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  [Transcriber's Note:

  Typographical errors are listed at the end of the text.

  The printed book contained the six Numbers of Volume I with their
  appended plays. The Index originally appeared at the beginning of
  the volume; it has been included at the end of the journal text of
  Number 1 (Project Gutenberg EBook #22488), before the play.
  Pages 109-188 refer to the present Number.]




THE MIRROR OF TASTE,

AND

DRAMATIC CENSOR.


Vol. I.  FEBRUARY 1810.  No. 2.




HISTORY OF THE STAGE.

CHAPTER II.

RISE AND PROGRESS OF THE DRAMA IN GREECE--ORIGIN OF
TRAGEDY--THESPIS--AESCHYLUS, "THE FATHER OF THE TRAGIC ART"--HIS
ASTONISHING TALENTS--HIS DEATH.


It has been already remarked that at a very early period, considerably
more than three thousand years ago, the Chinese and other nations in the
east understood the rudiments of the dramatic art. In their crude,
anomalous representations they introduced conjurers, slight of hand men
and rope dancers, with dogs, birds, monkies, snakes and even mice which
were trained to dance, and in their dancing to perform evolutions
descriptive of mathematical and astronomical figures. To this day the
vestiges of those heterogeneous amusements are discernible all over
Indostan: but that which will be regarded by many with surprise, is that
in all countries pagan or christian the drama in its origin, with the
dancings and spectacles attending it have been intermixed with divine
worship. The Bramins danced before their god Vishnou, and still hold it
as an article of faith that Vishnou had himself, "in the olden time"
danced on the head of a huge serpent whose tail encompassed the world.
That very dance which we call a minuet, has been proved by an ingenious
Frenchman, to be the same dance originally performed by the priests in
the temple of Apollo, and constructed by them, to be symbolical of the
zodiac; every figure described by the heavenly bodies having a
correspondent movement in the minuet: the diagonal line and the two
parallels representing the zodiac generally, the twelve steps of which
it is composed, representing the twelve signs, and the twelve months of
the year, and the bow at the beginning and the end of it a profound
obedience to the sun. About the year four hundred after the building of
the city of Rome, the Romans, then smarting under great public calamity,
in order to appease the anger of heaven, instituted theatrical
performances, as feasts in honour of their gods. The first Spanish plays
were founded, sometimes on the loves of shepherds, but much more
frequently on points of theology, such as the birth of Christ, the
passion, the temptation in the desert and the martyrdom of saints. The
most celebrated dramatic poet of Portugal, Balthazar, wrote dramas which
he called AUTOS chiefly on pious subjects--and the prelate Trissino, the
pope's nuncio, wrote the first regular tragedy, while cardinal Bibiena
is said to be the author of the first comedy known in Italy, after the
barbarous ages. The French stage began with the representation of
MYSTRIES, by the priests, who acted sacred history on a stage, and
personated divine characters. The first they performed was the history
of the death of our Saviour, from which circumstance the company who
acted, gave themselves the name of THE CONFRATERNITY OF THE PASSION: and
in England one single paper which remains on record, proves that the
clergy were the first dramatists. This paper is a petition of the clerks
or clergy of St. Paul's to king Richard the Second, and dated in 1378
which prayed his majesty to prohibit a company of _unexpert_ people from
representing the history of the Old Testament, to the great prejudice of
the said clergy, who had been at great charge and expense to represent
the same at christmas.

It would be little to the purpose, to dwell longer on that part of the
history of the drama, which lies back in the darkness of remote
antiquity. Having shown that it did exist, in some shape or other, of
which but very imperfect traces remain, and of course very inadequate
notions can be collected, all further inquiry backward would be but the
loss of so much time and trouble. The scope of human knowledge is
extended at too heavy a price when the industry which might be more
usefully applied, is exercised in hunting down origins into the
obscurity of times so extremely distant. Where the greatest pains have
been lavished on that sort of research, little knowledge has been
gained; and the most diligent inquirers have been compelled either to
confess that they were baffled, or rather than own their disappointment,
to substitute fable for fact, and pass the fictions of imagination for
historical truths.

