worship of Bacchus, yet the greater number crowded with still more eagerness after the new pieces. From this period the progress of the dramatic art was extremely rapid. Horace says, that the actors whom Thespis carried about in his cart, had their faces besmeared with wine lees; Suidas, that white lead and vermilion were the ingredients employed. ÆSCHYLUS. Eschylus, who was born eleven years after Thespis had first performed his Alcestis, found the drama enveloped in a rude vestment, deficient both in grace and dignity, expressing its conceptions sometimes with elegance, but generally in a low and feeble style, polluted with indecencies. Eschylus was the first to introduce two actors on the stage in his tragedies, and clothed them with dresses suitable to their character. Afterwards copying the example of Sophocles, who had just entered on his theatrical career, he admitted a third, and sometimes even a fourth actor. By this multiplicity of personages, one of his actors naturally became the hero of the piece, and attracted to himself the principal interest; and as the chorus now held but a subordinate station, Æschylus took care to shorten its part materially.. This poet has been censured for admitting mute characters into his dramas; thus Achilles, after the death of his friend, and Niobe after the destruction of her children, appeared on the stage, and remained motionless during several scenes, with their heads covered, and in utter silence. It may, however, be doubted, whether if their eyes had been suffused in tears, and they had poured forth the bitterest lamentations, they could have produced an effect so terrible as this veil, this silence, this abandonment to grief. Lest the noble and elevated style of tragedy should not leave, in the minds of the audience, a sufficient impression of grandeur, it was deemed necessary, in order to captivate the multitude, that every part of the spectacle should combine to produce the same effect. It was then the general opinion that nature, by bestowing on the ancient heroes a more lofty stature, had im. pressed on their persons a majesty which procured them as much respect from the people, as the ensigns of dignity by which they were accompanied. Eschylus, therefore, raised his actors on high stilts or buskins, and clothed them in flowing and magnificent robes. Instead of the wretched scaffolds which were formerly erected in haste, Æschylus obtained a theatre furnished with machines, and embellished with decorations. Here the sound of the trumpet was reverberated, incense was seen to burn on the altars, the shades of the dead to arise from the tomb, and the furies to rush from the gulphs of Tartarus. In one of these pieces, these infernal divinities were represented with masks of horrid paleness, torches in their hands, serpents entwined in their hair, and followed by a numerous retinue of dreadful spectres. It is related, that at the sight of them, and the sound of their terrific howlings, terror seized on the whole assembly, women fainted, and children expired with fear; and that the magistrates, to prevent similar accidents in future, commanded that the chorus should only consist of fifteen actors, instead of fifty. The effect of so many new objects could not but astonish the spectators; nor were they less surprised and delighted at the intelligence displayed by the actors whom Eschylus always exercised himself; he regulated their steps, and taught them to give additional force to their action by new and expressive gestures. Eschylus wrote ninety tragedies, forty of which were rewarded with the public prize, and yet only seven of them have been preserved. Some expressions in one of his plays had nearly proved fatal to him; for, in consequence of them, he was accused of impiety, and condemned to be stoned to death. The sentence was just going to be put into execution, when his brother Amynias, with a happy presence of mind throwing aside his cloak, showed an arm, the hand of which had been cut off when bravely fighting at the battle of Salamis, in defence of his country. The sight made such an impression on the judges, that touched with the remembrance of his valour, and the friendship he showed for his brother, they pardoned Eschylus. The poet, however, resented the indignity of this persecution so much, that he bade an everlasting adieu to his native place, and retired to the court of Hiero, King of Sicily, where he lived till his death. Suidas having said, that Eschylus retired into Sicily because the seats broke down during the representation of one of his tragedies, some have taken this literally; but, according to Joseph Scaliger, it was a phrase among the comedians to say, that one had broken down the seats, whose piece could not stand, but fell to the ground. The truth was, that the pieces of Eschylus had begun to be less pleasing to the Athenians than those of Sophocles, a younger and more polished writer; and it is to this cause that Suidas, by the figurative expression he has used, would impute the retirement of Eschylus, rather than to any resentment he may have felt for the jeopardy in which his life was placed by the accusation of impiety. SOPHOCLES. If Eschylus be styled, as he usually has been, the father, Sophocles certainly demands the title of the master of tragedy, since what the former brought into the world, the other reduced to a more regular form. Sophocles was five and twenty when he conquered his master, Æschylus, in tragedy. Cimon, the Athenian general, having found the bones of Theseus, and brought these noble relics with pomp into the city, a contention of tragedians was appointed, as was usual upon extraordinary occasions. Eschylus and Sophocles were the two rivals, and the prize was adjudged to Sophocles, although it was the first play he ever presented in public. Cicero relates, that this great man continued the profession of his art, even to his latest years; but his sons resented this severe application to writing as a neglect of his family and his estate. On this account, they at last brought the business into court before the judges, and petitioned the guardianship of their father, as one that was grown a dotard, and therefore incapable of managing his concerns. The aged poet being acquainted with the motion, in order to bis defence came presently into court, and recited his "Edipus of Colonos," a tragedy he had just before finished, and then desired to know whether that piece looked like the work of a dotard? There needed no other plea in his favour, for the judges admiring and applauding his wit, not only acquitted him of the charge, but, as Lucian adds, voted his sons madmen for accusing him. The general story of his death is, that having exhibited his last play, and obtained the prize, he fell into such a transport of joy as carried him off; but Lucian differs from the common report, and affirms that he was choaked with a grape-stone, like Anacreon. The passion which Sophocles entertained for the drama, was of the noblest and purest description, and often displayed itself superior to every feeling of personal interest or vanity. He appeared once on the stage in the character of a mere domestic, who had not a word to utter, but only to play at ball, in order that, by his peculiar skill in the art, he might give the last finishing grace to the representation of the tragedy. He probably thought with our poet, that "Honour and shame from no condition rise, EURIPIDES. Euripides, the contemporary and rival of Sophocles, had originally devoted himself to the study of philosophy; but warned, by the fate of his master, |