, accompanied with the flute and dancing. They had every thing that was agreeable in the Fescennine verses, without their obscenity. They contained much ridicule and smart repartee; whence those poems afterwards written to expose vice got the name of satires; as, the satires of Horace, of Juvenal, and of Persius.

It was LIVIUS ANDRONICUS, the freed-man of M. Livius' Salinator, and the preceptor of his sons, who, giving up satires, (absaturis, i. e. saturis relictis), first ventured to write a regular play, (argumento fabulam serere,) A. U. 512, some say, 514; the, year before Ennius was born, Cic. Brut. 18. above 160 years after the death of Sophocles and Euripides, and about fifty-two years after that of Menander, Gell. xvii. 21.

He was the actor of his own compositions, as all then were.Being obliged by the audience frequently to repeat the same part, and thus becoming hoarse, (quum vocem obtudisset,) he asked permission to employ a boy to sing to the flute, whilst he acted what was sung (canticum agebat), which he did with the greater animation, as he was not hindered by using his voice. Hence actors used always to have a person at hand to sing to them, and the colloquial part (diverbia) only was left them to repeat, Liv. vii. 2. It ap pears there was commonly a song at the end of every act, Plaut. Pseud. ii. ult.

Plays were afterwards greatly improved at Rome from the model of the Greeks, by NEVIUS, ENNIUS, PLAUTUS, CACILIUS, TERENCE, AFRANIUS, PACUVIUS, ACCIUS, &c.

After playing was gradually converted into an art, (ludus in artem paulatim verterat), the Roman youth, leaving regular plays to be acted by professed players, reserved to themselves the acting of ludicrous pieces or farces, interlarded with much ribaldry and buffoonery, called EXODIA, Juvenal. iii. 175. vi. 71. Suet. Tib, 45. Domit. 10. because they were usually introduced after the play, (when the players and musicians had left the stage,) to remove the painful impressions of tragic scenes, Scholiast. in Juvemal. iii. 175. er FABELLLE ATELLANE, Liv. vii. 2. or, LUDI Osel,

Cic. Fam. vii. 1. LUDICRUM OSCUM, Tacit. Annal. iv. 14. from Atella, a town of the Osci in Campania, where they were first invented and very much used.

The actors of these farces (Atelluni vel Atellanarum actores), retained the rights of citizens (non tribu moti sunt), and might serve in the army, which was not the case with common actors, who were not respected among the Romans, as among the Greeks, but were held infamous, Ulpian. 1. 2. § 5. D. de his qui not. infam.— Nep. Præfat. Suet. Tib. 35.

Dramatic entertainments, in their improved state, were chiefly of three kinds, Comedy, Tragedy, and Pantomimes.

1. Comedy, (COMEDIA, quasi xwung won, the song of the village,) was a representation of common life, (quotidiana vita speculum,) written in a familiar style, and usually with a happy issue. The design of it was to expose vice and folly to ridicule.

Comedy, among the Greeks, was divided into old, middle, and new. In the first, real characters and names were represented; in the second, real characters, but fictitious names; and in the third, both fictitious characters and names. Eupolis, Cratinus, and Aristophanes excelled in the old comedy, and Menander in the new, Horat. Sat. i. 4. Epist. ii. 1. 57. Quinctilian. x. 1. Nothing was ever known at Rome but the new comedy.

The Roman comic writers, Nævius, Afranius, Plautus, Cæcilius, and Terence, copied from the Greek, chiefly from MENANDER, who is esteemed the best writer of comedies that ever existed, Quinctilian. x. 1. but only a few fragments of his works now remain. We may, however, judge of his excellence from Terence, his principal imitator.

Comedies, among the Romans, were distinguished by the character and dress of the persons introduced on the stage. Thus comedies were called TOGATE, in which the characters and dress were Roman, from the Roman toga, Juvenal. i. 3. Horat. Art. Poet. 288. so carmen togatum, a poem about Roman affairs, Stat. Silv. ii. 7. 53. PRÆTEXTATE vel Prætexta, when magistrates and persons of dignity were introduced; but some take these for tragedies, ibid. TRABEATE, when generals and officers were introduced, Suet. Gramm. 21. TABERNARIE, when the characters were of low rank, Horut. Art. Poet. 225. PALLIATE, when the characters were Grecian, from pallium, the robe of the Greeks. MOTORIA, when there were a great many striking incidents, much action, and passionate expressions. STATARIE, when there was not much bustle or stir, and little or nothing to agitate the passions; and MIXTA, when some parts were gentle and quiet, and others the contrary, Terent. Heaut. prol. 36. Donat. in Terent. Cic. Brut. 116. The representations of the Atellani were called Comadia Atellana.

The actors of Comedy wore a low-heeled shoe, called Soccus... Those who wrote a play, were said docere vel facere fabulam; if it was approved, it was said stare, stare recto talo, placere, &c., if not, cadere, exigi, exsibilari, &c.