It is in the records of Greece the dramatic art first presents itself in
the consistent shape and with the circumstantial detail of authentic
history. There, plays were first moulded into regular form, and divided
into acts. Yet the people of that country knew so little of its having
previously existed in any shape, in any other country, that the
different states contested with each other, the honour of having
invented it; each asserting its claim with a warmth that demonstrates
the high sense they entertained of its importance: and surely what such
a people highly valued is entitled to the respect of all other nations.
Of the drama, therefore, it might perhaps be enough to say that it was
nursed in the same cradle with Eloquence, Philosophy, and Freedom, and
that it was so favourite a child of their common parents, that they
contended, each for an exclusive right to it. The credit of having first
given simplicity, rational form, and consequent interest to theatrical
representations has, by the universal concurrence of the learned, been
awarded to Attica, whose genius and munificence erected to the drama
that vast monument the temple of Bacchus, the ruins of which are yet
discernible and admired by all travellers of taste and erudition.

The origin of tragedy is a subject of curious contemplation. A rich
planter of Attica, finding, one day, a goat devouring his grapes, killed
it, and invited the peasantry to come and feast upon it. He gave them
abundance of wine to drink, intoxicated with which they daubed their
faces with the lees, ornamented their heads with chaplets made of the
vine branches, and then danced, singing songs in chorus to Bacchus all
the while round the animal destined for their banquet. A feast so very
agreeable was not likely to go unrepeated; and it was soon reduced to a
custom which was pretty generally observed in Attica, during the
vintage. On those occasions the peasants, absolved from all reserve by
intoxication, gave a loose to their animosities against the opulent, and
in token of defiance of their supposed oppressors, went in bodies to
their houses, and in set terms of abuse and sarcasm, called aloud for
redress of their grievances. The novelty of the exhibition drew a
multitude round them who enjoyed it as a new species of entertainment.
Far from preventing it, the magistrates authorized the proceeding in
order that it might serve as an admonition to the rich; taking special
care, however, that no positive violence should be resorted to, and thus
making it a wholesome preventive of public disorder. To this yearly
festival which was called "the feast of the goat" the people of all
parts were invited; and as this extraordinary spectacle was performed in
a field near the temple of Bacchus, it was gradually introduced into the
worship of that god. Hymns to the deity were sung both by priests and
people in chorus while the goat was sacrificing, and to these hymns the
name was given of _Tragodia_ (tragedy) or "the song of the goat."

During these exhibitions the vintagers, intoxicated with wine and joy,
revenged themselves not only on the rich by publishing and satirizing
their injustice, but on each other with ridicule and sarcasm. In their
other religious festivals also, choruses of fauns and bacchants chaunted
songs and held up individuals to public ridicule. From such an humble
germe has sprung up an art which in all parts of the world has, for
centuries, administered to the advancement of poetry and elegant
literature, and to the delight and improvement of mankind.

To these performances succeeded pieces composed by men of poetical
talents, in some of which the adventures of the gods were celebrated and
in others the vices and absurdities of individuals were attacked with
much asperity. The works of all those poets probably died with them; nor
is there any reason to believe that the loss of them is to be
regretted--they are mentioned here only because they form a link in the
chain of this history. By them, such as they were, however, the
influence of the drama was established so far that it was soon found
necessary to regulate it by law; the players who entered into
competition at the Pythian games being enjoined to represent
successively the circumstances that had preceded, accompanied and
followed the victory of Apollo over Python. Some years after this, came
Susarion of Megara, the first inventor of comedy who appeared at the
head of a company of actors attacking the vices of his time. This was
562 years before Christ, and in twenty-six years after, that is 536
before Christ, appeared Thespis.

THESPIS has the credit of being the first inventor of regular tragedy.
Disgusted with the nonsensical trash exhibited on the subject of
Bacchus, and indignant, or pretending to be so, at the insult offered by
such representations to that deity, he wrote pieces of a new kind, in
which he introduced recitation, leaving Bacchus entirely out, lashing
the vices and follies of the times, and making use, for the first time,
of fiction. Though his representations were very rustic and imperfect
they still make the first great era in the history of the tragic art:
and they must be allowed to have made no slight impression upon the
public mind, when it is remembered that they called forth the opposition
of SOLON, the great lawgiver of Athens; who, on seeing the
representations of Thespis, sternly observed, that if falsehood and
fiction were tolerated on the stage they would