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"[1] 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[2]; 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 (
Greek characters) or manual gesticulations, and that
in the " Seven against Thebes" he represented the action of the
piece by his mimic dancing[3].
The statement of Suidas, that Phrynichus was the first who
introduced women on the stage ((Greek characters)), 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[4]. 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.
- ↑ V. 1848 sqq. ; Bentley, Phalaris, pp. 265 sqq.
- ↑ Above, p. 32, note 2.
- ↑ Welcker, Nachtrag, pp. 266, 7; Athen. I. p. 21 F: Kol (
Greek characters), 6 (Greek characters) See Heindorf, ad Plat. Cratyl. § 51.
- ↑ In the Suppliants, one of the most archaic of the extant plays of Æschylus, no female character is introduced on the stage, although all the interest centres in the daughters of Danaus, who form the chorus.