II. TRAGEDY is the representation of some one serious and important action, in which illustrious persons are introduced, as, he-i roes, kings, &c. written in an elevated style, and generally with an unhappy issue. The great end of tragedy was to excite the passions, chiefly pity and horror; to inspire the love of virtue, and an abhorrence of vice, Cic. de Orat. i. 51. It had its name, according to Horace, from reayos, a goat, and on, a song; because a goat was the prize of the person who produced the best poem, or was the best actor, de Art. Poet. 220. to which Virgil alludes, Ecl. iii. 22. according to others, because such a poem was acted at the festival of Bacchus after vintage, to whom a goat was then sacrificed, as being the destroyer of the vines; and therefore it was called, rearodia, the goat's song. (Primi ludi theatrales ex Liberalibus nati sunt, from the feasts of Bacchus, Serv. ad Virg. G. ii. 381.)

THESPIS, a native of Attica, is said to have been the inventor: of tragedy, about 536 years before Christ. He went about with his actors from village to village, in a cart, on which a temporary stage was erected, where they played and sang, having their faces besmeared with the lees of wine, (peruncti facibus ora), Horat. de Art. Poet. 275. whence, according to some, the name of Tragedy, (from revs, -vyos, new wine not refined, or the lees of wine, and ados, a singer; hence revydns, a singer thus besmeared, who threw out scoffs and raillery against people).

Thespis was contemporary with Solon, who was a great enemy to his dramatic representations, Plutarch. in Solone.

Thespis was succeeded by Eschylus, who erected a permanent stage, (modicis instravit pulpita, tignis), and was the inventor of the mask, (persona), of the long flowing robe, (palla, stola, vel syrma), and of the high-heeled shoe or buskin, (cothurnus), which tragedians wore; whence these words are put for a tragic style, or for tragedy itself, Virg. Ecl. viii. 10. Juvenal. viii. 229. xv. 30. Martial. iii. 20. iv. 49. v. 5. viii. 3. Horat. Od. ii. 1. 12. as soccus is put for a comedy or familiar style, Id. Epist. ii. 174. Art. Poet. 80. 90. Nec comadia in cothurnos assurgit, nec contra tragedia socco ingreditur, Quinctilian. x. 2. 22.

As the ancients did not wear breeches, the players always wore under the tunic a girdle or covering, (SUBLIGACULUM vel SUBLIGAR verecundiæ causâ), Cic. Off. i. 35. Juvenal. vi. 60. Martial. iii. 87.

After Eschylus, followed SOPHOCLES and EURIPIDES, who brought tragedy to the highest perfection. In their time comedy began first to be considered as a distinct composition from trage

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dy; but at Rome comedy was long cultivated, before any attempt was made to compose tragedies. Nor have we any Roman tragedies extant, except a few, which bear the name of Seneca. Nothing remains of the works of Ennius, Pacuvius, Accius, &c. but a few fragments.

Every regular play, at least among the Romans, was divided into five acts, Horat. Art. Poet. 189. the subdivision into scenes is thought to be a modern invention.

Between the acts of a tragedy were introduced a number of singers called the CHORUS, Horat. de Art. Poet. 193. who indeed appear to have been always present on the stage. The chief of them, who spoke for the rest, was called Choragus or Corypheus. But CHORAGUS is usually put for the person who furnished the dresses, and took care of all the apparatus of the stage, Plaut. Pers. i. 3. 79. Trinumm. iv. 2. 16. Suet. Aug. 70. and choragium for the apparatus itself, (instrumentum scenarum, Fest.) Plaut. Capt. prol. 61. Plin. xxxvi. 15. choragia for choragi, Vitruv. v. 9. hence falsa choragium gloria, comparetur, their dress may be compared to false glory, Cic. ad Herenn. iv. 50.

The Chorus was introduced in the ancient comedy, as we see from Aristophanes; but when its excessive license was suppressed by law, the Chorus likewise was silenced, Horat. Art. Poet. 283. A Choragus appears and makes a speech, Plaut. Curc. iv. 1.

The music chiefly used was that of the flute, which at first was small and simple, and of few holes, Horat. Art. Poet. 202. but afterwards it was bound with brass, had more notes and a louder sound.

Some flutes were double, of various forms. Those most frequently mentioned, are the Tibiæ dextræ and sinistre, pares and impares, which have occasioned much disputation among crities, and still appear not to be sufficiently ascertained. The most probable opinion is, that the double flute consisted of two tubes, which were so joined together as to have but one mouth, and so were both blown at once. That which the musician played on. with his right hand was called tibia dextra, the right-handed flute; with his left, tibia sinistra, the left-handed flute. The latter had but few holes, and sounded a deep serious bass; the other had more holes, and a sharper and more lively tone. Plin. 16. 36. s. 66. Varr. R. R. 1. 2. 15. When two right or left-handed flutes were joined together, they were called tibia pares dextræ, or tibia pares sinistra. The flutes of different sorts were called tibiæ impares, or tibiæ dextræ et sinistra. The right-handed flutes were the same with what were called the Lydian flutes, (Tibia Lydia, and the left-handed with the Tyrian flutes, (Tibia Tyria or Sarranæ, vel Serrana.) Hence Virgil, Biforem dat tibia cantum, i. e. bisonun,